Category Archives: Monthly Update

Monthly Update

December Update

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Monthly Update

May Update

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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!

Monthly Update

April Update

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March was a busy and productive month. I got a lot done and knocked a lot of things off my lists.

Writing

I’m closing in on a good draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. I finished wargaming and writing the big campaign, and re-worked most of the subsequent scenes. Right now, I’m working through the first scenes, one by one, focusing on the timeline, specifically how fast people and news moves across the land. What was originally two days worth of events is now spread out across a week, now that people aren’t teleporting.

I’ve been focused on Book 3, so Orcfyre (the fantasy novel) and my untitled Science Fiction novel are on the backburner. I also haven’t done much with the Tales of the Templar short story collection. Sometime this month I’m going to sit down and work out what I have to do for all my projects and set a schedule for the year.

On a slight aside, I’ve had some work come in through Fiverr, so I spent some time building another person’s military background, in this case plotting out a campaign for their story. It was a lot of fun, and I’m writing out a blog post on it for April.

Movies and TV

After a couple of weekends of false starts, I finally got down to watch All Quiet on the Western Front. It was certainly a brutal war movie that captured the psychological terror of combat. And I did like it. But, I felt that it fell short of the impact of the 1930’s adaptation. There’s never any scenes of the characters returning home and failing to connect with civilians. And the sub-plot of the end of the war (between General Foch and the German leadership) seems to be written to make the French seem as if they were intransigent villains, without explaining why they might feel justified being so firm in their position.

I finished Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in March. The new, episodic series really took me back to the TOS and TNG days of Star Trek, before multi-episode and season-long story arcs became the norm. And it really worked for me. The stories were fun to watch. The characters were enjoyable (both legacy and new). And the ship beautiful. I felt the crew of the show understood Star Trek and made an effort to honor its legacy.

And in the same field, I finished Star Trek: Lower Decks, the animated humorous show. I was worried about this one, because I found the first season to be very hard to get through. I have a hard time with characters who always have to be right or always have to be wrong, and Season 1 had both (Mariner and Boimler), specially because the always right character was always provign the other character wrong. But that didn’t continue into Season 2 and 3, and I found those to be much, much more enjoyable.

Books

I finally finished Education in Violence: The Life of George H Thomas by Francis F. McKinney. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a history book of that type. Most of it was fun, but it did drag towards the end when it got away from Thomas and followed the Army of the Cumberland. Still, I’m glad I read it. I don’t read a lot of biographies.

I started and almost finished The Boleyn Inheritance, the next book in the Philippa Gregory series. This book follows several of the later wives of Henry VIII, jumping between several characters chapter after chapter. I look forward to having the book report up soon.

Also started The De Facto Duchess, Book One of the Burton House Saga, by Ashley Katharine Houghton. It’s a historical fiction novel set in the Georgian era of Britain. I’ve found it to be a comedic drama, in that the story is overall serious (as far as I’ve read), but a lot of the scenes have humorous elements. I’ll have to see where it ends up.

Games

I continue to play through Last of Us 2 and pick at Napolean: Total War. I added a new game, one I kickstarted many years ago that finally release: Ancient Cities, a stone-age city builder. I’ve enjoyed what I tried so far, but the game doesn’t have much of a manual or guide. I have so many questions I can’t answer and it bugs me. I’ll still play at it a bit, but unless I can find some answers I’m not sure how much time I’ll invest in it.

I’m happy to report I’m still playing the same RPG characters. I’ve also gotten to try a new system called Blades in the Dark, a story telling RPG set in a dark, steampunk fantasy world. If you want to try a new story-telling game, this is one to take a look.

What’s Next

This upcoming weekend I’ll have a table at Minicon 56, my first full convention since before Covid. That will be fun, though of course I’m worried about my table set up. By the end of the month I’m aiming to have at least one more event lined up. Fingers crossed.

Until next time, keep writing!

-Michael

Monthly Update

March Update

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February was a busy month. Not only did I spend time concentrating on getting over some of the issues with various writing projects, but I knocked several movies off my list. I also got into podcasts at work, listening to them while I process some of the more mundane responsibilities.

Writing

My main focus was Book 3, wargaming out the end campaign to better understand how fast the units would be moving and reacting to events. I wrote through about 30,000 words, replacing previous scenes and building a much stronger campaign than the first run through. This leads me into the last acts of the book and gets me closer to a draft.

When I haven’t been working on Book 3, I’ve been spending some time on the sci-fi novel. I had to correct a few errors, re-writing scenes to account for mistakes I had made. I’ve also had to face the fact that the rough-draft’s final acts were not very exciting, so I’ve been planning out a new sequence of events. I’m working through those scene and closing in on a rough draft of that book as well.

Movies and TV

Knocked many things off my watch list last month.

I finished Star Trek: Discovery Season 4. I thought it was fantastic. A lot of people find problems with Discovery, and I understand why, but I really like their stories and their story-telling. Season 4 was the first season that I thought did not fall apart in the last two episodes.

Then I watched The Other Boleyn Girl, a film version of one of the books I’ve read. I was not too impressed. I know everything that got cut out, so the movie just feels like a rushed collection of events. I’m writing a more detailed blog post which should be up soon.

I also knocked out Top Gun: Maverick. It was an exciting movie, which I expected. What I did not expect was how strong the story was. I don’t know that I would say it is Best Picture material, but it was really good.

Books

Slowly making my way through the Education in Violence: The Life of George H Thomas by Francis F. McKinney. It’s a long, involved history book, with a lot of details about the general’s life and command during the civil war. It’s good, but it is involved. Takes a long time to get through one page.

Games

I finished both Last of Us and Fort Triumph. Fort Triumph was a fun game, with a decent and fun story. Last of Us though, holy crap was that an intense game. I had to give myself a few days between sessions. Still, I think it was one of the best games I’ve ever played. Up there with Horizon Zero Dawn. I started Last of Us Part II, which continues to be just as intense as the first game.

For my next computer game, I was going to start Mechanicus, a Warhamemr 40K game I’ve heard good things about, but it turns out there’s a problem with the game: the text is so small I can’t read it and I have no idea what’s going on. So instead I’m working through Napolean: Total War, to satiate my need for a strategic game of conquest.

Not much new to report in terms of RPG’s. My characters are all still alive and continuing with their stories. I’m doing a bit of work on some campaign ideas, but just broad strokes. I don’t think I’ll be running anything for a while.

What’s Next

I’ve got Minicon coming up Easter Weekend. By the end of the month I’m hoping to have another convention and a Books and Beer even lined up for summer. But those are yet to come.