Wading through the bog

      One hurdle every introvert faces is the difficulty of accomplishing feats alone. There are times solitude is a blessing, no-one around to complicate a situation. No other voices or opinions to lead you astray. Though, when you have no allies to turn to for aid, paths and threshold guardians can be difficult to defeat.

      I've come to realise the struggles of self published authors. Marketing, publicity, promotion - I know not of these things. I'm a world builder, a story teller, my strengths are in imagination, not business. These topics need some research!!! It would be nice to have someone to talk to about these things of which I know nothing, but, as an introvert who doesn't much converse with the other humans, I will press on alone. (Though, I do muchly feel like I'm trying to lead Artax safely through the swamp of sadness.)

      Well, I'm off now to send Akella into a haunted forest (^_^!) So far, Misanthropy is on schedule for its Jan/Feb release.

Misanthropy update

 

      Misanthropy continues!!!! Though, progress has slowed some lately. Work has been hectic, but, I have no wish to bore you with such humdrum details of the daily grind. I've been thinking about quitting work again so I can purely concentrate on writing buuuuut it's unlikely that'll happen anytime soon, (dang it!)

  

     The illustrations are continuing to roll in, which is great! Here we have some progress shots of Patsy & Hobson. Not 100% sure how many pics will be in the novel, maybe between 6-8.

      Well, back to writing now, Ravage & Patsy are currently travelling through a ravine in the southern outskirts of the Fornen swamp, what will they find?!?

Resident evil Revelations 2 review

There were a lot of things i liked about RE-R2, the enemies, the graphics, the weapons, the gameplay mechanics - all very splendid! What I didn't enjoy, at all, was constantly switching between characters (stunning enemies with the flashlight then taking them down with Claire - for example)
After a few hours I felt like I was playing 'the babysitters club'. Innovation is good, right, moving forward and evolving, changing things up.... but my heart lies with the early res evil games, RE2 and RE4 the BIG favourites of the franchise. That, was survival horror. If you walk down a dark hall, all alone, it can be creepy, if you have someone with you - less creepy. If you're in the middle of a boss battle and your stupid AI partner keeps getting in the way - that's really fucking annoying! Ever since RE5, I've found having a 'sidekick', REALLY ANNOYING!!!
Why do I need a buddy? Can't they let me play the game alone?!? This is why I now prefer Dead space over res evil, because they give you the real deal. Sadly, I'm not sure if they're going to make any more DS games, sad times. I hope they do!
I didn't finish RE-R2, I got bored/annoyed with the AI sidekick.
Raid mode was the game's saviour! Wow, I really, really enjoyed raid mode! It was fun,
Excellent gameplay, annoying sidekicks, final verdict 6/10.

Audiobook release

      One of the many plans in the pipeline was an audiobook, and here it is! I'm really stoked with how it turned out! I used VoiceRealm to find a voice actor and after receiving several audition submissions I chose Victoria, though, after the first time I heard her voice I knew she was the one (^_^!) VoiceRealm was surprisingly easy to use. I researched quite a few different voice talent websites and after much internal deliberation, went for it!

Here's the audiobook - Born of the Phoenix

      If you're after a voice actor, I highly recommend Victoria! 
Here's the link to her site: Victoria Scott  Her twitter & instagram is @VixVoices

                                               

How to get rid of Black Beard Algae (BBA)

      When Black Beard Algae first appeared in my tank, I had no idea of the destruction it would cause. It's brutal algae!

      For many years my tank was under a window, so I never had need of a light as the plants got everything they needed from the sun. With lots of plants, the aquarium had a nice little eco system going, I never had any problems with algae as the bristle nose catfish constantly cleaned the tank for me.

Origins #1 - Delenair

      As the goddess of mankind, Delenair resides in Bascilla, the realm of heaven, keeping a vigilant eye on her children below.
      Even under the watchful eye of the goddess, the denizens of Sapphiron do not live a blessed life. Delenair, choosing not to interfere with the affairs of the humans, allows them to endure hard lives under the rule of kings in a land plagued with monsters and sorcery. She feels it is not a gods duty to control the people, but for them to develop a moral conscious and thrive, or, to fall into ruin by the means of their own hands. The goddess descends to intervene only when Manishka and the malevolent entities of his sadistic dominion arise to unleash chaos and death.
      Delenair is not the original god of mankind. It was Pessial, who eons ago, created the men of Sapphiron. Pessial brought Delenair and her two brothers into existence to be mankind's saviours and guardians. Naming his champions 'The Delphi', he blessed them with the gift of humanity, to better understand the struggles of the lesser mortals. Although he hoped empathy and benevolence would blossom within the hearts of The Delphi, Delenair's brothers became lost within the void of one's soul, taking heed of the nagging emptiness that can never be filled. They began following a path of greed, lust and pride, which consumed them as they reveled in their superiority over man. 
      Treachery and murder ensued, changing the destiny of the gods. 

      The fall of Pessial, the war of the Gorigarni and Delenair's full origin story can be found in 'Born of the Phoenix - The Book of Lore' which is currently under construction.
      
   

Horizon Zero Dawn and HellBlade

       These are two games I can't wait to get my hands on! Horizon looks stunning and the artwork for HellBlade is awesome! 

      Female protagonists- yup yup, just the type of games i like! The bow in Horizon looks cool, I find bows to be really fun weapons in games, like in resident evil 5 when you unlock the bow, it's a great zombie killer! Skyrim's bows were alright, the latest tombraider games make great use of the bow! The stealth/hunting element looks interesting too! Harvesting parts from the robot dinosaurs.
     

Writer's Challenge

      My first youtube videos were 'writer's journey', well now it's time for writer's challenge! With the final ultra mega-mega completion of Crimson Sapphires done & dusted, it's time for Misanthropy! But I don't want to dilly-dally with it. I want it finished, yesterday! Crystal's story must be told! Yes, Crystal will be the main protagonist in this one. I've completed the plot, written up the chapter play by play, constructed some new creatures, monsters, landscapes yadda yadda yadda, so it's all ready to rock & roll. 

      However, a man must go to work, isn't it. Spend time with his girlfriend, play the video games, do the things at home, free hours are few and fleeting, not to mention that time passes VERY quickly! I have devised for myself, one of those things, of productivity, with the words and the numbers, a schedule of sorts, to keep me on track. So let's hope it helps! I'm giving myself six months to complete the book and as long as I don't procrastinate, I should reach my goal and you should get the next book to read! It's going to be longer than the first book, probably more violent too, though I did read somewhere, a man complaining about violence in books, and that it shouldn't be necessary to create conflict. HA! Try telling Akella not to kill someone she abhors, that girl does what she wants and with a blade the size of Sunderfall, well, ain't no-one gonna survive that! In Misanthropy, Crystal's mad, really-really pissed the fuck off and she's going to be dealing with that anger by spilling a lot of blood. Well, time to get started! But before I go, here's a bunch of cats on computers & stuff^^

Release of Crimson Sapphires

      So, today I published The Crimson Sapphires through Createspace. I released the novelette a few days ago on Kindle but had to wait a bit longer for the paperback, you see I was waiting for MatoelGrande to finish up the illustrations. There's no illustrations in the kindle version, it's a bonus for anyone who wants to buy the paperback, a reward for those who still roll the old way. Same will go for every book henceforth, and I plan on all the books to have illustrations from now on. I always loved pictures in books and now that I know how to get it all done and sorted and have found a great artist, the future will be pics pics pics! The book is in review atm, they usually take about 24hrs to approve it them boom! It'll be available to the world! Really happy with how Crimson turned out, I mean, it was only suppose to be a short story for wattpad, then it grew into a novelette. Oh yeah, that girl smoking, it's Patsy (^_^!) I hope you enjoy reading the story!

Akella & a new direction for Crimson Sapphires

      The Etsy store is up and running now, t-shirts should be available mid-June. I've received the shirts but am yet to have them printed. I was pleased by the quality of the shirts, they're cotton and feel pretty good! Looking forward to peoples reactions to them at supanova (^_^!)

      Crimson Sapphires.... I took it off Wattpad because I'm going to release it as an illustrated novelette. Pretty happy about that! Only the paperbacks will have the illustrations, mostly because I want to reward the people who stick to the good ol' physical copy. The pictures look really awesome too, very happy with them! The story's a good eye opener into Ravage & Patsy's past, plus it reveals more of Sapphiron and it's unique denizens and history.

      On another note, I've decided to end the writer's journey youtube series and replace it with a new series! Episode one was pretty fun to film! Was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be!

Here's the link if you wana check it out: BotP episode one