Final Blog of 2016

2016 is all but done. I have to say this year has been one of the most unusual and entertaining – both good and bad – that I can ever remember.

2017 is going to be interesting to say the very least.

This year saw a lot less writing for me, although I did keep up with my New Mutant Monday series. I only wrote a couple of short stories and even though I did start work on a mystery novel, I was pretty disappointed in how it went.

Ironically enough the lack of writing was due almost entirely in part to my job situation, in other words not having a job for nearly half the year. I find in order to be really creative, I need to be working!

I hope 2017 will be better for me in that regard.

Speaking of writing – it is kind of disheartening. I have so many stories I can write regarding Ronnath and his daughter, but unless I end up self-publishing those and making a whole new world, I really will never make any money off them.

And isn’t that the whole reason for me to write?

I know there are those who would argue I write for mental exercise and because I love to tell a story, but really – I want to make money doing something I find pleasurable.

That reminds me, I really do need to post my fiction on Fanfiction. I did nearly a year ago, posted several of my stories but I haven’t done so since.

Maybe later today, or later this week, I will have to see.

The nice thing with 2016 coming to a close is I have all but finished my New Mutant Monday series two. I still have one last entry to write, and I will attempt to do so later today. Here are last week’s two entries – the Petalmonk and the Hambai. Of course for my first blog of 2017 I will add the four I created this week.

A few weeks ago my wife and I watched an original Netflix movie called ‘Spectral’. I was intrigued by the concept of the movie, but did not have high expectations for it. After all these years of shitty SF originals, I was ready to be unimpressed.

Was I ever wrong!

Not only did the movie have great special effects, I found myself fully drawn into the plot. In a nutshell, a force of American soldiers are based in a European country. The city is torn apart by warfare and after a group of soldiers are mysteriously killed by what appears to be a ghost, a consultant is sent to investigate.

As you would expect, things go from bad to apocalyptic in a matter of days. I won’t give away anything else as I hate spoiling it for people, I really do, but the action was great, the special effects were far better than I have seen produced by the SF channel, and some of the scenes were downright creepy.

I STRONGLY recommend this movie!

Other than that – I haven’t watched all that much. Wait, that’s a lie – my wife and I are currently a little more than halfway through the Netflix original series called Van Helsing. I’ll have more to say about it once we’re finished. Who knows, it could be by next week.

Even though he never reads my blogs, I have to send a shout out to my friend Dave Bligh. We’ve been friends for over 15 years and he’s the guy who runs the weekly Pathfinder game. He’s always put a great deal of effort into his game, making up challenges which have nothing to do with combat and as such has kept me coming back each week.

As a GM he has his weaknesses, but listening to the feedback and comments from his players is not one of them. I have seen many people come and go in our group through the past several years for many reasons – a couple just didn’t like his or our style. At least two of them got into a serious relationship with women, and two had to leave due to changes in work.

I’m the only original player left from when we started gaming again in 2014.

We have a pretty good group going right now, but I honestly don’t really like the other three players. I’ll stick around because I enjoy Dave’s game, but the other guys… ya can’t like them all, I guess.

Still he’s a good DM and it’s nice to have a regular game once again. Before we started playing back in 2014, I hadn’t had a game since 2009! Way too long to go without gaming.

And one of the other aspects of his game I really appreciate is he takes into account stories and suggestions. I have written a lot of stories around my character, and he has incorporated these into his game, and is more than happy to allow me to write up little side adventures which take place during the off time which happens between adventures.

If it wasn’t for this, the lovely young Tiefling girl Cheonsa would never have existed. The image gracing this blog is of her, all grown up.

Keep up the great work, my friend.

Oh yeah and the image As was created by my exceptionally talented friend Alfonso Maesa for his work on her.

If you want excellent work, contact him! His rates are very reasonable, believe me! Far better than you will find at pretty much any expo, anywhere!

And yes this week I finished another couple of novels. First was Red Rising by Pierce Brown. This novel is set in the fairly distant future on Mars. Society has been split into colors, each a separate class. The bottom are the reds – manual laborers with short life-spans, with the Golds being almost god-like beings who rule everything.

A young man, barley 17 years old and of the Red color is somewhat content with his life as a miner, who only wants to provide for his young wife and try to get the best quotas so they can get the extras at the end of the month.

Its all a sham. Even though he easily beats the quotas, the clan which wins every month still wins. After losing his wife, he is recruited by a terrorist organization in order to infiltrate the ruling color and enact changes.

Months of brutal physical changes and training eventually lead to his getting into to ruling class, where his real trials begin.

Not a bad start to the trilogy, and I certainly will be reading the next book in a few months.

The second novel was Monster Hunter: Grunge by Larry Correia and John Ringo. It is part of a new series involving Monster Hunter International and covers new characters. I was really entertained by this book and other than that, I don’t want to spoil it for you, other than to say Chad is one bad-ass hunter!

I still love their take on the Fae and Elves. Not what you would have expected, believe me!

And that wraps up my blog for this year.

I hope it has been a good year for you, my readers. I know being Canadian I have been not only entertained but horrified by the politics and all the other corruption and events which I have watched, and I can only hope somehow you can make it through the upcoming years.

Stay warm, stay strong, and most importantly, try to stay happy.