Good morning, Readers!

I'm over at Black Gate Magazine today, discussion video games and why they shouldn't be so quickly dismissed by folks.

I am of a generation. The one that grew up just as video games were getting good. We weren’t the first to have video games, that belongs to the generation before me. We were, however, the first in which gaming consoles came into the home in the number that they have, becoming fairly ubiquitous. Most of my generation grew up playing video games. Like computers, most of my generation can remember the introduction of games into the house.

For myself, it was my baby brother, who had his fingers on the pulse far more than the rest of us. He was forever loading game demos on the family computer (there was one computer in the house). It was he who was given an Xbox, introducing console gaming. My brother, incidentally, now works in the video gaming industry.
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When it comes to gaming, I’d say that mine is the first generation to “get” it. Which is to say, we’re not prone to the mass hysteria that seems to follow the gaming industry, labeling it as the cause of all society’s ills. We know it’s not, any more than Dungeons and Dragons was in the years prior, or novels were following the advent of the printing press.

Good morning, Readers!

I'm writing a blog post for Black Gate Magazine today.  It's supposed to go up today, and I had completely forgotten about it (I'm blaming being ill for the past two weeks for that), and so I don't have all that much time to blog here.

Instead, let me enable you to waste your time by posting the latest episode from my video podcast Nights at the Round Table in which Marjo and I discuss the brilliant film The Sixth Sense.

​Enjoy!

Right, I have to go write a different blog post now.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So, I got a lovely surprise email from Renaissance Press, publishers of my books Daughters of Britain and Skylark, about the book trailer for the latter.

It was a complete surprise to see the trailer go up at all, and I certainly wasn't expecting one.  But here we are.  Skylark has a book trailer.  And it's awesome!  Check it out below:

I think it currently has something like twenty view on YouTube currently.  I'm pretty sure at least eighteen of those are mine.  I might be a little obsessed with it.  Renaissance did a fantastic job.

Speaking of Skylark, nominations for the Aurora Awards closes on the 18th of this month.  Head on over to the site and nominate the works that most got your fancy this year.  Skylark is eligible, and it would be wonderful if it could make it on the ballet, but by no means nominate it if it didn't sing to you.

I've been doing well with my writing.  I've crossed the 100 000 word mark, and there are several scenes left to go, so I will have to do a whole lot of editing to get rid of scenes that I've written and don't really have any true bearing on the plot.  I think when I'm finished writing and editing I should be around the 110 000 word mark.  I'll certainly be going far over that in this draft.  I'm so excited to get this manuscript done, holy shit.

In news that doesn't have anything to do with writing or books whatsoever is that I returned to the gym this morning.  After two weeks away, one week for the fever, the other week because I was coughing like hell, I was in surprisingly good shape.  I haven't fallen as far behind as I thought I would have.

Tomorrow I begin my run training... two weeks late, damn it, flu!  By begin my run training, I mean go for the first run out of doors since it snowed.  I'm not expecting a miracle, especially since there is still some residual gunk in my lungs that will be coughed up, but I do hope to run the entire half hour.

I am participating in two 5K runs this year.  One of them is a super casual fun obstacle course race thing, the other is a my first ever straight 5K.  I'll be running the latter with friends, one of whom just finished a 5K at 28 minutes.  If I could ever get my 5K down to 28 minutes, I'll be doing great.  I think the fastest 5K I've managed was 33 minutes.  Since my friend is a much better runner than I, I'm feeling particularly pressured to get my 5K to a decent pace so he won't have to cut his stride to allow me to keep up.

So, my goal is to get my 5K to an even half hour.  Hopefully, adrenaline on race day will let me go a little faster.

And that is all my news since the last time I blogged.  I'm off to do work.  Hope you all had a fantastic weekend and today is as good as Mondays can be.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I have been watching Game of Thrones this season.  I started because I had watched the series previously, and felt the need to finish it.  I was, previous to this season, suffering for Game of Thrones fatigue and, honestly, did not care all that much about the show.  The same, incidentally, is true of the book series.  I just didn't care.

That has gone this season.  I am invested.  I thought I would go over what I've loved (and not) about this season thus far.

WARNING: There are spoilers ahead. Duh.

Unlike many internet commentators, I really enjoyed the first two episodes of this final season.  I did not mind that there wasn't any action.  These two first episodes were fantastic for establishing and re-establishing relationships and setting all the players in their position for the major clash with the series' secondary villain.  I adored the reunions - of special note, Arya and Jon, and Sansa and Theon (I may have teared up with how Theon asked to fight for Winterfell).  I loved the establishing of a fraught relationship between Dany and Sansa, how Arya sided with Sansa against Jon, and how the show has made it that Sansa is now the most clever person in the series.

Boy has Sansa grown.

I really loved Brienne's knighting.  I may have cried.  My god, that smile...  And as much as I hate to say it, I like Jaimey.  He's come a long way since he lost his fighting hand.

Also, unlike nearly every guy (and it's all guys) I've spoken to, I loved that Arya and Gendry got together.  Get it, girl!  You deserve a night with someone you like.  Granted, I was a little disappointed, as Arya was largely, and perhaps unconsciously on the part of the writers, asexual throughout the series, and I was hoping for some representation there.  Alas, no.  Still, if she wasn't to be asexual, I'm glad that she owned her sexuality and her sexual attraction, and was assertive and sure when she decided to go for it.  She deserved it.  Weirdly, all the guys (yes, men specifically) I know hated that scene.  I'd love to deep dive into why that is one day.  Not today.

As far as the first two episodes went, they were necessary and enjoyable for their wonderful character moments.  Episode three, however, was basically a movie-length battle scene.  It was fantastic.  Overall, I loved it.

First, some things I didn't really like, or things that made my smack my forehead in frustration:

There were also some really stupid moves by the defenders.  I think the council who set up the battle strategy were idiots.

You're fighting a battle against the dead, whose leader can raise the dead, and you send everyone who cannot fight into the crypts.  The crypts.  What. The. Actual. Fuck.  You pack of bloody morons.  I mean, it might be safest from the bulk of the forces marching against Winterfell, but there are dead things down there.  Maybe put in a fighter or two or four, just in case.  Christ almighty.

Also, way to decimate your cavalry, wasting them on a frontal assault, when it would have been much smarter to have them hidden on the sides, ready to circle around the back.  The army of the dead is mindless.  They're dead.  They're going to be running forward mindlessly for the enemy they can see.  Circling around and attacking from behind would do a lot more in reducing numbers of the attackers, even if it would have absolutely decimate the cavalry.  They wouldn't have winked out quite so fast, and would have done a great deal more damage.  But hell, what do I know?

Idiots.

Also, the dead outside the walls were screaming and grunting and being loud.  Once they entered the library, however, they suddenly obeyed the library rules and were quiet as mice.  What?

This doesn't count as a thing I didn't like so much as a thing that confused the crap out of me, but what the hell was Bran doing when he warged?  Was he just keeping an eye out?  Watching the scene?  What was he doing and why did he do it?  I expect that there might be answers to this forthcoming, as the show often makes pundits eat some humble pie, but I was confused as hell.  I want to know what he hoped to achieve, and why he bothered.  I NEED TO KNOW.

Right, onto the things I liked.

This episode did tension so damned well.  From the beginning, when the enemy could not be seen, all the way through to the jeopardy that characters were in  mid-battle, to Arya in the library (I know I mocked the wights being suddenly quiet once inside the library, but it worked wonders for the tension), to Jon fighting to get to Bran, I was genuinely on the edge of my seat, gripping the hand rests hard enough it turned my knuckles white.  It was so wonderfully tense, and I was so drawn in.  It was a beautiful piece of film-making when it comes to mood.

As for character interactions, I adored the interaction between Sansa and Tyrion in the crypts, and the genuine affection those characters seem to have for one another.  When he kissed her hand, I might have gone 'aww!'  I loved how Missandei put Sansa in her place, also in the crypts, with the blunt truth that without Dany, everyone would be dead already.  She's not wrong.

Seeing Jaimey, Brienne and Podrick fight together made me smile in that 'they're utterly fucked' bittersweet kind of way.  Jaimey saved Brienne, Brienne saved Jaimey, they're together, fighting at the end of all things.  I love them.

Unlike many internet commentators I've read, I also loved that Sam made it through.  He's not a fighter in the way that we might understand, but he fought all the same.  I also really loved the image of him sitting in a pile of bodies, weeping.  I know it means that the hordes ignored him, which makes little sense, but as far as character and imagery, it's beautiful and true.  Also, I just want to run and give Sam the biggest of hugs.  I'm glad he made it.  Fight me.

As for the deaths of Lady Lyanna Mormont, that mighty little bear, and Theon, both were tragic and brave and so deserved.  Lyanna deserved to die taking out a wight giant in the ultimate David and Golliath scenario, and Theon, last man standing between the Night King and Bran, deserved to die fighting.  Granted, the Night King made short work of him, but it was a brave and noble death.

As to the twist, I absolutely loved it!  I loved that it was Arya.  I loved that the knife that had been used to try and kill Bran ended up being the weapon that saved him.  I punched the air and hollered when it happened.

I understand that a lot of people were expecting it to be Jon, but that poor bastard was trapped, facing off against an undead dragon.  He couldn't have made it.

Granted, I do wish Jon could have been involved.  I imagine a scene where he and the Night King are fighting, and Jon is almost struck down, but Arya comes in the last minute pretty much as she did in the actual episode, saving both brothers (well, her brother and her cousin (spoilers!)).  That would have been amazing.

Still, I'm not sad about how it all went down.  It was unexpected and thrilling and felt pretty much right.

Arya is my GIRL!

I'm looking forward to the remaining three episodes.  It's unlikely that I'll be talking anything Game of Thrones again until the series is done, unless something as spectacular as the ending to episode three happens again... which, I mean, it might.

What about you?  Did you watch it?  If so, how do you feel about it all right now?  Let me know in the comments!

I'm off to do work.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Today I'm blogging at Black Gate magazine.  I mean, technically, it was last week, but I'm playing catch-up with everything, so you're getting it now instead of last Wednesday.  Anyway, I blogged about Merlin. Again.

It's good.  Shut up.

Good morning, Readers!

I'm going to just quote the press release here, and add some notes later:

This announcement came in while I was ill, and I meant to blog about it, but my brain wasn't functional.  I did, however, manage to change the links for my books on this site that I have published by Renaissance Press.  For those who don't know, that would be Daughters of Britain and Skylark.

If you're new to this blog, or me, Daughters of Britain is a historical fiction set in Roman-occupied Britain and Gaul, staring (mostly) the eldest of Boudicca's two daughters and the son of the Batavian chieftain, Civillis (Civillis existed, but I'm not sure his son did).  I'm really rather proud of this one.  It draws on my academic love - Celtic Studies.  View your purchase options here.

Skylark is a space opera set in futuristic Canada... and space.  Obviously.  Think of it as kinda Mass Effect meets Starcraft meets pulp.  That's the only way I can really explain it.  If that perked your interest, you can learn more here.

Incidentally, if you have read any of my books, a book review is deeply appreciated.

Right, I have some writing to get done.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I am still alive. That's good.

This weekend was a bust. I spent all of Saturday asleep in bed. Or coughing. Mostly sleeping, though, which is preferable.  It was almost the same Sunday, but I forced myself out of bed in the afternoon to make it (late) to the double book launch for two anthologies - We Shall Be Monsters and Over the Rainbow - by Renaissance Press.  A goodly number of people went, and I was able to chat and catch up with a couple.  I mostly spent the event with my god-daughter, who is an absolute delight.

Immediately following, I spent a short time at a going away event.  I didn't last very long, being already exhausted.  I stayed just long enough to eat my first and only meal of the day before giving up on trying to function and heading home.

I had an idea about how to improve the painting I had given up on last weekend, and was hoping for the energy to get stuck on that this weekend, but alas... I was sleeping.  I'll try for next weekend.  I'm running out of time and I need to get this one done before Ottawa ComicCon.

Also, because of my sleeping and being generally miserable last week, I got absolutely no writing done.  I did, however, manage to binge enough Merlin to finish the series and now I'm sad.  I really do love that dorky show, and I'm sad to see it end.  Also, weirdly, there was a Merlin themed YouTube video that popped into my feed that was uploaded just Saturday, so I guess I'm not the only one rewatching the series (or perhaps discovering it for the first time) and really loving it.

However, the lack of routine has absolutely screwed with me.  I'm one of those terrible people that needs a rigid routine and a whole lot of "me time" in order to function properly.  When something disturbs that routine, it can wreck my entire life for a little bit. Being without a routine this past week was not a good time.  It wasn't just the nasty cold.  I'm glad to be back at some sort of routine today.

I shall return to writing tomorrow.  Today, it's going back over what I've written the last time to catch my brain up again.  I'm hopeful that, despite not writing at all last week, I can finish this manuscript by the end of May.  Lordy do I want to be finished this manuscript soon!

Right, I'm off to do stuff.  I hope you all had a great weekend and have a fantastic day today.

​Ciao!