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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

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

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.