As mentioned in ​On Doing the Thing (Again)​​​ the next book in the Far North series is now with alpha readers! Has been since the start of the month too. It’s clocking in at 163 pages and 115k words, so I suspect it will be some time before notes are returned to me.

We also finished our play-through of Disco Elysium over on Twitch. What an absolutely fantastic game! Pretty sure most of you already know that though. This week I’m off for a bit of rest, but if you’d like to come join us and be a part of the Byrd Bunch, we’ll be starting a new game on April 6. Still not sure what we’re playing next yet, but we’ve got some strong contenders!

As for everything else in the works…

Nosia Archives, the next short story series I’m working on, has had a few character changes happen that have slowed things down a bit. It’ll all be worth it thought, trust me! It’s opened up some interesting avenues not just for the characters but also for the world of the story. Still hoping to be able ti share even more in the coming months!

The long awaited next installment in the Vivekananda series is…slow going, I wont lie. I’ve had to split things out yet again, so now it’s looking like a 6 part series. The draft for part 5 is already at 4 pages and there’s still more to go! Thank you for the patience on this. This project really ran away from me so quickly.

That’s it for this month! Hope to have Vivekananda’s next part out in April. Please keep your fingers crossed it’ll happen. Otherwise, as always, stay safe and sane out there!

I wonder if it’ll ever normalize that I keep writing and churning out new novels.

Early this month, I finished the first draft of Far North – Returning: Vic. It’s still a shock. While there’s still plenty of editing work left to do, that’s half-way through the series as it’s been planned.

When I was a kid I had two dreams: become an actress or become a writer. I let myself get talked out of the life of acting. I almost let myself get talked out of writing.

The thing is, as I’ve recently rediscovered, I have a writing problem. Even in moments where it seems to be slow going I still prefer writing. Even when the topic I’m writing about drives me insane, I still prefer writing.

It’s just that expressing myself in this way is easier than any other method of expression.

What I hadn’t anticipated was the feelings that come up with completing a major work. For about four years now I’ve been immersed in the world of Far North. Plotting, writing, discovering, and editing. Yet each time I hit a major milestone, like completing a draft, there’s a mixed sense of relief and emptiness.

Then comes the trepidation as I release it into the world. Will people like it? Could it have been done better? Did I forget to include something? Does it all make sense?

I mention all this because I think it’s fascinating to note. Now that I’ve done this twice, I wonder if it will ever get easier. I wonder if more successful, higher profile, authors become numb to the process or not. I wonder if creating something, dedicating all this time and energy into it, will ever stop producing these feelings.

I wonder if I really want to get so used to creating that I don’t experience that sense of completion and anxiety. That maybe that’s why I keep doing this. The joy isn’t so much in the creating itself; the joy is in reaching the end goal and starting the process all over again.

Hi, hello, how are you?

I’ll be keeping this update rather short and with minimal formatting. Why? Well, I’m trying out some new things and haven’t fully settled on how I want to present everything just yet.

One noticeable change is that I’ve stopped recording word counts for each day. At the end of January I realized that even that simple act was building up an expectation and anxiety for me when it came to writing. To the point where I was beginning to resent working on projects if I didn’t hit stride right away to exceed my word count goal.

That said, I didn’t want to stop recording progress. Tracking progress is important and helps in contributing towards a sense of accomplishment. So, I began just recording days I did and didn’t work on Far North, with color coding for the word count range. Instead of focusing on a specific word count, I found that this color coding method actually helped me realize that I was “on target” most days.

Another thing that came into focus is just how spread out my project tracking had become. I was tracking information across multiple places — project tracking software I was largely ignoring, my productivity software, my personal planner, and in these updates — it was beginning to be too much. At the moment I’m looking into a more simplified way to track all of this, but that’s all in the conceptualization phase. When I have something more solid to present to you all, I will!

On to actual updates however!

The second book for the Far North series is headed into its final bit of writing before it heads off to Alpha readers. Well into the 150k word territory and clocking in at 160 unformatted pages, Book Two is my largest work to date. Honestly, I’m really proud of it and can’t wait to get it in reader’s hands!

As for Exploring Spirit and Nosia…well, these projects have been slow the last couple months. I’ll be honest and say that this Vivekananda series has taken far longer than I anticipated. Partially that’s due to motivation: as this series has gone on, I’ve gotten more and more worn down by the subject matter.

When it comes to Nosia, it’s largely just needing to make more time to sit down and idea generate. I’m slowly but surely heading towards having a complete outline for the first season. These things just take time, especially when we’re discussing multi-season story lines. This is very ambitious for me, so I appreciate everyone’s patience.

Lastly, streaming. My regular viewers know that I’ve trimmed down my stream schedule to once a week on Sundays. At the moment, I have no intention of adding in more days for the foreseeable future. I will, however, still be doing the regular 12 Stream events in the summer and winter. There are a lot of game titles I’m still waiting to know more about; a lot of release dates that seem to be getting pushed further and further back. I have some ideas in mind for games to play while we wait, thankfully, but I do hope to see some of these titles release soon!

At any rate, that’s it for the month. I’m working on a few other articles at the moment too. Just some thoughts about things and a “what I’m watching in the FL Senate 2025” update. Keep an eye out for those!

As always, stay safe and sane! See you all next month!

The month really felt like it flew by. Now, here we are, the end of October and about to finish out the rest of the year.

This is also my chance to remind you: if you’re in the US, you have a matter of days to either get your ballot in or get prepared to vote. If you’re a mail-in voter, be aware that there have already been some attempts to set fire to ballot drop boxes in WA and OR. While they have identified the ballots that were destroyed and found those responsible for the fires, I just want to urge you to be safe and consider your options for this election season.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the update.

Far North

• This month added over 9k words and 15 pages. This brings our total to 89k words and 125 pages. Most days say about 500 words added on average over 18 days. Not too shabby.
• Finally entered the last section of the book! Though don’t let that fool you, there’s still plenty to write before the conclusion. I’m anticipating another month or two of writing. That would put this ready for alpha readers by end of January — because giving myself a break around the holidays is important.

Nosia Archives

• This didn’t get as much attention as I had hoped to give it. That isn’t to say nothing got done, it definitely did, just that my attention was more on the Vivekananda series than this.
• It’s still very slow going overall. I keep getting somewhere and then need to pause to work out details. This is a very ambitious project for me, so I may be overcompensating when I could just try and get into the writing.
• One thing that is becoming apparent about the series is how much I want this world to be believable and consistent for the reader. A fear I have is that people who are desirous of complex magical worlds will hate this series. That the logic of it all wont hold up. Perhaps, in the end, it’s this that’s blocking my progress because I find I want to contemplate every single aspect of something to make sure it’s consistent. That the rules make sense.

Exploring Spirit

• archive.org going down this month threw an unexpected disruption into things. That said, it was also helpful. Part 3 is now finished and just needs images added to it.
• Part 4 is also done! Surprise! Why is it done? Because the original part 3 was 10 pages long and needed to be split. As it is, both sections are roughly 5 pages each, without images. These are long reads and there really is no better way to edit it down.
• Why are they so long? There’s a lot of detail. While Nikhilananda tends to gloss over large chunks of time, Chattopadhyaya adds those details back in. So, in order to present both sides of the picture, things can get a bit long winded.
• This will probably continue on until Vivekananda returns to India. Chattopadhyaya’s work focuses exclusively on Vivekananda’s early live and travels, so his death is less covered. Nikhilananda will have to suffice for that.
• Lastly, before moving on, I want to mention that after Vivekananda is finished I will be pausing this series indefinitely. I’ll admit that this particular project quickly escalated into something more than I could chew. Perhaps I’ll come back to it at a later time, but for right now I need a bit of a break from researching these religious figures.

Stream/Vibe Checks

• Halloween Spooktacular is upon us! When you’re (likely) reading this is the start of the Halloween streams. Like last year, we’ll be doing 3 days of spooky games and rounding things out with a final evening of cozy vibes. Come join us if you can! I’ll be live at 1830EST every night!
• Outside of that, we’re knee-deep in Disco Elysium and trying to figure out the mysteries of Arctico. On Thursday we’ve begun trying to discuss different aspects of roleplaying. If that sounds interesting, come by the regular streams and tell us your thoughts or learn something new.
• Speaking of roleplaying…there may be something interesting in the works. Keep an eye out. Possibly some D&D will be coming your way…

That’s it for this month! Pretty solid month but definitely fast paced. Don’t forget to vote if you’re in the US and…well, we’ll just see what happens come November.

Until then, stay safe and sane!

September was so busy! Around all my doctors appointments (don’t worry, all is well, just routine stuff), we also did a co-op stream with friend of the channel DarkSableye. We played both sides of The Past Within — the only co-op title in the Rusty Lake series of room escape puzzle games. It was a lot of fun and I hope to do more with them in the future!

Speaking of streams, there’s an exciting announcement for our upcoming Halloween stream at the end of this update. Four days of spooky and spooky-cute games! Hopefully you can join in on all the fun!

But, on to the update!

Far North

• This month added 6k words and 8 pages. It’s now at 111 pages and 79k words. I’m not sure how many days I actually managed to write for, but it was definitely not as many as I would’ve liked.
• It was difficult to find energy this month, I won’t lie. In the end it worked out though. There are just two more major story beats to write before I’m at the end. What writing I did get done this month really propelled things forward and tended to happen in large chunks. Really hoping that changes in October.
• Other interesting things that I can’t really talk about because spoilers: some backstory information is coming together. Wish I could say more. You’re gonna love it. Trust me.

Nosia Archives

• Again, another slow area. It was difficult to focus this month. Did get some planning done, some world building, and a sprinkle of plotting done.
• There are a lot of moving parts in this project, what with four main characters and two side characters per main character. Not to mention other one-off characters. All this while building a new world out. It’s a lot and I find myself having to pause to contemplate bits every so often.

Exploring Spirit

• Oh. My. Gods. Finally. I’m through Chattopadhyaya’s work and heading back to Nikhilananda. And I’m *still* not at Vivekananda’s death yet.
• I do have Part 3 structured and notes organized, I just didn’t prioritize writing this month. I really needed to get through the research portion because the book was due back to the library. Next month there will be more progress on the actual writing. Thank you for being patient while I work on all this!

Stream/Vibe Checks

• Halloween Spooktacular is on! We start on Halloween with the Case of the Serialized Killer, move into some random horror games the next night, make some cults after that, and then wrap up with some cozy comfort games. As usual, start times are 1830EST, so I hope to see you there!
• As for Vibe Checks — Tiny Glade just released! We’ll hopefully be picking it up soon and checking it out. I’ve really been looking forward to this builder game. Once I get my hands on that, we’ll be giving it the 60-hour playtime treatment and I’ll get a write-up on it!

That’s it for this month! We’re waiting for Hurricane Helene to blow through town, so I likely wont see many of you until October. Stay safe and sane out there!