Weekly Update - 12/18/24

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go.

This, of course, means I'm gearing up for my yearly voyage into the Arctic Circle, aka 'the Midwest.' I spent 5-6 days every year going back to The Old Country, where I will see my remaining living family, celebrate Christmas with them, see my last couple of friends who remained behind in my hometown and then return back to California, where nobody's pissing on my head and telling me it's sunshine.

I'm midway into a new Breakpoint chapter that I'll hopefully wrap up soon, and then on Saturday, I'll spend all day in airports or on airplanes. I'll try and get some writing during then as well, but I've learned in some ways I'm at the mercy of the travel gods. Sometimes it's like 'sure, this was easy,' but other times, the travel can be more than a bit challenging. We'll see how it goes.

No posts probably most of next week - next Wednesday IS Christmas, after all, and I'll actually be mid-travel much of that day anyway, so maybe I'll drop something cheeky, but we'll see. For those who have asked, yes, I always do come back to California on Christmas Day, usually in the afternoon/evening, because one year I travelled back on the 26th, and I considered not coming back for Christmas the following year, the trip back was so horrific. Twenty-some years later, I still remember that singular day as one of the most brutal and challenging I've ever had. So I made a deal with my family - I would come back each year still, as long as I could leave on Christmas Day, and not deal with the 26th. That treatise still holds to this day.

The What Am I Writing for the end of the year currently has Threadbinders in the lead, by, I think single vote, with Amor Ex Machina and Captains' Days tied for second, so if you're considering upgrading your subscription, your vote could make the difference. If money's tight, believe me, I completely get it, and take care of yourselves first and foremost.

Stuff I'm going to try and bang out before the end of the year: BP 17, QT:PT 23, QT2:35, the You Decide! winner and A New Year's Silversmith story, but we'll see, because that's a LOT of content for me to try and hammer out, in addition to some back owed commissions I'm still working on. It's a LOT when I look at it, so it's entirely possible a few things might see some slippage. I'll do what I can to try and get through it all, but it's also Christmas, and I'm getting this year's tattoo on one of my forearms, so we'll see how much that impacts typing, although it really shouldn't be that much.

Public releases look like such for the next month: 12/21 - Before The Storm 12; 12/28 - Turn At Sin River 1; 1/4 - Neon Stonehenge 7; 1/11 - QT2:26; 1/18 -QT:UM3.

Last thing - if you're looking for a good new videogame to keep you occupied a while, I do recommend Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I've spent what free time I could chip away punching fascists and exploring lost Vatican tombs. Troy Baker's Harrison Ford impersonation is spot on, the writing is excellent and reminiscent of the films, and the level design is generally pretty solid. (I found myself backtracking at one point before realizing what I was looking at an alternate path IN, rather an a different way FORWARD, which is clever.)

And if you loved Ted Lasso and are looking to be punched directly in the feels again, I recommend Shrinking, which is just about to finish its second season, and has a lot of the same Ted Lasso mojo running through its veins (which isn't surprising, as many of the same writers cross pollinate the shows). I'm not too proud to admit I've cried multiple times during the show. Plus, The Rookie comes back next month, and I'm always down to watch Nathan Fillion in anything.

Anyway, that's where everything stands. Merry Christmas, happy holidays and be excellent to each other...