My Fellow Visitors aka The State Of The Author

I know I’ve been pretty silent since my birthday at the end of the last year. The honest truth is that so much has been going on in my personal life, I haven’t known what to blog about. I haven’t read any really fantastic books or seen any amazing movies, and while I’ve been writing, it’s been coming in dribs and drabs.

So, I thought I’d take a moment and, like the President of the United States, let you know how I’m doing right now. And the answer to that is that the State of the Author could be better. Just when I thought I’d managed to find some stable ground, it’s crumbling beneath me. My social life has gone to just about nil thanks to some things happening around me, and I’m pretty sure that I’m about to lose some of my friends for good. It’s not my fault, and I know that, but that seems to be one of the themes to my life.

That’s a lot of the reason that I’m not really writing at the moment. I’m still working on The Games That We Still Play, but I haven’t touched it in a few days. Part of the problem is that I’ve gotten to a part that involves some touchy violence, and while I know how I want to handle it, which is gently as I can, I’m still a little afraid of doing it. In the meantime, though, I got the idea for a short story that I need to finish. I think I’m close to ending my rough draft, but I just need to do it.

Otherwise, I just keep myself occupied with entertainment, and there have been some pretty good things. On a daily basis, Tim and I try to keep up with The Daily Show, The Nightly Show, Conan, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. I enjoy all these shows for different reasons. Mostly, this is where I get my news, and I have for a long time, since I know none of the hosts tend to hold back on the different issues. While I miss Jon Stewart, I enjoy Trevor Noah’s fresh take on things. I always liked Larry Wilmore when he was on The Daily Show, and I totally agree that we need to have discussions about prejudices, especially against people with darker skin. I got into Conan O’Brien when he hosted Late Night, and I thought he got screwed over during his brief tenure as host of The Tonight Show. I’m glad he’s doing well on TBS. And Stephen, well, I’ve followed his career from The Daily Show to The Colbert Report and now to The Late Show. Personally, I thought he was an odd choice to replace David Letterman, but I enjoy how he handles the show. I think James Corden is actually Dave’s heir, but he seems a whole lot nicer about things than Dave was.

I’m glad a lot of weekly shows are coming back from their break, even if their absence gave me a chance to catch up on some things. We’ve been watching Supergirl, and I love how Melissa Benoist handles the character. In a lot of ways, she really is a female Superman, but she’s relatable in ways I tend to find the Man of Steel isn’t. Marvel’s Agent Carter is back, and while I don’t like it quite as much as I do some of the DC shows, it’s different, and I definitely like that. And I love Elementary. I like the interaction between Holmes and Watson and how they’re not trying to shoe-horn in a romantic relationship between the two. Holmes is a fully realized character with all his faults handled well. He may not always be likable, but then he does something that makes me forgive him. No offense to any Sherlock fans, or Benedict Cumberbatch, but from the episodes I’ve seen, I can’t find any reason to like his Holmes. I’ve been assured that he gets better in later episodes, but we’ll see.

On the weekends, I’ve been watching Tim play Fallout 3. (He outputs it to the TV so that I can watch.) I know we could get 4 and play that, but we have 3. Not only that, but I grew up rather close to the DC area and had a lot of school trips that went there, so it feels like pretty familiar territory, and I enjoy that some. We tried playing it before, but the landscape was so dismal, we stopped. Tim got a mod where it adds some greenery, so that helps. We also tend to watch some various podcasts over the weekends. We really like Andre Meadows, the Black Nerd, Doug Walker, the Nostalgia Critic, Tristan Gallant of Glass Reflections, and Chad Niklaus and Angie Griffin of Screen Team. We watch others, but those are the big ones.

I’m still reading, since I don’t think you could pry me away from books. According to GoodReads, I’ve read four books already this year. I’ve read the first two of John Norman’s Gor books, mostly because I’ve heard they’re supposed to be so erotic, but so far, I haven’t found them to be like that. Granted, I’ve only read the first two, but I’m not seeing the hype yet. If anything, they remind me of the old Conan The Barbarian books, which might have been Norman’s intent in writing them. I don’t know. I’m taking a bit of a break now to explore the Star Trek anthology Strange New Worlds. I know there are several, and I’m reading the first one. Tim read it and thought it was pretty good, so I’ll give it a try.

So, that’s the State of the Author as of the moment. Hopefully, things will get better for me, but we’ll see. While I still hope, I’m not going to get them up too high. I guess only future posts will tell.