Hello, and welcome to Sprouting Nonsense! A speculative fiction writing blog where I post fantasy stories, excerpts of my upcoming works, and more! My name is Thomas Mansfield, aspiring Australian writer and role-playing game enthusiast. Here’s what you can expect from my blog:

• Short Stories: My current project is a set of 8 dark fantasy short stories set in Karatera, a desert world of my own creation, originally designed for my home D&D campaign.
• Excerpts: From upcoming stories, these short excerpts give you an idea of what I’m working on.
• RPG Talk: Alongside writing fiction, I’m also running tabletop RPG campaigns, including one currently set in Karatera! From time to time, I may post little snippets of RPG ideas, from stat blocks to rulings, and so forth. The systems I’m most familiar with are Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition) and Pathfinder (1st edition).
• Other Stuff: When I don’t have a story, excerpt or RPG thing to share, I have an update on how I’m going with my writing, ideas for future stories, information on my fantasy worlds, and other general musings that don’t fit into the other categories.

Everything I write, I write by myself, without using AI or any other generative tools. If you use or make AI-generated content, please do not follow me. I post on Mondays 8 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) every week from now until I run out of ideas (which should hopefully be a long way away from now). If you like what you read here, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi to assist with the running of this site and to support my writing. Also feel free to follow me on Bluesky and Tumblr, so you always know when I’ve updated!