Weekly writing progress:
- The Princess short story is completely done save for the cover which my friend will be doing. We're waiting until the cover for book 2 is done to make sure we can keep things visually consistent.
- Final major edits on book 2 are done. I was hopeful I would get to start on line edits/proofing, but at the time of writing this I'm going on vacation tomorrow and I'm just not in the headspace to focus. I have a few days off when I get back that should help me get a jump start. My timeline is moving back a bit, but I'm hoping to have the line and proofing done in mid March.
- After that I'll be leaping head first into book 3's initial editing pass. When I started all this I was hoping to have the books release within two months of each other, but things just take a while. Book 2 should come out within 2-3 months of book 1, but book 3 may take till December. I do two rounds of beta reads with my books, so the process just takes a while. My goal is still to have book 3 released by the end of the year.
I'd like to have a more aggressive release schedule going forward, but unless this becomes my full time job it will be about a book a year. (If I release book 3 in December that works out to about 10 months/book) - I feel like 10 months of part time work per year for a personal pursuit outside my primary profession is "enough", and I don't begrudge myself taking time away or "slacking" a bit every now and then in order to focus heavily on a game or a book. I strongly feel I could do 2 books/year at my current skill level if I could put in full time hours and had a dedicated editor instead of doing two rounds of beta reads and scouring my books countless times for typos and grammar errors, but #futuregoals I guess.
What I've been up to:
TV
Frieren: Beyond Journey's end continues to be an excellent anime. The writing is very, very good. It's proof that I don't need a lot of action to enjoy an anime which is what I thought part of my problem with Pluto was. But no, I just need characters with consistent motivations and real growth. Though there is some action, it's certainly not the primary focus of the show.
Vinland Saga is still good. I've been focusing more on Frieren, so not much to report.
Abbott Elementary is threading the needle on their main couple relationship better than I expected. I'm still annoyed by it, but I like the characters. I think all of the actors and the writers are getting comfortable with their characters and it shows.
We've been too busy to get our episodes of Tokyo Vice and Shogun in, but when we return from vacation I'm sure we will prioritize them heavily.
Books
Nettle & Bone is amazing. I love how relatable the main character is. I love that her bravery isn't a brash, in-your-face type of bravery. She proves herself not by throwing herself into danger (though she does do that), but by refusing to back down even though she's rightfully terrified. Also, bone dog is cute and special and I love him.
Games
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is a lot of fun. If you haven't played the original Final Fantasy 7 feel free to just skip this whole paragraph because you aren't going to care one whit about it. The major criticism for FF7:R is that there is "too much open world stuff to do", and the people that think that are stupid and wrong. The child robot that sends you on quests is a bit obnoxious, but this game expands all of the characters well beyond the original, and all of these short little quests are great opportunities to play as the characters and expand their relationships with each other. Aerith dies in the original game with less than a chapter's worth of dialogue and it's lauded as one of the bravest moves in gaming (for the time), but here I feel like I'm actually getting to know her. Same with Tifa and the rest of the crew. There's some very, very silly dialogue choices and "anime style" slapstick humor that I don't think translates well when they've chosen to go with such a realistic animation style, but for someone like me that's a very easy thing to forgive.
I haven't been playing anything besides FF7: Rebirth and Overwatch 2 lately, so that's it for me. Off to the Caribbean!
See ya in two weeks!
Want to chat? Comment here or email me at mjlindemann@mjlindemann.com. I try to respond to everyone :)
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