Mortality of characters

      Should a protagonist die?
It's a question many authors struggle with. Personally, I think it's an important part of activating the reality wheel in a narrative. It can honestly be annoying when a hero overcomes every outrageous obstacle or battle unscathed, eliminating fear that the character might actually not survive a horrendous encounter. Killing heroes creates an atmosphere of uncertainty. Can they defeat that monster? Is this quest too much for them? Will the dragon eat their face off?!? It's one of the reasons I've stayed away from the traditional 'stop the apocalypse' or 'save the princess' story arc. I find the domino effect style a lot of fun when writing. Events triggered by the protagonists actions give the narrative a much better flow than a story trying to wrap everything up nicely with a bow to accomplish its preconceived end goal. Sometimes there's nothing worse than predicting a story's ending! 

      This is concept art for Crystal's appearance in Misanthropy. Adam's been doing some great work drawing the characters! He's working on colouring the cover at the moment, though I won't be revealing it until just before the book release.

Onechanbara Chaos PS4 review

(!^_^)/~Onechanbara! It was a whole lotta fun!

      Most of the games I've been playing lately have been rpg's. Games like the witcher, fallout and darkest dungeon. While these games are great and immersive, they require a lot of hours, especially the way I play. With all the writing I've been doing lately (and stupid day job) I just don't have the time for my favourite rpg's, enter Onechanbara! It was abit of a impulse buy. The cover reminded me of Lollipop chainsaw, which I really enjoyed playing. I realise there's a stereotype surrounding it which is unfortunate. It was a fun zombie slaying sparkle colour comedy dialogue adventure, and Onechanbara was much the same!

      The enemy designs were pretty cool and the boss battles enjoyable. It didn't take long to finish, only a few hours, which I liked because I didn't have to grind or search for hidden items or anything. I just turned it on and jumped straight into monster slashing action! The characters were easy to use and the moves rather satisfying, especially the finishing moves where you absolutely rip the monsters apart! The quick time events were very smooth and it was the first time i've used the touch pad  for a QTE. Combat was very fluid, graphics were solid, I didn't notice a single glitch which was fantastic! Ultra smooth gameplay. I thought the switching character mechanic to be very useful and fun, weapons were cool and so were the transformations and combos.

      Overall, it was a simple, fun game that was a pleasure to play! It get's a Dave score of 8/10 for its enjoyment factor. 

Jobee & the swirling waves

      Misanthropy has a new artist! http://skavenzverov.deviantart.com/ His artwork is fantastic! This is his drawing of 'Jobee the sea goddess' You might remember her from the first book, she'll be returning for Misanthropy! There are several other illustrations which will be inside the book and I'm pretty excited to see the cover, he's working on it at the moment!

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.