Monthly Update

January 25 Update

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December was a busy month, between moving, book work, and the holidays. I had to start adjusting to my new schedule, which is having a big impact on my reading and project work (see below). And while I was moving, I added lists of items I own but have never read or watched, giving me more lists to deal with. Yay, lists.

Projects

With my new schedule, I have more time at the coffee shop in the morning to write and work on projects. At my new house my office is dedicated to projects. So, I anticipate getting a lot done at the new place.

I am at the point where I can order physical proofs of Champion Bold, and start prepping the eBooks. This is not difficult, but it does require me to sit down and do it. *

I’m finishing up the supplement books, and I should be ordering copies of those soon as well. I have to finish a few bits of artwork and make sure there isn’t a lot of blank space, then I can pull the trigger on those.

As for Sasha book 3, I spent some time going through what I wrote during my NANOWRIMO re-write challenge and wrote some act synopsis for the rest of the book. It turned out to be a good exercise; I’m more confident I can finish the book off shortly and get that prepped for editing.

I have other projects in the work, and now that I’m done moving, I’m eager to get to work on them.

January Goals

  • Approve physical copies of Champion Bold.
  • Get physical proofs of supplement books.
  • 2025 plan for Sasha Book 3
  • Project plans and lists

Books

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Image courtesy of Amazon
  • Fire and Blood (Fiction; Finished)
  • Fool Moon (Audiobook; Fiction; Finished)
  • Sapiens (Non-Fiction; Restarted)

One downside to moving is that I’m no longer taking the bus to work; so I’m losing out on a lot of reading time. I have to find time to reach a chapter or two each day; as such I’ve started considering my books as a ‘bedside book’ or my ‘backpack book’. Not only that, but I have a list of over 100-titles that I own but have never read; I want to work on getting that down to less than 100 books, and eventually zero.

On the plus side, my long walk from parking to work means I can start getting through my audiobooks.

I finished two books in December. Fire and Blood is a fictional history of the Game of Thrones universe, and it was a fascinating read. It really explained a good portion of the Targaryen family history in Westeros. It only got so far, and I wonder if there’s a second one coming. It did inspire me to consider similar projects of my own.

I also finished Fool Moon, the second Dresden Files book. It was quite the story, and I enjoy the universe and the rules of magic that the characters use. What did surprise me is that I guessed the end of the book about halfway through, but only because it was the only explanation that was left given what we knew. But I thought ‘that can’t be it’ and pushed it out of my mind. I guess the lesson as a writer it: if you need the reader to be unsure of who did it, make sure they have several suspects.

January Goals

  • Finish one fiction book
  • Finish one non-fiction book
  • Start one research book

Movies and Shows

Image courtesy of Wikipedia
  • Star Trek Lower Decks Season 5
  • Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire

I watched the last episode of Lower Decks. I enjoyed it. It was not everything I expected, but it hit all the high points it had to. I’m sad to see it go, but I appreciate that it needed to end before it got too old.

The one movie I watched last month was Rebel Moon Part One, which was a Zach Snyder movie released on Netflix. I’d heard it was a pretty rough movie, but I watched the director’s cut which seemed to address a lot of the issues with the story telling. Even so, it wasn’t great. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun, and it had a lot going for it. But there were plenty of scenes that seemed to exist just for their own sake, and background info that we were missing. I would watch it again, but I understand why a lot of people wouldn’t watch it.

January Goals

  • Complete one season of TV
  • Watch one movie

Games

  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Madden 2025
  • Warhammer 40K: Armageddon

Not much to add for the gaming section. I worked through some more Baldur’s Gate 3, played some Madden 2025, and beat another mission of 40K Armageddon. I do want to play more, but I want to play better. And I need to keep my projects going.

January Goals

  • Continue RDR2 or AC: Odessey
  • Continue Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Finish W40K Armageddon

What’s Next?

Focus on getting books ready for publishing, and advancing projects. I’m signing up for 2025 conventions. I should be at Minicon this year, and I should have a launch party for Champion Bold sometime this spring. I’ll let you know the dates soon.

Uncategorized

2024 in Review

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As we close out 2024, I look back and consider the year. How did I do? Where did I succeed? Where did I fall short?

This review is not about recrimination or blame; it is about acknowledging what I did well and what I did not and approaching the next year with a sense of how I can improve.

Projects

I am on the verge of publishing my next book, delayed only because of my last-minute move, which was time consuming and exhausting. Champion Bold is almost ready; I’m at the point where I’m calculating the book cost so I can assign ISBNs and then orders proof copies. The supplement books are right behind them.

I am about a third of the way through the re-write of Renaissance Army Book 3, The Colonel Lieutenant. This is my next big project after I finish Champion Bold. I’ve got other projects I’m working on as secondary or tertiary projects, each of which I’ve picked at sometime during the year. None of which I’d really announce as a primary project at this time.

My other big project work is how I’ve been revising my writing process. There’s a whole blog series I’m working on, but essentially I’m doing as much world building and planning as I can, to cut down on post-draft corrections. The idea is to make writing an easier and quicker process.

Books

By my count, I finished 27 books in 2024, both reading and listening. These were heavily weighted towards fiction (22 out of 27). Short of my goal of 36 books, but still a good showing.

2025 is going to be a little more difficult because I’m losing my bus rides, which is where I do most of my reading. Instead, I’m going to have to find time elsewhere to sit down and read.

Also, as part of my move, I made a list of all the books I own that I haven’t read and came out to more than a hundred. So clearly in 2025, I’m going to want to whittle that number down.

Movies and Shows

I watched a surprisingly little amount of new content this year. I only knocked 10 movies and about 15 seasons of TV shows off my watch list. That’s not great. Part of the issue is that I no long have new stuff playing while I’m writing or playing computer games; I try to sit down and watch it fully. Which is hard to do, because I have so many other things to do. I did get into reactor videos, which has also influenced my watching habits.

I want to knock more things off my to -watch list, and part of doing that is going to be doing some minor world building and brain storming while I’m watching new things. I might also incorporate one new episode of a show as my ‘you just got home spend half an hour relaxing’ routine. Whatever I can do to knock things off my watch list faster than they get on there.

Games

I played a fair number of games this year, but I didn’t really finish a whole lot of them. I did end a couple, but many of the games I was playing through at the start of the year I’m still playing through at the end. That’s not good. These are great stories to play through and I need to focus on finishing them and moving on to new ones.

So, I’ll be spending more time playing video games now that I’m done moving. Enough time that I can make progress on the games, but not enough that I fall behind on my projects.

For 2025

For 2025, now that I’m in a new place and I’ve got space to spread out (and I’ve shed a lot of excess crap) I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running. With a revised writing process, and 100 ISBN’s purchased, I’ve got room to write and create. I want to be efficient in knocking things off my lists, and with some effort I think I can be.

  • Publish Champion Bold
  • Advance 3 Projects
  • Read 36+ books
  • Own fewer than 100 books I haven’t read.
  • Watch 15+ movies
  • Watch 15+ Seasons TV
  • Finish 6 Games
Monthly Update

December 24 Updates

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This update is very late in the month, due to moving, project work, vacations and then catch up. Suffice it to say, I’m feeling very tired. Accomplished, but tired.

Projects

I had two big projects this last month. One was to get Champion Bold to the proofing. I’m pretty much there. I’ve gone through each page looking for italicization errors, formatting issues, and trying to avoid large blank spaces. Now I’m waiting for the last backers to get back to me with their names (if they want to be included), then I will format as a PDF and start prepping for proof. This might take a few rounds to get done as the two programs involved have some different ways of interpreting the same data, but I’ll get it done.

The other was in regards to NANOWRIMO. I used the month as a chance to re-write Book 3 of the Renaissance Army series. This went well for about two weeks, when I had time to work on both projects. But when it came time to pick and choose, I had to pick Champion Bold. That being said, what I did re-write was a lot better. I’m looking forward to getting back into that soon.

December Goals

  • Get physical copy of Champion Bold
  • Finish supplement books
  • Knock 5 things of Project To Do List

Books

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
  • Running with the Demon (eBook; finished)
  • A Knight of the Word (eBook; finished)
  • Fire and Blood (Physical; started)
  • Fool Moon (Audiobook; continued)

Since I had a week off from work, I missed out on a lot of my normal reading time. I finished Running with The Demon and then read through A Knight of the Word, the first two books in the longer Shanarra series by Terry Brooks. This was one of the first fantasy series I started reading as a child, so I’m interested to get through it as an adult and see how it reads.

Running with the Demon ended better than it started it; it took a long time to get into it. Introducing the characters and the rules took a while. Once it got going, it took off and ended pretty well. Though it reminded me more of a Stephen King novel than the fantasy stories I remember from my childhood.

The second book (A Knight of the Word) was mostly better story, largely because I knew the characters and the rules of the world from the first book. The series of twists at the end were a mix of what I expected (which I hoped he would have done differently) and what I didn’t expect (which I appreciate). Still, it was a good book.

Fire and Blood is a long narrative history of House Targaryen and its rule of Westeros. It’s not a story in the sense of the other books of the world, but it is a fascinating read. I’m enjoying it, especially because it has given me some ideas for non-traditional projects I could work on.

December Goals

  • Finish Audiobook
  • Finish One Non-Fiction Book
  • Start one Research Book

Movies and Shows

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
  • Deadpool and Wolverine
  • Agatha All Along
  • Star Trek Lower Decks Season 5 (Started)

Managed to find time this month to sit down with friends to watch a few things.

Deadpool and Wolverine was a great movie, filled with a lot of fun callbacks, fourth-wall jokes and action scenes. I found the initial premises a little hard to accept, but once I got past that (and it’s really easy to get past it) I loved the movie.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Agatha All Along. What I got was a great show that managed to follow the established rules of the MCU, and still provide enough surprises to be enjoyable. I’m looking forward to re-watching it to see what I missed the first time.

Star Trek Lower Decks is on its Fifth and final season this year, with one episode left to go at the time of this posting. This show has been fantastic since episode one, telling its own stories while making references and call-backs to previous series. It’ll be a shame to see it go, but better it leave by its own accord than it die of misuse.

December Goals

  • Watch one Best Picture Winner (3 Remaining)
  • Watch one Fix-It Movie (11 Remaining)
  • Watch one Other Movie
  • Watch one TV Show
  • Watch one In Progress TV Show

Games

Image courtesy of wikipedia.org
  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Madden 2025

As part of my moving process I invested in a PS5 and several games I had my eye on, including Baldur’s Gate 3 and Madden 2025.

Madden is a typical football game. My playing so far has either been with my roommate, or doing the skill tests to learn how to play the game. I haven’t done a season yet, so I can’t claim any great competency at it. But I am enjoying it.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a DnD 5th Edition game. I started the first Baldur’s Game way back when several times, but never got too far into it. This one I’ve heard good things about, and so far I’m having fun. I’m playing as a generic custom character, so I can make dumb mistakes and learn the game. I’ll replay later as the game characters, once I have an idea of how things work.

December Goals

  • Make progress in Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Make progress in Assassin’s Creed Odessey
  • Make progress in Warhammer 40K Armageddon
  • Make progress ins Baldur’s Gate 3

What’s Next

Working on the book. Planning events and projects for 2025. And surviving the holidays. That about it.

Writing

Writing Process 5: World Building and Maps

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World Building is fun. I do it at the drop of a hat. I’ll world build just for fun. Heck, I sell world building services on Fiverr. It’s not something I need prompting to do.

I do world building for stories fairly often. Lots of scratch paper and unsaved spreadsheets have been scarified to idle world building. But in the PBRG process, it’s not about doing the fun parts of world building that come to mind. It’s about identifying what I need to build, doing the work, and then saving the work so that I can come back to it and reference it when I need it.

This is a long process, so instead of one big blog post, I’m going to try to do this in four. In this post I’ll touch on maps, then I’ll do Histories. Post three I’ll do Institutions and Organizations, and finally Mythologies, Magic and Science. This may change as I develop this series, but I don’t want to get too much into it. I’ve still got Research and Gaming to get through.

I am also going to do the General of the Pen segments at the end of each section, instead of doing a new blog post for each topic.

But I will want to build more than that, because I expect that inspiration will strike as I write. I want the depth to be there, so I don’t stop as I’m writing. This means I will build (and may have to research) more than I initially expect.

What is World Building Again?

Real quick, let’s go over what World Building is and how it’s different from Plotting.

World Building is building the depth behind the story, including aspects that may influence the story without actually appearing in it. If Plotting tells me my characters of going to Plotburg, World Building will tell me the size, the layout, some important places, the local government, the demographics, etc.

The purpose of World Building is to give me a good depth to the setting. It gives the places a better feeling. It gives the characters the ability to makes choices based off something other than plot. It gives me answers to questions I don’t know I’m going to ask while I’m writing.

It also gives me consistency. Remember, I’m building this process because my original process was too slow. And part of that was too many times where I wrote contradictory things I had to go back and fix. Oh, is Plotburg six miles from the river or eight? Now I’ll know ahead of time.

World Building Step Overview

The World Building step begins with a list of items from the Planning process. This list will include maps, character bios, institutions, mythologies, etc. Essentially, anything for the story that I should build before the story begins. It will grow as I plot, plan, research and game.

Now, I should have at least a good idea of what these things are and how they’re going to influence the story. I know where they’re going to appear and their importance. This give me a minimum of what I want to build for any given item.

So, let’s get into it, shall we?

Maps in Theory

There’s no project I’m working on that doesn’t require several maps. Maps of regions, maps of cities, maps of star systems or star charts of entire clusters. Lots and lots of maps. Oh, so many maps.

Maps aren’t just pretty, especially the early maps. They provide a good sense of how scale. More than once I’ve had to heavily revise a story once I realized the characters were moving too fast (it takes how long to walk a mile?) They’re helpful to track the location and movement of people and military units. And if I have to game out a campaign, I need the map to game on.

The number and details of maps can vary between projects. I generally find myself putting them in two tiers.

Tier I: Detailed Maps

Detailed maps I will need to reference often. I may need to game something out on them, or even put them in the book. These maps will have a key and a scale, a compass and a grid. They’ll be detailed, and probably in color.

Tier II: Basic Maps

Basic maps I don’t need to reference often; I just need to know what they look like. They don’t need to be detailed; just some simple bubbles showing the relative directions, with maybe some general distances listed. That’s all they have to be.

Maps in Practice – The General of the Pen

Now let’s consider my project, The General of the Pen. I’m going to start by listing the maps I’ll want to prep for the story.

  • A continental sized-map, so I can determine where various nation-states are in relation to the area of the story.
  • A regional or national map
  • A map of the area the book will take place in.
  • A map of the main city
  • A map for each of the battlefields of the book (three planned books)

That’s seven maps. Not bad, really.

Next, I want to divided them into Tier I (detailed) and Tier II (basic) maps.

The continental and national maps I can put in Tier II; the story is going to stay in a valley, so I just need to have a general idea of what’s outside the valley.

The valley I need a detailed map of, since I’ll be gaming out military unit movements and campaign operations, so that’s a Tier I.

The main city I’m actually going back and forth on; some scenes will happen there, but not enough to warrant a very detailed map. I will put this in Tier II for now, and if I need to work on it more as I go, I will.

The battle maps will, almost by definition, be Tier I maps. I may or may not game out the battles, I haven’t decided yet. But I want the details so when I’m writing the battle scenes, I can write them believably.

Drawing the Maps

For the basic maps, I really don’t need to put too much effort into them. Now, if I do, great. Nothing wrong with that. But I don’t need to. I just need them to be broadly done.

A simple map that shows the story area in red; the nation in green; allies in blue, and bad guys in black.

For the detailed maps, I’m going to put some effort into them. And probably go through several drafts. In the past this has meant a lot of pen and paper as I’ve worked through multiple iterations. Recently, I purchased a map program called Wonderdraft that I use to build maps for my RPG games. This allows me to build, fix and play with my maps without needing to start all over.

The valley, showing the cities, towns, rivers, roads, and unfinished railroad.

Even this detailed map is missing a few things. What is the scale? What about town names? Still a lot to do to finish this map off.

Now, I haven’t built the maps for the three battles yet. Before I do, I want to puzzle out about how big the battles will be, how exciting they’ll be, and what I’ll want to have happen. Then I’ll build those maps.

Conclusion and What’s Next

The world building process is to establish consistency. Building the maps early helps me keep people moving at appropriate speeds and in the right directions.

Coming up, I’ll look at world building histories, including those of people, places and entire worlds.

Monthly Update

November Update

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October was fun. Filled with a few good books and a few good shows, mostly it was filled with a lot of good project work, and a lot of fun writing.

Writing and Projects

I’ve got Champion Bold to Word, which means I’m prepping it to get a printed proof. This sounds easy, but this is where I’ve made some errors in the past, so I’m being careful and thorough. Progress is progress, but progress also involves a lot of tempermental programs. So, slow and steady, and checking my work.

The supplement books are coming along nicely. They’re not quite at the printed proof stage, but they should be soon. I just need to finish some articles and assemble some artwork.

I’ve been working on other projects, planning and preparing. Particularly, I’ve been revising my plan for Sasha 3, hoping to get that to proofing during 2025.

November Goals

  • Use NANOWRIMO to re-write Book 3
  • Get Champion Bold to proofing stage
  • Finish Supplement Books
  • Knock 10 things off Writing Project to-do list

Books

Image from Goodreads.com
  • Under One Roof (Burton House Saga Book Six; Fiction; Finished)
  • Fool Moon (Dresden Files, Book 2, Audiobook, Fiction, Started)
  • Running with the Demon (eBook; Fiction; Started)

I read through Under One Roof, Book 6 of the Burton House Saga. This books takes the reader to colonial Australia, which involves reading through how the penal colony works for both men and women, and how the colonists interacted with the aboriginal inhabitants. As for the characters the story followers, their stories involve a lot of overcoming personal adversity, and trying to be the best leaders they can be for those who are dependant upon them.

I’m almost done with Running with the Demon. This book I came to by accident. I’ve been wanting to re-read the Shannara series, some of which I read back in middle school. I picked up a humble bundle, and this was the first book. It’s not bad, but it took a long time to pick up. If I stick with the chronology, I have six more books to get through before I get to a book I’ve already red. I may skip ahead. I haven’t decided yet.

November Goals

  • Finish two fiction books
  • Finish one non-fiction book
  • Finish on research book

TV Shows and Movies

(image off of Wikipedia)
  • The Acolyte
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5

Did not watch a lot of new things this month. I did watch through The Acolyte, the Star Wars show. I really liked this show. For half of it, I was thinking it was going to do A and B, and then it went wonky and gave me Q and T. And I liked it! But it’s been cancelled, so no more of that for me. I’m kind of miffed about it, but I can’t get into reasons because of spoilers.

Started Lower Decks season 5. The last season, by all accounts. It’s been a fun show, and I’m excited to see how it ends.

November Goals

  • Start one new TV show
  • Finish one in-progress TV show
  • Watch one Best Picture Winner (3 remaining)
  • Watch one Fix-it Movie or Show (10 remaining)
  • Watch one other movie

Games

  • Deathmatch Island one Shot
  • Assassins Creed Odessey
Deathmatch Island

I got to participate in a short campaign of Deatmatch Island, an RPG that harkens back to Hunger Games and other similar deadly competition games. Your character is completely randomized, and the encounters are difficult but not game-ending if you get them wrong. It was fun, though it’s not a long-term game.

November Goals

  • Advance Assassins Creed Odessey
  • Advance Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Advance 40K Armageddon
  • Work out test game RPG one-shot ideas

What’s Next

Writing

Writing Process Aside 01: Art Before Writing

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[This post is part of the Writing Process blog series, but it is not part of the normal line. It is a stand-alone article.]

I had an experience in preparing the supplement books for Champion Bold that made me take a step back. It reinforced how important the PBRG process is and will be for future projects. And made me realize I need to draw (or model) more during the PBRG process.

The Incident

There were two bits of artwork I wanted to get done that I didn’t want to do myself. I wasn’t sure of my skill, and one of the characters represented as too important to be done by my hand. This had to be a good quality image. The character was that important.

I went on Fiverr and found an artist who did some work I thought looked good. I contacted him and discussed the project; he expressed interest and sent me a quote. It was higher than I expected, but that’s not uncommon on Fiverr. Custom quote for a custom project.

Things started going wrong pretty quickly. the artist kept requesting reference images and details. More and more. He provided basic sketches, which weren’t bad from a technical standpoint, but he was ignoring much of my input. The process was slow, and I was starting to get frustrated.

Then we hit the deadline…and I had nothing. Instead, he requested more reference images. I sent them. He went silent. I heard nothing. I asked for an update. He did not respond. A full day after the deadline, with no word from him, I cancelled the order and got my money back. Fiverr, at least, made this part easy.

What went wrong?

The artist was technically proficient, but I did not like working with him. He did not listen to much of my feedback. He did not communicate well. The deadline passed by, and he did not come close to meeting it.

But I can’t lay all the blame at his feet. During the process, I realized that I didn’t know what I wanted. Yes, I wrote these aliens, but my description wasn’t good enough for an artist to create an image from. The artist needed reference images from my because I gave him so little to work with.

The problems across the board was communication. I don’t know why he was bad at it, but I know why I was.

I didn’t know what I needed.

It’s hard to tell an artist what an alien’s ears look like when you don’t know. The same with lips, or skin texture. I wrote the character, but when you’re trusting a reader to build the alien in their mind, you don’t consider all those details that an artist needs.

Is this a new issue?

No. I’ve run into this issue before. I’ve had to do some pretty big re-writes when I finally settled on a map and realized it didn’t match what I’d written. And in some of the previous artwork I’d commissioned, I’ve had problems with the artist not paying attention to some of the details of my requests.

A picture is worth a thousand words. But I don’t want to have to write a thousand words to get the picture I want.

How is this going to influence things in the future?

As part of future projects, I’m going to be sketching out a lot more than just maps ahead of time. Alien races, spaceships, uniforms. Anything that might need a description, I’m going to have a visual representation prepared.

That doesn’t mean it’s going to be great artwork. I’m getting more proficient at Krita (digital art) and Blender (3D modeling), but I’m not professional level. But what I can do is make sure I as a write know enough to describe the person, place or thing accurately and consistently.

And I can ensure that the next time I commission artwork on Fiverr, I give the artist enough information they can get to work right away.

Monthly Update

October Update

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September was a busy month, working on the Champion Bold project. Specifically, working a lot on my Blender (3d modelling) and Krita (drawing) skills to develop aliens and spaceships. My editor got sidetracked by some personal issues (hey, it happens; my book is a side-project, which I understand). I found an artist to do the last bit of artwork I didn’t trust myself to do, and I’m knocking off the ones I think I can do one by one. And I ended the month having finished my active shows and most of my active books, meaning I start October getting to chose what I start.

Writing Projects

I’m only a few chapters away from finishing editing Champion Bold. Then there’s a list of book-wide edits to check: things like spelling consistency, ensuring the math works, the page counts match, stuff like that. A lot of things I don’t want to work on until I can go through the book and do them all at once.

I’m also working through the supplement books, processing the artwork and articles. My Blender and Krita work is getting better, which is nice. I’m glad to be knocking this items off my to-do list, but it’s not the writing I like to do.

I got some good feedback for Book 3, which I’m folding into a revision plan for NANOWRIMO. Some of the feedback was what I expected; some of it was a surprise. But, it’s good to get feedback.

I’ve done some prepwork on other projects. Nice to just stretch the creative mind.

October Goals

  • Start formatting Champion Bold for publishing
  • Get supplement books to 80%+ complete
  • Knock 10 Items off Minor to-do list
  • Two non-book report Blog Posts

Books

  • Fool Moon (Dresden Files, Book 2, Audiobook, Fiction, Started)
  • The Rook (Fiction)
  • Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind (Non-Fiction, Started)
  • Red Storm Rising (eBook, Fiction, Started)

I read a few good books this month. Sapiens I started (and got about 1/4 way through before my Libby rental expired). It’s about the development of culture and civilization. It reminds me a lot of ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’, except it doesn’t sound like it’s lecturing me.

Once that expired, I switched over to re-reading Red Storm Rising as my ebook, which was one of the most influential books of my youth. Re-reading it, it made me consider some story ideas I’d been thinking about,

The book of the month has to be The Rook, a supernatural thriller that really takes the cake. A cross between X-files and X-men, it was an excellent book that has several sequels I’m looking forward to reading.

October Goals

  • Finish audiobook
  • Finish two fiction books
  • Finish one non-fiction book

Movies and Shows

  • The Expanse (Season 3)
  • Star Trek Prodigy (Season 2)
  • Wonder Woman 1984

I finished both my active seasons this month: the Expanse Season 3 and Prodigy Season 2. Expanse continues to be a good show I just don’t resonate with. I like it, but I can’t binge it like I can other shows. Prodigy is fun Star Trek. I wish it got better support from its networks. I’m not sure we’ll get a Season 3, but I’ll watch it if we do.

The last weekend of September I watched Wonder Woman 1984, mostly because it was on my fit-it podcast. It was…so bad. I wanted to like it, but I can’t. My only fond memory was a personal response to them stealing a medium-ranged jet to travel across continents. Otherwise, it was a terrible movie. Still, only the third-worst sequel in my opinion.

October Goals

  • Finish one started TV Show
  • Start one new TV Show
  • Watch one new Best Picture Winner
  • Watch one new Movie

Games

  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Assassin’s Creed: Odessey
  • Warhammer 40K: Armageddon
  • Command and Conquer
  • Stellaris

Did not play a lot of games this month. I played some Stellaris for nostalgia’s sake, and played through some missions in the Command and Conquer remaster I hadn’t beaten before. But most of the time I was at my computer, I was working on modelling projects.

The RPGs continue to go well. My new character in Frozen Flame survived his first session. My players in the Atonement game gave me a lot of sudden praise for the story, which I appreciated. And the Delta Green game continued to be weird but fulfilling.

October Goals

  • Play something
  • Enjoy it

What’s Next

October will be filled with finishing up Champion Bold and the supplement books. I’ll also be doing Inktober ( a month-long drawing challenge), preparing for a NANOWRIMO project, and knocking off other minor writing bits. I did apply for some 2025 conventions, but I haven’t heard back from some of them.

We’ll see how it goes.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

September Update

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Wow, August past quickly. I made an effort this month to knock some things off my to-watch list, and to enjoy my time more. But I still got stuff done.

Writing Projects

Making good progress on Champion Bold and the supplement books. My work from hereon in will be as much about pictures as it will be about text. I need to focus on getting little bits done. I want to publish sooner rather than later, and that means focusing.

When I wasn’t focused on my main project, I’ve done some planning and prepwork for other projects, particulalty The Colonel Lieutenant. I have some idas how to revise that story. And I nibbled at other projects over the course of the month.

September Goals

  • Get draft copy of Champion Bold
  • Finish one Supplement Book
  • Knock five things off my Story Bit List
  • Two non-review blog posts

Reading

  • Wisconsin Vampire (Fiction)
  • Northwoods Wolfman (Fiction)
  • Undead Cheesehead (Fiction)
  • Storm Front (Dresden Files, Book 1, Audiobook, Fiction)
  • Fool Moon (Dresden Files, Book 2, Audiobook, Fiction, Started)
  • The Rook (Fiction, Started)
  • Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind (Non-Fiction, Started)

I finally started and ran through Scott Burtness’s Monsters in the Midwest Series: Wisconsin Vampire, Northwoods Wolfman, and Undead Cheesehead. These books involve citizens of a rural Wisconsin town becoming the monsters they’d only seen in movies. They are horror-comedy, with enough amusing bits to make you chuckle, and enough horror to keep your wary. I liked them, though they’re not my usual read.

Finished the first Dresden Files book, Storm Front. I have to say I’m surprised. I have listened to this book before, but I had forgotten the last two-thirds of it. Finishing it for a second time, I’m unclear how I could have forgotten it. It was really good. I immediately rolled over into book two (Fool Moon). I have six or seven of them on audiobook, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.

September Goals

  • Finish one fiction book
  • Finish one non-fiction book
  • Finish one research book

Movies and Shows

  • Star Trek Prodigy (Season 2)
  • Expanse (Season 3)
  • Echo
  • The Mummy (2017)
  • Hellboy (2019)
  • Warcraft

I didn’t expect to watch three movies in a weekend, but I have a ‘fix the plot’ podcast I listen to and I’d listened to most of the movies I’d seen already, so I knocked a few bad movies off the list. The Mummy was a big let down (overpowered villain and deus ex ending). Hellboy was better, but not by much, which sucked because David Harbour did a good job as the character. Warcraft wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d heard. I actually like it, though it could be a lot better.

I did start and finish Echo, the Marvel show with the deaf character. That was a lot of fun. It did a few things I’m still not sold on, but the action scenes were fun to watch. And it was nice to see a story told not from a western perspective.

September Goals

  • Finish either Expanse Season 3 or Prodigy Season 2
  • Finish the other one
  • Watch one Best Picture Winner
  • Watch one other movie
  • Finish one started TV show

Games

Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Wikipedia
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Assassin’s Creed Odessey
  • Warhammer 40K: Armageddon

I played a lot in the first week or two of the month, then fell off towards the end. I advanced all three games, but didn’t make a large amount of progress. Which is okay. I got a lot of other things done.

In RPG news, I lost a character in Frozen Flame. It was sad because she was fun to play. but, she also wasn’t very effective. I didn’t do a lot the last few games, and her utility in combat was pretty limited. I’m working to build a better replacement character who can add something to the party.

September Goals

  • Advance RDR2 to next chapter
  • Ten hours of Assassin’s Creed Odessey
  • Ten missions of 40K Armageddon

What’s Next?

I’m focused on book right now. There may be an event in December, and I’m signing up for conventions next year. But for now, it’s all book.

Thanks for reading. See you soon. Cheers!

Michael

Review

The Virgin’s Lover

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The Virgin’s Lover is book 14 of Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction series. It takes place between Summer of 1557 and Autumn of 1560. It follows Queen Elizabeth, Robert and Amy Dudley, and William Cecil. This book has a number of firsts for the series. It is the first book to have Queen Elizabeth as a main character, and it is the first book to have many scenes from a male viewpoint (Robert Dudley and William Cecil).

This book is a mix of genres. In many ways it’s a romance novel between Robert Dudley and Queen Elizabeth. It is a book of court politics. But most importantly, it is a murder mystery. Combined, it makes for a book I really enjoyed reading. Really, I liked this one.

I’m going to talk about this mystery without spoilers, but I want to talk about it. Because if you read this book knowing it’s a murder mystery, it’ll make a lot more sense.

This book is a ‘Who Will Do It’ murder mystery.

What does that mean?

Glad you asked.

This book ends in 1560, which is 13 years before the previous book, The Last Tudor, ended. Which means we, as readers of the entire series, know how the romance between Robert and Elizabeth concludes: Robert’s wife, Amy, dies under mysterious circumstances. The nature of her death tarnishes Robert’s reputation, and he is no longer considered a suitable partner for Elizabeth. They part ways, in love but unable to be together.

So, we know that Amy is going to die. The question of this book is: who is going to kill her? All four characters have motives, and you spend the book wondering who is going to be the bad guy.

Let’s take a look at the suspects.

Queen Elizabeth I

Full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth in her early 40s. She has red hair, fair skin, and wears a crown and a pearl necklace.
From Wikipedia

Elizabeth has not had a happy life. Her father spent much of her childhood claiming she was illegitimate. Her mother was executed for adultery and incest. She was disinherited by her Protestant brother, then forced to assume a religion she didn’t agree with for her Catholic sister. She was a pawn in many, many games.

Finally becoming queen, Elizabeth is expected to marry an advantageous male who will become king. Over the book, many kings and archdukes and princes are brought forward, and Elizabeth makes and breaks promises on a whim. But she develops true feelings for Robert Dudley, a courtier who she bestows gifts and affections on. The two of them fall in love.

Elizabeth is a suspect because she loves Robert Dudley, but he is married. If she were to get rid of Amy, she may be free to marry Robert and find some happiness. As the head of the Church of England, she could declare a divorce, but that would come at too high of a price. But if Amy was to die, then Robert would be free.

I liked the Elizabeth of this book. She was not perfect: she was a person, trying to balance the expectations of her throne with her desires as a person. She wanted to be loved, and for a time had that love with Robert. I found it entirely believable that she could order the death, hoping it would go one way and finding it going against her.

Robert Dudley

Robert Dudley starts the book in disgrace. His father tried to put Jane Grey on the throne, and was executed for treason. Robert himself barely survived, rehabilitating the family name through service to Queen Mary and King Philip, then continuing his service to Queen Elizabeth. He endears himself to her by using his knowledge of court etiquette to prepare her processions and her court.

Robert is a schemer. He wants power and influence. He may or may not love Elizabeth — I found the book to be pretty vague on his true feelings — but he works to advance himself. At the height of their romance, he considers himself all but king, acting in unofficial capacities that he was not authorized to act in.

Robert demands a divorce from Amy, which she rejects. He wants to marry Elizabeth and cement his position in the court, but she stands in his way. If she dies, then he is free. And Robert is just self-centered enough to not understand why such an act might tarnish his reputation and keep him from Elizabeth.

I did not like Robert as a character, though that’s only because the author writes him so well. He is constantly scheming, grabbing power for himself. Which, given his history, I can understand. But I detest how much he doesn’t think of Amy. And, quite frankly, when he’s strutting about the palace and the height of their romance, he seems to completely forget how quickly anyone can fall in a Tudor court.

Fun Fact: When Robert returns from Calais early in the book, he returns with Hannah Green, the main character of The Queen's Fool, book 12 of the series.

William Cecil

William Cecil is the adult of the story. An experienced Protestant statesman, he is the voice of reason in Elizabeth’s court. It is he who explains to Elizabeth — and to the reader — the working of diplomacy and politics.

William constantly finds himself butting heads with Robert. He has England’s best interests at heart but finds Elizabeth to be indecisive and Robert to be an impediment. William is a true friend to Elizabeth, but he isn’t the sort of relationship she’s desperate for.

William is a suspect because he actually understands what the murder of Amy Dudley would mean: the fall of Robert Dudley. He is no stranger to assassination; he mentions it several times as an option and it is heavily implied he is responsible for the death of a Scottish queen. He is definitely capable of it.

William is my favorite character of the book. He is objective and thinking only of England, without any of the personal desires of Robert or the indecisiveness of Elizabeth. He is a good advisor. My only issue with him as he’s portrayed is the number of times he thinks or says that a woman could never be queen by herself, and they must get a king on the throne.

Amy Dudley

Amy Dudley is the tragic character of the book. She married Robert Dudley when they were young, and stood beside him when he was imprisoned, fell from grace, and fought his way back up. She was a loving and devoted wife.

From Wikipedia

But Amy does not want the court life. She wants a house and farmlands. She wants to maintain the fields and grow a family. Amy has no interest in anything else. Which is why she spends most of the book largely forgotten by Robert, hopping from friend to family member, few of whom are glad to see her. When Robert does see her, it is not as a husband, except to demand she give him a divorce, which she refused.

Amy spends much of the book in a terrible depression, always excited when she sees her husband, and let down by how little he cares. The idea of suicide is one she actively rejects (being a Catholic), but there’s always the chance she could simply give in during a darker moment.

I found Amy to a be a frustrating character. On one hand, she has my sympathy. She has done nothing to deserve the insults she is given on a daily basis, and she has no agency over her life. On the other hand, she rarely stands up for herself, actively apologizing in confession for her actions when she does. Maddening.

Historically

Well, obviously I’m not going to tell you what the book does. That’d be a spoiler.

Historically, an inquest determined it was an accident and no one was to blame. The event was used by Robert’s political enemies to tarnish his reputation, and he never married Queen Elizabeth. Accusations of his involvement occurred over the next few years, but none of them had any substance.

There is actually a theory that arose in the 1950’s, that Amy died because of breast cancer. The cancer could have weakened her bones, so that even a short fall could have been fatal. There’s no way to verify this, but the book does make reference to this theory by having Amy complain of chest pains, which she claims are due to a broken heart.

Conclusion

This book was one I couldn’t put down. I was excited to read it. And much of that was the mystery of who will kill Amy Dudley. My only disappointment was that I didn’t realize what the book was until halfway through. If I had known the whole time, perhaps I could have enjoyed it even more.

The book has a lot of other things to officer a reader. Court politics, international diplomacy, romance. It’s a great book, full of vivid characters.

If you decided to read this book, I hope the mystery pulls you in as much as it did me. I promise, it’s worth the read.

Monthly Update

August 2024 Update

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Hello. July was a good month. I knocked a lot of things off my list, got my book to 80% edited, and made progress on the shows and games I hadn’t gotten to in a while. That’s a good month.

Writing

My focus was on Champion Bold and the supplemental books. Writing, drawing, hiring artists. It’s a large beast I bit into, but it’s progressing nicely. The Book is 80% edited, and the supplemental books are in the 40’s.

Not much advancement on other projects, but that’s okay. I want to get my primary project done and published, and that has to be my primary goal right now.

August Goals

  • Finish editing Champion Bold, get published proof prepped
  • Get Supplement books to 75% complete.
  • Process feedback on The Colonel Lieutenant
  • Knock 10 items of Minor To-Do List

Reading

  • Last of the Mohican Graphic Novel, Marvel Illustrated (Fiction; Finished)
  • Gettysburg by MacKinley Kantor (Non-Fiction; Finished)
  • The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory (Fiction; Finished)
  • Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Fiction; Audiobook; Started)
  • Wisconsin Vamp by Scott Burtness (Fiction; Started)
  • Complete Idiot’s Guide to Game Theory (Research; Started)

I read a lot over the course of the month. Reading a graphic novel of Last of the Mohicans actually made me understand the story a little better, though it’s still not great. Also finished the next Philippa Gregory novel The Virgin’s Lover, which I will have a blog post for up soon.

The fun one was a book my dad read when he was young on the Battle of Gettysburg. Oddly enough, it was titled Gettysburg. It was fascinating to see how books of that time (1952) portrayed the battle; what they emphasized and what they ignored. As a bonus, it did four pages on the 1st Minnesota and what it did there.

August Goals

  • Finish one fiction book
  • Finish one non-fiction book
  • Finish one research book

Movies and Shows

  • Witcher – Season 3 (Finished)
  • The Expanse (Continued)
  • House of the Dragon – Season 2 (Started)

As I said in the intro, I actually sat down to watch new things this month. I got halfway through Season 2 of House of the Dragon with my sister. So far, so good. And I knocked another episode off of the Expanse. I really wish I could get into that show as much as other people. It’s good, but it usually isn’t grabbing my attention.

Finished the current season of The Witcher, and while I enjoy the show — especially the over-the-top fight sequences — I feel it doesn’t do a great job of explaining the world. I have so many question that just don’t get answered. Maybe if I read the books or play the games, I’ll find out more.

August goals

  • Finish current season of the Expanse.
  • Watch two movies.
  • Knock Tv show off my ‘started and not finished’ list
  • Start new TV show

Games

  • Warhammer 40K: Armageddon (Started)
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 (Continued)

I advanced a little bit in RDR2. Played through a story mission that actually left me really angry. I had to free a member of our criminal party who had been captured, and there was no way to do it without killing a lot of people, including at least one innocent woman. I texted my sister (who loves this game) and asked her if I am able to kill the guy I rescued later on in the game. Apparently, it depends on my choices. Which is cool from a game design perspective, but I need to avoid looking up how to do it, lest I get spoilers.

Started a new computer game, Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon. It’s a hex-based wargame that uses the Panzer General engine to play as an Imperial Guard commander during the Second War of Armageddon. I like this game so far for two reasons. First, it is a simple and fun game with short missions. And two, the Second War of Armageddon was largely my first introduction to the 40K universe. So, it’s a bit of nostalgia in it for me.

The RPG games go well. My characters are still alive, which is good. The game I’m running only had one session this month, but it set up a nice battle for next session. Knights, evil wizards, and lots of goblin friends…and perhaps foes.

August Goals

  • Advance RDR2 into next chapter
  • Start Assassin’s Ceed Odessey
  • Finish Armageddon

What’s Next

I have on public appearances planned right now. But I want to change that this month. I hope to find some conventions and events I can sign up for, before I hear about them too late.

Until next time, keep on writing.

Cheers!

Michael

The tale of an author, and his blog.