<–The State of the Writer: 7/2/17          The State of the Writer: 7/16/17–>

A weekly post updated every Sunday discussing my current writing projects and where I stand with them.  This will include any and all work(s) in progress (WIP) be they creative writing, essays/analyses, or reviews of any type.

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Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction (FFVII) Novel
Current Word Count: 266,387
Prior Word Count: 266,754
Word Difference: -367
Status: Editing
Progress: 3rd edit of Chapter 10

I’m so close to completing the third edit.  If I have time I”ll do it tonight.  I decided to keep the graphic nightmare, and in fact I made it “worse” (warnings galore).  I’ve also been in a note writing frenzy, which means I can’t stop taking down potential scenes, most of which won’t find their way into the story, but I always write down every idea, since you never know what you can pull from there.  There are two that I might incorporate in later or earlier chapters.  I am definitely planning on updating earlier chapters, but that’s obviously going to take some time.

Since this chapter is pretty much just about Aeris and Sephiroth, the post pictures have been alternating between them.  I’m trying to match it up to the quote as well as I can.  I also finally got around to making the chapter cover, so that’s ready to go whenever I post this.  I made a little visual pun that I hope the majority of readers will get 🙂

Quote: Aeris had only seen pictures of statues, but knew they weren’t half so well-made.  Summer green widened on what she had felt, and her fingers twitched as she blushed.  Those tiny digits wished to trace the shape of each muscle, the chest fore seen and the abs cut below.  Her fingers could fit in the spaces between, and the warmth would make winter skin lie.  She’d slide over those shoulders that now only served as a surface for silver to spill.  They’d go on and on behind her shut eyes, and he’d chuckle and kiss her so soft.  Biting her lip, the Cetra could clearly see how he’d scoop her up in one arm, but he wasn’t outlandish.  His form fit his frame.  He could never be overdone.

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Project: Book Review
Title: Saga: Volume 4
Author: Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples
Status: Editing

I’m pretty sure I just need to edit/proofread this review and post it.  I just haven’t had the time (my age old excuse).  I should get to it fairly early this week.

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Project: Book Reviews
Title: Various
Status: Planning

I’m still backlogged by ten book reviews, same as last week (counting Saga: Volume 4 above).  Even though I posted the review for A Court of Mist and Fury, I finished another book so it’s still at the same number.

1. Saga: Volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples
2. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
3. Saga: Volume 6 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples
4. Elijah Dart by Jonathan L. Ferrara (DNF)
5. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
6. Nightshade City by Hilary Wagner (DNF)
7. Talon by Julie Kagawa
8. Saga: Volume 7 by Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples
9. Stone & Iris by Jonathan Ballagh

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Project: Game Review
Title: SOMA
Developer:  Frictional Games
Let’s Player: ChristopherOdd
Status: Planning

I just finished this tonight, and all I can say right now is, “Holy shit.”  This needs to marinate.  I have plenty of notes that I took during my watch, and I am definitely going to write a review.  I really wish i could’ve caught it when he first played it, because I’d have loved to have taken part in that discussion afterwards.  As it were, I’m going to avoid reading too much about it, because I don’t want that to taint my own viewpoints.  Once I’ve sort of come to my own conclusions and they’ve solidified, I’ll peek around the internet for other interpretations.  I will say that this will probably be my number 1 game of the year easily.  The psychology nerd in me is going bonkers, because the question of consciousness is at the heart of that discipline.  What gives rise to it?  What is it?  Who are you?

There is a phenomenon whose name I can’t think of, but it’s when you find the same paradigm being repeated over and over again.  It’s like a glitch in the Matrix, which is a bit creepy and meta, since The Matrix is one of the narratives that shares paradigms with SOMA.  Either way, several of the books I’m currently reading or have just finished fit this bill.

Stone & Iris is book by Jonathan Ballagh about consciousness being transferred to artificial intelligence and the effect of that on memory (bare bones plot explanation; more would give it away).  Then Gaslight Hades is about transferring the consciousness of dead of dying people into another body, infusing that new body with a foreign substance, and creating a being that is neither living nor dead, but retains their original memories and sentience.  The Scorpion Rules has AI that was once human now in robot form, and finally, I’m reading Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, which is literally about the organ’s perceptions and consciousness.

So, yes, it’s a wee bit creepy.

The other narratives with similar paradigms are: Stranger Things, Doctor Who, Portal, ASOIAF, FFVII, FFIX, and Star Trek: TNG.  These are just the ones I picked up when I watched.  There may be more by the time I write the review, and of course I’ll be elaborating on why.  I can also see many comparatives written using this game.  Easily one of top 10.

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What are you currently working on?  Is it a creative writing project, essay, review, or something else?  Have you just started something new or are you wrapping up a long term project?

<–The State of the Writer: 7/2/17          The State of the Writer: 7/16/17–>

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