Category Archives: Monthly Update

Monthly Update

February Update

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Here is my update for February, covering December of ’22 and January of ’23.

Writing

January was a bit of a slow writing month, after the high temp of the end of 2022. I’ve been tweaking the sci-fi story and correcting some errors, and gaming out the end battle of Book 3. I probably added about 20,000 words all month. Not bad, but not great. I’m readying myself for February to be a big month.

Movies and TV

Not a lot new in terms of TV shows or movies recently. I did snag a year of Paramount+ for cheap during a holiday sale, so I’m getting into the fourth season of Star Trek Discovery, with several other Star Trek shows to follow. Plus I’m aiming to knock a few movies off my to-watch list in February. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Books

Between December and January I read a lot of fun books.

A Hundred Years from Launch (by Kayli Schaaf): I picked this book up from Kayli and a Books and Beer event I ran back in September, and I freaking loved it. It’s set in a small terraforming colony, trying to prepare for a population fleeing a dying earth. The main character is dealing with deep secrets that she cannot reveal, and trying to build some sense of happiness. The story covers a series of crisis that force the character and the colony to adapt, painfully but for the better. I enjoyed the story so much that one aspect of the story that took me out and had me saying ‘WTF?’ wasn’t enough for me to give it 4 stars. I absolutely recommend this book.

Little Paris Bookshop (by Nina George): Not my usual genre but I thought I’d give it a shot. Originally written in German as the ‘Lavender Room’ and translated to English. This book is about a Parisian bookseller whose book shop is a riverboat. He discovers a letter from his deceased lover that makes him re-evaluate his life and their parting. He takes his river boat to the waterways of France, adventuring to soothe his soul until he can learn to love himself and face life again. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, given how far it is from my usual reads.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (by Mark Haddon): Another oddity, one I got from my mother for Christmas. What made this book fascinating is that it is written from the view point of an autistic teenager who’s writing the story afterwards. The writer explains the rules of his autism and how he interacts with the world. For example, he describes that the reason he can’t lie is that when he tries to, he doesn’t just think of one thing that didn’t happen, he thinks of everything that didn’t happen, and can’t decide what to say. Another fascinating book.

Education in Violence: The Life of George H Thomas (by Francis F. McKinney): A biography of one of my favorite and least known American Civil War generals, I chose this from several lists of biographies. I only just started it, so I’ve gone through his early life, the Mexican American War and into the start of the Civil War. I hope to finish it well before the end of the month and move into the next Philippa Gregory and 30K book.

Games

Jedi Fallen Order: I completed this game in January. Set in the years after the prequal movies, the game follows a young Jedi survivor. He becomes embroiled in a quest for an artifact. It was a fun game to play through, one that continued to expand the Star Wars universe.

Last of Us: I have only just started to play this one, recommended to me by my sister. The opening sequence was intense and brutal, but holy crap did it get me into the game. I thoroughly enjoy the story and the characters, but I find the gameplay a bit frustrating. I keep trying to stealth by areas, and the game keeps forcing me into combat. We’ll see if the story continues to make up for the gameplay problems.

Fort Triumph: A PC game in the same vein as Heroes of Might and Magic. However, instead of armies of troops, you command squads of hereos. It has a strong RPG element, with a fun tongue-and-cheek campaign that had me laughing several times. I’m hoping to finish this game this month and move on to something else.

In terms of Roleplaying Games, I finished my Homecoming game just before New Years, so I’m no longer running one. I’m still playing in several games, one as a blunderbuss-toting tengu pirate, another as Sir Montague the gambler. With the new year comes new campaigns. Some new characters might be coming out soon.

What’s Next

I’m signed up to have a table at Minicon, Easter weekend in April.

Monthly Update

2022 in review + 2023 goals

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I started 2022 expecting to get a book out (or two), attend conventions, get Books and Beer up and running again, and generally make writing a more important part of my life. I was going to read through dozens of books and blog about them, and blog more in general. There were lists of games and movies and shows to run through. I had a lot of goals.

Largely, I did not make them. But I don’t consider 2022 a failure.

I have written almost 200,000 words between all my writing projects, and there’s a good chance I will published two or three books next year.

My short story exchange group has given me confidence in writing smaller stories, so I’m eager to start exploring new story-telling options for ideas I have waiting in the wings.

I got Books and Beer up and running again, with two events in 2022.

I’m feeling a little more comfortable with my blogging voice.

My goal for 2023 is to keep the momentum going. Keep writing. Keep pushing. Don’t worry over every little misstep. I’ve already started signing up for events in 2023, and I’ll be looking into Books and Beer locations soon.

As for 2022, I’ve learned a lot about how I missed my goals and why. My apartment is full of distractions, so libraries and coffee shops are good ideas if I want to make progress. I invested in a small laptop with the writing software I need, and a secondary monitor to help with research and referencing. And sometimes, I just need to kick my own ass off the couch and get stuff done.

So, 2022. Thanks for the chance to grow.

2023? Let’s see what we can do together.

Monthly Update

December 2022 Update

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Well, November was a month dominated by NANOWRIMO and Thanksgiving.

Writing

I missed the goal of 50,000 words by about 8K between all three projects. Th main reasons I missed out had to do with slowing down on weekend and spending more time over Thanksgiving with family than writing, which is a good trade off. Still, I’m good with 42,000 words for the month. That’s a good amount of writing.

Movies and TV

Finished off Andor in November. That was a fun show, getting into the dark background of Star Wars without adding Jedi and Darth anything. It was a slow start, sure, but I enjoyed it, especially Mon Mothma’s storyline, and Stellan Skarsgard’s character of Luthen. I look forward to the next season.

Over the holiday I went to see Devotion, about the the first African American Naval Aviator and the Korean War. I liked the movie, and had a fun experience where my knowledge of World War 2 aircraft led me to anticipating some plot points. There was one minor plot that I felt was forced, but overall, I liked it.

Books

I read the next Gregory book, The Other Boleyn Girl, and I’m working on the blog post for that. The book is from the POV of Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn, and is the first time we get to see the events of Henry VIII’s life from the Boleyn faction. I’ll leave more for the blog post.

I also read another 30K book, Heralds of the Siege, book 52 of the Horus Heresy series. Like all the other anthologies in the series, some of the short stories were very good, and others were forgettable. And most involved characters we haven’t seen in ten books or so, so I had no idea who they were. But, one more down, twenty to go?

Games

I’m continuing to wrap down the Sunday night game. I’ve only got a few more sessions before it finished up, and I’m hoping I’ve got a good idea how to get a final battle that will be challenging and enjoyable.

The other two games I’m playing in ar moving along. We have an almost TPG (Total Party Kill) on Monday night, so a bunch of us had to replace our characters. It’s a chance to try something new.

What’s Next

On December 10th I’ve got the next Books and Beer Pop-Up Bookstore at the AZ Gallery in St Paul. Other than that I’m working on three book projects and a number of short stories. I want to published at least one book in 2023 if I can get it to work out.

Keep on writing!

Michael

Monthly Update

November Update

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Man, the monthly change really sneaks up on you. No sooner am I planning the update, then BAM, we’re past the first. Well, I’m only a day late to cover what I managed in both September and October.

Writing

I have been making a lot of good writing milestones the last few weeks. I got past the last big issue with Book 3 and I’m writing through that act. Then I’ll have to keep writing into the next act and start ironing out what doesn’t make sense, and iron it into the act before. I’ll have to take a few passes to make it work, but then I’ll finally have my rough draft. The downside is that even though I’m finally over 100,000 words (yay!), a lot of the work ahead is re-writing, so the word count won’t increase as much.

The SciFi and Fantasy novel re-writes are going well. Each is over 20K and progressing daily. Both are a lot stronger than the rough drafts were. It’s nice to be able to jump between them as I need to.

NANOWRIMO Note: My goal for NANOWRIMO is to add 50K words between the three projects. The Book 3 Re-writing will be a bit odd to count, but I’ll make it work.

Movies and TV

I cannot say I watched a lot of new Movies or TV the last two months, in part because I tried not to turn my TV on a lot over October.

I watched through She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the MCU show on Disney +. I liked the show, especially how the main character kept breaking the fourth wall to share joked with the audience. The misogyny the character experienced was hard to watch, but I don’t think you could tell her story without it. At least the character had a fulfilling arc. I hope to see her in future shows.

Started the Andor show. I’m enjoying it so far, though I’m watching it more for what they’re doing with Mon Motha, the political character, than I am for what they’re doing with Andor. I mean, I like Andor, but I find her arc much more interesting. We’ll see how it turned out.

Books

Read through a five-book young adult series called the Phantasmagoria series, written by a Minnesota author named El Holly. The five books follow five middle schoolers who have to travel to a world of imagination called Phantasmagoria. They go to find balance between the worlds and save both from destruction. They’re books written for a younger audience, so there’s some wackiness in the story and some odd decisions, but it was still a fun series to read through.

I also read through a 40K book called ‘Battle of the Fang’, about the Thousand Sons attack on the Space Wolf homeworld of Fenris. A pretty decent book, as 40K books can go. A lot of cool combat sequences, some fantastic sci-fi, and a bunch of ‘seriously?’ moments. About what I’d expect.

Games

Finished Terran Command and Farcry: Primal. I may go back and finish some of the extras in both, but I don’t have to. I’ve got the stories done and that’s pretty decent. Playing through Epic 40K: Final Liberation, which is a game I played through way back in the 90’s when it first came out. I’m having another experience (like I did with C&C) where I’m playing much more competently now than I did as a child. Very much enjoying the playthrough.

Not much changing on the Role-Playing Game front. My Sunday night ‘Homecoming’ game should be wrapping up soon, so we’ll see if that ends on a high note. Hot Springs Island and Known World are still running great.

What’s Next

Focusing on NANOWRIMO (at least how I’m doing it this year). Got my eye on some conventions and events come the new year, hit 2023 swinging and selling. Keep selling on Fiverr if and when I can. And of course trying to blog more often.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

September 1st Update

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August becomes September, and summer becomes spring, and authors look at their coffee shop boards and see pumpkin spice. Such is the nature of things.

Writing

Book 3 is just shy of 90,000 words. I am currently working on the middle section, that connects the beginning and end. I am plotting out what needs to happen and working on a map of the area. Once I have it written then I can shift to ironing the story together and getting the rough draft done.

I am working on the Tales of the Templar short story book. I am just finishing up the second story and I’m well into the third. The goal is four to six.

I’m still picking on the Fantasy and Sci-Fi novels when I feel the need to write instead of plot. I worked out the mythology of the fantasy novel and the science of the sci-fi, so now I can get to the writing.

Movies and TV

In August I watched a number of new shows and films. I finally finished off Sherlock, the BBC show with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I saw the first episode back when it came out and it so upset me I did not finish the season until now. The last two episodes were not as bad as I’d feared; I might even go as far as to say they revived my interest in the show.

In terms of movies I watched Bullet Train, the Brad Pitt action/comedy film in the theater. I like it and thought it was a fun film. Worth going to the local cinema to see.

At home I streamed The Batman, the latest Batman film with Robert Patterson. As odd as Patterson is when he’s playing Bruce Wayne, I liked how this entry was a proper detective story. I even like how Batman and Gordon make mistakes in their investigation. Their fallibility added to the story.

Finally, I saw Prey, the latest Predator movie set in the early 18th century and featuring American Indian tribes fighting the sci-fi hunter. Holy crap did that movie rock. I was thrilled the whole time. I’d like to see them do more Predator through the ages movies.

Books

Only got through two books this month, which is kind of disappointing, but they were both longer books.

Three Sisters, Three Queens is the next Philippa Gregory book, following Margaret Tudor, older sister of King Henry VIII and Queen of Scotland. I really liked this book, and I’m working on the book report right now.

The other book I read is Ways and Means, a look at the economics of the American Civil War. Mostly the book followed Salmon Chase as he built up the Federal government’s finances to pay for the ever more expensive civil war. The author also spent time talking about the Confederate banking system and the European responses. These are all things I knew little about, for all my education on the war, and for all the importance economics and finance has on a government’s ability to persecute a war.

Games

Stalled out on Starship Troopers: Terran Command. I hit a mission I haven’t been able to get past yet, but I’m still working on it.

Almost done with a console game, Farcry: Primal, set in Germany in about 5,000 BC. I found this game an interesting take on the normal Farcry build. The gameplay was about the same, but without the array of guns to collect and customize, you were much more reliant on melee weapons and special grenades. Pretty cool., though I’m looking forward to getting back to normal.

My Homecoming game continues into the final chapter. Monday night works into Hot Springs Island. And my charisma character is still doing a good job in the Thursday Night Known World Campaign. So, RPG wise, I’m doing really well.

What’s Next

I’ve got a Books and Beer Event on September 18th at Inbound BrewCo; I will be hosting, but I’ll still have a table and everything. Looking to get some tables going for events the rest of this year and into next, but don’t have anything signed up yet.

Have a seller’s profile on Fiverr. Now I’m building some gigs (services people can purchase from me). Working on graphics and will have those up shortly.

Still writing, still revising, still working.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

August 1st Update

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July was a very busy month in some ways, and not so busy in others.

Writing

Book 3 is now over 80,000 words, which is only 5,000 more than a month ago, but is includes a 10,000 word re-write of the first two acts to account for a correction of geography. I’ve got the first and last acts written. Now I need to connect them with the middle acts and complete the rough draft.

I’m working on my fantasy novel again, having worked out the bulk of the problems with the mythology and pantheons. I’m in a similar position with the science fiction novel of having the background worked out. But since most of my writing time is dedicated to Book 3, I’m just picking at them when I have some extra time.

Movies / TV

I finished off Ms Marvel. I enjoyed it. Not only the story of the character, but the new background and culture of Kamila Kahn. I’m excited to see where she goes in the future.

I also got to see the Thor: Love and Thunder movie, which was great. Not as fun as Ragnarok, but it was a good movie. I still don’t see where Phase IV is going. Maybe it’s more of a palette cleanser between sagas? I think I heard something to that effect, but I haven’t read into it yet.

I watched through the fourth season of Stranger Things. Holy crap did that crank up the tension. I’m glad I started watching it on a Sunday morning and not at night. As it was, I was nervous the entire season. I will say this: that show does a good job of bringing different storylines together at the end.

Books

Guess I didn’t read a whole lot this month. Other than finishing Red Storm Rising, I read a book called Justice in an Age of Metal and Men, a cyberpunk western story. It was a fascinating world, though I had a hard time getting into the story.

Games

Been playing through Matrix Game’s Starship Troopers Terran Command. It’s a Real-Time Tactical game, commanding squads of troopers across battlefields while fighting the arachnids, complete with the generic cliches of the movie series. It’s pretty fun, and I’m almost done with it.

In RPGs, my Homecoming game is continuing into the last chapter. My Monday Night Game continues into Hot Springs Island (my character is still alive!) and my Thursday game is entering the next phase, a chapter of urban politics where my character plays a role of a foreign investor. Not my usual role.

What’s next

I’m running a Books and Beer Pop-Up Bookstore in September that I’ll be prepping for. I’m close to posting some job stuff on Fiverr. Other than that, it’s writing and revising and working being mor author-like.

Until next time!

Michael

Monthly Update

July 1st Update

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Wow. Don’t know how I missed the June update, but here we are. Guess I was just too carried away writing and revising one project or another.

Writing

Book Three is at 75,000 words, and about halfway done if not more. There’s a lot of work ahead, of course; at least two aspects of what I’ve written don’t work and will have to be redone. I’m close to having a second Tales of the Templars story completed also.

My fantasy novel is on hold while I revisit the mythology of the world. It was not holding up to what I needed, so I’ve been revising it. The good news is I’ve worked out a new system that works. Next, I’m ironing out some names and histories to give me the background I need.

My science fiction novel is ready for heavy revisions. But before I do that, I’m taking a moment to answer some important questions that I need to have answers to. I need to shore up some points, ensure some characters remain consistent, and one or two don’t disappear suddenly and without explanation. You know, the little things.

Movies and TV

Saw the new Dr Strange movie. I thought it was pretty good though not quite what I was expecting given what the trailers had be believing. Still not sure what the MCU Phase 4 is leading to. I’ve heard some theories, but without a unifying factor like Thanos and the Infinity Stones it just seems like a lot of threads in the wind.

Watched through Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. Overall, I liked it. It skirted the issue of telling a story without conflicting A New Hope too much (though this appears open to debate). It answered a few questions that lingered, Mostly, I was glad they didn’t botch it.

I saw the first few episodes of Strange New Worlds (the Star Trek show) and am incredibly impressed with what I saw. I’m excited for episodic-based trek. Caught the first episode of Ms Marvel, but haven’t seen anything since. Looking to catch back into that starting this weekend.

Books

Since I last updated, I’ve read a lot, though most of it was re-reading. I re-read Book 2 of the Honor Harrington prequel series, A Call to Arms. The main character is an officer now and continues his adventures in space.

I followed this up by re-reading the entirety of the Harry Potter series., all seven books.

Read the next Philippa Gregory book, The King’s Curse, about Margaret Pole. Pole lives through Henry VIII and the English Reformation. Book report due soon. Stay tuned.

Quick aside for a book on job interview techniques a friend of mine from college wrote. Now I’m re-reading and almost done with Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising. This was the first Clancy book and first Techno-Thriller book I read back in middle-school.

Games

I got stuck on a mission of Warmachine: Tactics that’s frustrated me. Try as I might, I cannot get into that game. I suppose I should just accept that there are games I will not be able to get into easily. They won’t hold my attention, or I won’t find them interesting. You pay your money, and you take your chances.

I had a coupon and picked up a copy of the new Starship Troopers came from Slytherine/Matrix games. It’s pretty fun for a Realtime Tactical game. Simple, captured the feel of the movies (though obviously not the books). Maybe I’ll focus on that one for a bit.

RPG-wise, my gaming groups have finished two Delta Green one-shots, neither of which were creature features. That was a nice change of pace, getting away from ‘what sort of monster is it this week!?’. Got involved, and we lost some characters in some interesting ways.

My Homecoming campaign is entering the final chapter. I’ve got a lot of ideas, but I am nervous. Can I pull off a final boss battle? Will the story hold? I’m going to keep taking it one session at a time. It’s worked so far.

Another group is revisiting Hot Springs Island, a published book I’ve visited before. The island is designed to be replayed so it won’t be the same island I’ve visited before. It is a brutal and lethal island. Should be fun.

What’s Next

I’ve got a Books and Beer Pop-Up Bookstore set up for September, so expect more on that coming up soon. I’m aiming to add another convention before the end of the year. And I’m hoping to have a profile up on Fiverr for some writing and editing support. Other than that, it’s just writing, writing, and revising.

Until next time,

Michael

Monthly Update

April and May Update

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Apologies. On the first of last month I was at work prepping the office to move that weekend and completely spaced sending an update. It was a long and grueling weekend but we got the office moved and set up. The new place is fantastic and, to my delight, has a coffee shop nearby I can go write at before heading into work. So I’m getting more writing done, which is always fun. So prepare for two-month update.

Writing

Book 3 is well over 50,000 words and closing on 60. I’m largely writing from the two ends to the middle, plugging away at scenes and fitting them in together. The rewrite is going to involve a lot of polishing.

A number of short stories are underway, including a number of Tales of the Templars. The possiblity of a short story collection in my fantasy world, or something of a sci-fi collection, is also appealing to me, since I’m being on my big book writing projects. Hey, it’s words on the page.

Movies/Tv

Haven’t watched too much new stuff the last few months. I did watch through the Last Kingdom, the Netflix show based off my favorite book series, and did a post about it. That was worth watching, and re-watching.

Reading

I started the two-moth period reading through a series of six short stories set in the Battletech universe (science fiction, large robot combat). These short stories dealt with the espionage and special operations the various factions therein did to obtain the plans to build their own battlemechs. They were a good intro to the world (which I know very little about compared to other scifi IPs), but not a lot of exciting mech combat.  

Then came the next book in Philippa Gregory’s series, the Constant Princess, about Katherine of Aragorn, first wife of King Henry VIII. Expect a book review soon.

Finished up a non-fiction book I was reading as research for Book 3. Small Unit Action in Vietnam: Summer 1966 is a collection of reports from squad, platoon and company skirmished and battles in Vietnam. It gave me some good ideas for the fights of book three, though the tech level of the Renaissance Army series is not at the Vietnam levels. Still, a lot of good bits in there.

Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow is a collection of science and speculative fiction stories from Keven A Kuhn, a fellow author of the Twin Cities who I befriended doing the Books and Beers events around town. Kevin’s first book, Do You Realize? left me in tears, and this one was just as striking. True, they were some dark tales, but damn if they weren’t good. 

To top off the list of books for the two months are three Warhammer 40K books. One from the Horus Heresy, Slave to Darkness, which was okay. I’ve read it, don’t need to do that again. Devastation of Baal, about the Tyranid invasion of the Blood Angel homeworld, was a fantastic book that felt like a true 40K novel, with heroic characters, alien mindsets, and jackasses I get to see die. The ending is a big deus ex, but against something like the Tyranids it kind of has to be. Finally there’s Gunheads, which pits Imperial Guards against orks. Lots of tank combat, which is fun, and against orks, which is even more fun.

Games

Have not been playing too many story games lately. Working through Warmachine: Tactics, still, but it doesn’t really hold my interest too well. Most of what I’ve played recently has been Surviving Mars and Surviving the Aftermath, two Paradox games about building communities (either on Mars or post-apocalyptic Earth). Both fun, maybe too addictive.

What’s Next

Keep reading and keep writing. I’m gaining traction on Book 3, slowly knocking scenes out and completing acts. If I’m not working on that, I’m working on some other short stories. Now that I’ve got a morning writing routine again, I’m excited to get into some thousand word mornings.

Cheers!

Monthly Update

March 1st Update

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Well, February was short.

Writing Projects

I added a few thousand words to Book III, but most of the work was outlining the final campaigns and getting a map together to work out how it goes. Some work towards blog posts on various topics.

Movies TV

Surprisingly knocked out five movies and shows off my list, though to be fair the four shows were all one season or less to watch.

Knocked out Girl Meets World, the sequel series to Boy Meets World, which was hugely influential when I was growing up. Also finished Brooklyn Nine-Nine; while that final episode was not great in the annuls of history, it was a very B99 ending to the show. I think it worked.

Saw the movie The Great War of Archimedes, a historical film about the construction of the WW2 battleship Yamato. Though almost entirely fiction, the movie has an impressive scene showing the sinking of the ship and gets into the warmongering politics of pre-war Japan.

I finished off the month by watching the Witcher Season 2 and Space Force Season 2. The Witcher continues to be a fascinating show, set in a world I want to know more about. I expect to check out the books or games soon.

Space Force is amusing but continues to fall short of awesome. It’s such a short show with short seasons it hard to get any development going.

Reading

Read three books in February. Ordinary Vices by Judith Shklar, a philosophy book that the Good Place brought up. It was an easier read than most philosophy books, but I probably still missed half of its points.

The other two were both Jane Austin books, Persuasion and Northanger Abby. I still have some trouble focusing past the two-hundred-year difference in writing styles and techniques, but both were good stories to get through. I got through most of Persuasion before I looked the plot up in Wikipedia. Northanger I looked up right away. I’ve concluded if I’m reading something that’s very far out there in terms of style, getting a synopsis ahead of time helps understand what’s going on.

Looking forward to spending some time reading some easy sci-fi or historical fiction, get away from the heavy reading of the last few months.

Gaming

Completed the story for Halo: Infinite. It was okay. It just doesn’t feel like a whole game. The entire story between Halo 5 and now, which I was looking forward to, is gone. The game ends but there’s still more to do. A lot of mysteries were brought up but not completed. What’s going on? Who knows?

(I actually looked this up; the story between games is told through some books and another video game, Halo Wars 2, which is a Real-Time Strategy. So I guess there is a way to learn what happened).

What’s Next

March is dedicated to advancing writing projects. Maybe I can’t finish off a rough draft of Book III or my fantasy novel, but I can get words recorded, complete a few of the Acts. Look into some conventions and whatnot. See if I can get something going.

Monthly Update

January 1st Update

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December was a fine month; got a lot done, and still had time to celebrate the holidays. All while psyching myself up for 2022.

Book Projects

Added several thousand words to a number of projects, but the big news is I figured out all the plot points for The Colonel Lieutenant and I’m in a good position to complete the draft by the end of the month. Of course, I said the same thing a month ago. Will it work this time? I’ll let you know in a month.

Movies and TV

Continuing with What we do in the Shadows. Finished off Hawkeye and started Book of Boba Fett. Also worked through the second season and various single films of The Goes Wrong Show which is outright hilarious. In terms of film I got out to see Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was a fantastic movie. Loves it, can’t wait for it to get released.

Reading

Slowed down a bit in December; only finished three books. One is a book with advise on how to make tabletop wargames (oddly enough, entitled Tabletop Wargames). Just for fun, in case some of my other projects take off.

Both the other books were hard reads: White Princess¸ Book 5 in the Plantagenet and Tudor Series, about Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII, who is often forced to submit to the whims of her husband and his mother (the Red Queen of Book 3) in humiliating ways.  The second is Last Girl by Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman from Iraq who was a slave for Isis. It is her story, and while not graphic, it is not a happy read. Worth reading, yes, but not happy.

Gaming

I finished the story for Horizon: Zero Dawn but I’m still playing through the side-bits. Lots of little quests and errands to run. Also finished the main story for Star Wars: Squadrons, the VR-flight game. That was also a lot of fun, but knowing how the Star Wars sequel trilogy goes sapped a lot of my enjoyment of the end video.

Started up two other story games. Halo Infinity on the console and Warmachine: Tactics on the PC. Halo is a first person shooter, but unlike other Halo games there’s an open world element to it, which I’m having fun exploring. Warmachine: Tactics is a game version of the tabletop wargame (which I also play). I kickstarted it a long time ago but never got around to actually playing it. Now I will.

In Pen and Paper, we finished up the Alien RPG, which was phenomenal, though since we were playing through a pre-planned adventure, I’m not sure how a custom built campaign would run. My Pathfinder 2E game is moving along nicely, and I’ve worked out some of the endgame for that.

What’s Next

I do not have anything on the schedule at the moment; during January I’m going to sign up for one or two conventions this spring and summer, and send some emails to breweries for Books and Beer events. Hope to get back out there soon.

Happy New Year!

Michael