January 2024 News

Happy January the 1st of 2024.
It’s only right that I open by shining light on some things I loved in 2023. Then some accomplishments of 2023, then a quick update on book things.

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Books

I’m god awful at reviewing books, no matter how much I try to improve. The best I can do is tell ya what works for me. Your kilometerage may vary.

Lonesome Dove
by Larry McMurtry

One of my favorite authors, Joe Abercrombie, talks about this book a lot in interviews and in general. I had not read a solid, classic western ever but I had read some historical fiction and enjoyed it so I gave it a go. Considering I listen to, rather than read, most books I ingest, this one was a good investment at 945 pages. And it was so good I listened to it twice back to back. This book was a great source of ideas for an eventual stories or set of stories I have planned (more on that below).
If I had to attempt to pin down what worked for me it would be:
- a bleak setting that never lets you forget how cheap life is.
- a deep dive into an occupation that was adventurous, dangerous, and almost entirely unrelatable to common day.
- the wide range of characters through whom we experience this world. You’ll see that sorta thing reflected in Abercrombie’s writing and in V&V. I love a deep world explored from many angles.
- the characters are amazing and believable and no matter how cool or interesting they are, they can be snuffed out with no warning. Speaking of the characters,
- Augustus McCrae. What a damn masterpiece. When we meet him he comes off like a washed up bloviator. A has-been “remember the old days” blabber mouth. But by god he puts his money where his mouth is. Still a bad ass. And his quips are gold. I soon learned if he was in a scene I was bound to laugh at something he said at least once per page. In fact it’s a quote of his that best sums up the plot of this thousand-page epic:
”Call’s gone to round up a dern bunch of cowboys so we can head out for Montana with a dern bunch of cows and suffer for the rest of our lives.”

The Pariah
by Anthony Ryan

This book gave me a comfy feeling. I knew from early on that I was in good hands. The writing is consistently good and the hero, Alwyn, is capable and smart. I look forward to reading the rest of this series.
Did I mention I was shit at reviews? Just wait for this next one…

The Book that Wouldn’t Burn
by Mark Lawrence

This book felt like sunshine to me and I’m not sure why. There’s plenty of darkness in it, but there’s also magic galore. There are easter eggs throughout in the form of references to other worlds, Mark’s and others. This one will be fun to reread because now I know what to look for.
Yes, I know this is a bad example of a review. I warned you.

Films

I don’t think a film changed me in 2023, which is sad. Granted, I don’t watch a lot of movies. Super Mario Brothers was great, nostalgia-fueled fun but I haven’t felt the need to re-watch it. D&D: Honor Among Thieves was also fun but as you can see, it didn’t even inspire me to search out and post an image.
If I think of a film that changed me I’ll update this.

Shows

Live action One Piece was cool, but I have to give the top spot to Yellowstone.

A bunch’a disagreeable cnuts

For me the story and the characters are good but they aren’t the primary appeal (in fact some of the characters can go f*ck themselves). It’s the setting and world-building that do it for me. A modern family-owned cattle company that owns so much land they can pretty much create and enforce their own laws on it. It helps that the majority of the family holds offices or occupations of power. As with all good stories, conflicts abound.
I have ripped a hundred ideas out of this show (and Lonesome Dove) for eventual use in stories. These take place in Halandor and involve giant hunters, ranchers (but not of cattle), train heists, airships, redcap goblins, crime families, gods & demigods, railroad tycoons, experimental weapons of mass destruction, and so on. Good times, I tell ya’.

Games

The problem with a game like Elden Ring is that it’s too good. It dropped in February of 2022 and for me nothing has managed to follow it.

Against the Storm, on Steam

I have been playing Against the Storm on Steam. I really dig it. Sometimes these cozy colonizer sims crank the anxiety up to eleven early on and really stomp out any enjoyment I was hoping for. Not this one, or at least not in the first 25ish hours. It’s nice and chill, and I gather I can increase the difficulty if I get bored.

Accomplishments

• On August 4th I finally published Violence & Vigilance, which I’ve been tinkering with since 2013. Ten years is too long for a book, but luckily book two (the finale) is about halfway written. It shouldn’t take another ten years. Chuckles in Rothfussian.

thanks again to Felix Ortix and Shawn T King for prettying my baby all the way up

• Some buddies and I launched a fantasy novel-focused live podcast called the Four Bookbeards of the Bookpacolypse. We’ve got two episodes in the books and have plans for many more.

Maximus Festivitis

• Record year for Lake Hartwell Kayak had a record year, for the second year straight. Good times. I miss the Summer.

pic taken in November from my favorite peninsula in Hartwell

Updates

V&V Audiobook

We’re up to chapter 33 of 60

The audiobook is over halfway done. I sure am loving listening to Jon Waters narrate this story. That’s partly because I’m so green at all this that I’m just happy anyone’s reading it. But he’s great at the emotion and humor and delivery of complex sentences. I can’t wait for it to be public.

The Heathen Tide

I’ll admit to you I’ve not been giving V&V’s sequel enough attention since August, instead focusing on pushing V&V out to the world and trying to make it all it can be. But I think a couple of buddies are about to revive the old writing group, which will force me to churn out at least a chapter a week. I sure do benefit from deadlines.

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Until next time

May you make yourself worthy of your resolutions

dtl