Hey hey!

Several months ago I listened to a Hello Internet podcast where one of the hosts, Grey, spoke of something called "brain crack", a phenomenon where you imagine how you would handle a personal/public/national/world problem with such competence and imagination that you get addicted to the daydream, rather than taking action toward solving the actual problems, or anything else in your life that needs doing.

This trait is not always useful for dealing with day-to-day life, but it is absolutely critical when I'm outlining out a novel.  That brain-crack journey is how I feel out a story before I write it.  How I figure out the plot beats and character interactions. 

I used to write it down in a spiral note book, but I've since started using a free program called yWriter that has a fantastic chapter-by-chapter outlining function.  It also allows for writing the actual novel using its application, but I can't break away from Word, nor do I really want to.  More than that, yWriter is the place where I feel more comfortable letting the daydreams of the plot flow through my mind.  Sometimes, I'll go minutes on end with out typing anything, yet feeling very productive with the mental exercise.

And that productivity is bearing out an outline of Players of the Game Book 5.  Right now, I think it's going to be called The Game War, though that may change.  The story will likely change substantially from the outline, and that's totally fine.  Having a map makes for a better journey, especially if you try out a few detours.

ViRauni is a major character in the Players of the Game series.  She has been featured before on a bonus content book cover.  She is a former queen who fell into a dark place.  Her past choices haunt her.  She is constantly reminded of them with the cursed armor that she wears, and the cursed sword she wields.  The magic affliction renders her skin unable to touch anything living, passing through it like a phantom.  Corsis took much from her.  She strives to take it all back.

Dune

I recently caught the new movie on HBO Max, and might even venture into the theater to watch it on the big screen.  I enjoyed it a great deal.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked it, which is my favorite outcome of any media I consume.  The effects, the cinematography, direction, writing, and acting are all top notch.  It is a bit dense, so it's not for everyone.  I will also say that it is truly odd to see Jason Momoa without a beard.  I finally pulled out the book and am working my way through the it as well.  The movie is pretty faithful to the book, but I think the dialogue in the movie is a bit better.  Sacrilege!  Give it a watch if you are wanting something that's a little bit House of Cards and a little bit Fellowship of the Ring.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

This novel is trippy in the best way.  It starts with a cop investigating a suicide of someone who was suffering from false memories from a life she did not live.  She is not the only one.  There are many others suffering from the same false memory syndrome.  Imagine the end of Back to the Future, but instead of everyone being fine with the new timeline, everyone also remembers how things were in the original timeline as well as the new timeline.  Things spiral out of control from there.  Both audio book readers, Jon Lindstrom and Abby Craden, do a great job of handling the duties between the two main characters.  Good stuff.

That's all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim