Month: August 2020

The State of the Gamer: 8/27/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 8 Comments

<–The State of the Gamer: 8/13/20           The State of the Gamer: 9/10/20–>

A weekly post updated every other Thursday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

What I’m Playing

Title: Broken Age
System: Nintendo Switch

Cover of Broken Age gameDate Started: 7/4/20

I think I’m in the final parts of the game.  The narrative is doing that thing where as you get closer to the end, the two sides of the story (have to) switch more often.  It’s a clever pacing method that ramps up the tension, and since all of this is taking place during a barrage, it’s even more nerve wracking.

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The State of the Reader: 8/26/20

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<–The State of the Reader: 8/12/20         The State of the Reader: 9/9/20–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 1

Currently Reading

Title: The Luster of Lost of Things
Author: Sophie Chen Keller
Date Added: September 12, 2017
Date Started: July 22, 2020

Cover of The Luster of Lost Things by Sophie Chen KellerMedia: Paperback
Progress: 27%

I can see where this story is going with the landlord, and I love how Lucy called him out when he played the victim of the people he’s threatening to evict.

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The State of the Writer: 8/23/20

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<–The State of the Writer: 8/9/20         The State of the Writer: 9/6/20–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 250,199
Prior Word Count: 250,796
Word Difference: -597
Status: Editing
Progress: First edit of Chapter 26

It is so much more difficult to edit smut than it is to do general editing lol.  I think it’s because it’s so easy for something like this to veer into cheesy and hilarious territory.  I mean we’ve all read bad smut/poorly planned erotica and it’s not the vibe I’m going for.  I’ve cut a lot of things out.  Some of it might find its way into the more explicit version; other parts are definitely gone to stay.  I only have less than a page left to edit, but I really need to bring my A game because it’s definitely one of those that could be laughably bad if done wrong.

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The Last Thing You See by Marie Batiste (Rachel Dixon #1)

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Title: The Last Thing You See
Series: Rachel Dixon
Author: Marie Batiste
Date Added: March 26, 2020
Date Started: June 23, 2020
Date Finished: July 9, 2020
Reading Duration: 16 days
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural/Paranormal, Horror, Mystery/Murder Mystery

Cover of The Last Thing You See by Marie BatistePages: 185
Publication Date: February 5, 2020
Publisher: Self
Media: eBook/Kindle

Riley Green’s parents came home one morning to find their daughter missing and human organs in their dining room.

Following a ten-month suspension, forced rehab and a tumultuous divorce, New Orleans Detective Rachel Dixon is finally stitching her life back together when she is called to a strange crime scene. Joined by her new partner, Elias Crowe an intuitive elf dealing with discrimination in the department, Rachel starts the search for Riley’s killer.

Soon the investigation leads them to a series of strange murders not just in the city but across the nation. Desperate to find the killer the detectives seek help from an undead blood analyst, a standoffish necromancer, a tree spirit, and a living sculpture. But when the killer seems to have set their eyes on Rachel all the help and magic in the world may not be enough to catch the elusive serial killer.

Join the detectives as they maneuver through a familiar world stitched together with magic, blood, and animosity.

Rachel Dixon is a flawed but intensely likable detective who is being overly punished for the mistakes she’s made in the past.  The world merged with a magical one around twenty years ago, and the oddness and curiosity around this event is maintained throughout the novel as even the inhabitants of it remain clueless to the entirety of the effects.  The characters treat the world like their world (as you do).  There’s no info dumping; you’re given enough to understand how things work, and that’s all it is.  It’s like if you lived in a reality where magic existed, you wouldn’t bat an eye at it when it manifests, because it would be as commonplace as a smartphone.

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The State of the Gamer: 8/13/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 4 Comments

<–The State of the Gamer: 7/30/20           The State of the Gamer: 8/27/20–>

A weekly post updated every other Thursday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

What I’m Playing

Title: Breath of Fire
Series: Breath of Fire
System: Nintendo Switch

 

Title: Broken Age
System: Nintendo Switch

Cover of Broken Age gameDate Started: 7/4/20

I’m currently trying to fix Alex’s spaceship.  That’s whose song you have to use.  I noticed the notes on the wall of the fore mentioned craft.  You really have to pay attention to things in both scenarios now, which I’ve been really bad at.  I’ve been using the guide more, but trying to only do so when necessary.  I just have one more thing to do before everyone meets up again in the third chapter, and we hopefully find out what the hell is going on.

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The State of the Reader: 8/12/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 11 Comments

<–The State of the Reader: 7/29/20         The State of the Reader: 8/26/20–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 1

Currently Reading

Title: The Luster of Lost of Things
Author: Sophie Chen Keller
Date Added: September 12, 2017
Date Started: July 22, 2020

Cover of The Luster of Lost Things by Sophie Chen KellerMedia: Paperback
Progress: 20%

This is one of those story’s you’ll enjoy if you love winding, whimsical writing with a heavy heaping of eloquence.  If that’s not your bag, you’d probably consider this too purple for your tastes, which is fine.  I don’t like how “purple prose” is used as a pejorative since it’s really just a stylistic taste.  If you like it, you like it; if you don’t, you don’t.

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The State of the Writer: 8/9/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 8 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 7/26/20         The State of the Writer: 8/23/20–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 2

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 250,796
Prior Word Count: 251,552
Word Difference: -756
Status: Editing
Progress: First edit of Chapter 26

The artist of this week’s pic is a long time favorite of mine.  She, too, writes Aeriseph and is a talented illustrator to boot.  Her story Border of Taboo is actually available in physical format on Amazon (???) which…is now making me very curious how she managed to avoid copyright issues with Squeenix???  I may have to investigate this.

…

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Preacher, Volume 1: Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis (Preacher #1) (DNF)

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Title: Preacher, Volume 1:  Gone to Texas
Series: Preacher
Author: Garth Ennis
Artist: Joe R. Lansdale
Date Added: September 13, 2017
Date Started: August 23, 2018
Date DNF: August 23, 2018
Genre: Graphic Novel/Comic, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural/Paranormal

Cover of Preacher: Volume 1, Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis and Joe R. LansdalePages: 336
Publication Date: 1995
Publisher: Vertigo
Media: Paperback – Library

One of the most celebrated comics titles of the late 1990s, PREACHER is a modern American epic of life, death, love and redemption also packed with sex, booze, blood and bullets – not to mention angels, demons, God, vampires and deviants of all stripes.

At first glance, the Reverend Jesse Custer doesn’t look like anyone special-just another small-town minister slowly losing his flock and his faith. But he’s about to come face-to-face with proof that God does indeed exist. Merging with a bizarre spiritual force called Genesis, Jesse now possesses the power of “the Word,” an ability to make people do whatever he utters. He begins a violent and riotous journey across the country in search of answers from the elusive deity.

I love when I’m reading something and BAM, racial slur.  I was already on the fence about this and that sealed it for me.  This isn’t to say I’ve never read or never will read anything with slurs.  There are definitely valid reasons to use them in a work, so please don’t get it twisted and assume that’s the reason I shelved this.  It was more the final straw in a story I wasn’t that into in the first place.

This one of those narratives you’d think I’d be in love with: a small town preacher forcefully merges with a half-angel, half-demon being named Genesis and parts of the story takes place literally in Heaven with angels (Seraphi and Adephi), but it’s not really my style or aesthetic.  The story also jumps around so much, it comes off as frenetic.  I know it’s a big fan favorite (it has over four stars on Goodreads), but it’s not for me.