March was a good month. I finished the Champion Bold revisions. The paperbacks are sitting at home. The hardcovers are on their way. The supplement second round of proofs are sitting on my table waiting for revisions. I had my first event of the year, getting people interested in my new book and having people ask about book 3 of Sasha’s series.

It was a good month.

Projects

Finishing Champion Bold has been big. Not only do I feel better about getting a project done, but I’m ready and eager to tackle the next ones. and with the BPRG system, I believe I can get them done quicker and to the table faster than the last few books.

I still have to finish the supplements. The books have a number of minor adjustments to make to some images and formatting, but they do need to be done before I can say ‘complete!’ So, I’ll get them done.

Once this project is done, then I’ll focus on the next two projects: Book 3 of Sasha’s story (The Colonel Lieutenant) and the sequel to Champion Bold (titled Champion Impact). There are other projects I have in development that I’m not giving up on, but those are the two big ones.

April goals

• Sasha 3: Re-game and re-write the big campaign
• ChamImp: Finish plotting process
• ChamImp: Get forms out to backers
• Other projects: Knock 10 things off to-do list

Books

To my frustration, I did not finish any books this month. I made good progress in both Angel Fire East and Sapiens. Also, I re-started Game Theory at my new reading desk station in my new place. War and Peace is my new free audiobook/podcast at work. the 10-15 minute runtime per chapter work for those short time periods just before lunch.

What’s really bad is this puts me at four books read for the year so far. My goal is 36, so I should be at nine. I’m five books behind schedule. I’ll need to pick up the pace a bit.

Oh, darn. I need to read more. How terrible. (End sarcasm.)

April Goals

• Finish Angel Fire East
• Finish Sapiens
• Finish Idiot’s Guide to Game Theory
• Start and finish one fiction book.
• Start and finish one non-fiction book.

Movies and Shows

• Shazam: Fury of the Gods
• Pacific Rim: Uprising
• New Mutants
• Marvel: What If? (Season 2)

Knocked a good number of things off my watch list this month, and yes, most of them were so I could watch them on the fixit podcast I listen to. But honestly, none of them were as bad as I thought they would be.

They weren’t great, and I see why they didn’t take off, but they weren’t terrible. This is going to be quick and short.

Shazam: Fury of the Gods had a decent underlying story. But it suffered from spending too much time with the superhero characters and not enough time with the children.

Pacific Rim: Uprising had an odd plot: it kind of made sense, but it didn’t quite feel right. The rest of it was a lot of the right parts that did not fit together well enough to make a good movie.

New Mutants was probably the closest to a good movie of the three, and the one I most wanted to be good. But there were too many ‘good idea, but they didn’t think it through’ plot holes. Which is a shame, because it wasted Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor Joy and Charlie Heaton.

Finally, Marvel: What If? Season 2. Nine episodes of alternative Marvel histories that wrap up with an overall narrative. All of the episodes were good. And I want to give a particular shout out to Episode 6, with the dialogue almost entirely in Mohawk and Spanish.

April Goals

• Watch one Best Picture winner (3 left)
• Watch two of four remaining Fix-It titles
• Finish one started TV title
• Start new TV show

Games

• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Space Marine 2
• Madden 25
• Football Club 25

Started two new games this month. One, Football Club 25, it one I got for me and my roommate to play against each other alongside Madden 25. Football and football. What a treat.

I also started Space Marine 2. I wanted a game that was fun and didn’t require a lot of thinking and planning. Just get in, shoot and fight. And nothing says simple shoot and fight like a Warhammer 40K game.

April Goals

• Advance to next chapter of BG 3
• Advance to next chapter of AC Odessey
• Advance to next chapter of RDR 2

What’s Coming Up

I’ve got a convention coming up Easter weekend; I’m excited because I’ll have my new books ready for it. At least, the paperback copies. The hardcover copies are on their way.

I’m also planning a book launch party in May. I don’t know dates yet, but I will post when I know.

Until then, keep on writing.

Cheers!

-Michael