When I started my first novel, Lake Miskatonic, I knew I wanted to write a story that takes place in Oakland, and I wanted to keep things simple and write it in a current-day setting, even though I also wanted to explore Oakland's complex past. But of course Oakland also has a complex present . In just the past fifteen years that I've been here, the changes are striking. Not all of them are bad, but the bad changes are pretty damn bad. We have a gentrification problem that can't be overemphasized. We have policies in place that help make houselessness a growing problem. We have horrible, horrible roads (this isn't a small thing--it affects all of us in more ways than I think we pay attention to). And the changes are going to keep coming quick-and-dirty for the foreseeable future. One of the plot threads in my new novel, Miskatonic Bay, involves tabletop gamers, people who play a Dungeons and Dragons type of game. (I mean, they say write what you know , man, so