A Little Break From All the Writing

Yes it's two days late, sorry!

Only two more blogs (including this one) before I’m off to the tropics once again. I will still publish my blog while I’m out in the Philippines, and unlike my usual way of doing things, I’ll try to make those a little more interesting for my readers.

I’ve taken a bit of a break from creating material over the past week and a bit. When I realized I would be incapable of finishing the Wisdom from the Wastelands weapons compilation, I decided it would be in my best interest to step back and not rush.

Considering how much I’ve been writing over the past… what, 16 months, I need to have a little bit of a break, even if it’s only a few days or so. After all I have written 750,000 plus words since the beginning of November 2014!

I typically write about 2000 words or more a day at my work during my breaks and Friday was the first time in a very long time I voluntarily stepped back and did not bother.

Does this mean I am giving up on my writing?

Pardon me… fuck no!

I just need a rest.

I’ll more than likely get back to it on Tuesday or so. I probably won’t be doing any work on any source books until the 14^th or so, and even then I do believe I’ll just go back to the second round of editing my zombie novel.

One of the worst things that can happen to a writer has happened to me. I’ve begun to seriously doubt my ability as a writer, which is an absolute killer! Too many people have given up on their dreams because of self-doubt when it comes to what they are working on.

And I’m being plagued by that at the moment! It sucks like you would not believe!  Maybe I should not bother putting any work on hold and just get back on the horse and continue.

It’s a matter of not being sure what to do.

A few days rest will not totally kill my passion, but if this turns from a few days to a few months, that is not good.

For those of you who read my thoughts, you know what is coming next. Yes – it is time for me to link my two latest creations for New Mutant Monday Series Two! I wrote up two creations, one inspired by an image from a friend of mine, and the other just an original creation. This week I present to you the Dread Bees and the Tenti-Hands.

Skirmisher also released two new products this week. One took me by surprise, as I have known for some time about adult coloring books, but had no idea Skirmisher was working on one! It is "The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan: A Coloring Book", based upon the chapters Michael O. Varhola has been posting almost every week on the main page.

The second release is Skirmisher’s first foray into the 5^th edition! 'Men & Monsters of Ethiopia: An RPG Sourcebook for 5th Edition' The hardcopy of this book will be available soon, but feel free to grab the PDF right now.

And here’s hoping that with the release of both of these products we shall see some of my material in the near future.

Since the boys took a break from their podcast last week, it was nice to see them back this time around. They discussed Smart Swords and Dumb Phones, and as usual it was a lot of fun to watch them discuss it! As you have seen me type many times in the past, I really wish I could get back on the show, but I’m too dedicated to my Kung Fu students. =)

No movies this week, but I did manage to finish a novel called ‘The Fire Sermon’ by Francesca Haig. It’s a post-apocalyptic novel, I guess one would consider to be a dystopian future, where after a nuclear war and the near extinction of humanity, the survivors began to give birth to twins. One appeared perfect in every way and became to be known as Alpha’s, while the others had deformities – typically missing limbs, or having too many, although a very tiny percentage were born as ‘Seers’, gifted with Psionic powers that allowed them to see the past, the war, and events that were about to occur.

The Alpha’s look down upon their twins, seeing them as tainted and poisonous, and as such force them to live in the worst land and enforce heavy rules upon them, including a crushing tithe, which they have to pay.

They cannot kill one another though, as they are linked. What happens to one twin, happens to the other. If one is hurt or sick, the other experiences it. If one dies, so does the twin.

It was an interesting concept, and the first third of the book did hold my interest, but I found my mind wandering after that and really I did not get into the characters at all. It is supposed to be the first in a series of novels, but I honestly don’t know if I will bother with the next ones or not!

Still if this is the kind of book that would appeal to you, by all means, pick it up and read it, and hopefully you’ll enjoy it more than I did!

I also finished a novel called ‘The Last Survivors’ by Bobby Adair, T.W. Piperbrook. This is another post-apocalyptic novel set hundreds of years in the future where humanity has been struggling against ‘demons’ for centuries. The demons are humans which have been infected by a fungus that causes growths to appear all over the body and turns them into mindless savages.

There is no real explanation as to what caused the end of the world, but I would assume it has to do with this fungus.

The novel is about a woman who lost her husband to the fungus, and discovers her son has likewise been infected, and decides to leave her home and town to try and give her boy as long as possible before he turns or she has to kill him.

I found I did not care in the least for any of the characters, and although the prose was well written, I really could not get into the book. I honestly don’t know if I’m going to bother with the rest now, as there are four in the series.

I guess the creatures have a lot of similarities to the fungal zombies from the game ‘The Last of Us’, which I have not played because I don’t own a Play Station 4.

Expect a conversion of the ‘demons’ to eventually show up.

It’s an average book for me. As always, check it out and maybe you’ll enjoy it far more than I did.

And that’s it for this week.

I hope everything is going well for all my readers!

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook Creatures of the Tropical Wastes sourcebook, co-author of its Wisdom from the Wastelands game supplement and contributor to the 'Sword of Kos: Hekaton' Anthology. Check out his Twitter, FaceBook, Pintrest, Reddit and Fan Fiction accounts!