Category Archives: Monthly Update

Monthly Update

March Update

February was filled with a lot of collecting artwork for the Kickstarter, trying to finish the Colonel Lieutenant, and just knocking things off my to-do list. That being said, I think I could have knocked a few more off. I’d like to see new goals for next month: finish some games and projects I’ve been working on and starting new things. So, I’m highlighting the goals from each one I absolutely want to get done.

Writing

I worked some on the Champion Bold manuscript, but most of my work this month has been on the Kickstarter campaign. I can do the prep-work, the text, and the planning, but I need to accumulate some artwork to get it done. Art isn’t something I do well, so it’s contacting artists on Fiverr and commissioning the work.

I’m closing in on a full draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. I imported the scenes I needed from previous drafts, now I just need to link everything, and start ironing out the story. Just a lot of grunt work.

Because of my focus on the two big projects, I didn’t get too much done with the minor projects. But that’s okay; they’re minor projects for a reason.

February Goals

  • GET KICKSTARTER FOR CHAMPION BOLD RUN
  • Get Complete Draft of The Colonel Lieutenant
  • Knock Ten Things off my Minor Activity List
  • NEXT WRITING PROCESS BLOG POST

Reading

I completed only one book this month, a non-fiction book called the Empires of the Steppes. The book is about the various people and empires that rose on the Eurasian Steppe and how they influenced and interacted with the empires around them. I read it as research for my fantasy stories, and it included a great deal of useful information.

Moved through another section of chapters for the audiobook of The Count of Monte Cristo. The book has moved into the revenge phase, where the Count is putting his plans in motion. So far, I haven’t figured out what he’s going to do, but things are moving along.

February Goals

  • FINISH THE LAST TUDOR
  • Finish One Other Fiction Book
  • Finish One Non-Fiction Book

Movies and Shows

I continued to work through new episodes of Masters of the Air as they come out. I still liked this show. It follows characters in such a way we get to experience the terror of combat, the frustrations of command, and the anxiety of being shot town to escape or be captured. Two more episodes, and we’ll see how it ends.

Ran through a chunk of episodes of the Expanse. The story is growing on me, especially now that many of the disparate characters are coming together. I do hope all the villains of the story get some sort of comeuppance, but we’ll see.

Finished Season 1 and into Season 2 of Halo. I still have mixed feelings about this show, though it’s a mixture of anger and whatever feeling translates as ‘where are you going with this and can you pull it off?’ I don’t want to give spoilers about the show, but how I interpret the season as a whole will be decided by how they end it. If everything comes together, it could be cool. I don’t know that it could be great.

The only new movie I sat down to watch this month was The Marvels, the newest MCU movie. I had heard not great things about this movie, but I disagree. Yes, there are a lot of things they could fix, and some things that don’t make sense, but it was a fun movie. The characters worked well together. And I hope to see many of the characters in future installments.

February Goals

  • Watch two movies
  • FIRST EXPANSE SEASON 3 AND 4
  • Finish three other season

Games

It’s weird that Gears of War Tactics doesn’t hold my attention for long. It has so much I should enjoy. I played through two story missions and the supporting missions needed to advance. I believe I have four story missions to go. I’d really like to finish this and move on to a new game.

I’m also picking away at Red Dead Redemption 2. I’m usually not a fan of games where you play criminals and outlaws. In this game, it depends on the mission. Some of the missions don’t sit well, but others are fun to play through. I can’t say I get all the mechanics, however. Some things just never seem to work for me.

In terms of RPG’s, one of my Pathfinder games is taking a break and switching over to Delta Green. Sunday night ‘Quest for the Frozen Flame’ continues to be fun, and I’ve started the Monday night Pathfinder 2 game, which I’ve titled Atonement. The players really got into character creation, and they’re off on the story. I am excited to see what we do with it.

February Goals

  • Ten Hours of Red Dead Redemption 2
  • FINISH GEARS OF WAR TACTICS
  • Start another Story Game

What’s Next

I’ve got two events.

Minicon 57, the weekend of 29th to 31st. I’ll have a small table for selling books and access to the Kickstarter.

On April 13th, I’m running a Pop-Up Bookstore at Number Twelve Cider. Four hours, fifteen authors, and lots of fun.

March will be focused on the Kickstarter. I want to get that up, because up means publishing.

Wish me luck.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

February 24 Update

January was a busy month, dominated by processing the first Beta responses to Champion Bold, working on the Kickstarter campaign, and closing in on a readable draft of the Colonel Lieutenant.

Writing

I’ve started getting Beta reader responses to Champion Bold, which has been positive. A few good points they’ve brought up for me to clarify, which is the point of Beta readers. I’m putting together the Kickstarter campaign, and I’m hoping to have that up this month or in March.

Continuing to work towards a completed draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. I’ve got the arcs worked out, now it’s just a point of writing the scenes, and then ironing out the story so it’s coherent.

I’ve been working on other projects. Writing a scene here, some world building there. Just some little bits to break up the routine when I need to mix it up. I did get the first post up about my writing process, which I’m glad I finally got out.

February Goals

  • Champion Bold: Finish incorporating Beta responses
  • Champion Bold: Get Kickstarter Up
  • The Colonel Lieutenant: Complete Draft
  • Blog: Get one non-update and non-book report post up
  • Other: Knock 10 things off my minor writing list

Reading

I finished the paranormal espionage thriller Declare by Tim Powers. This book was phenomenal. It was a good mix of ancient mythology, modern spycraft, and with a story that was told simultaneously in the 1940’s and the 1960’s. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories adjacent to the Cthulhu mythos.

With that done, I shifted over to try to finish A Fire Upon the Deep, which I had an eBook from Libby but couldn’t finish in time. I picked up a cheap paperback copy to finish. Now, if you want to know anything about this book, it is one where you have to infer a lot of the rules of the story from how the characters respond to things. There’s not a lot of exposition. It can make it frustrating to not understand the rules as well as the characters do. But we’ll see how it ends.

Still working through The Count of Monte Cristo as my audiobook. I know so little about this story I have no idea how it’s going to end, and I’m almost halfway through. I have so many questions about who he’s going to get revenge on and how. Even though the main character’s a bit of a Mary Sue, I don’t care. It works.

February Goals

  • Finish Fire Upon the Deep
  • Start new fictional book
  • Start new non-fiction book

Movies and Shows

I didn’t watch too many new episodes this month. Added a few episodes of the Expanse, which continues to be a good show I just can’t really get into. The last episode I watched was so intense (and upsetting) I had to take a long break. There are still a lot of elements to the show I like, and I appreciate its quality. I just can’t binge it.

I started watching The Halo TV show on the advice of a friend. I’m only a few episodes in. I’ve got mixed feelings so far. The opening sequence – a Covenant attack on a human settlement – was brutal to watch, which really set the tone well. That was great. And Halsey is a fun character. The parts that haven’t worked for me are the uber-fascist feel of the government and the chosen-one trope they’ve given the Master Chief. We’ll see how it ends.

I also started Masters of the Air, the new show about the USAAF in World War 2. Only three episodes in, but I appreciate that the view is from squadron and group leaders, meaning I’m getting a good view of how these raids were organized and led in the air. Most other stories I’ve read have been about individual aircraft and their crews (looking at you, Memphis Belle).

February Goals

  • Finish Halo Season One
  • Finish Expanse Season Two and Three
  • Finish One Marvel TV Show
  • Watch Two new movies

Games

I finished the campaign to Anno 1800 this month. It was a good campaign that teaches the players most of the base mechanics of the game. I want to try playing it past the end date to see how far I can take it, but it does take a lot of time.

Advanced a few missions through Gears Tactics. I feel like if I can set aside a night to just play this game, I could probably knock it out and then be done with it.

I started Red Dead Redemption II. This game follows an outlaw in the end of the wild west. So far I’m liking it, particularly that there is a mechanic where I can choose how honorable or despicable I can be. We’ll see how it comes out.

RPG wise, most of the campaigns are continuing along nicely. But the exciting news is that I get to take out the every-other Monday night game with a campaign idea I’ve been working on for a while I’m really excited to get this one to the table, and nervous to see if I can get the game to run the way I hope. Right now everyone is in character development, which is a lot of fun to partake in. I’ll let you know how it all goes.

February Goals

  • Finish Gears Tactics
  • 20 Hours of Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Start another PC Story Game

What’s Next?

I’ve got two events coming up.

Minicon 57, the weekend of March 29th to 31st. There I will have a table selling my books and likely have something up about upcoming publications.

On April 13th, I’ll be running a Pop-Up Bookstore at Number Twelve Cider. It’ll be a four-hour event, but it should be a lot of fun.

So that’s it. Two events to plan for, a game to process, two books to bring to publication, and a lot of work to do. Should be fun.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

January 24 Update

December was busy, not only with writing projects but with holiday events.

Writing

My work on Champion Bold was to continue run the story through a decent editor program. Turns out the Scrivener, as great as it is for writing and organizing, has a terrible spellchecker and no grammar program to speak of. Nothing I can’t work through, but it took some time.

With the Colonel Lieutenant, I wrote and worked through the middle section of the book, connecting the threads between the beginning and the end. I’m close to having a draft ready for heavy revisions, if I can just sit down and knock it out.

I snipped at my various other projects last month. I added research notes, wrote more chapters, and did world building exercises to prepare the secondary projects for if and when they become primary. I’m also working on several extra blog posts for the year that are something other than monthly updates and book reports.

January Goals

  • Prepare Kickstarter Campaign for Champion Bold
  • Complete Draft of the Colonel Lieutenant
  • Knock 10 things off my Secondary Project List
  • Post one writing blog post

Movies and Shows

LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 MARVEL.

I finished Loki Season 2 this month. It was quite an exciting ride, one that stretched the rules of the multi-verse and time travel as the MCU seems to use it. It was a bit of a shame I didn’t remember many aspects of the first season, because there were parts of the second that didn’t connect as well as they should have. Still, it was a fun show to watch.

Next came Good Omens Season 2. This was the opposite of Loki, in that I really enjoyed the first season, so I was excited for the second. I was curious what they’d do for their second season, given that they would have to come up with a whole new story within their universe. The story they told was a fun mystery. I think they might have relied a little heavily on flashbacks, but I still loved it. I’m looking forward to Season 3.

Continuing to work through the Expanse. I’m past the episodes I’ve seen and I’m into new episodes, though still in the Second Season. Oddly enough, I found the show more likable once I got past the last episode I saw; I guess I stopped just one episode short of the crest. Still, I’m liking how the factions develop, and how the characters are surviving (or not).

January Goals

  • Finish Two Seasons of the Expanse
  • Finish one other TV show
  • Watch one new movie
  • Complete one remaining Best Picture Winner (Coda or Nomadland)

Books

Oddly enough, I didn’t finish reading any books in December. My reason has to do in part with trying the Libby app to get free ebooks. Since I only have the books for three weeks, and I have to fit them into my current reading schedule, I started several but didn’t finish. I’ll have to wait for the next renewals to come through and then power through. But I did start several books.

Top of this list is Declare, a paranormal thriller set during and after World War 2. The story is set in two different timelines. The later timeline is happening in 1963, where the characters are dealing with the end results of their actions in the previous timeline, set in the 1940’s. It’s a nice mixture of spycraft and Lovecraft.

Also on the list, I started (and stopped due to Libby timeout) The Last Tudor, the next novel in the Philippa Gregory series. The novel follows the the short reign of Lady Jane Grey — Queen of England for only nine days before Mary and Elizabeth — and then her sister Katherine, who lives through the early days of Elizabeth’s reign. I was enjoying the book before it times out; I look forward to getting back into it.

All the other books I’ve been picking at the last month were research books for one project or another. Gathering notes and assembling stories. Good times.

January Goals

  • Finish one eBook
  • Finish one physical book
  • Finish one research book

Games

I completed the story for Farcry 6, where I played Dani, a revolutionary who is fighting for the liberation of her island, Yara, from the oppression of a cruel dictator. I’ll be honest, I was disappointed with the ending. all through the story, characters were discussing what would happen when the revolutionaries won. How it wouldn’t be easy or bloodless. And when they get there, and the story just skipped over any consequences.

Not much else to bring up for gaming last month. Worked through a few more sections of both Anno 1880 and Gears of War Tactics. Didn’t lose any RPG characters. Had some ideas for campaigns or encounters I added to my list of ‘wouldn’t it be cool?’ Still, glad to knock one story game off my list.

January Goals

  • Finish one story game
  • Get into Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Have fun

What’s Next

I have a table at Minocon 57 the last weekend of March. I’m hoping to get a Books and Beer even in sometime soon. And I’ll be prepping for the next Kickstarter campaign for Champion Bold.

Looking to start 2024 with a boom.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

December Update

November was dominated by NaNoWriMo, finishing the Beta Draft of my SciFi novel, and prepping for the December 9th Pop-Up Bookstore.

Writing

The big news is I finished the Beta draft of my SciFi novel, now titled Champion Bold. It’s currently coming in at about 110K, so I have room to grow if the Beta readers give me some feedback. Right now I’m working on proofreading, preparing the Kickstarter campaign, and developing the cover art. I have a good idea of what I want it to look like, so I’m building it up before I send it to someone for polishing.

Continuing to wright the Beta Draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. I’ve been working through the issues and problems of consolidating the story. I’m so close to finishing it, and now that I’ve got Champion Bold off to Beta Readers I can spend more time on this one.

Other than my main projects, I continued to work on some secondary and tertiary projects. I added a scene to Orcfyre. I did a lot of world building and prep work for another SciFi project called Contrition, then wrote about 8K words in four sessions. And I did some research for two historical fiction projects.

And yes, I did get my 50K words (or equivalent) NANOWRIMO done. But, someone (yes, it was me) forgot to log the last day’s words that would have topped me over the 50K. So I didn’t get the official badges for 50K or every day logging in. It was a stupid error, but I’m moving on with my life. I’ve got a book to publish.

December Goals

  • Finish proofing Champion Bold Beta Draft
  • Finish Colonel Lieutenant Beta Draft
  • Keep working at other writing projects
  • Do one non-book review blog post

Movies and Shows

LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 MARVEL.

I started Loki Season 2. Now I was worried about this one because I didn’t quite understand the first season when it came out. I’ve come to understand it a bit more after a few more stories from the MCU, and Season 2 is a lot easier for me to understand. The episodes I’ve watched (the first thee or four) I’ve enjoyed.

Watched Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the second animated Miles Morales Spider-Man movie. I really liked this one. I don’t know that I would say it was better than the first one, but it was really good. I’m excited for the third one.

And just before the end of the month I knocked out The Suicide Squad, the success to Suicide Squad. I had some worries about this movie, mostly having to due with the character of Amanda Waller. But I think, overall, this was a better movie than the first one. It was more coherent and had a stronger cast, and while the Waller character was just as evil as the first one, she wasn’t overpowering.

December Goals

  • Finish one TV Show off my to-watch list
  • Finish one TV Show I’ve previously started
  • Watch one movie
  • Watch one Best Picture Winner (Nomadland or Coda)

Books

Not very long books, but I read through The Way it Went Down Vol 1 and 2, two collections of very short stories inspired by the Delta Green games. I read these to look for inspiration for a Delta Green/Cthulhu Mythos story idea I wanted to flesh out. They gave me a lot of ideas, not only for that but for some other creative projects.

Next came Mr Burton’s Trunk, Book 4 in the Burton House Sage. This one is a departure from the first three in several ways: it follows a male character, takes place mostly outside of England, and the romance of the book is more varied and twisted. But following the main character up the eastern seaboard, visiting former presidents and cities of the growing US, was a fun read.

The audio book I’m currently working through is the Count of Monte Cristo, which I chose after recommendations from several friends. I’m about a fifth of the way through it, and I think this book is great. I really understand why it’s stood the test of time. While some elements of it stretch imagination, it’s not as far out there as Last of the Mohicans was.

Another book I started was the SciFi novel A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. This is a SciFi story that emphasizes the Fiction part of Science Fiction. The galaxy has rules and aliens and expectations that are fascinating, but without much exposition I don’t know how to interpret many elements of the story. I feel this is going to be one of those things I’ll have to turn around and re-read once I understand the universe, so I can see everything I missed the first time.

And, just to throw it out there, I did read through one research book. The Rhetorical Art of Public Speaking. I chose this one because several writing projects I had were going to involve some form of public speaking, and I wanted to have a better idea of how the characters would go approach their speeches. It has already helped.

December Goals

  • Finish two fictional books
  • Finish one research book

Games

Other than working through the games I’m still working through, I did start a new game in November that was free to play one weekend and just grabbed my attention. That game is Anno 1880, a real-time city-building game that I’ve had my eye on for a while. The story is fun, and challenges you to learn the game without beating you up over it. We’ll see how the sand-box goes when I get around to playing it.

One of my gaming groups started a Cypher-system game set in the Peninsula-campaign of the Napoleonic era, in 1809. Coming up with a character for that game was fun, especially since one of my podcasts is about Napoleon. I built a character who really fit the times. It should be fun, and the Cypher-system is dedicated to telling stories.

The other RPG’s are still trucking along. There’s been a lot of disruption with the holidays, but that’s to be expected. We’ll see how they roll into 2024, and what games the new year will bring.

December Goals

  • Finish one story game.

What’s Next

On December 9th I’ve got the Pop-Up Bookstore at AZ Gallery. That’s the last event for the year. The next scheduled event is Easter weekend of next year.

I’m also prepping the Kickstarter campaign for Champion Bold. I don’t know when it’ll be up and running (most likely January of February), but it’s coming.

Monthly Update

November Update

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October was dominated by revisions to my Sci-Fi novel, and by a couple of Fiverr gigs I sold. I now have physical copies of several projects to read through and revise, which feels better than just reading a word doc over and over again.

Writing

I’m pretty amazed that I haven’t gotten my SciFi book out to beta readers yet. I’ve gotten so much work done on it. Not just revisions but working out the math and science of the world. I’ve got spreadsheets now that can do the calculations for me. And I’ve got ideas on some of the other publishing items that I will have to deal with: the title, cover art, Kickstarter campaign, etc. I’m just working hard and getting stuff done.

I have gotten some work on The Colonel Lieutenant done, although most of that has not been in writing but in planning and revisions of what I’ve already recorded. I want to tell a good story, and part of that is keeping it from ballooning up into another massive book. Another project I’m plugging away at.

My other projects are still there. I’m doing a few bits of work on them every week, usually planning or some minor research. Trying to get the work done before I start writing so I don’t stop writing.

November Goals

November being NaNoWriMo, I’m setting some goals to add words to many projects, and to knock the revisions for my primary projects out. I’m still close to being able to publish a new book before my next convention, though it’ll be close.

  • Sci Fi: Get Book to Beta Readers
  • Sci Fi: Title Book
  • Colonel Lieutenant: Beta Draft Plan/Work
  • Horus 1: Add 5,000 Words
  • Other Projects: Add 20,000 words / equivalent research and planning

Movies and TV Shows

The last episode of Ahsoka came out this month. It was a fantastic episode, and I really like what they did with the show. I was a bit disappointed with a few decisions they made, but not enough to knock my rating down. I hope they do more with the character in the future.

Continuing to work through The Expanse. It’s a good show, but it’s hard for me to get into. Kind of reminds me of Game of Thrones that way. I couldn’t really get into that show until it was almost over, and I had scenes I wanted to get to in the story. Maybe I should look for some spoilers in later seasons to pique my interest?

Started Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, the animated Star Trek show. This season is really bringing it. The characters got promoted, which they should have been. We’re seeing some worlds we wouldn’t have normally seen (Orion!). And the stories are just enjoyable. I’m looking forward to how it’ll keep going.

I made a point to watch Everything, Everywhere, All at Once before the month ended. As I expected, I chastised myself for not watching it sooner. It reminded me a lot of a book I read by a local author, Do You Realize by Kevin Kuhn. They both hit me right in the existential feels.

November Goals

  • Finish one TV Show off my to-watch list
  • Finish one TV Show I’ve started off my to-watch list
  • Watch one Best Picture Winner I haven’t seen yet (Coda or Nomadland)
  • Watch one other moive

Books

I finished the Thrawn series with Dark Force Rising and Last Command. The overall story was exciting, though I could get nitpicky with some of the choices. It was fun to see the characters I knew again, and meet some new ones. And I’m glad that much of the story is no longer canon, as it lets Disney do new things with the characters.

Completed the Last of the Mohicans audiobook just before month’s end. My initial impressions remained through to the end. The story was extremely different than what one would expect from a story these days, and the racial wording was hard to listen to at times. I really tip my hat to whomever took that story and wrote my favorite movie from it.

November Goals

  • Finish three books
  • Get into a new audiobook
  • Completed one Study Book

Games

I didn’t get a lot of game playing done in October. It’s not because the games aren’t exiting, but I just haven’t been spending a lot of time playing video games. Younger Michael is very confused. I hope he understands.

I lost my character in Quest for the Frozen Flame. Morgar, son of Morgut, died in battle defending his party from kelpie. He was a great character with a great family to roleplay experiences with. his replacement, Nora, Daughter of Skye, is proving to be a fair warrior in her own right. Here’s hoping she lasts a right deal longer.

November Goals

  • Finish Gears of War Tactics
  • Finish FarCry 6
  • Start a new narrative game

What’s Next

I have a Pop-Up Bookstore on December 9th at AZ Gallery in St Paul. I’ll post more about that on Facebook and social media.

Monthly Update

October Update

After a couple of disappointing months, September was fantastically productive. I’ve gotten a full Beta draft of the SciFi novel done, I’ve knocked a number of things off my to-watch list, and I made good progress on vide games and other projects.

Writing

First off, fantastic news. I finished a Beta Draft of my untitled Science Fiction novel. There’s still a lot of work ahead of my, but I’m within shouting distance of publishing. My goals for the month are to iron the book out and get it to some Beta readers, and work on the supporting work I need to do to get it ready for a Kickstarter campaign and publishing.

I got some work done on The Colonel Lieutenant, but most of my focus was on the Sci-Fi novel. I am printing off the chapters I’ve written so I can start processing and working out what I need to do to get it ready for its own publication.

I’ve picked at the other projects on my list, mostly doing research or building up the background and world building. The sort of things I should be doing before I get to writing. The idea is that when I get to writing the projects, I’ll have most of the support work done and I won’t stop and start so much.

October Goals

  • Iron Sci-Fi novel, get it to Beta Reader
  • Work out plan for The Colonel Lieutenant
  • Add 5,000 words to Fantasy novel
  • Keep plugging away at other projects

Movies and TV Shows

I continue to watch through the Ahsoka series with excitement. I’ll admit it is a more subtle show than I was expecting, especially when it comes to Ahsoka’s part in the story. But they obviously respect the elements they’re bringing together for the show (the characters from Rebels and Thrawn) and they’re telling a fun story. I’m excited to see the last episode.

I started and finished Ted Lasso this month. I’d heard good things about the show, and I was not disappointed. It was a hilarious show that had a lot of good character growth across all three seasons. Although I would say the last season may had a lot of missteps before it found its way.

Next I decided to re-start The Expanse, which I started some time ago but wasn’t able to finish because I don’t have Amazon Prime. Luckily my library has the discs I need to start and get through the series. I’ve read the first book, and several of my friends really like the show. This time I mean to finish it.

October Goals

  • Finish two TV shows off to-watch list
  • Watch one missing Best Picture Winner
  • Watch one movie off to-watch list

Books

I read through the Queen’s Fool, book 12 in Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction series. Following a fictional character through the tumult of Queen Mary’s reign, i found this book to be very exciting and a fun read. I’ll have the book report up sometime this month.

I then started the second of Timothy Zahn’s original Thrawn series, Dark Force Rising. This follows the same plotlines of the first book, with the Grand Admiral plotting the destruction of the Republic and the heroes investigating and responding to the threat. I’m maybe half-way through right now, so we’ll see how it goes.

And if we’re talking books, I’m going to add the audiobook I’m listening to right now, which is the classic Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. I chose this one because the 1992 movie is my favorite movie and I wanted to listen to the book. It is rough to listen to. Not only does the story meander a lot (a product of two-centuries of changes in story expectations), but the representation of native culture can be painful to listen to. I had to find a synopsis website to help me understand what I was reading.

October Goals

  • Finish one library book
  • Finish one book I own
  • Read one research book

Games

Not much to report in terms of videos games. I’ve continued working through both Gears of War: Tactics and FarCry 6, but I didn’t finish either of them. It’s odd to think that I have to work to find time to play video games, but I have a lot of other things I’m working on.

The RPG games are going well. We did start a new Pathfinder 2E game set in a world we played in back in high school, so that’s fun. My characters are sill alive for all my active campaigns. And I’m picking at the various campaigns I want to run, just so that I’m ready if and when I get to run them.

October Goals

  • Finish Gear of War Tactics
  • Keep trying at FarCry 6.
  • Start another computer story game

What’s Next

October will be all about getting my SciFi book ready for publishing, and pushing my other writing projects forward. And I’d like to get a bead on some good events to get into next year. But mostly, the publishing thing.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

September Update

August went by fast. It was dominated by a Fiverr order that had me writing several histories of wars set in a client’s fantasy world. It was a fun experience, but did take up a chunk of time.

Writing

My work on Book 3 this month was focused on the last Act. I have the beginning I want, but the middle is suffering because I don’t know where I want it to end. So by working out where I want it to end, I know what I need to build up in the middle. Some writing, a lot of planning. I’d really like to get more done this next September.

With my Lightstar Sci-Fi book, I missed my mark of having a Beta Copy done. Much like Book 3, I have the first half and the last act, so I need to get the two to connect somehow. To this end, I’ve pringted off copies of the scenes I like and my goal this month will be to work to connect the two ends in the middle.

I only added about a thousand words to my Fantasy novel last month. I want to write it, but since it’s the furthest project from done, it’s lowest priority. I’m still picking at it.

For other projects, I’m keeping my promise of outlining, plotting and researching and not writing until I have a much better idea of what I’ll be writing. My goals is that when I finish one of my current projects and move on the next, the next project goes a lot quicker.

September Goals
  • Book 3: Finish Last Act, work out bridges between beginning and end.
  • Lightstar: Get book to Beta Readers
  • Fantasy: Add 5,000 words.
  • Other Projects: Keep outlining and planning

Movies and TV Shows

I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3. I enjoyed it. It was a fun movie, with a lot of action sequences and a villain that I really liked. Plus, it ended each character’s story at a place where they could or could not come back to the MCU.

I finished the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This season had several episodes I really enjoyed, including the crossover with Lower Decks and the musical episode. There were a few I’m okay not seeing again, but every season had those. Overall, I liked it and I look forward to a third season.

I started Ahoska, and at the time of this post I’ve seen the first three episodes. I’m not sure what to think yet. It has a lot of cool sequences, and so far it’s done a good job of honoring the characters its brought in from previous shows. But so far it is a lot of build up, and I don’t know the payoff yet. I’m optimistic (look at how Andor finished) but I’ve been burned before (look at Boba Fett).

September Goals
  • Watch two new movies
  • Cross two shows off my list

Books

I finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes eBook I’d been reading. My final impression is the same as I reported last month: it’s a bunch of fun short stories from a time with different storytelling expectations. Some of them I figured out early one, some I didn’t. A lot of them had the ‘gotcha’ endings that bug me. Maybe next time I’ll read a longer book of his and see how it goes.

The next book I read was from the library, called The Siege of Washington by John and Charles Lockwood. This is a history book about Washington, DC, at the start of the Civil War, before volunteers showed up and there was a real fear that southern forces would capture the city. I really, really liked this book. I even added it to my ‘buy this’ list. Why? Well, because it gets into the decision of the first 12 days of the war, and why some of them paid of and why some of them didn’t. I’d almost do a blog post on it but I’ve got enough on my plate right now.

Finally, I read through the Star Wars book Heir to the Empire. The series that introduced Thrawn to the Star Wars universe, it’s part of the old Expanded Universe that was dissolved when Disney bought Star Wars from George Lucas. I know Thrawn from some of the newer books Timothy Zahn has written, and from the Rebels show, so now I get to see how he started. All in all it was a good book, with an old-school Star Wars feel that brought me back to some of the EU books I read in middle school. It’s book one of three, so I have more ahead of me.

September Goals
  • Finish one library book
  • Finish one book from my own collection
  • Finish one research book

Games

Working through FarCry6, which I expect to take a while. FarCry games have a huge open-world component to them, with massive towns, mountain ranges, and deep forests to explore. Even focusing on the story only has me running across miles of territory. Plus, I like the fact that it’s in a Hispanic Caribbean island nation. The main character isn’t an American, and the dialogue has a lot of Spanish thrown in.

I think I’m about a halfway through the campaign of Gears of War Tactics. It’s not that I’m not enjoying the game, but I don’t find myself gaming on the computer as much as I used to. Part of the challenge is that you can’t advance the story missions until you fight side missions to level up and equip your characters. So sometimes I spend a night playing through a mission or two, and don’t feel like I’ve done much.

My RPG games are moving along nicely. Caw-Pow, Montague and Morgad are all still alive and kicking. I even got to try out a new system this month, called Traveller. I hadn’t heard of it before, or if I had I don’t recall the conversation. The character creation is fun: you roll stats, and then roll through several years of your life to see how you grow. Do you go to college? What happens there? Do you graduate? Etc. Apparently you can even die in character creation. Good times.

in related news, I might be running a short Cypher system game that’s set in 1st Century CE Gaul. It’s going to have the feel of a superhero campaign in the Roman empire. This will actually be my second time running it; the first time fell apart kind of quickly, so I have some lessons to learn. Then I get to try again.

September Goals
  • Finish Gears of War Tactics
  • Advance FarCry 6
  • Don’t lose a PC

What’s Next?

September is going to be focused on getting one of my two book projects to a readable draft. I think the SciFi novel is closest, but both are within quick distance. So I will hit both of them and see how far I get. My goal of publishing early next year is still well within reason.

Until next post, keep on writing!

-Michael

Monthly Update

August Update

July was a fantastic month. I knocked a lot of things off my to-do list in almost every category. I did a lot of planning, organizing, and strategizing for my projects. And I feel good heading into August.

Writing

After a few chapters of work on Book 3, I switched gears to planning and organizing. I had all the scenes and plans from my first drafts, and I spent several sessions working on what scenes I still wanted to include and which ones I want to reference. It seems a lot of what I thought would be individual chapters might just be scenes. which is good, because I’m still worried about how big some of these chapters might get.

Did not get as much work on my SciFi novel as I’d had liked. That being said, what work I did do was pretty important. I figured out a few of the plot points that I had glossed over in previous efforts, so I know what I need to have happen. By my estimate, I have ten chapters to work out to have a draft ready for review.

Same thing with the fantasy novel, and the other projects. Not as much writing as I’d like, but a lot of planning and organization done.

My focus on organization and planning has a lot to do with me restructuring how I’m approaching writing projects. I’ll get into that in some future blog posts.

August Goals
  • Book 3: Finish at least one of the four remaining acts
  • Science Fiction: Get book to Beta Readers
  • Fantasy Novel: Add 5,000 words

Movies and TV Shows

July was a good month for knocking titles off my to-watch list, both movies and TV shows.

First, I sat down to watch Glass Onion, the second of the Benoit Blanc mystery movies. I really enjoyed the first one (Knives Out), and the second one did not disappoint. It was a different kind of mystery than the first one, and used the cast to greater effect. I’ve already re-watched it twice, to pick up on all the things I missed the first time.

My sister invited me over to watch through The Last of Us TV Show. I just finished the game series in June, and she wanted to share it with me. We got through the whole series, all nine episodes. I have always been fascinated by how stories change mediums, but usually its book to screen. And the show did it well. I’m doing a blog post on it, hope to have it up early August.

After that, we started House of the Dragon, the next Game of Thrones prequal series. Now, I’m not a huge GoT fan. I read the books and watched the series. But so far I like this show. I like the king, the prince and the princess. Of course, we’re only three episodes in, and I’ve been warned it gets pretty intense. We’ll see if and when I get around to finishing it, as I don’t have an HBO subscription.

I also sat down to work through the rest of Marvel: Secret Invasion. Last month I said I wasn’t sure what to think, except that I expect Olivia Coleman to be awesome. Well, she certainly was. I’d say she was the best part of the show. The rest of it I found boring. I had a hard time getting into the story and the villain’s plan was formulaic. About the only positive thing I can say is that the ending was not the happy ending I’d expected. And, I’d add that if they use the events of the show to set up story lines in other MCU movies and shows, I think that’s great. But I did not get into this show.

Maybe August won’t be as show and movie heavy, but it will have the Ahsoka show, and that I am very excited about.

August Goals
  • Watch Two Movies
  • Complete Two Shows

Books

I finished The Automaton pretty early on in the month. By the last chapters I had two ideas of what might be happening, and I was partially right with both, yet completely wrong. It was fantastic. This book is one of those science fiction books in the vein of Isaac Asimov. It really feels like a science fiction story and not just a story set in a science fiction world. I absolutely recommend.

I started an ebook edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which I did not realize at the time included the first stories of the famous detective. My only real exposure to Sherlock Holmes has been through film and the BBC show. Reading these stories, it’s fun to see things I recognize, such as characters, mysteries of bits of dialogue. It’s also fascinating to see how the concept of mystery stories changed since the time they first came out. Most of the stories are extremely short, and have a ‘hah, gotcha’ style that bugs the hell out of me.

At the recommendation of a friend, I started reading a book from a genre called ‘RPG Lit’. This is a genre where players in a game get put into the game somehow. The book I started with, Critical Failures by Robert Bevan, has the players in a game similar to Dungeons and Dragons. It was a pretty decent read, though I can’t say it was great. It certainly gave me a lot of good ideas for my own RPG Lit stories.

August Goals
  • Read one library book
  • Read one book I own (fiction)
  • Read one book I want to take notes through

Games

July was not a big gaming month. I played a few more missions in Gears of War Tactics, advancing the story a few more scenes but still within the same act as I started the month. I want to finish it off before September.

There was one game I really got into this month, and that was one called Thea: The Awakening. My friend Karl recommended it to me. It’s an RPG/Turn-based strategy game. You rule a town in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, sending adventuring parties out to find resources and defeat monsters. You have different abilities based off what deity you follow, and the deities gain abilities as you level them up. It’s immensely fun.

I anticipate that sometime in the near future I’ll be getting a Playstation 5. Therefore, I set myself a bunch of goals to complete before I can invest, including completing the last game I have on the current consoles, Far Cry 6. I believe I’ll start sometime this month, but I don’t know that I’ll finish it this month. Far Cry games can take a bit.

RPG wise, all three of my characters are still alive. One of them, Shiloh from the Delta Green game, had a fantastic event where he got possessed by an alien intelligence who wanted to end the world. I got to play the traitor for a short while, manipulating my party members to position myself to betray them. Seeing every player at the table respond to my betrayal was fantastic. Even though my possession was brief and a failure, my character survived to continue to be a part of the group, and I got a fun experience out of it.

August Goals
  • Finish Gears of War Tactics
  • Start Far Cry 6

What’s Next

Monthly Update, Uncategorized

July Update

Gallery

It’s the July Update, a little later than usual thanks to a busy but amazing July 4th Weekend. I got a lot done this month, and still have a lot to do.

Writing

As I said last month, Book 3 is not about word counts right now; it’s more about processing the story and trying to streamline what I have planned. I did add a good number of scenes to the story, and I’m working out the flow, but I’m having difficulty nailing the exact sequence of events. I’m working hard on it, and I’m optimistic I can get the books finished, if not published, this year.

My Science Fiction Novel went from 2nd Draft Writing to 2nd Draft Ironing, which means I’ve got a continuous story that I like, and now I’m going through it to make sure things match up, that chapters are not too long or too short, things of that nature. I could very well have the 2nd Draft done and ready for review by the end of the month. Then I can move on to figuring out publishing details, like finding a title.

I did not do too much with the fantasy novel this month. I got some writing done, and some planning. But it was not high on my list as it is the furthest project from completion.

I did spent a decent amount of time last month planning other projects. I expect to go into details in a future blog post, but I’m looking at how I work on projects and how I can bring them to fruition faster. Most of it focuses on world building and advanced outlining.

July Goals
  • Get through middle section of Book 3
  • Get Science Fiction Novel to Beta Reader status
  • Add 5,000 words to Fantasy Novel

Movies and TV Shows

The first new movie I got into in June was The Lego Batman Movie. This had been on my list for a long time. It was fantastic. Will Arnett’s angsty Batman was a hilarious caricature of the superhero. The movie itself made fun of the absurdity of Batman, Gotham City, and the numerous villains that Batman faces in fighting crime. I was glad to finally sit down and watch it.

I started two new seasons of shows in June: Marvel: Secret Invasion and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. I’m only one episode into Secret Invasion, so I don’t really have much to say about it, other than I’m anticipating Olivia Colman to pull off her usual amazing stuff. I’m two episodes into Strange New Worlds Season 2 and the second episode was one of those episodes I know I’ll be watching for a long time. Between those two shows and The Witcher Season 3, I think July will be a pretty heavy TV months.

July Goals

  • Watch two new movies
  • Finished two TV shows

Books

I finished reading Book 3 of the Burton House Saga, Double the Trouble, about musical twins Beatrice and Cecelia. As I said last update, the book is much more amusing than the first two books, and that continues to the end of the story. In addition, the author has clearly planned out the rest of the series, as this book makes several comments about future events that will be appearing in future books (along the lines of a character looking at an atlas and dreaming of travel, not knowing how far she’ll go.).

I then sped through the next Philippa Gregory book, Taming of the Queen, about Kathryn Parr, last wife of King Henry VIII. I don’t want to give too much away until I do the book review, so I will simply say that I continue to enjoy the series.

Lastly, I started a book called The Automaton, written by Ian Young, a local author I met at Minicon this year. This book tells the tale of humanity’s move to a cloud consciousness through a series of short stories. These stories are experienced by an automaton, for a purpose that has yet to be really understood. It’s certainly an inventive book, one that feels like real science fiction.

July Goals

  • Finish three books
  • Write two blog posts

Games

I finished Last of Us 2 this weekend (technically not June, but whatever). I made the point to my sister that I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a final battle not wanting to fight it as much as that one. That game series is a masterpiece of storytelling. I know a lot of people didn’t like the second one, and I kind of see why, but I don’t agree. If they just did a re-hash of the first game, it would have been boring.

Still working through Gears of War Tactics, which I am enjoying. The end of the first act had a brumak fight. Imagine a rancor with machine gun arms and rockets on its back. It was fun, even if it did take me eight tries to get through. I’m into the second Act, which is teaching me the more complex rules of the game before the story gets moving again.

I’m starting to get into a game called Strategic Command: American Civil War. This is one of those games that has a steep learning curve, so I’m giving myself time to get used to it. The nice thing about this game is that they keep releasing new campaign DLC of other wars of the late 19th and pre-First World War 20th Centuries.

My characters in Hot Springs Island and Quest for the Frozen Flame are still alive, which is good. The Delta Green interlude is also moving along, and so far we’re all still alive. But it is Delta Green, so I don’t expect that to last too much longer.

Also, in gaming news, my sister has asked me to run an introductory RPG campaign for her and her friends. I’m excited to do so, and I’ve spent some time the last few weeks planning that out. Not just the story, but how one does and introductory game. It sounds like it’ll be a few months before that really gets going, but you know me. As soon as there’s something to start planning, I start planning.

July Goals

  • Finish one more video game
  • Don’t lose another character
  • Don’t guy another game

What’s next

July will be focused on getting the Science Fiction novel ready to publish and advancing Book 3. I’ve got a lot of other, smaller projects to work on, but those are the big two. I’ll let you know how they go.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

June Update

May turned into a pretty decent month in terms of writing everything except the blog posts I swore I was going to post, and slow in almost every other aspect. And that’s okay. I can use a slow month every now and then.

Writing

Working hard on Book 3, getting closer to having a rough draft ready for review. It’s not really a question of word counts right now, it’s a question of linking up the scenes I have and making the story coherent. I’m pretty sure I’ll be dropping the tertiary storyline as it’s not adding too much to the book and will save me a goods chunk of words that I’ll need to shape the ending I want. Could I have a rough draft by the end of the month? It’s possible, if I can stay focused.

My SciFi novel is nearest to completion, but I’ve had a hard time getting into the last big battle. I need it to be a lot of things. What I need to remember is that I just need to get this draft down and then revise it.

The fantasy novel is my middle project, and I’ve had some nice breakthroughs on this project in May. For the main character, I worked out some of the philosophy and meta-physiology of his fantasy race, and how that will apply to the story. And for the secondary character, I realized a few things that I can use to make her part of the story much more interesting and influential.

I did pick at a few other projects over the month. There are so many things I want to write.

  • June Goals:
    • Finish current draft of the SciFi novel
    • Get Book 3 to the point I have a continuous story from beginning to end
    • Add 10,000 words to fantasy novel

Movies/TV

Only watched two new things in June.

Star Trek: Prodigy, the animated kid’s Star Trek show, was surprisingly fun. The adult in me could nitpick the hell out of it, since there’s a lot of things about the show that don’t make sense if I think about it too much. But it is a fun show. The characters are interesting, especially how they come to want to join the Federation, and how they deal with the threats of the story. Now, for a kids show, it does get somewhat dark, but most kids shows do, don’t they?

The movie I managed to watch in May was Antman and Wasp: Quantumania. I’d heard it was a disappointing moving, but I have to say I liked it. It was definitely a different tone from the first two Antman movies: much more serious, much darker. But seeing Antman’s daughter as an up and coming superhero was fun. And holy cow, Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror was amazing. I’d love to see him come back again. (Unless the assault allegations turn out to have substance to them, then I’d hope to see someone else who can pull off that level of intensity.)

  • June Goals:
    • Start a new TV show
    • Watch two new movies

Books

I finished two books and started a third this weekend. All three are part of the Burton House saga.

The first two, The DeFacto Duchess and Rejection and Romance, follow Allison Burton and James Byrnes as they navigate courtship, romance, and the politics of 1815 Europe. They’re really two halves of the same story, with a cliffhanger end to Book 1 that made me immediately start Book 2. I would have been really frustrated to have to wait between books.

Book 3, Double the Trouble, shifts focus away from Allison and James to Allison’s younger twin sisters, Beatrice and Cecelia. The musically inclined twins come out into society, with Cecelia going through a battery of terrible dates with suitors and callers. I haven’t finished it yet, but I can tell you this book is far more amusing than the first two. This book also has a more musical theme to its structure and chapter headings, where the first two books were more literary.

  • June Goals
    • Finish two books
    • Post one book review

Games

Did not play a lot of video games in June, for whatever reason. I played through maybe one or two missions of Gears of War: Tactics, which is still fun if not exactly engrossing. I started to focus more one Last of Us 2 to get that game done, and I hit a fun section I’m excited to play through. Maybe I’ll knock that out this month.

My RPG games slowed down in May, between holidays and time-off. Known World Book X is taking a short break so the GM can prep the next chapter, and we’re in a Delta Green Interlude. Still playing the same Hot Springs Island character, and hoping to keep him going for a while.

We did play the first adventure of Quest for the Frozen Flame, where I’m playing the barbarian hunter Morgar. I ended up changing his character from the initial concept. Instead of a moody teenager with a chip on his shoulder who gets angry at everything, he’s now a son from a loving family who gets excited instead of angry. It involves a lot more roleplaying and involvement, but this is a playing group that is well suited for that.

Also, as an aside, one of my Saturday morning prompts gave me an idea for a Scifi adventure, so I spent a few days working out the framework for a Cypher one-shot, roughly eight to ten adventures long. I’d like to run it at some point, maybe get it into rotation for the Sunday or Monday night games. We’ll see if anything comes of it, but it was fun to work on.

  • June Goals:
    • Finish Last of Us 2
    • Don’t Buy Another Game
    • Don’t lose an PRG character

What’s Next

This month I’m focusing on writing and prepping for publishing. I want to put some effort into getting another Books and Beer event going, and keep an eye out for some events if I can get my table up. But the writing is first and foremost. I’ll let you all know how that goes.

Cheers!

Michael