May was an exciting month. I spent a weekend at Minicon, selling books and participating in my first official panel as an author. I sold another Fiverr gig, helping an author flesh out the campaigns of his story. And I worked out a number of problem in various stories that had been bugging me. All in all, a good month.

Writing

Book 3 is proceeding nicely. A lot of work this month has been factoring travel times and keeping track of the calendar, which has helped spread out the events of the book over a much more realistic and manageable timeframe. The book will cover about two months of time. I’m aiming for 150,000 words, but we’ll see how that goes.

I didn’t do too much with the SciFi novel in April, which is disappointing because it’s the project closest to being done. But I have some goals for May, including a list of the math and science I’ll have to work out or at least start to answer to get this ready for publishing. Also, maybe, work out the title?

Picked a bit at the fantasy novel. Did not add a lot of words, but I did work out some of the issues I was stuck on. Have some May goals for this project as well.

I do have other projects I’m working on; Tales of the Templars, for example. One thing I want to do this month is sit down and work out where these projects are at and how feasible they are. Not that I plan to give them up, but more that I want to have a realistic understanding of what I’d need to put into them to get them done.

Movies/Tv

Watched through the Mandalorian Season 3, the latest Star Wars show. It was not as amazing as the previous seasons, but it had its high points and I liked it. I felt like the show was more about developing the overall story of this combined saga that the Star Wars shows are trying to tell, something that they will continue with Ahsoka when that comes out later this year.

I spent the time to finished off Star Trek Picard Seasons 2 and 3. I’d heard a lot of bad things about Season 2, but I did not think it was that bad. I do think the ending to the season was a bit of a head scratcher, which is a common complaint I have about this new era of Star Trek series. Season 3, however, I really liked. Not perfect, because I can nitpick Star Trek with the best of them. But it was a lot of fun to watch.

For a friend’s birthday, we went to see Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Now, I was worried about this movie. The first D&D movie, released back in 2000, was so bad I wondered if it was even possible to make a good D&D movie. This was proved that yes, it is possible. It’s funny, it’s exciting, and it feels like a D&D movie. What else could I ask for.

Books

The only book I finished this month was Titandeath, book 53 of the Horus Heresy series. This was one of the better ones, involving mostly characters of the Titan Legions and their massive warmachines. Of particular note, there are several scenes of the machines fighting on the surface of massive space installations. I would come back to read this one. Only one more book and I’ve finished this series and can move on to the Siege of Terra series.

I’m close to finishing The De Facto Duchess and moving on to Book 2 of that series. I’m really enjoying the first book. The characters are fun, their interactions and enjoyable, and while I know enough of the time period to know something of what is coming their way, I’m still learning a lot about how the end of the Napoleonic wars and the war of 1812 influenced each other. I’m eager to see how it ends.

Games

I admit, I had to take a break from The Last of Us 2. Not because it got to be too intense, but because it got a bit too repetitive. I got back into it towards the end of the month and advanced the story, which is still enjoyable. We’ll see how it ends, and then I can look into the show.

I picked up Gears of War Tactics off Steam this month. A tactical squad game set in the Gears universe, I’ve only gotten a few missions into it. So far, I have enjoyed it. It is just as chaotic and grimy as the original games but includes a tactical and RPG element that I enjoy. We’ll see how the story plays out.

One of my gaming groups is gearing up for Quest for the Frozen Flame, a Pathfinder adventure path that the GM is very excited to play. Set in a arctic tribe of stone-age hunters, it will be a very different experience from the normal sword and sorcery RPG’s we play. I’ll keep you informed.

Hot Springs island is going well. I sat down with some friends to work out how to play my gunslinger better and after a few sessions of being more aggressive it’s working better than I’d hoped. He’s doing more than just standing and shooting. My Known World Book X campaign is at an interesting point where we need to develop a plan to overcome our current predicament, but damned if I know what we’ll come up with.

I’ve done a lot of work on my next GM campaign, though I don’t have a name for it yet. I did work out most of the details this month on how to structure it. I may have to rework it if the game doesn’t start before the Pathfinder ORC update rolls out.

What’s Next

Right now I’m focusing on getting my books projects advanced towards publication. I want to get another Books and Beer event running, and maybe find some more conventions in the cities that I can get into. But nothing is scheduled. So, I write.

Cheers!