Friday, May 31, 2024

Weekly Update 05/31/24

Weekly writing progress: 

I've edited 3 more chapters at the time of writing this. I expect it will be 4 by the time it posts, which is a pretty steady pace. I'll probably be able to pick the pace up a bit more once book 2 is out and I have all my ducks in a row for that.

Speaking of...

Book 2 preorder is up! You can find it here. The release date is set to July 5th, so you can have something new to read over Independence Day weekend. :)

The promo for pride month through SPFBO starts tomorrow, June 1st! There are a LOT of cool LGBT books in there, so you can check it out here. Not all of the books will be going on sale (mine will for a couple days, but I'll be sending a newsletter out and posting when it happens), but it's still great to increase visibility to LGBT books during pride month, so feel free to share this link far and wide!

Do make sure you sign up for my email list at mjlindemann.com if you haven't in order to get your free copies of my short stories!

What I've been up to:

TV

We've been watching Dead Boy Detectives and it's been a lot of fun. I feel like the writing/editing could use a little work because the characters will sometimes say and do things that sound as if the audience should have context for it, but instead it just comes out of nowhere. I also think they were so frantic to establish the MCs relationships that a few things feel rushed. With all that said, literally every other aspect of this show is amazing. The set design is out of this world, the acting and onscreen chemistry of the cast is phenomenal, and the overall plot is a ton of fun. I honestly wish there was a full 22 episode season, because a "case of the week" style story with a lot more content would go down well and allow the writers to spread out some of the character development.

I'm still watching Delicious in Dungeon and it continues to be charming and funny. Every episode is an interesting game of "what monster is going to end up in the cooking pot", and I'm here for it.


Books

The Lord of Chaos - I can tell I'm getting to the climax of the novel soon. A lot of things are happening and I'm super excited to see what the characters are going to do. Egwene, especially, is really getting a lot of character progression. It's nice to see her have more agency since she's mostly been relegated to "voracious learner" and little else. The romance in the novels comes off as forced and weird to me, but I do think that's just a side effect of how Robert Jordan's characters are written to all be profoundly sexist. So when they do "fall" for each other it's almost like it comes out of nowhere even when it's been hinted at, because all the women seem to hate all the men and vice versa. 

The books would benefit greatly from not having so many different POV characters, too, as it delays the satisfaction of continuing MC storylines which increases the fatigue I experience when reading. There's nothing worse than something big happening with Rand and then turning the page to read a POV section from a character who has only been mentioned once or twice in the entire series. All that said, I'm very excited to get back to reading the book today. I've been told the ending is a doozy.


Games

I've been playing a decent amount of Diablo IV, and recently picked up Granblue Fantasy: ReLink to play with a friend. Think Monster Hunter but less crunchy and with a storyline. I'm enjoying it so far, but I JUST started it, so I'll withhold my opinions for now. 

Want to chat? Comment here or email me at mjlindemann@mjlindemann.com. I try to respond to everyone :)

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Update 09/06/24

Writing progress: Since the last blog post I have edited five more chapters. After today I'll have five more short-ish chapters to edit,...