The Quest Has Changed

During my months away from the Questlog, I’ve been attending to some health matters. When I’ve been able, I’ve been creating, reconsidering, recovering, and exploring what kind of work I actually want to do, both in general and with this space.

As many of you may know, the cozy market town of Appleford has been my anchor across many different projects. Sometimes my vision for the cobbled streets with weeds poking through the stones and districts of timber-frame buildings with red shell-shaped roof shingles feels so real that I can almost touch it.

But other times, it’s hard to access. Nonetheless, through all this difficulty, Appleford has remained so important and inspiring to me. Here’s the shape Appleford is currently taking in my creative life:

• A cozy fantasy romance novel set in Appleford. Tentatively titled Knight’s Heart, this slow-burn love story stars a traveling lady knight-errant who falls for a doughy baker’s son. The novel examines what it means to be strong when you must depend on others and the difference between fulfilling duties because you feel obligated and choosing a purpose that genuinely belongs to you.
• A solo journaling game also set in Appleford. Awakened Applewood is a philosophical pilgrimage through the town from the perspective of a devotional wooden statue that is newly alive. You move through Appleford as this wooden effigy, trying to find answers from everyday folk. When you receive answers, they aren’t always clear, and often they come with more questions. What will you learn about the nature of your life as an awakened sacred object in this thoughtful game?

I also have a few more ideas on the backburner, as it were. Perhaps you are curious about my Wanderhome setting. I hope to return to that after I release Awakened Applewood. Essentially, right now, I’m focused on making stories and games concerned with personhood, community, family, craft, and the everyday magic of life.

What will be included on The Cozy Questlog now that I’m also working on a novel? I believe essays about cozy fantasy, thoughtful game analysis, project reflections, play experiences, worldbuilding, community-first adventures, and occasional recommendations can all coexist. The connective tissue here is my perspective, not a single medium.

I can’t promise a rigorous release schedule here. The Questlog will receive dispatches from the work I’m doing: ideas I encounter while writing, playing, designing, and creating. That keeps this blog downstream from my creative practice instead of turning it into a second production treadmill for me to potentially fall off of.

You may have also noticed that I’m using a different name on this site and others. From now on my pen name is Kasey Wildgrove, founder and lead storyteller of the newly formed Appleford Hearth Studio.

Thank you for your patience. I’m looking forward to sharing the journey with you!