State of the Author 2020

Soooo, its been a while, right?

I could start with excuses, but I wont. I will give an explanation.

My life went completely off the rails. I’ve mentioned my epilepsy, and my depression.

I went to uni. Which sucked. Honestly don’t go unless you really really have to for your career. My conditions got the better of me and turned a 3 year degree into four, with deferred exams into the fifth. Which is very soon.

In that time I had to work a normal job. Writing is hard at the best of times. Its insanely difficult with depression. Plus I had solid commitments. I had to study, attend labs, lectures, and work a full time job to pay my way.

I’ve been constantly telling myself that I will get back on the writing horse, and I have been. There are multiple half written stories on my computer. Most of them could be whipped into reasonable shape if my brain will give me a rest for a month or two. If that happens I will let you know.

What woke me up to actually writing to publish is that some lovely reader commented here very recently. I’ve been toying with the idea, since moving.

Oh, yeah, I moved. Now for most of you this will seem like nothing, but I have moved 5 whole hours away from where I was before. I was in the middle of a mid sized city in the midlands in England. Now I am a few miles away from a very small city on the south coast. I don’t drive and the buses are terrible. All in all its been traumatic and I miss my old house and city, and being close to my friends and family.

So that happened and it kinda made me think that I should get back to writing and maybe turn it into my job. I did okay before, thanks to you all.

I dont know if its because I am unemployed and the job hunt is depressing but there is something incredibly appealing about working for myself. The main issue, well, there are several.

The first is that I will need a job shortly, and that job hunting is terrible and takes up a lot of mental energy.

The second is that I realised something. My writing before was to avoid something big in my life. It gave me a focus and outlet. I could just sit there and write for 12-16 hours a day and ignore everything around me.

Now, despite the medical depression from moving and job hunting and whatnot, I am actually settled in my life. I’ve got nothing to hide from.

(You may be able to tell that I’ve had a lot of therapy in the last few years. It helped.)

TL:DR

Im writing again. It’s not magelife, sorry. Its slow and Im very judgy of myself.  Stuff has happened, but should be settling down now. Hopefully I will be able to stay engaged with you guys.

Whats been up with me?

So, as many of you will have noticed, I’ve been very quiet. I feel I should justify it and explain, but I won’t. Simply put, life happens.

But, what I did want to do is share with you is one of the stories I found while procrastinating on finals revision.

Book

It’s not my usual genre at all. Zombies. But for one, its massive, for its price. Many of us get through a lot of books, it’s why we end up drawn to web-fiction in the first place. For another, its well written, and decent.

Like I said above, zombies are not my thing. The characters are stupid, they do all the things you constant want to scream at them for. But not in this one.

If this catches your fancy, then check it out.

When time is a bit more on my side, I will write a solid review.

Hope everyone is doing well.

P. Tempest

(Don’t ask about MageWar, please)

2016: in review

There will be a lot of blog posts titled this, I assume, over the next several days.

All in all, its been a pretty rough year for the world. Trump, Brexit, all the celebrity deaths. Its been a pretty rough year for me too, on several personal levels.

My epilepsy is worse than its ever been, and I’m trialing my last chance of meds before we get on to the really sucky side effect ones. Depression is a bitch that just won’t quit. Uni is a special type of hell. My computer has developed some rather interesting quirks, one of which that it refuses to save documents.

On the downside this has crippled my writing pace. I’m still about a third of the way through the first draft of Magewar. I did get several chapters, almost another third of the way in before my computer decided that no it would not save to the cloud, nor would it give me my draft. I lost a large chunk.

I’m still plodding along but I can not make any promises that it will be done by such a date. It’s not fair to you and it’s not fair to me.

I’m going into 2017 with hope though. I have good people around me. I achieved a 2;1 in this year’s result for my degree, despite being a mass of issues, and hardly attending. Things are slowly calming, and looking up. Oh, and I managed to publish the paperback. Yes, the cover did not work so well on that format, so I will be looking into getting a better one. I don’t recommend buying it unless you feel you must have a physical copy. Its here for those that just have to have it.

I wish you all the best for your own 2017,

P. Tempest

LitRPG again

I dont have much for you this time, but some of you were rather pleased with Continue Online, others might have missed it.

Well, it turns out that FrustratedEgo, the author of Continue, has turned the first book into an eBook.

Its been rewritten, and edited even more, which has turned an already clean serial into a professional book.

I’m not going to gush, I did that in a different post. But what I am going to do is give you all the link and let you make up your own mind.

Continue Online (Book 1, Memories)

Necromancy

So, Ive been busy, with my beta readers on my new book.

Necromancy is a bit different to Magelife. Its short for one thing. 130 odd pages. But it is lean.

I hope that you guys enjoy reading it as much as I did writing is.

Necromancy is live now, so head on over and buy it, if it seems like it might be your thing. If its not, tell your friends and family, they might want to take a shot at it.

Reminder

This is just a friendly reminder that Magelife is now fully edited and available to buy

Here

I’m hard at work on something, that will be revealed in the fullness of time.

LitRPG: Continued

I did a post about this genre before, and had a very positive response to it. Billy Higgins has been bugging me a bit, so I thought, it might be time to do another.

The genre is young, but it’s growing. Many of you will have seen SAO or Log Horizon, very popular animes.

They deal with the idea of being trapped in the virtual world. It is one way to handle it, and one that works, but it falls flat. The idea of being forced out of the world into one of make believe doesn’t sit right with me. The lack of will, and true desire to be there drains much of the enjoyment from it.

Ark and Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, are for me better, but the characters are single notes. They are using the virtual world to change their life; in terms of money, it’s a job to them, and while the joy and excitement of exploration is there, it is missing depth.

Ready Player One is a very mainstream novel that comes at it from a different direction, a scavenger hunt to win the whole system. It is filled with 80’s pop references and is clever and fun, but it deals with a very real issue that affects our generation. Isolation. Escapism.

Some of the recommendations that my readers, you, have given to me, include the Alterworld books, which have another take on the whole thing. Permas are a key component, people that have spent too long in the game so they remain, impressed as a part of it. It is much more than that, and well worth the read.

I have linked them here before so I won’t go further into depth on them now.

This leads me on to a web serial that I have fallen in love with, so much so that I wish I could chain the writer down and make him write it quicker.

As of today, Continue Online, has 23 chapters and interludes.

The reason that Continue Online enthralls me so much is the main character, Grant Legate. It is not a job, or a trap, it is a journey of self discovery. Grant is middle aged, a workaholic and almost a widower. This is in total contrast to the vast majority of protagonists in LitRPG. He is old, and set in his ways, but there is a depth to him, and his interactions, that grants it more than the currently simple storyline does.

I would advise you all to check it out. I know I will be following it closely.

Author page

I was discussing things with some other authors and they pointed out the a more focused author’s page would be better than the amalgamated horror that I have here.

I have to fill it with content yet, but it is functional. Decided that it was best to get it going and see how things go.

Here is the link

Heart of the Storm

(Yes, its a little play on words.

Tempest

noun

1.

a violent windstorm, especially one with rain, hail, or snow.

2.

a violent commotion, disturbance, or tumult.)

God Punk

Hello, my faithful readers, fans, followers and miscellaneous internet dwellers.

I bring you a new offering to feed your insatiable hunger for stories.

This isn’t mine but I came across it and thought “Wow, this is pretty cool.” It is also complete. So you won’t be left hungering in update hell.

From George Royce, the journalist who covered the god killings, comes this revelatory look at the end of the world. Godpunk covers the shootings at Jewell’s Damned, his meeting with the Death Cult in the ruins of the Metal Dragon Bones, and the friendship he forms with the Angel of Death.

It’s written by Billy Higgins

Shiny link is…….HERE

LitRPG

I know this isn’t what many of you come for, but I want to share, like some of my readers have.

LitRPG is a genre of fiction that generally takes place in some kind of virtual reality. There are variances, of course, but that is the most common. Its been going through a bit of an explosion as more and more people find their way to it, and as many of the novels are translated, its apparently big in Russia.

So, I decided to link a few of the best that I have come across. I won’t give blurbs, you can find them on your own if you have the interest.

Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1)

A new entry. I found it a solid read.

AlterWorld (Play to Live: Book #1)

This is a very well known one, but I need to throw it out there for those that may not have come across it.

Edge of Reality (Phantom Server: Book #1)

This one isn’t out yet, but I’ve read the sample chapters and it really appeals to me.

If people want I can keep updating this list as I come across more.

 

This one is a work in progress, similar to a serial.

Continue Online By FrustratedEgo