Thomas

This one looks cool. Definitely wanna check it out when it releases. Looks like it may come out on the ps4, otherwise I have to hope my laptop can run it, haha

I have no problem with negative reviews and believe that even they can be good for authors. Everyone has different tastes and it's better for reviewers to be honest and give their opinions on a book. If they explain what they didn't like about a book it doesn't always end up in others avoiding it. If one reviewer doesn't like certain things about a book, those can sometimes be selling points for others. I also don't necessarily think a reviewer really needs to find things to compliment in order to ease the negativity. If there was nothing they liked about it, so be it, that's their opinion. (That said, if there were things that they did like about it, go ahead and mention them too.) My only thing is, there's a difference between a negative review and just shit talking and I think that's important to keep in mind. Explain what was not liked rather than just ranting about how awful they thought it was.

So far it seems worth the read. Much more reminiscent of Blood Song

I just finished Farilane by Michael J Sullivan. I highly recommend anything by him. While this one is supposed to be able to be read as a stand alone, I feel like there is just so much to pick up on if one's read his previous works and it can be a far more satisfying read that way. The way he weaves the lore and history of his world throughout each series is excellent. And Sullivan has a hell of a way of making a reader connect with the characters. Now I'm onto The Black Song by Anthony Ryan. Not too far in yet, but I was a big fan of his Raven's Shadow trilogy and of The Wolf's Call, and this one seems promising so far.

I tried No Man's Sky early on and didn't really get into it. But this looks like it may be worth checking out again.

Agreed, staff for sure. Hell, crack 'em in the head nice and hard with it and in a second you'll have a staff and a dagger.

Console, I mostly stick with my ps4

Ended up getting this. I'm not as awful at it as I have been at similar games. Been enjoying it so far. Though I've been mostly exploring, leveling, and avoiding bosses like the fucking plague, haha.

Nah, I'm staying in the same town. But the rental market here is a mess, like $1600 a month being considered cheap for a studio apartment. Fortunately I got some good friends with a spare room they're gonna rent me til I can find something better. No lingering COVID. I was pretty lucky with that, had very minimal symptoms and nothing really stuck around. Just been having a lot of stressful life changes going on that have been draining me. But things are moving forward, I think the weekend to unwind was much needed. Hope your weekend was good. Still gotta finish your interview with Dyrk Ashton, but it looks like you've been busy as usual, haha

Been having a rough few weeks lately, but I got a long (4 day!) weekend this week. Got to see an old friend today before he heads out west then up to Alaska. Only usually see him once every few years. Was nice and warm here today, round about 50 degrees, but looks like we're getting more snow tomorrow. So probably just trying to relax at the apartment. Sunday gonna meet up with some friends a make a day of going to some bars and walking around town. Basically just trying to enjoy this weekend and ignore responibilities for a bit. Next week get back to it. Gonna be moving soon, so gotta start packing and downsizing, unfortunately probably gotta trim down the book collection. Hope y'all enjoy your weekends!

I hope to give it a shot one of these days, but whenever I play these sort of games it just reminds me that I'm not good at video games anymore.

It shouldn't be too hard really. Some of the reasons it's running so long is because it covers a few major plot lines that are happening at the same time and it was going to span a few years. The way I'm gonna work around it is let the ongoing war span two books, while allowing the other POVs to dominate the ending of the first one. There are a few climactic elements I'm getting to that seem like a natural ending point for a novel, so I'm gonna allow it to end there. Basically if I kept going it would still kinda feel like two books packed into one, so there's very little I need to adjust to make it work. Just have to add a few chapters to wrap it all up nicely. And then getting into the next novel, I may need a few chapters to help lead back into what it already underway. Before I got to this point, my other thought was to divide up the POVs. In which case half of them would take place in one book then the next would pick up with the others (so both books would chronologically run alongside one another) But to end this rambling answer, it ended up working out perfectly (in my opinion) and I think the end of this one will surprise the shit out of readers and make for a great ending to the third Fall of Emros book. Just got a few more chapters to go and then a few editing passes and it'll be done!

Yeah finding just the right balance is key. Plus, there will always be those that prefer one way over the other whichever way ya go. I think generally, major plot threads running throughout the series are great as long as there are a few elements that are central to each novel. As for my own project right now, I think I'm going the two books route. Wrapping this novel up with some pretty serious shit happening at the end. Definitely a satisfying ending to the novel (or I guess I sure as hell hope so, haha) and setting up for things to just keep getting more and more wild in the next book.

Haha, I hear ya on the length. I know some people love massive skull crusher books, but I like trying to keep them at about 100k tops. It can be a nice break when everything else on the TBR exceeds that.

(I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds, I ask out of curiosity and to start a discussion on this topic, but also for my own selfish brainstorming to aid my own creative process, haha) I was curious of some opinions. As I sit here, working on the third novel in my series, I had a few thoughts. I'm at a bit of an impasse. I've been playing with the idea of whether to make this book one or two novels and as I'm at the point of about 90k words now seems the time to decide. So, my question to y'all. How would you feel if you were reading a book (in a series) in which there has been a lot of build up to a war. In that novel, the opening battles take place and said war begins. Quite a bit happens, but by the end it is unresolved and the war continues into the next novel. At the same time, it follows two major storylines, there are big events that take place, but some aspects are ongoing. -Would it be annoying to not have that war resolved in the same book? -Or would you be happy with other climactic story elements and look forward to reading the resolution to that plot thread in the next book? -Or would you prefer something where the one novel follows only that main storyline of a war from start to end, then the next novel jumps back in time to show the other story that's going on in a different part of the world at the same time? -Or would you prefer one massive 200k+ word book (in the middle of a series that has been around 100k each book) following several major storylines over the span of several years? -Or something comepletely different? Sorry if this is a very rambly question, trying to put my thoughts together as I brainstorm ideas. So what do y'all think? How do you prefer individual novels in large scale epic fantasy series to be laid out?