August went by fast. It was dominated by a Fiverr order that had me writing several histories of wars set in a client’s fantasy world. It was a fun experience, but did take up a chunk of time.
Writing
My work on Book 3 this month was focused on the last Act. I have the beginning I want, but the middle is suffering because I don’t know where I want it to end. So by working out where I want it to end, I know what I need to build up in the middle. Some writing, a lot of planning. I’d really like to get more done this next September.
With my Lightstar Sci-Fi book, I missed my mark of having a Beta Copy done. Much like Book 3, I have the first half and the last act, so I need to get the two to connect somehow. To this end, I’ve pringted off copies of the scenes I like and my goal this month will be to work to connect the two ends in the middle.
I only added about a thousand words to my Fantasy novel last month. I want to write it, but since it’s the furthest project from done, it’s lowest priority. I’m still picking at it.
For other projects, I’m keeping my promise of outlining, plotting and researching and not writing until I have a much better idea of what I’ll be writing. My goals is that when I finish one of my current projects and move on the next, the next project goes a lot quicker.
September Goals
Book 3: Finish Last Act, work out bridges between beginning and end.
Lightstar: Get book to Beta Readers
Fantasy: Add 5,000 words.
Other Projects: Keep outlining and planning
Movies and TV Shows
I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3. I enjoyed it. It was a fun movie, with a lot of action sequences and a villain that I really liked. Plus, it ended each character’s story at a place where they could or could not come back to the MCU.
I finished the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This season had several episodes I really enjoyed, including the crossover with Lower Decks and the musical episode. There were a few I’m okay not seeing again, but every season had those. Overall, I liked it and I look forward to a third season.
I started Ahoska, and at the time of this post I’ve seen the first three episodes. I’m not sure what to think yet. It has a lot of cool sequences, and so far it’s done a good job of honoring the characters its brought in from previous shows. But so far it is a lot of build up, and I don’t know the payoff yet. I’m optimistic (look at how Andor finished) but I’ve been burned before (look at Boba Fett).
September Goals
Watch two new movies
Cross two shows off my list
Books
I finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes eBook I’d been reading. My final impression is the same as I reported last month: it’s a bunch of fun short stories from a time with different storytelling expectations. Some of them I figured out early one, some I didn’t. A lot of them had the ‘gotcha’ endings that bug me. Maybe next time I’ll read a longer book of his and see how it goes.
The next book I read was from the library, called The Siege of Washington by John and Charles Lockwood. This is a history book about Washington, DC, at the start of the Civil War, before volunteers showed up and there was a real fear that southern forces would capture the city. I really, really liked this book. I even added it to my ‘buy this’ list. Why? Well, because it gets into the decision of the first 12 days of the war, and why some of them paid of and why some of them didn’t. I’d almost do a blog post on it but I’ve got enough on my plate right now.
Finally, I read through the Star Wars book Heir to the Empire. The series that introduced Thrawn to the Star Wars universe, it’s part of the old Expanded Universe that was dissolved when Disney bought Star Wars from George Lucas. I know Thrawn from some of the newer books Timothy Zahn has written, and from the Rebels show, so now I get to see how he started. All in all it was a good book, with an old-school Star Wars feel that brought me back to some of the EU books I read in middle school. It’s book one of three, so I have more ahead of me.
September Goals
Finish one library book
Finish one book from my own collection
Finish one research book
Games
Working through FarCry6, which I expect to take a while. FarCry games have a huge open-world component to them, with massive towns, mountain ranges, and deep forests to explore. Even focusing on the story only has me running across miles of territory. Plus, I like the fact that it’s in a Hispanic Caribbean island nation. The main character isn’t an American, and the dialogue has a lot of Spanish thrown in.
I think I’m about a halfway through the campaign of Gears of War Tactics.It’s not that I’m not enjoying the game, but I don’t find myself gaming on the computer as much as I used to. Part of the challenge is that you can’t advance the story missions until you fight side missions to level up and equip your characters. So sometimes I spend a night playing through a mission or two, and don’t feel like I’ve done much.
My RPG games are moving along nicely. Caw-Pow, Montague and Morgad are all still alive and kicking. I even got to try out a new system this month, called Traveller. I hadn’t heard of it before, or if I had I don’t recall the conversation. The character creation is fun: you roll stats, and then roll through several years of your life to see how you grow. Do you go to college? What happens there? Do you graduate? Etc. Apparently you can even die in character creation. Good times.
in related news, I might be running a short Cypher system game that’s set in 1st Century CE Gaul. It’s going to have the feel of a superhero campaign in the Roman empire. This will actually be my second time running it; the first time fell apart kind of quickly, so I have some lessons to learn. Then I get to try again.
September Goals
Finish Gears of War Tactics
Advance FarCry 6
Don’t lose a PC
What’s Next?
September is going to be focused on getting one of my two book projects to a readable draft. I think the SciFi novel is closest, but both are within quick distance. So I will hit both of them and see how far I get. My goal of publishing early next year is still well within reason.
I’ve always been fascinated by how stories change when they shift mediums. Usually, I watch books I’ve read come to screen. But with The Last of Us, there’s a chance to see how a great video game story can become a great show. I’ve worked through both the game and the show recently, and I wanted to write down some thoughts I had. Simply put, The Last of Us is a good example of how a studio can take a game and turn it into a show.
The Last of Us Poster
If you don’t know anything about The Last of Us, a quick synopsis. Humanity has fallen prey to a fungal infection inspired that leaves people in a state similar to zombies. Society fell apart, leaving the survivors to fend to themselves or gather in small towns and enclaves in the ruins of cities. Two characters — a middle-ages man name Joel and a teenage girl named Ellie — have to make their way west from Boston. They fight against infected, and other people, to reach their goals.
There are three topics I’m going to cover. First, the story of the game and why it needed to change for the show. Second, the world building opportunities that changing mediums provides and what the show does with it. And third, I’m going to look at the attitudes towards violence in both game and show.
Now I’m going to do those three topics without spoilers. Then I’m going to do a fourth, spoiler section where I discuss a few things without worrying about spoilers. Feel free to skip that section.
One: Changing the Story
The common story of The Last of Us is the story of Joel and Ellie and their journey west from Boston across a land of fallen cities, fungus-fueled zombies, and factions of survivors. The game and the show tell the same story, but do so differently.
There are many reasons to change the story. For starters, there’s the obvious issue of time. The video game takes 15 hours to beat the story only, and 22 hours to play everything. Of that, roughly 90 minutes are cut-scenes instead of playing time. Add an additional few hours for the DLC. The show runs about eight and a half hours.
Doing a direct cut-scene to show translation would be too short. Doing the entire game to show would be too long. The writers had to consolidate and modify the story-line to make it fit.
Slightly less obvious is the idea that doing a replay of the game exactly is boring. Yes, the creators should hit the high points of the game. They should include the scenes that the fans enjoyed and remember with fondness. But this is a chance to add to the story, not just re-tell it on camera.
I like most of the differences in the story the show does (beyond the World Building and Violence that I’ll discuss later). One big change is they streamline the story, consolidating several events into one scene to save on time and exposition. A second change is to modify the context around an event, so its impact on the story is the same but the specifics of how and why are different. The game and the show tell the same story, but each in a unique way.
Did you notice I said I liked “most” of the differences? Yeah, there were some things they did that I wasn’t happy with. One or two key scenes that they changed in such a way that they didn’t have the same impact as their game counterparts. Not enough to seriously hamper my enjoyment, but enough that I took note. But hey, nothing’s perfect.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey from The Last of Us. Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO
Two: World Building
World Building means expanding the setting beyond what we know from the game. If the Story has Joel and Ellie leaving Boston, World Building is telling us more about Boston. This is an area where the show’s creators can take as much or as little from the game as they want, or need to, in order to tell their story.
The video game has two different extremes with world building. One on end is the world built by playing the bare minimum of the game, with everything every player will experience. The other end includes every found artifact, hard to reach vantage point, and unique conversation the player can possibly uncover, usually through great time and effort. The player must experience the one, but has to work to uncover the other.
Shows have the one world every viewer will see. This has its tradeoffs. The world is built more tightly to the narrative, but the excess details are lost. Like the story section, the show has the chance to build a slightly different world, if not outright contradictory. They need to support the story they’re telling, and if that means clashing with the game world, so be it.
The World Building can be further divided into three section: history, locations and specific characters.
History
The history part we can get through pretty quick. The show spends more time exploring the world before the game. There several scenes that take place before the pandemic that are completely new. They provide a context for the pandemic that the game doesn’t, something a viewing audience would expect.
Locations
It’s hard to describe how the show builds the locations different from the game without describing the people, so I want to point out here that this section will make references to the populations and factions of cities. This is meant to be separate from the individual, named characters I’ll get to in a moment.
The Last of Us uses the same sequence of eight locations as the game. The one big change is that the fourth location changes from Pittsburgh to Kansas City, but fulfills the same narrative role in the story.
For The Last of Us, the show makes an effort to humanize and give depth to the locations. The black-helmeted soldiers of Boston are no longer generic neo-fascist villains; now we see several of their faces, and see them reacting to the trials and fears of the world. We feel some sympathy for them and their role in their society. This change makes more sense when you consider that they are no longer some of the first opponents you fight and kill (see Violence, below). But it doesn’t contradict the game.
The Kansas City/Pittsburgh exchange is the biggest opportunity to expand on the world: the writers need to fill several story points, but otherwise have free reign to build a new location. They do so really well. The Kansas City location fills the same story development niches Pittsburgh does, but the opposing faction Joel and Ellie contend with is not a one-dimensional villain. We get why they’re doing what they’re doing, even as we hope they fail.
The other locations don’t differ too much from their game counter parts. We learn more about them, and appreciate them, but their impact on the story doesn’t change.
Named Characters
The last aspect of world building I wanted to discuss are changes to named characters. This is where the show greatly changes from the game. They need to do this to fit their story and the differing expectations of a viewing audience.
Every named character is different than their game counterpart. Some changes are small and don’t contradict the game, adding depth to even simple characters. Take the character of Maria. in the game, we know nothing about her other than her relationship to other characters and her position of leadership. in the show, we learn more about who she was before everything fell apart. We don’t know if game Maria is the same or not, and it doesn’t really matter.
Some of the characters are drastically different. Their biographies, and how they influence the show’s story, are big departures. Now, I’m not a purist. I don’t expect everything to be exactly the same. So when this happens, I ask myself, what were they trying to do? Do the changes they make work within the context of the new story?
I say yes. I say that the two biggest character departures absolutely make sense. Neither character would have worked if they’d been brought over exactly as they were from the game. Both stories would have been heavily influenced by the different expectations of violence, and one’s context was completely changed by differences in the story. This is what I’m going to talk a lot about in the spoiler section below.
Image from the official trailer for The Last of Us by HBO
Three: Differences in Violence
The last topic I want to go over is the way the two mediums use violence to tell their story.
The video game uses violence as a way to engage the player. It’s a challenge that must be overcome, either through stealth, guile or straight up combat. It is so common that the game only managed to make it intense by limiting your resources, forcing you to count bullets and manufacture traps, otherwise you’ll run out of ammunition and be forced to fight hand to hand.
The show uses violence much more sparingly. One online count I found put Joel’s kill count at over 200 in the game, but less than 40 in the show. It makes sense that the show would have a more realistic portrayal of violence than the game would. If they’d tried to mimic Joe’s kill count, it would feel like an 80’s action film, or at least a parody of one.
As a result, death in the show is much more impactful. Take the first time we see Joel kill someone in the show. The scene has a companion scene in the game. But in the game, he’s killed a few dozen infected and Boston guards by that point, and the death is just one more. In the show, it’s his first kill, and the context of the kill makes it all the more impactful.
The change in violence increases the lethality of the world. The infected are all the more dangerous for how few of them Joel and Ellie kill. The ease with which some factions kill is more jarring. It feels more real than the game does, and the characters react accordingly.
Spoilers
This section I want to discuss two things that require the spoilers tag.
Spoiler
Welcome to the spoiler section. The two topics I want to discuss here are the Bill and Frank story, and the Sam and Henry arc.
First, Bill and Frank. I loved this story-line. The characters were so much better than their game counterparts. But the big question I had was: why do things differently at all? The obvious answer is that Bill’s chapter in the game was one long combat sequence, something the show was not doing. so they had to do something different.
Slightly less obvious is that they needed a catalyst for Joel to decide to take Ellie further. Marlene had tasked him and Tess to take Ellie to the capital building; Tess’s last wish was for him to take Ellie to Bill and Frank’s. Bill’s letter, and the comment about finding someone to protect, gave Joel the impetus to take her all the way to Wyoming. The game didn’t really have a counter part; it just railroaded Joel into doing it.
FYI: Probably my only big complaint of this show comes from the Bill and Frank episode. Bill is a survivalist by nature. When raiders finally come, he stands in the middle of the road with a rifle while Frank is running around wildly. That makes no sense. Bill would have a plan that involves a safe place for Frank, and a nice firing position to defend the perimeter.
Now, Sam and Henry. Tying Sam and Henry’s background to the Kansas City rebellion was great. It gave the Kansas City faction a reason to keep coming after them, one that made sense. But the point I wanted to bring up had to do with violence.
in the game, Henry kills a number of infected and Pittsburgh hunters to protect Sam, and eventually Ellie. It’s just part of living in that world. But the show makes a point of him not being violent. He’s never killed anyone, and he doesn’t until Sam turns at the end of the episode.
The game is heartbreaking enough, fighting through Pittsburgh with him for several hours and then losing them. in the show, it’s worse. The only person Henry ever kills is his brother. It’s heartbreaking.
[collapse]
So ends the spoiler section.
Conclusion
Obviously, a lot of thoughts about this show and game. I think it is a fantastic example of translating a video game story to screen. The writers consolidate and rework the story to fit the new medium. They expand the world to meet the expectations of their audience. And they consider the influence of violence on the story and treat it well.
I recommend the show to anyone who can handle the violence and intensity of it. I also recommend the game, to anyone who enjoys games and has the time to sit down and play.
Thank you for reading through this post with me. Let me know what you think below, especially if you’ve experienced one or both of these examples of The Last of Us.
July was a fantastic month. I knocked a lot of things off my to-do list in almost every category. I did a lot of planning, organizing, and strategizing for my projects. And I feel good heading into August.
Writing
After a few chapters of work on Book 3, I switched gears to planning and organizing. I had all the scenes and plans from my first drafts, and I spent several sessions working on what scenes I still wanted to include and which ones I want to reference. It seems a lot of what I thought would be individual chapters might just be scenes. which is good, because I’m still worried about how big some of these chapters might get.
Did not get as much work on my SciFi novel as I’d had liked. That being said, what work I did do was pretty important. I figured out a few of the plot points that I had glossed over in previous efforts, so I know what I need to have happen. By my estimate, I have ten chapters to work out to have a draft ready for review.
Same thing with the fantasy novel, and the other projects. Not as much writing as I’d like, but a lot of planning and organization done.
My focus on organization and planning has a lot to do with me restructuring how I’m approaching writing projects. I’ll get into that in some future blog posts.
August Goals
Book 3: Finish at least one of the four remaining acts
Science Fiction: Get book to Beta Readers
Fantasy Novel: Add 5,000 words
Movies and TV Shows
July was a good month for knocking titles off my to-watch list, both movies and TV shows.
First, I sat down to watch Glass Onion, the second of the Benoit Blanc mystery movies. I really enjoyed the first one (Knives Out), and the second one did not disappoint. It was a different kind of mystery than the first one, and used the cast to greater effect. I’ve already re-watched it twice, to pick up on all the things I missed the first time.
My sister invited me over to watch through The Last of Us TV Show. I just finished the game series in June, and she wanted to share it with me. We got through the whole series, all nine episodes. I have always been fascinated by how stories change mediums, but usually its book to screen. And the show did it well. I’m doing a blog post on it, hope to have it up early August.
After that, we started House of the Dragon, the next Game of Thrones prequal series. Now, I’m not a huge GoT fan. I read the books and watched the series. But so far I like this show. I like the king, the prince and the princess. Of course, we’re only three episodes in, and I’ve been warned it gets pretty intense. We’ll see if and when I get around to finishing it, as I don’t have an HBO subscription.
I also sat down to work through the rest of Marvel: Secret Invasion. Last month I said I wasn’t sure what to think, except that I expect Olivia Coleman to be awesome. Well, she certainly was. I’d say she was the best part of the show. The rest of it I found boring. I had a hard time getting into the story and the villain’s plan was formulaic. About the only positive thing I can say is that the ending was not the happy ending I’d expected. And, I’d add that if they use the events of the show to set up story lines in other MCU movies and shows, I think that’s great. But I did not get into this show.
Maybe August won’t be as show and movie heavy, but it will have the Ahsokashow, and that I am very excited about.
August Goals
Watch Two Movies
Complete Two Shows
Books
I finished The Automaton pretty early on in the month. By the last chapters I had two ideas of what might be happening, and I was partially right with both, yet completely wrong. It was fantastic. This book is one of those science fiction books in the vein of Isaac Asimov. It really feels like a science fiction story and not just a story set in a science fiction world. I absolutely recommend.
I started an ebook edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which I did not realize at the time included the first stories of the famous detective. My only real exposure to Sherlock Holmes has been through film and the BBC show. Reading these stories, it’s fun to see things I recognize, such as characters, mysteries of bits of dialogue. It’s also fascinating to see how the concept of mystery stories changed since the time they first came out. Most of the stories are extremely short, and have a ‘hah, gotcha’ style that bugs the hell out of me.
At the recommendation of a friend, I started reading a book from a genre called ‘RPG Lit’. This is a genre where players in a game get put into the game somehow. The book I started with, Critical Failures by Robert Bevan, has the players in a game similar to Dungeons and Dragons. It was a pretty decent read, though I can’t say it was great. It certainly gave me a lot of good ideas for my own RPG Lit stories.
August Goals
Read one library book
Read one book I own (fiction)
Read one book I want to take notes through
Games
July was not a big gaming month. I played a few more missions in Gears of War Tactics, advancing the story a few more scenes but still within the same act as I started the month. I want to finish it off before September.
There was one game I really got into this month, and that was one called Thea: The Awakening.My friend Karl recommended it to me. It’s an RPG/Turn-based strategy game. You rule a town in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, sending adventuring parties out to find resources and defeat monsters. You have different abilities based off what deity you follow, and the deities gain abilities as you level them up. It’s immensely fun.
I anticipate that sometime in the near future I’ll be getting a Playstation 5. Therefore, I set myself a bunch of goals to complete before I can invest, including completing the last game I have on the current consoles, Far Cry 6. I believe I’ll start sometime this month, but I don’t know that I’ll finish it this month. Far Cry games can take a bit.
RPG wise, all three of my characters are still alive. One of them, Shiloh from the Delta Green game, had a fantastic event where he got possessed by an alien intelligence who wanted to end the world. I got to play the traitor for a short while, manipulating my party members to position myself to betray them. Seeing every player at the table respond to my betrayal was fantastic. Even though my possession was brief and a failure, my character survived to continue to be a part of the group, and I got a fun experience out of it.
“I have seen too many queens,” [WIll Sommers] says. “And too many of them are ghosts now. I don’t want to see a queen in danger; I don’t want to see another ghost. indeed, I swear that I won’t see one. Not even one.”
“You did not see me?” I ask, catching his meaning.
“I did not see you, nor Kitty Howard creeping down the stairs in her nightgown, nor Anne of Cleves, pretty as her portrait, crying at her bedroom door. I am a Fool, not a guard. I don’t have to see things, and I am forbidden to understand them. there’s no point in me reporting them. Who would listen to a Fool?”
-Will Somers, Court Fool, to Queen Kateryn Parr, after discovering her eavesdropping on Henry’s private discussions, The Taming of the Queen, page 194.
Kateryn Parr wants to survive. In the court of King Henry VIII, that means bowing to his shifting whims, even for his wives. Chosen by Henry to be his sixth queen, Kateryn is determined to avoid the fates of her five predecessors. She adopts several defensive strategies to placate and mollify Henry. But as the ominous title of the book suggests, in Henry’s court, survival requires submission.
In The Taming of the Queen, the eleventh historical fiction novel in Phillipa Gregory’s series, we follow Queen Kateryn from Henry’s first proposal in the spring of 1543 to his death in the winter of 1547. The book is not about her ascension to power or her scheming and plotting for the throne. The book is about her survival.
Synopsis
Kateryn is a reluctant queen. She has watched five predecessors come and go; two of them set aside, two of them executed, one neglected and died in childbirth. She has a secret lover that she hopes to wed. In short, she does not want to be queen. But Henry chose her, and queen she will be.
Queen Kateryn lives in apartments that other queens have lived in. She wears dresses and jewels commissioned by her predecessors, and her ladies have served several of them as well. Half of the court sees her as an impediment to their agenda; others see her as an avenue to riches and power.
Her biggest threat, however, is not another family or the next aspiring queen; it is Henry himself. Henry has been absolute ruler of England for decades, and has become quite adept at removing queens. He plays the factions of his court against each other, and not even Kateryn is safe from his tests and games.
To protect herself, Kateryn works to be the best queen she can be.She used her power and position to hire tutors. and teachers. She reconciles Henry with his children, bringing them together as a family for the first time in Henry’s reign. Kateryn even goes so far as to publish books in support of Henry’s reformation, the first woman to publish in her own name in English history. All in the hopes of keeping her position long enough to survive the king.
The Threat – Henry the Tyrant
King Henry VIII has been a threat to the characters for four books. He has executed four of the last eight POV characters and deposed two more. The absolute power he developed over previous novels is now perfected: he is the Divine King of England. He has long removed anyone who could — or would — argue with him.
But in Taming of the Queen, the threat is much more intimate. In previous books, Henry was a threat, but not a very present character. His will was known to the reader through correspondence, conversation with other characters, and the appearance of his officials to execute his orders. In Kateryn’s story, Henry is more present and more forceful. He actively debates with Kateryn, giving the readers a chance to see Henry’s mindset and trains of thought.
Henry is also old. His age and infirmities are taking their toll. He is aware that he is no longer a young man or the ‘handsomest Prince in Christendom.’ Death is coming, and Henry has but one male heir to the throne. Knowing this, Henry is scared, and that fear manifests itself in his whims and moods.
This is the tyrant Kateryn must placate to stay alive. A king, close to death, who is fearful of the future and lashing out with the power he has. A very dangerous foe indeed.
The Queen’s Defensive strategies
Kateryn Parr becomes queen with the goal to survive. To do so, she is dependent on Henry’s good graces. Kateryn sets to work immediately, learning from her predecessor’s successes and mistakes. Some of it is easy and obvious: don’t take a lover, as Kitty Howard did. Most of it is difficult, requiring constant application of intelligence and influence.
Kateryn never sits down and plans out her campaign for the reader to see. The campaign starts from page one, and Kateryn develops her defenses over time. The actions Kateryn takes in her defense can be grouped into three categories, based on what she is providing Henry. First, she is providing intimacy. Second, she is providing family. And third, she is providing religious advocacy.
Providing Intimacy
Kateryn Parr is no fool. She understands that the primary reason Henry has chosen her is because she is an attractive young woman who can bear children. Providing intimacy is the first strategy she is forced to employ.
Sex is the first and easiest intimacy Kateryn provides. Henry is used to getting his desires met, and he is still worried about having only one male heir to the Tudor line. But Henry is also old, and his health is failing. He is morbidly obese, to the point of needing pages and wheelchairs to move about. An open leg wound fills the room with the smell of decay. And Henry faces some level of impotency. Kateryn has to ignore all of that, and play the young, virginal bride for her husband.
Kateryn’s act must extend beyond the bedroom. Henry is her third husband, but Henry must be the best at everything. Luckily for Kateryn, Henry asks guiding questions. Kateryn is smart enough to answer the correct way, and placate Henry’s ego.
Of the three strategies Kateryn pursues, this thread is the most disturbing to read through. Henry is not a considerate lover, and the submission he expects is demeaning. Kateryn’s descriptions of their bedroom atmosphere are oppressive.
Providing Family
The second avenue Kateryn uses is as new mother to the three existing children from three previous queens. Mary (Catherine of Aragon) is almost the same age as Kateryn, while Elizabeth (Anne Boleyn) and Edward (Jane Seymour) are much younger. Henry has declared the two daughters illegitimate, and barely sees his son.
Kateryn makes an effort to bring them all together, to provide Henry with the family he never realized he had. If she can make him realize he has potential heirs already, perhaps he would calm down.
Kateryn is largely successful at this. She befriends Mary, brings Elizabeth back to court, and corresponds with Edward. Henry appreciates this effort, and revises the articles of succession to include the two daughters (after Edward, of course).
Of the three strategies, this one is the most rewarding to read. Mary and Elizabeth are innocents, declared illegitimate because of Henry’s falling out with their mothers, and largely disregarded because of their gender. Kateryn bringing them back together, and mending the family that Henry was at best oblivious to, is the best success she has. The submission for family is humiliating, but ultimately is not as terrible as some of the other things Kateryn must endure.
The third and most dangerous avenue Kateryn pursues is the be part of Henry’s reformation. Kateryn is a dedicated Protestant, and her family pressures her to keep the king committed to the reformation. Henry has begun the reformation, but has not completed the process. He shifts from protestant to catholic leanings, based on internal court debates, the shifting alliances of Europe, or just his own whims and desires.
Kateryn uses her position as queen to educate herself. She learns languages, studies the Bible and religious texts. She invites learned scholars and popular speakers to lecture to her and her ladies on reformation topics. All this she does within the bounds of the Church of England, with Henry at its head, using his teachings and writings.
But Henry’s inconsistency can trap Kateryn as easily as anyone else. Henry rules that religious texts should be in English, so everyone can read them. Then he rules that only learned men should read them, as they’re too difficult for everyone to have an opinion on. Kateryn’s works that Henry praises one day he condemns her for the next.
Of the three strategies, this one is the most aggravating to read. Kateryn works hard, and yet her work is contently dismissed for reasons far beyond her control. The submission for this strategy is not one event. It is a constant stream of little abuses that Kateryn endures. Hence, aggrivation.
Conclusion
The Taming of the Queen is a hard book to read. Kateryn Parr is a likable, intelligent woman who spends the book simply trying to survive. She works hard to please Henry, only to find he’s more interested in her submission than her hard work. She is a character who constantly receiving my sympathy and respect.
On the plus side, with the death of Henry VIII, we can finally move on and into the next generation of Tudor leaders. I’m sure the next few books will be about easier times and perfect rulers.
It’s the July Update, a little later than usual thanks to a busy but amazing July 4th Weekend. I got a lot done this month, and still have a lot to do.
Writing
As I said last month, Book 3 is not about word counts right now; it’s more about processing the story and trying to streamline what I have planned. I did add a good number of scenes to the story, and I’m working out the flow, but I’m having difficulty nailing the exact sequence of events. I’m working hard on it, and I’m optimistic I can get the books finished, if not published, this year.
My Science Fiction Novel went from 2nd Draft Writing to 2nd Draft Ironing, which means I’ve got a continuous story that I like, and now I’m going through it to make sure things match up, that chapters are not too long or too short, things of that nature. I could very well have the 2nd Draft done and ready for review by the end of the month. Then I can move on to figuring out publishing details, like finding a title.
I did not do too much with the fantasy novel this month. I got some writing done, and some planning. But it was not high on my list as it is the furthest project from completion.
I did spent a decent amount of time last month planning other projects. I expect to go into details in a future blog post, but I’m looking at how I work on projects and how I can bring them to fruition faster. Most of it focuses on world building and advanced outlining.
July Goals
Get through middle section of Book 3
Get Science Fiction Novel to Beta Reader status
Add 5,000 words to Fantasy Novel
Movies and TV Shows
The first new movie I got into in June was The Lego Batman Movie. This had been on my list for a long time. It was fantastic. Will Arnett’s angsty Batman was a hilarious caricature of the superhero. The movie itself made fun of the absurdity of Batman, Gotham City, and the numerous villains that Batman faces in fighting crime. I was glad to finally sit down and watch it.
I started two new seasons of shows in June: Marvel: Secret Invasion and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. I’m only one episode into Secret Invasion, so I don’t really have much to say about it, other than I’m anticipating Olivia Colman to pull off her usual amazing stuff. I’m two episodes into Strange New Worlds Season 2 and the second episode was one of those episodes I know I’ll be watching for a long time. Between those two shows and The Witcher Season 3, I think July will be a pretty heavy TV months.
July Goals
Watch two new movies
Finished two TV shows
Books
I finished reading Book 3 of the Burton House Saga, Double the Trouble, about musical twins Beatrice and Cecelia. As I said last update, the book is much more amusing than the first two books, and that continues to the end of the story. In addition, the author has clearly planned out the rest of the series, as this book makes several comments about future events that will be appearing in future books (along the lines of a character looking at an atlas and dreaming of travel, not knowing how far she’ll go.).
I then sped through the next Philippa Gregory book, Taming of the Queen, about Kathryn Parr, last wife of King Henry VIII. I don’t want to give too much away until I do the book review, so I will simply say that I continue to enjoy the series.
Lastly, I started a book called The Automaton, written by Ian Young, a local author I met at Minicon this year. This book tells the tale of humanity’s move to a cloud consciousness through a series of short stories. These stories are experienced by an automaton, for a purpose that has yet to be really understood. It’s certainly an inventive book, one that feels like real science fiction.
July Goals
Finish three books
Write two blog posts
Games
I finished Last of Us 2 this weekend (technically not June, but whatever). I made the point to my sister that I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a final battle not wanting to fight it as much as that one. That game series is a masterpiece of storytelling. I know a lot of people didn’t like the second one, and I kind of see why, but I don’t agree. If they just did a re-hash of the first game, it would have been boring.
Still working through Gears of War Tactics, which I am enjoying. The end of the first act had a brumak fight. Imagine a rancor with machine gun arms and rockets on its back. It was fun, even if it did take me eight tries to get through. I’m into the second Act, which is teaching me the more complex rules of the game before the story gets moving again.
I’m starting to get into a game called Strategic Command: American Civil War. This is one of those games that has a steep learning curve, so I’m giving myself time to get used to it. The nice thing about this game is that they keep releasing new campaign DLC of other wars of the late 19th and pre-First World War 20th Centuries.
My characters in Hot Springs Island and Quest for the Frozen Flame are still alive, which is good. The Delta Green interlude is also moving along, and so far we’re all still alive. But it is Delta Green, so I don’t expect that to last too much longer.
Also, in gaming news, my sister has asked me to run an introductory RPG campaign for her and her friends. I’m excited to do so, and I’ve spent some time the last few weeks planning that out. Not just the story, but how one does and introductory game. It sounds like it’ll be a few months before that really gets going, but you know me. As soon as there’s something to start planning, I start planning.
July Goals
Finish one more video game
Don’t lose another character
Don’t guy another game
What’s next
July will be focused on getting the Science Fiction novel ready to publish and advancing Book 3. I’ve got a lot of other, smaller projects to work on, but those are the big two. I’ll let you know how they go.
May turned into a pretty decent month in terms of writing everything except the blog posts I swore I was going to post, and slow in almost every other aspect. And that’s okay. I can use a slow month every now and then.
Writing
Working hard on Book 3, getting closer to having a rough draft ready for review. It’s not really a question of word counts right now, it’s a question of linking up the scenes I have and making the story coherent. I’m pretty sure I’ll be dropping the tertiary storyline as it’s not adding too much to the book and will save me a goods chunk of words that I’ll need to shape the ending I want. Could I have a rough draft by the end of the month? It’s possible, if I can stay focused.
My SciFi novel is nearest to completion, but I’ve had a hard time getting into the last big battle. I need it to be a lot of things. What I need to remember is that I just need to get this draft down and then revise it.
The fantasy novel is my middle project, and I’ve had some nice breakthroughs on this project in May. For the main character, I worked out some of the philosophy and meta-physiology of his fantasy race, and how that will apply to the story. And for the secondary character, I realized a few things that I can use to make her part of the story much more interesting and influential.
I did pick at a few other projects over the month. There are so many things I want to write.
June Goals:
Finish current draft of the SciFi novel
Get Book 3 to the point I have a continuous story from beginning to end
Add 10,000 words to fantasy novel
Movies/TV
Only watched two new things in June.
Star Trek: Prodigy, the animated kid’s Star Trek show, was surprisingly fun. The adult in me could nitpick the hell out of it, since there’s a lot of things about the show that don’t make sense if I think about it too much. But it is a fun show. The characters are interesting, especially how they come to want to join the Federation, and how they deal with the threats of the story. Now, for a kids show, it does get somewhat dark, but most kids shows do, don’t they?
The movie I managed to watch in May was Antman and Wasp: Quantumania. I’d heard it was a disappointing moving, but I have to say I liked it. It was definitely a different tone from the first two Antman movies: much more serious, much darker. But seeing Antman’s daughter as an up and coming superhero was fun. And holy cow, Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror was amazing. I’d love to see him come back again. (Unless the assault allegations turn out to have substance to them, then I’d hope to see someone else who can pull off that level of intensity.)
June Goals:
Start a new TV show
Watch two new movies
Books
I finished two books and started a third this weekend. All three are part of the Burton House saga.
The first two, The DeFacto Duchess and Rejection and Romance, follow Allison Burton and James Byrnes as they navigate courtship, romance, and the politics of 1815 Europe. They’re really two halves of the same story, with a cliffhanger end to Book 1 that made me immediately start Book 2. I would have been really frustrated to have to wait between books.
Book 3, Double the Trouble, shifts focus away from Allison and James to Allison’s younger twin sisters, Beatrice and Cecelia. The musically inclined twins come out into society, with Cecelia going through a battery of terrible dates with suitors and callers. I haven’t finished it yet, but I can tell you this book is far more amusing than the first two. This book also has a more musical theme to its structure and chapter headings, where the first two books were more literary.
June Goals
Finish two books
Post one book review
Games
Did not play a lot of video games in June, for whatever reason. I played through maybe one or two missions of Gears of War: Tactics, which is still fun if not exactly engrossing. I started to focus more one Last of Us 2 to get that game done, and I hit a fun section I’m excited to play through. Maybe I’ll knock that out this month.
My RPG games slowed down in May, between holidays and time-off. Known World Book X is taking a short break so the GM can prep the next chapter, and we’re in a Delta Green Interlude. Still playing the same Hot Springs Island character, and hoping to keep him going for a while.
We did play the first adventure of Quest for the Frozen Flame, where I’m playing the barbarian hunter Morgar. I ended up changing his character from the initial concept. Instead of a moody teenager with a chip on his shoulder who gets angry at everything, he’s now a son from a loving family who gets excited instead of angry. It involves a lot more roleplaying and involvement, but this is a playing group that is well suited for that.
Also, as an aside, one of my Saturday morning prompts gave me an idea for a Scifi adventure, so I spent a few days working out the framework for a Cypher one-shot, roughly eight to ten adventures long. I’d like to run it at some point, maybe get it into rotation for the Sunday or Monday night games. We’ll see if anything comes of it, but it was fun to work on.
June Goals:
Finish Last of Us 2
Don’t Buy Another Game
Don’t lose an PRG character
What’s Next
This month I’m focusing on writing and prepping for publishing. I want to put some effort into getting another Books and Beer event going, and keep an eye out for some events if I can get my table up. But the writing is first and foremost. I’ll let you all know how that goes.
May was an exciting month. I spent a weekend at Minicon, selling books and participating in my first official panel as an author. I sold another Fiverr gig, helping an author flesh out the campaigns of his story. And I worked out a number of problem in various stories that had been bugging me. All in all, a good month.
Writing
Book 3 is proceeding nicely. A lot of work this month has been factoring travel times and keeping track of the calendar, which has helped spread out the events of the book over a much more realistic and manageable timeframe. The book will cover about two months of time. I’m aiming for 150,000 words, but we’ll see how that goes.
I didn’t do too much with the SciFi novel in April, which is disappointing because it’s the project closest to being done. But I have some goals for May, including a list of the math and science I’ll have to work out or at least start to answer to get this ready for publishing. Also, maybe, work out the title?
Picked a bit at the fantasy novel. Did not add a lot of words, but I did work out some of the issues I was stuck on. Have some May goals for this project as well.
I do have other projects I’m working on; Tales of the Templars, for example. One thing I want to do this month is sit down and work out where these projects are at and how feasible they are. Not that I plan to give them up, but more that I want to have a realistic understanding of what I’d need to put into them to get them done.
Movies/Tv
Watched through the Mandalorian Season 3, the latest Star Wars show. It was not as amazing as the previous seasons, but it had its high points and I liked it. I felt like the show was more about developing the overall story of this combined saga that the Star Wars shows are trying to tell, something that they will continue with Ahsoka when that comes out later this year.
I spent the time to finished off Star Trek Picard Seasons 2 and 3. I’d heard a lot of bad things about Season 2, but I did not think it was that bad. I do think the ending to the season was a bit of a head scratcher, which is a common complaint I have about this new era of Star Trek series. Season 3, however, I really liked. Not perfect, because I can nitpick Star Trek with the best of them. But it was a lot of fun to watch.
For a friend’s birthday, we went to see Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Now, I was worried about this movie. The first D&D movie, released back in 2000, was so bad I wondered if it was even possible to make a good D&D movie. This was proved that yes, it is possible. It’s funny, it’s exciting, and it feels like a D&D movie. What else could I ask for.
Books
The only book I finished this month was Titandeath, book 53 of the Horus Heresy series. This was one of the better ones, involving mostly characters of the Titan Legions and their massive warmachines. Of particular note, there are several scenes of the machines fighting on the surface of massive space installations. I would come back to read this one. Only one more book and I’ve finished this series and can move on to the Siege of Terra series.
I’m close to finishing The De Facto Duchess and moving on to Book 2 of that series. I’m really enjoying the first book. The characters are fun, their interactions and enjoyable, and while I know enough of the time period to know something of what is coming their way, I’m still learning a lot about how the end of the Napoleonic wars and the war of 1812 influenced each other. I’m eager to see how it ends.
Games
I admit, I had to take a break from The Last of Us 2. Not because it got to be too intense, but because it got a bit too repetitive. I got back into it towards the end of the month and advanced the story, which is still enjoyable. We’ll see how it ends, and then I can look into the show.
I picked up Gears of War Tactics off Steam this month. A tactical squad game set in the Gears universe, I’ve only gotten a few missions into it. So far, I have enjoyed it. It is just as chaotic and grimy as the original games but includes a tactical and RPG element that I enjoy. We’ll see how the story plays out.
One of my gaming groups is gearing up for Quest for the Frozen Flame, a Pathfinder adventure path that the GM is very excited to play. Set in a arctic tribe of stone-age hunters, it will be a very different experience from the normal sword and sorcery RPG’s we play. I’ll keep you informed.
Hot Springs island is going well. I sat down with some friends to work out how to play my gunslinger better and after a few sessions of being more aggressive it’s working better than I’d hoped. He’s doing more than just standing and shooting. My Known World Book X campaign is at an interesting point where we need to develop a plan to overcome our current predicament, but damned if I know what we’ll come up with.
I’ve done a lot of work on my next GM campaign, though I don’t have a name for it yet. I did work out most of the details this month on how to structure it. I may have to rework it if the game doesn’t start before the Pathfinder ORC update rolls out.
What’s Next
Right now I’m focusing on getting my books projects advanced towards publication. I want to get another Books and Beer event running, and maybe find some more conventions in the cities that I can get into. But nothing is scheduled. So, I write.
Book 10 of 15 in Philippa Gregory’s series is The Boleyn Inheritance. The inheritance is a reference to the impact of Anne Boleyn’s brief tenure as Queen on those who followed her, though this does take on different connotations depending on the character. The book begins in July of 1539, which means we have skipped ahead a few years from The Other Boleyn Girl, past Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour in 1536 and her death in 1537.
The book is a first for the series in that it has three different view point characters, switching between the three each chapter. They are (in order of appearance):
Jane Boleyn, wife of George Boleyn and sister-in-law of Queen Anne Boleyn. One of the witnesses against her husband and sister-in-law, she begins the book in exile from the currently queen-less court. She is waiting for a chance to return.
Anne of Cleves, a young noble woman from a German duchy. She is in the running for the next queen of England. Her portrait, from the master Hanz Holbein, will entice Henry. Henry will make her queen, and bring an alliance to her brother.
Katherine Howard, a 14-year-old excitable teenage and cousin to Anne Boleyn and, by marriage, of Jane Boleyn. Katherine is living in a house of many young women, with little supervision and many gentlemen callers. Despite being 14, she is already an experienced lover, and has the Howard desire for social climbing.
Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford
‘My mother commanded me to trust nobody at court. She said, especially Lady Rochford.’
-Catherine Carey, daughter of Mary Boleyn
Jane Boleyn is an experienced hand at Henry’s court, having participated in three previous queens. Her actions against Anne Boleyn and her husband haunt her, yet she longs to return to court. Her Boleyn inheritance is the literal wealth she kept after her husband’s execution.
Jane Boleyn comes off as a very sympathetic character when reading her scenes. She is constantly telling herself, and the reader, how much she regrets her actions with Anne and George, and how much she missed both of them. You can’t help but feel sorry for her. At least, until you read other character’s scenes.
Jane may speak of guilt, but her actions show none of it. She joins Anne’s court to spy for the Howard family, with Katherine as a confederate. When Anne falls from favor, Jane makes a token effort to refuse to participate in the scheming against her, but eventually falls in line. In Katherine’s court, Jane continued her service to the Howard family, participating in Kitty Howard’s affairs without much thought, knowing what the penalty will be when they are caught.
When Jane falls from grace, it’s hard to find much sympathy for her. She had many chances to defy her uncle, or to guide Anne and Katherine better, but chose to follow the family line, even as she stresses her regrets over and over to the reader. Only once does Jane do something noble: at the height of the danger to Anne, Jane provides wise counsel that Anne accepts, and survives.
Jane is a character who talks about guilt but makes no effort to avoid repeating her offensive acts. While I did not despise the character, I do think her end at the block was well deserved. Which might be a first for this series.
Anne of Cleves
‘If it were not so tragic, this would be the highest of comedies: this gawky girl stepping into the diamond-heeled shoes to Anne Boleyn. What can they have been thinking of when they imagined she could ever rise to it?’
-Jane Boleyn
Anne of Cleves begins the book excited to come to England, to escape a smothering religious family in Germany and finally exercise some agency in her life. She is aware that there are problems in the way; she and her entourage stand out in their dull dress ‘fat little ducks besides these English swans’, and she does not know the language, but she is committed. Her Boleyn Inheritance is a poisoned throne.
Anne is an immediately sympathetic character, due to the puritanical family life she leaves in Germany. Her approach in England and the throne is one of a scared woman who is eager to prove she can do the job, sort of like Katherine of Aragon only without the confidence. I read her scenes happy to watch her try, and eager to see her succeed.
Anne also brings an outsider’s perspective to the English court. Unlike every other character, who knows what Henry’s court is like and what to expect, Anne has to learn. Her presence, and her actions, put Henry and his nobility to shame. Also, because Anne is not from an English family, Anne is not immediately part of the court schemes.
Of the three arcs, Anne’s was my favorite, not only because she critiques the court with her presence, but because she gets a happy ending. From the oppressive German family to the dangers of Henry’s court, Anne finally ends up with estates and a stipend, and freedom. She ends up happy.
The only thing I wish we could have seen: Anne writing a letter to her brother, telling him off. Oh, well.
Katherine ‘Kitty’ Howard
‘She is a foolish, frivolous little thing, but she has the cleverness of a stupid girl, since, like any stupid girl, she thinks about only one thing, and so she has become very expert in that. And the one thing that she thinks about? All the time, every moment of every day, Kitty Howard thinks about Kitty Howard.
-Anne of Cleves
Katherine Howard is a vain, greedy teenager who grew up always wanting more: more lovers, more wealth, more stuff. She is brought to the court to act as another agent of the Howard’s. When she becomes queen, it is only because she is young and pretty. Her Boleyn Inheritance is the family’s insatiable need for more.
Katherine’s scenes are written from a very unique viewpoint for this series: they’re shallow. Her descriptions of characters are always about their dress. She loves parties and frivolity. Many of her chapters start with ‘Now let me see, what do I have,’ followed by a list of what she currently owns, the length of which charts her rise and fall. Compared to the educated and measured viewpoints of pretty much every other character in 10 books, it might be the most unique voice so far.
Katherine’s rise is entire due to her beauty, and her willingness to be a trophy queen to show off Henry’s virility. She’s pretty, and she knows it, and she uses it. Her downfall is because she is never happy. She demands so much she irritates the king, and bemoans marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather.
I’m mixed on Katherine’s story. On one hand, she had a unique view point, and being a young woman who goes through what she does incurs some sympathy. On the other hand, she’s well aware of the dangers of King henry’s court yet makes no effort to learn any lessons. Thus, Katherine walks to the same end as her cousin.
Conclusion
The Boleyn Inheritance was fun to read. Three characters, with different backgrounds influencing their actions. Three stories, ending in wildly divergent and deserved endings. And three inheritances of Anne Boleyn’s trek to the throne.
I’d put this book above average. While we never get too intimate with any of the three characters, their contrasts help sharpen each individual’s arc. It helps that the viewpoints are diverse, so each one stands wholly separate from the other. It makes for an exciting read.
With this, we enter the last third of the series, one step closer to the end of Henry VIII and the rise of Queen Elizabeth. After so many kings, it’ll be good to see a queen.
This past Easter weekend, I spent three days at Minicon 56, a science fiction convention in the Twin Cities. One of the oldest science fiction conventions in the Midwest, I had never attended this convention before, either as a vendor or a guest. Not only was this new, but this was my first multi-day book event since before Covid. Needless to say, I was excited.
The Table
My primary reason there was to be author-man. I had an eight-foot table with electricity, which was more than enough space for my two books. My location was at a corner, so I was starting down a long edge of the dealer’s area.
I set up my picture frame with the wallpapers scrolling through angled to be visible from either direction and my recruiting poster visible down the long approach. I had my ‘Library of the Renaissance’ display up (the real books that Sasha reads during the series), my array of cards and fliers, and then my books themselves.
With all this space I had enough room to have my laptop out, so I could work in my downtime. Which was great, because over the course of three days, I certainly had enough of it.
The People
The other vendors in the room were a mix of more established writers, sellers and craftsmen, and a few first timers. As I’ve always found, everyone was friendly, happy to discuss their tables and projects. It’s always fun to be around eager and inventive people. I met with science fiction and fantasy writers, jewelry makers, and a podcaster who covers cryptids.
The guests of Minicon were a standard mix of longtime convention goers, newer attendees, and everything in between. I saw some Manticon and TRMN people I recognized from my first conventions (and some of them recognized me as well). It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything the TRMN, but I still remember them being a fun group.
During my time at my table, I got to speak with a lot of people who came up to find out about my book. Some of them got drawn in by the artwork. Some of them came in because of the ‘Library of the Renaissance’. And some talk to every author in the room to find out about their books. I had people buy my book, or decide it wasn’t for them.
The ‘Library of the Renaissance’ got a bit of interest. Grant’s Memoirs sparked a few conversations, as did Art of War and Laura Cereta’s Letters.Red Badge of Courage not only sparked conversation, but someone got upset over the book. I’m still not clear on why; I’m not sure he was clear on why I had it out. Overall, the Library idea went over well, with the only thing I would do differently is add a ‘not for sale’ sticker to the books so people understand it’s a display.
The Panel
One other exciting experience from the weekend was my first official panel, with microphones and a name plate and everything. The topic was ‘Writing the Twin Cities.’ Now, I had two reasons to be nervous. First, public speaking, always a worry of mine. Second, while my books are set in Minnesota, they’re post apocalyptic. I was worried that might come off poorly.
Turns out, every author up there destroyed at least part of the Twin Cities. I guess it’s not uncommon. I’m sure there’s a master’s thesis about why somewhere out there.
The panel itself went well. I answered a few questions about writing in Minnesota, and how I treated historical landmarks. The last half of the discussion got into the various tunnels and caverns of the Twin Cities, which I know nothing about, so I didn’t get to say much there. But that happens.
Overall, I’m glad I got to participate, but I do have to work on my presentation. I thought I kept rambling while trying to get my thoughts in order. Not too bad, but enough I want to work on it.
Conclusion
I absolutely loved the convention. It was a blast, with great sales, great people, and more than enough time to work on my projects. I have already registered for next year, and I’ve promised myself that I will have at least one more book on my table.
March was a busy and productive month. I got a lot done and knocked a lot of things off my lists.
Writing
I’m closing in on a good draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. I finished wargaming and writing the big campaign, and re-worked most of the subsequent scenes. Right now, I’m working through the first scenes, one by one, focusing on the timeline, specifically how fast people and news moves across the land. What was originally two days worth of events is now spread out across a week, now that people aren’t teleporting.
I’ve been focused on Book 3, so Orcfyre (the fantasy novel) and my untitled Science Fiction novel are on the backburner. I also haven’t done much with the Tales of the Templar short story collection. Sometime this month I’m going to sit down and work out what I have to do for all my projects and set a schedule for the year.
On a slight aside, I’ve had some work come in through Fiverr, so I spent some time building another person’s military background, in this case plotting out a campaign for their story. It was a lot of fun, and I’m writing out a blog post on it for April.
Movies and TV
After a couple of weekends of false starts, I finally got down to watch All Quiet on the Western Front. It was certainly a brutal war movie that captured the psychological terror of combat. And I did like it. But, I felt that it fell short of the impact of the 1930’s adaptation. There’s never any scenes of the characters returning home and failing to connect with civilians. And the sub-plot of the end of the war (between General Foch and the German leadership) seems to be written to make the French seem as if they were intransigent villains, without explaining why they might feel justified being so firm in their position.
I finished Star Trek: Strange New Worldsin March. The new, episodic series really took me back to the TOS and TNG days of Star Trek, before multi-episode and season-long story arcs became the norm. And it really worked for me. The stories were fun to watch. The characters were enjoyable (both legacy and new). And the ship beautiful. I felt the crew of the show understood Star Trek and made an effort to honor its legacy.
And in the same field, I finished Star Trek: Lower Decks, the animated humorous show. I was worried about this one, because I found the first season to be very hard to get through. I have a hard time with characters who always have to be right or always have to be wrong, and Season 1 had both (Mariner and Boimler), specially because the always right character was always provign the other character wrong. But that didn’t continue into Season 2 and 3, and I found those to be much, much more enjoyable.
Books
I finally finished Education in Violence: The Life of George H Thomas by Francis F. McKinney. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a history book of that type. Most of it was fun, but it did drag towards the end when it got away from Thomas and followed the Army of the Cumberland. Still, I’m glad I read it. I don’t read a lot of biographies.
I started and almost finished The Boleyn Inheritance, the next book in the Philippa Gregory series. This book follows several of the later wives of Henry VIII, jumping between several characters chapter after chapter. I look forward to having the book report up soon.
Also started The De Facto Duchess, Book One of the Burton House Saga, by Ashley Katharine Houghton. It’s a historical fiction novel set in the Georgian era of Britain. I’ve found it to be a comedic drama, in that the story is overall serious (as far as I’ve read), but a lot of the scenes have humorous elements. I’ll have to see where it ends up.
Games
I continue to play through Last of Us 2 and pick at Napolean: Total War. I added a new game, one I kickstarted many years ago that finally release: Ancient Cities, a stone-age city builder. I’ve enjoyed what I tried so far, but the game doesn’t have much of a manual or guide. I have so many questions I can’t answer and it bugs me. I’ll still play at it a bit, but unless I can find some answers I’m not sure how much time I’ll invest in it.
I’m happy to report I’m still playing the same RPG characters. I’ve also gotten to try a new system called Blades in the Dark, a story telling RPG set in a dark, steampunk fantasy world. If you want to try a new story-telling game, this is one to take a look.
What’s Next
This upcoming weekend I’ll have a table at Minicon 56, my first full convention since before Covid. That will be fun, though of course I’m worried about my table set up. By the end of the month I’m aiming to have at least one more event lined up. Fingers crossed.
