Update 07/19/24

Weekly writing progress: 

Of course I simply MUST put my new book at the top of the blog post. You can buy it here!

Not too much to report on book 3 progress. Things are still trucking along. I've got about 4 chapters edited since last posting. I've had a pretty stressful couple of weeks with private crap (nothing serious, it just doesn't take much to up my anxiety), so I ended up not updating last week. As time marches on, there is less book stuff for me to update on. It's going to just be "I'm editing" followed by "I'm still editing" - so I'm going to probably drop down the amount of updates to biweekly unless there is something I want to talk about in particular. 

As always, 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

Acolyte finale was excellent. I love, love, love this show. Great acting. Great directing. Great usage of the IP to tell a story that, while it's not completely unique, was told in a fresh way. And the lightsaber battles made the child in me scream with joy. So cool.

Invincible - We finished the second season and I really, really liked it. I will say that Invincible coming around on his father after he murdered just SOOOOO many people is not my favorite, but who am I to judge? I like getting hints at the Viltrumite politics/structure. I loved the episode dedicated to Eve. I loved the twists and the shocking deaths. Lot of fun.

The Boys - I've loved this show since season 1, and I still love it. I think it's starting to flounder a bit, but we are only two episodes in. I like that Frenchie has gotten a boyfriend, though I don't love the idea of yet another doomed gay romance on a big budget TV show, so we'll see how that goes. The Boys is equal opportunity with its deaths and gore, so I'd never accuse it of the "bury your gays" trope, but (and I could be wrong about this), isn't this the first MM romance on the show? I can't think of another one. Regardless! I've been having a good time with the episodes we've watched. 

Books

A Crown of Swords - I've still only read a couple more chapters since last posting. Every chapter I read, I like, but I've been getting to bed later and that's when I read (before bed), so I just haven't been making as much progress as usual. 

Games

Not much to report here. I've been playing the hell out of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail and I've been having a really good time. 

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

Weekly Update 07/05/24

 Weekly writing progress: 

THE DAY IS HERE!

An Eager God is now available for purchase!

Buy it here!

I'm so excited for people to read this! Make sure you read the second short story before you dive in. :)

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Alright, not too much to report on the third book. I got three chapters edited this last week which I'm quite pleased about. 

As always, 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

Delicious in Dungeon - Finished the first season this morning and while it wasn't exactly what I'd call a "finale", I was still very pleased with it. Looking forward to the next season!

Acolyte continues to be very good. I like what they're doing with the two siblings and the light/dark sides of the force from their respective mentors. The show is just excellent.

Invincible - we are almost done with the second season and I, for one, am very happy with it. Only one more episode to go, and it looks like it's going to be a pretty big one. 

Books

A Crown of Swords - I've only read a couple more chapters. Books and video games are often in competition for my time, and this last week video games won handily. I'm still enjoying my time with it, and I'm sure my pace will pick up. As a side note, it's kind of funny just how much shorter this book is compared to the last one in the series. I feel like I've barely made progress and I'm already almost 15% of the way through. 

Games

I finished Nine Sols, and it was an absolutely wonderful little game. I'll be watching what these developers do in the future, because they knocked it out of the park with this one.

The majority of my time has been spent on Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail - and... I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit underwhelmed by the story. This game is usually talked about for it's narrative, and for most of the prior expansions, I tend to agree that the writers do an excellent job, but this time around it's lacking a lot of the magic that made the prior expansions so memorable. 

All of the "main" party members are sidelined for a new character who has the energy of a golden retriever. "But that sounds great..." you might think. You'd be wrong. Imagine being unable to escape this golden retriever. Imagine if the golden retriever was the only thing you got to interact with for hours and hours and hours without a break. Imagine a golden retriever crawling inside your clothes, sticking its face in yours, and then licking you for actual days at a time. Every time you take a breath, it continues licking and sticks its tongue inside your mouth. You try to spit the tongue out but it just keeps... on... licking. Your face is covered in saliva, you can't get away because it's inside your clothes. You wonder if you're in hell. What did you do to deserve this?

Anyway, THAT'S what I'm feeling after playing through the story for a couple days. It's suffocating. I even quite like this character, and I like the premise of the expansion (helping her win the contest for a throne). In practice, though, the writers made the expansion 100% about her. The writing in FFXIV has never been what I would consider clean. It's always had way too many words to say far too little, but I was able to look past that before, but with this character the dialogue is just SO tiresome. I'll still finish it because most of my fun is had with the game mechanics and not its story, but it's still a little disappointing. The music and art is phenomenal though, as always. So that's good! 

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