Happy equinox everyone!
While the equinox was last week, it's really reinforcing that we are heading towards the end of the year. Things are winding down. Days are beginning to feel noticeably shorter. The weather pattern is starting to change. It's time to slow down.
So, where are things at?
Far North
Book One is in the home stretch! I'm working on formatting and the cover art now. There is the slight possibility I go back to do some absolute last minute editing, but we're out of drafting phase. The world FINAL appears beside the filename, so it's happening!!!
While doing all this, next month I'm going to be joining in on some NaNoPlanMo style plotting. Not doing an official challenge or anything, but I will be sitting down every day to either journal some ideas out or get solid on the main beats of the next three books. While Book Two is 95% ready to be written, the other two books could use a little work and the best way I can think to do that is to just freewrite for awhile.
On Masto you may have noticed a lack of Writing Wonders prompts. Unfortunately, the hashtag was abandoned at the end of August. A new tag (or several, really) have popped up to take its place, but I didn't join in right away. Next month I might pick at a few prompts in the various writing tags, just to get the creative brain churning again. If you liked those, keep an eye out going into October for some more!
Topic Tuesdays/Exploring Spirit
Released the discussion on the New Thought movement this month! This is the perfect set-up for our next discussion: the strange and dramatic life of Mary Eddy, founder of the the Church of Christ, Scientist -- or Christian Science. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think!
That said, there might be a slight delay in getting the Mary Eddy episodes out. :( Something about Audacity/Tenacity doesn't want to work and the other DAW software I've tried using is some combo of 1) expensive and not open source, 2) open source but for a trial period, or 3) requires more cabling than I have. I'm working on trying to get to the bottom of my Audacity/Tenacity issues, it just hasn't been successful yet. This close to spinning up a VM and just recording in there at this point, but I'll keep banging my head against the dependency tree until I figure it out.
With all that said, the episode is recorded and stitched together! The only thing missing is cleaned up audio (cutting clicks, leveling audio, removing any background noise.) If, towards the end of the month, it seems like my issues with the editing software aren't getting anywhere, I'll just release the raw version.
I'm still thick in the weeds on the Christian Science front too. There is truly so much to cover. While I work to sort out the editing issues I'm going to pause research here. At this point, I'm a bit sick of the topic and need a mental break before picking it back up again. Don't worry though, we will definitely get into all the wacky shenanigans and beliefs of the church.
Greenhouse Museum
Not a ton to say here, other than progress continues on. The first of the series -- Originator -- is available now and I hope you all will enjoy it! The other three parts are all scheduled for the coming months, so please look forward to those.
Work on Part 2 is steady, though difficult. Lots of tense emotions and flaring tempers make writing slow going. Still, Originator pt 2 is finished and I'm somewhere in the first third of Connector pt 2. My hope is to have them all written and edited by the end of the year for you all to enjoy!
Just a reminder that the rest of the series will be behind a membership gate. I did try to make this affordable for most people at $1/month for access. If you choose to support me in this way, I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. Your support means so much to me and I'm trying to find ways to show that thanks. If you have ideas on how you'd like to see that, let me know in the comments! I'd love to generate some ideas that make people feel acknowledged. <3
Twitch and Other
Streams will continue on Sundays and Thursdays at 1830EST. This time slot seems to be working out for most people and it's fit into our lives here pretty easily too.
Sundays are Storytime Sunday, where we play an adventure or puzzle game together. Right now we're working our way through Shardlight before we head back to the Blackwell games. I think we're about halfway through the Wadjet Eye game bundle, which I plan on finishing before we move on to other games.
Thursdays are Chill Vibes Only. This is just a chance to play a farm sim or other relaxing simulation game and chit-chat. Right now I'm mostly focused on playing Coral Island because it's honestly a lot of fun. We might do a random game stream here soon where we'll check out some demos or shorter itch.io games, just for a change of pace.
I'm also contemplating adding a Friday evening stream where we play Final Fantasy XIV. I've been having a lot of fun playing the free trial content and I've been told people really enjoy watching new players experience the story for the first time. If/when that happens it'll be at the same time as the other streams. Keep your eye out if you're a big FF fan!
Game reviews! I'm not committing myself to reviewing every game I play, but from time to time I will be releasing Vibe Check Reviews. This is a space to look at newer games and see if they really live up to the hype they've generated for themselves. Last month we started with the highly anticipated Palia, next month I aim to review Coral Island. These wont be something that happens every month, so don't get too excited, and I likely wont be reviewing AAA titles (because, let's be real, what struggling artist can afford those games??)
If you see something on my wishlist that you'd like me to review, gifting it is another great way to support that. Absolutely no pressure to do so, just thought it would be worth mentioning. Right now, I'm waiting for Sunnyside, Paralives, and Witchbrook to drop. One of those three will be next on the review list.
Website changes are also in the works! There's nothing much to mention there at the moment, but I'm working on the design and all the integrations I'll need. If I can figure out how to do it, you'll be able to get my Mastodon posts, BMAC posts, and other updates all in one place. Not sure when it'll be done, but I'm hopeful it'll be in good shape by the start of 2024.
And that's it from me this month. Thank you for being here and continuing to support my work. You all are the real MVPs. <3 Stay safe and sane out there! A gentle reminder that flu, RSV, and Covid season is upon us so -- get your vaccines, wash your hands, and wear a mask. Your health is important, please take care of you!