It’s been over a year now and I’m still somehow managing to write a weekly blog. It really does amaze me that I’ve been able to keep it going for so long.

Has my blog changed all that much? No. I’ve added a few things, mainly doing little micro-reviews whenever I read a book, watch a show, read a comic, buy a new RPG book etc.

Every week I still manage to discuss what I’m currently writing, what I’m thinking about writing, and typically a few observations or rants.

This blog will be no different from the rest.

SO, I’m still plugging away at the Monk Items for Dungeonmasters and Dragonslayers (a Labyrinth Lord compatible publication). It has broken the 10,000 word mark and is just over 20 pages long. I intend to write another 6 pages of material (maybe less) before I finally send it to Michael O. Varhola.

Other than that, I have not worked on anything RPG related at all this week.

I did however, start a brand new story – or maybe short story, novella, full length novel – my long time readers know me all too well. The story is called ‘Buck Who?’ and has been posted after undergoing two edits. It’s a science fiction story, and it’s the first chapter.

Will I post a weekly chapter? I cannot say with any honesty. It all depends on when Michael finally gets around to publishing ‘Dark Inheritance’.

You might be wondering what that has to do with writing this story. Well, once Michael finally gets ‘Dark Inheritance’ into the queue for publishing, then I will have to go back and work on ‘Familiar Bonds’. When I left off with that novel last month, I was only about 20% of the way through the first edit and re-write.

Speaking of which, after talking to my best friend about the novel (over burgers and wings) I was amazed to discover just how convoluted my novel has become! I really hope that my readers, once they get a chance to read it, will enjoy this.

And that covers my work for the week.

I mentioned in last week’s blog about posting a top five list on the site. Last week it was about zombies.

This week I posted my Top Five Space Opera Novels. Technically, this is misleading. They are not about individual novels, but are instead about five different series. As with my zombie list, I posted a brief description of the series and what I liked about it.

It will seriously be quite difficult for me to come up with one of these every week. At this time however I have been able to come up with five more topics, so that’ll cover my top five lists until the end of February.

Odds are pretty good I will be able to continue to come up with top five lists. I won’t lie though, once I can’t think of anything that’ll be it!

Oh and this week saw the release of Wisdom from the Wastelands 49: Superscience Artifacts 5 from my co-writer Derek Holland. It is not one of my issues, but it is still very much worth your time to pick up and read. He has some really neat unique items to add to your Mutant Future game.

Also, this week I read the first eight issues of ‘Legendary Starlord’ from Marvel comics.

Yes, I jumped on the bandwagon.

No I have yet to read the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ comic series. Not because I don’t want to, I had to special order in the first three graphic novel compilations! I have the second one, but still need to purchase the first and third. Once I do, I will be reading them.

Hey, Starlord is funny and after reading it, Chris Pratt did a great job with the character. I’ve always been a SF fan first and foremost and I know I can really get into this series. I just hope that the writers keep up their good work, and that they continue with excellent artists!

Let’s see, he frees Thanos (I have a LOT of catching up to do), gets thrown in jail, deals with his hot half-sister, and his asshole of a father. Oh, and he hooks up with Kitty Pryde from the X-men.

Yeah, that about covers the first 8 issues.

As most of my readers already know, I’m a huge fan of Jonathan Maberry and his work. I recently finished the first fiction novel he ever wrote, called ‘Ghost Road Blues’. Part of his Pine Deep trilogy.

It’s horror! Pure and simple. I’m not a big horror fan, but Jonathan is one of my favorite authors, and as such I should have read his work ages ago.

In a nutshell, flashback 30 years ago. Pine Deep is being terrorized by a serial killer. He’s stopped, the man who kills him is in turn killed. Terror is over.

Fast forward 30 years. Pine Deep has recovered and the folks have moved on. The survivors are still haunted by the tragedy and the cycle is about to begin all over again. Evil never dies, it just sleeps and waits, growing more powerful.

I finished the first novel and I will be getting to the other two in the very near future.

I also finished a novel called ‘Earthfall’ by Stephen Knight. Pure post-apocalyptic adventure. A military base that survived the holocaust sending out recon teams to scour the blasted and radioactive landscape, in the vain hope of finding survivors.

A Earthquake damages the base and threatens the survivors with death unless critical parts can be located and brought back from the wasteland that was once California.

I won’t say anything else, but it was a fun and nostalgic romp for me, considering how much I of this type of fiction I read growing up. Worth a read, believe me!

A few topics I would like to talk about.

First is how a certain word is really misused. I have been guilty of this as well, and ever since I learned the full meaning of the word. Now every time I hear it used, my mind automatically goes to the true meaning and it annoys me.  Yes, how my mind does that, and how the word is misused.

Decimated.

A simple word and most people believe that it means to essentially destroy or totally wreck something. In fact, the word means to kill one in ten, ala DECI. Ten. The verb decimate originally alluded to the Roman punishment of executing one man in ten of a mutinous legion.

So now you know. That is why I will no longer use that word in my writing, as unless I am talking about killing one in ten, it will be incorrect!

The second subject on my mind is my imagination. What if you imagine doing something, and it turns out that you are not actually imagining it happening. What if what you imagine is in fact, taking place at that exact same moment in an alternate reality?

For example, I have a co-worker that I REALLY dislike. Last week I imagined walking by him when he had his head down over his computer keyboard and doing something really unpleasant. I shook my head at the absurdity of pulling off such an act.

What if, just what if I really did that in one of the many alternate universes that are supposed to parallel our own?

Just a little something to think about.

One last thought. I am guilty of this as well. Why do we automatically assume that when dealing with foreigners, or being one (as I am in the Philippines), they would be interested in talking to people from their own country?

As I said, I am guilty of this. I automatically assume that Rose (for those who are not in the know, my beautiful wife), would like to meet people from the Philippines.

They don’t necessarily want to! Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. I know when I was in the Philippines, I really had no interest in meeting other white folks I saw there. I could tell that a lot of them were not interested in meeting me either.

For some reason however, my wife thought I would be. I was always polite and friendly of course, but I typically could tell right from the word go that they were not all that interested in talking to me.

Human nature, I guess.

And that’s it for this week. A bit of a longer post than usual, but I’m sure my faithful readers won’t mind.

I haven’t done this in a while, so if you haven’t already done so, please give my personal author page on Facebook a like, and follow me on Twitter.

Until next week, peace!

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.