The Random Update

We’ve crossed the six week threshhold.  Whew!  The baby is starting to adhere to a real schedule (thank goodness) with a nap in the afternoon, a rather long sleep period from late evening to early morning, and then a cluster feed in late afternoon.  I can’t say how relieved I am that this is finally occurring.

I’m about finished with the Eric Flint book and the second Wild Cards book.  The Flint book is much better than I expected.  His writing style used to annoy me, but I always read a great deal of his stuff due to the fantastic plots and characters that he managed to put together.  In this last book, he has matured enough as a writer (or changed his voice enough) that I actually find his style more readable.  The second Wild Cards book is a bit of a disappointment.  While I enjoy the continuation of the characters created in the first book, the second one uses an inane plot device about alien invasion that sapped my patience.  The bright spots in the book are the Melinda Snodgrass story featuring Dr. Tachyon and the Martin story featuring The All Powerful Turtle.  Unfortunately, Vellum is still sitting with a bookmark in it beside my easy chair.  Could Hal Brooks at least try to be a little more comprehensible?

It seems that I am the only one of a very few who did not pick up Lord of the Rings: Online.  It’s interesting to be in a self-imposed exile, but I have to admit to a certain sense of satisfaction in knowing that I remain above the lure of an escapist game and the peer-pressure that comes along with it.  In the meantime, I’ll wrap up Titan Quest, finish the GDI and Scrin campaigns for Command and Conquer 3, and enjoy my return to the writing scene.

Speaking of writing, I can now resolve a mystery that has been plaguing some of you (thanks to all who have sent inquiries).  I stopped posting Loss of Innocence after the end of the third chapter because I suddenly had interest from a publisher.  I went as far as the “option” stage, but was rejected before I received an advance.  I’m not going to disclose the publisher or the details of the deal, but I have to say that even though I was disappointed with the outcome, the process as a whole was very positive.  I hope to place another project with the same publisher some time within the next year, and I will continue to shop Loss around.  I’m debating about whether to continue serializing Loss in its entirety.  There are six more chapters that I could post, but if I do that, what’s the incentive to actually buy the book?  (Mercenary of me, I know.)  Besides, now that the site has finally evolved a “voice” of its own, it feels like cheating to just post a section of a chapter as a blog entry.  What do you guys think?  Respond in the comments section below.

The voice of the site has been a little heavy lately, with topics running the gamut of current events.  I aim to lighten it for a while with some more writing samples, more satire, and more straight science posts.  In the meantime, I’m off to play Daddy.