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Happy New Year's Eve, ya bunch of filthy animals!
It's been a few months since my last post, but I've been insanely busy in the interim. First things first, though. The world lost a legend today in the form of the great entertainer Betty White. Her wonderfully unique approach to comedy has been enjoyed by innumerable fans for decades, and I'm sure her performances will continue to be enjoyed for decades to come. Rest in peace.
Second things second, I was able to dredge up some ancient history of my own thanks to the Wayback Machine. Four video originally released on Machinima Inc.'s channel back when Youtube was still weird. Three of them are little beat-driven songs created from video game gunshot sound effects, and the last one is a ridiculous mashup of cutscenes from Sonic Heroes used to make a trailer for a Sonic Movie Sequel (I never thought there would actually be a Sonic Movie Sequel, but the past few years have been absolutely bonkers, so what do I know?).
Now to the meat-and-potatoes, the actual writing update!
Untitled Novel Word Count: 84,500!
My progress isn't exactly blisteringly fast (~225 words per day on average since the last update is pretty terrible, but it's higher than my overall average of ~150/day since the project began), but the beast is slowly coming together. There are a few reasons why my progress is so glacial, so get ready for the excuse-machine to fire up! 1) I have a fairly demanding full-time job as an English professor, so it can be difficult to find time to write outside of grading papers and all that. B) My brain has this annoying habit of dropping projects for weeks or even months at a time, only to pick them back up with a meth-head's level of focus and determination. I tend to get a ton of progress in a short span, then I take time to "recharge" before doing it again. Point the Third) This particular project is probably the most difficult thing I've ever attempted. The plot is incredibly convoluted (to write, not to read, fortunately), there are more characters than I am used to dealing with in shorter fiction, the world-building has oftentimes been a little overwhelming, and damnit it's just hard. But! Approaching the endpoint, I have a pretty clear path ahead of me and most of the hard work has already been done. I have about 4 chapters left before the first draft is complete, so I'm really hunkering down and summoning those words into existence. Then...revision.
I'm also thinking about writing some articles about what I've learned from this whole process which might be useful to other novice writers. I know tons of those articles exist online already, but every writer is different and I think it's useful to have all those different perspectives available. I don't know if I'll actually wind up doing this. We shall see. The future is a dark and murky place, after all.
Other projects I still have on various burners:
My horror short story collection, Heart's Blood, is nearly complete. I have plenty of complete stories in various stages of readiness. Revision and editing and then boom. It's go-time. You can read the first one here! I would have made it free, but those rat-bastards at Amazon wouldn't give me the option. Consider the $0.99 a donation to my Mountain Dew Fund if you like. It's a good cause!
Over Throne, my card battler video game, is still on hiatus. Most of the core game mechanics are working (with a few bugs, of course) and most of the cards have been designed. I don't think it will take much more time to get some kind of Skirmish single-battle game type up and running with various options for testing. Then, it'll be time to start on the campaign...oof.
My next album is in the planning stage right now. I'll post about that in the Music Section, though.
And that's it! Whew! I still have too many irons in the fire, but I'm doing a better job at focusing on only one project at a time. Hell, I even have a starting idea for a new novel, and I haven't even finished the old one! Oh well, that's my cross to bear, and I plan to bear it like nobody's damn business.
Peace!
-OCL
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