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, and two short-ish chapters to write. I'm going to do a run through of my short story which should take about a week, and then dive immediately back into the novel so I can make sure it's ready for my beta readers.
I've been trying to give myself some grace on my timeline for everything. Having less focus on blog posts, marketing, and using less of my brain power on social media in general has helped, but things are still just taking a while.
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What I've been up to:
TV
Rings of Power - We're watching the second season and I'm really liking it. I honestly liked the first season, too, but saying that on the internet is dangerous because every lore nerd on the planet seems to crawl out of the cracks to yell at people for liking things. Online discourse surrounding geeky franchises is so fraught now. Anyway, I like Rings of Power. I think it's an excellent edition to the on screen middle earth stories.
Only Murders in the Building - The first two episodes were great this season. I could watch this show forever, and I hope they keep doing it for at least another couple seasons. Maybe even get a spinoff. I love a good murder mystery series.
The Dragon Prince - We watched the most recent season and it's great! My only complaint is that the seasons are so short and it seems like very little gets done per season. I want to keep watching it to give them the ratings they deserve, but I can't help but think this show would be better if binged.
Books
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Phenomenal so far. I've been taking it slowly with this book and savoring it for multiple reasons. 1.) Because each chapter is like a little treat. It's SO relaxing to read. 2.) I've been busy with other media lately (video games).
Games
Still playing a significant amount of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail and enjoying my time.
Infinitode 2 - This is a very simple tower defense game with a lot of depth. It's extremely cheap and can be played on PC and a phone, and they can be synced. So I've been doing a lot of this in my downtime.
Visions of Mana - I'm about 7 hours in and really enjoying my time with it. I can't decide if hard mode is hard or just frustrating right now. The AI companions die very quickly to monsters, and normal monsters (right now at least) hit like a truck. The visuals in the game are great. I love the oversaturated color palette, and I love the character designs. I think the story so far has been a strong point. A strong theme in all of the Mana games is sacrifice and they are embracing that whole heartedly. The premise is that every 4 years each elementally aligned village must sacrifice a chosen individual to the Mana Tree so that the spirits can continue to protect their respective villages from ruin. I can't stress enough how much the Mana Tree is definitely NOT the bad guy (it never is), though I'm sure there will be more to that world building than meets the eye. The characters all seem not just ready to give up their lives to save their villages, but actually quite excited to do so (to the point of begging the Mana Tree's faerie for the job). I'm SURE there will be a heel turn where they all start contemplating their own mortality, but for now, they are all joking around and having a great time on their "adventure"... which is a very interesting and unsettling juxtaposition that I think kind of works. I think the player is *supposed* to feel taken aback at how fervently excited these people are to throw their lives away. Anyway, undoubtedly more updates to come on this game.
Want to chat? Comment here or email me at mjlindemann@mjlindemann.com. I try to respond to everyone :)
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