Month: March 2021

The State of the Gamer: 3/25/21

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<–The State of the Gamer: 3/11/21           The State of the Gamer: 4/8/21–>

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 Purchased

  • The Innsmouth Case – $4.94 ($0.00) @ Nintendo eShop
  • PlayStation V Console – $499.00 @ Sony Direct

What I Finished

Nothing this week.

What I’m Playing

Title: Bravely Default II
Series: Bravely Default
System: Nintendo Switch

Cover of Bravely Default IIDate Started: February 28, 2021

I was mostly avoiding grinding and that was to my own detriment.  I was barely getting through boss battles usually after the second or third time trying, and I finally wound up googling how to defeat one.  The strategy involves things I haven’t done yet with skills I don’t have.  I picked up a ton of new jobs and was trying to learn them as I went along, but really I should’ve been using the “bait” items that cause you to get into multiple battles in order to earn Job Points (JP).  If you give two characters the JP up abilities you’ll earn like six job levels per battle session.  Since there are twelve levels per job that means it only takes two.  I was also not doling out my armor properly so I’ll remedy that.  I’m really trying not to use a strat guide for this game and figure it out myself, but sometimes you need that little nudge.  I’m wondering how many jobs there will be.  Every time you beat a boss you get a new one.

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The State of the Reader: 3/24/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 3/10/21         The State of the Reader: 4/7/21–>

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: 0

Books Finished: 0

Currently Reading

Title: The Oedipus Trilogy
Series: The Theban Plays
Author: Sophocles
Date Added: July 25, 2020
Date Started: March 18, 2021

Cover of The Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles

Media: Paperback
Progress: 7%

As mentioned last week, I’ve read Oedipus Rex, but not the other two books in the Cycle, and I’m obviously reading/rereading this for research purposes even though I’ve already used it in an essay.  Oops.

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Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award

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I was nominated* for this award by Petra Jacob who is one of my favorite indie authors.  She has three books published currently (from what I can see on Goodreads, so don’t quote me!): Peddling Doomsday, Riddled With Senses, and Supernice: Smile. Or Else., but we should all entreat the word gods that she’s not going to stop there.  Not a one is even in the same genre as the other, which is a feat most authors only dream of.  I managed to respond to this nomination before it hit a year old, so now I’m going to answer her questions.

Do your dreams ever give you inspiration for stories? If so can you describe one that has?

Yes…?  I know they have, but I’ll need to ponder one that did so.  Oh!  I can check my story idea notes…yeah, I got nothing.  It’s one of those “I know it happened, but I can’t remember the details.”  Silly brain.

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The State of the Writer: 3/21/21

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<–The State of the Writer: 3/7/21         The State of the Writer: 4/4/21–>

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

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener & Working on Chapter 1 Outline

I feel like I’m nearing the end of my set up (maybe?).  I got a bit of everything worked on late last night.  I think I’m worrying too much about certain things becoming problems if I don’t hash them out before I start writing, but I’m literally trying to figure out how to make the best society when I’m living *gestures at everything* lol.  I need to finish up language notes and information on minor characters then I believe I can switch my efforts to the first chapter outline, and maybe even write it.

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Northern Lights: Chapter 1 – The Flowers Blooming in the Shadows (Audio Recording)

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Blurb/Teaser

Author’s Note: I know it’s been a long time since I posted the blurb/teaser (over two years), but in my infinite foolishness I decided to make it not only an audio project, but an audio/visual one.  That…took a lot of time, and I went through numerous growing pains with the procedure I hope will facilitate faster turnaround in the future (the story has 25 chapters.  If each takes two years, well, you can do the math lol).  I am hoping to have a way for you to view the visual part of it soon, but I’m still figuring out the intricacies of that as so much of the work is not mine and I don’t have the legal acumen to fully comprehend fair use.  I have trepidation just posting the audio portion of it due to the music I use even with credit.  It’s all…very frightening.

So because I am how I am, I may drastically change the format of how I do this, but right now the way I want it to work is to have the written chapter here for anyone who requires text in which to follow along.  If I were posting on YouTube, I’d add subtitles as I had with the blurb as well as all of the music and art credits.

What I’m hoping I can do in the near future is find a place to upload the video that goes with the audio and then figure out a way to give people access.  I’m still working on this aspect.  I just downloaded Dropbox though so things look promising.

Anyway…you don’t need to know my problems lol.  Onward to the actual content, though I need to apologize in advance.  The sound quality is…not great in some places.  The beginning sounds a little weird, and there are definitely parts where you can hear some odd stuff because I’m neither talented nor a movie maker lol.  Like that’s the only excuse I can give.  This chapter is so full of growing pains, and I learned a lot while working on it, which I’ll use in the future.

I also have to apologize for any place where my accent is just terrible.  My “formal” speaking voice sounds a particular way and I really, really try to practice my RP so it sounds legit, and I looked up a tutorial on the other accent, but…yeah I just apologize.  It’s my favorite accent and I hope I did it some justice.  When I used to sing we were taught to modify our vowels to sound less nasal because the part of the states I live in has that issue, and let me tell you, singing with that accent sounds awful.  I realized it makes a nice reading voice, too, so yeah…I guess that’s really all I can say.

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The State of the Gamer: 3/11/21

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<–The State of the Gamer: 2/25/21           The State of the Gamer: 3/25/21–>

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 Purchased

  • Bravely Default II – $59.99 @ Nintendo eShop

What I Finished

Nothing this week.

What I’m Playing

Title: Bravely Default II
Series: Bravely Default
System: Nintendo Switch

Cover of Bravely Default IIDate Started: February 28, 2021

I knew I’d love this from the first demo.  Octopath Traveler (which I’m hoping has a sequel in the works soon) was the first game to introduce me to the brave/default system, since I only played a little of the first game in the series.

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The State of the Reader: 3/10/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 2/24/21         The State of the Reader: 3/24/21–>

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: 2

Total: $12.98

Books Finished: 2

Title: Crier’s War
Series Title: Crier’s War
Author: Nina Varela
Date Added: January 9, 2021
Date Started: February 16, 2021
Date Finished: March 5, 2021

Cover of Crier's War by Nina VarelaMedia: eBook/Kindle

I immediately bought and started reading the next book in the duology (?).  The stakes of both the overarching plot and intimate one between the two girls is so high.  I’m also very interesting in what else this author has to offer.

Also I just have to say seeing duologies out in the wild is really heartening since my first novel was actually more novels because I had to split it into two.

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The State of the Writer: 3/7/21

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<–The State of the Writer: 2/21/21         The State of the Writer: 3/21/21–>

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

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener & Working on Chapter 1 Outline

The last major thing I have to do is finish up my language notes.  I have some minor character details I could figure out, but a lot of that stuff happens in the writing process.  I’m super tired today and the caffeine doesn’t seem to be working so yeah.  I hope I can get the outline together so I can start writing soon.

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