Let’s go, 2017.

The past year has been … not quite so bad as I thought it might be. I spent five months of it in California on a work experience, where I met cool people and ate good food. I was able to get some writing done, though not, perhaps, as much as I would have liked. Most importantly, I’ve now made it a full year without any serious relapses in my bipolar disorder. I’ve been able to keep to my medications regularly, although I’m not exercising as much as I ought to, granted; but I haven’t slipped once into a crippling depression from which there appears to be no escape.

In this regard, I should take a moment to recognize some of the achievements I’ve accomplished in 2016. From publishing one novel to writing another, things have gone pretty well, and there are some that I’m not entirely ashamed of.

  1. In February, I launched the second book in The Redemption of Erâth series, Exile. I hosted a week-long Facebook party, gave out dozens of copies, and got several reviews in return.
  2. In April, I went to California for a five-month career experience, taking me away from my home and family for probably the longest period of time I can remember. And I survived!
  3. In May, I got to see The Cure live—they were phenomenal.
  4. In November, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time in five years. I didn’t win, but it’s the effort that counts!
  5. Throughout all this year I managed to struggle through possibly the hardest book to write so far in the Redemption of Erâth series, and I can happily say it’s almost complete—only one chapter left to write!

As you can see, all-in-all I feel pretty good about where I’m at right now—which is a distinct improvement from this time last year. So here’s to 2017, and whatever it may bring: the goal is to release the third book in the Redemption of ErâthAncients & Death, and hopefully see a few more reviews of my other books start to trickle in. Additionally, I’d like to try and post here with a little more regularity and frequency, and spent just a little bit of time reading what you all have to say, too.

Happy New Year!

The Genealogy of The Redemption of Erâth

So, instead of writing recently I’ve been playing around with MacFamilyTree, which is a pretty neat genealogy application (I’m sure there are equivalents for Windows). Not only does it let you add in mothers, fathers, partners, brothers and sisters, but it then tells you the relationship between all these people, gives you plausibility warnings (e.g. if someone was married two years after they were born), and gives you the person’s age at time of death.

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What Should We Watch?

For a long time now, Little Satis and I (little … he’s nearly thirteen!) have had a tradition of watching a movie on Friday or Saturday night, something we like to call Movie Night. There was a time when I would write up reviews of what we watched, and I’d like to start doing this again. However, I need some help. After years of superhero and action/adventure movies, I’m looking to expand his horizons by introducing him to some other varieties—classics, thrillers, horror, etc. I’ve come up with a few categories that I’d like to expose him to: I’ll list these below with some example films from each. If you feel so inclined, I would love to know what film recommendations you have for a thirteen-year-old to watch with his dad.

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