Howdy, folks!

All of us have encountered situations where something you really didn't want to happen comes to pass, either in the slow-motion disaster way or the out-of-nowhere way. 

Stubbed toes being a prime example of the latter. 

And there are a few ways to approach voicing your frustration with such events.  Suck it in.  Voice an edited exclamatory phrase like "darn it!"

Or you let loose with something worse involving f bombs, s bombs, other fill-in-the-blank bombs, taking names in vain, or combinations thereof.

Speaking for myself alone.  My philosophy is it's sometimes best to not let the curse words fly if you're at work, in a public space around strangers, or around kids.

Other times.

Other times, rightly or wrongly, I will indeed vent the curses with abandon.  It's how I talk.  And it's how most adults talk. 

And in fantasy and sci-fi worlds, authors will often take two different approaches.  The made up curse word route with "frak" being a notable example from the newer version of Battlestar Galactica.  "By the abyss" also being a go-to for D&D novels.

Or authors just use the actual curse words.  Joe Abercrombie's First Law series is a good example of that.

I fall into the camp of actually using the curse words.  Even if that loses me readers who don't like it.  It just feels more authentic to me.

More visceral.

I always drop an F bomb in the first 5-10 pages of any of my POTG novels.  I want the reader to know early on that these words exist in my series, and if that isn't a reader's bag, then they can pull the eject lever early on without investing too much time.

And for readers who don't mind language amid the violence of my stories.

I'm deeply thankful that you strapped in and took the Players of the Game ride!

This is the ViRauni armor, but the person inside of it is not Mol Granz.

Another wore the crimson demonic plating before the Queen of the Grells.  Someone without kindness.  Without morality.  Without sanity.

Let's peer beneath the helmet and see her face.

This is Jarah.

A Long Lived Grell who's immortality slowly drove her insane over the centuries.  But another beheld beauty in her madness.

Corsis.

The Master of the Game delighted in the violence she inflicted in her mania.  And her passion.

The pair shared an unwed union for centuries.  She bore three children.  Tempes and two others.

But her neuro divergence worsened as time went on.  Corsis could no longer nudge or control her.  And he had no interest in finding her help.

So he granted her one last gift.  And a curse to go with it.  He rune raveled the ViRauni armor for her.  And he planted a seed in her mind.

An inane question a child might ask a parent.  One that never will have an actual answer.  One that she will destroy everything to carve out its truth.

She asked it as she went on a rampage centuries before the Eruption.  She asked it as she died at Vick Burnhelt's hands.

And she still asks it as a spirit tethered in eternal service to her onetime lover.  Stalking those who have the misfortune of encountering her.  Such as a living ghost named Avril Enzali.

Jarah will ask the question.  And she will relentlessly hunt Avril to rip the truth from her. 

Whether she knows it or not.

Learn what question Jarah asks in The Brigands.

Woof... 

The Windows Magnifier's read aloud function is incredibly helpful at finding typos, grammar mistakes, and awkward sentences.  But my goodness do I wish Microsoft would use the more natural sounding voices from Outlook and Word 365 with this function. 

I will be most happy to be done with its flat monotone and mispronunciations.  ViRauni is my new favorite one.  It pronounces is as "Six-Rauni", reading the "Vi" as a Roman numeral six.

The robits are ridiculous at times.

I am nearly done with The Game War's fourth draft ultra grammar run-through with the triple check of ProWritingAid, Google Docs, and the Magnifier Reader.  I just finished Chapter 95.  I'm hoping to finish up in a week or so with Chapters 96-109.

Then on to a spell check and sending off the draft to beta readers and the editor.

I'll need to switch mental gears after that and start outlining Book 4.5 and possibly use Scapple to do more macro plotting with the back half of the POTG saga.

I'm looking forward to putting the pieces together.  I'd quote Schism by Tool, but I don't plan on watching them fall away. 

Great song, though.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

"I was planning on sending up a giant flare to signal them,” Ashe said.

Celsis scoffed out a laugh. “Along with everything else on the field of battle. My way was smarter.”

Ashe sighed. He really wanted to do that for purely childish reasons. “I guess you’re right.”

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

It is a tragedy that this movie didn't do better.  But they can't unmake it.

So, HAH!   I still got to see it.

No, it wasn't as good as Mad Max: Fury Road, but that earlier movie is a modern masterpiece.  This prequel is still a 9 or 8 out of 10 in my book.

I love the chapter format and the far more expansive timeline.  The young girl Furiosa gets far more screen time as she is unlucky enough to cross paths with Chris Hemsworth's very un-Thor-like portrayal of Dementus.

Dementus's motorcycle chariots, verbose monologues, and fake-it-till-you-make-it incompetence are well done.

When Anya Taylor-Joy finally shows up as the young adult Furiosa, she does a fantastic job of conveying the stoic intensity of the character.  She ably mimics Charlize Theron's voice.  I'd put it up there with Ewan McGregor's imitation of Alec Guinness.

Tom Holkenborg's (aka Junkie XL's) score music is more of the same frantic and slow burn of deep chords with fast tempos.  It totally fits the flick's post-apocalyptic vibe.

It'd be nice if this movie finds more popularity on streaming, but if it doesn't, c'est la vie.

I'll still be be getting the Blu-ray.

Othercide

I got this game on Steam after looking at a Reddit thread for games that are like XCOM2.

I'll admit that it took me a little to get into after a few months' worth of false starts.

It centers on a neo-goth steampunky world where weird monsters hunt the city streets.  And the Red Mother dispatches her many white-haired, grey-skinned clone daughters to combat them.

All of them with posh hairstyles and leather armor.

There's lots of turn-based tactics I like.  And it has the Darkest Dungeon mechanic of perma death.  So it's more about filling in gaps in your A and B teams with class types rather than specific characters.  But you can resurrect the daughters if you spend the resources to do so.  And you can also have the daughters absorb/consume one another to power them up. 

Not at all disturbing.

I'm having fun with the game and really dig its black, white, grey, and red color palette.

Smash Words is running a month-long promo.  And all the Players of the Game books are part of it.

They're all free for the month of July.

Tap on the image or the button below starting on July 1, or you can save the link: https://www.smashwords.com/she...

Please share this promo with friends and family. You can even forward this email to the avid readers in your life.

Check 'em out if you're a Smashwords reader, or even if you aren't.

Happy reading!

That's all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim