Project Update – April 2024

Happy Beltane! To be honest, despite having done a pre-summer cleaning around our apartment, I had completely forgotten about any celebrations. This is usually the time of year when we begin looking at the hurricane forecast and start wondering just when we’ll see storms pop up. Lets hope we don’t have to bust into our rations this year!
Also, since this will be going out on May 1st, Happy May Labor Day! I know for the US it isn’t Labor Day (though it ought to be), but for much of the rest of the world it’s officially Labor Day. Given how much I support unionization efforts, I think it’s important to remember that without labor organizers efforts on May Day we wouldn’t have the luxury of 8-hour work days and 5-day work weeks — let alone the ability to organize. So, take it easy at work today if you can.

Let’s get into some updates, shall we?

Far North

• This month I added 12k words and 16 pages to the draft. That brings the total to 32k words and 46 pages. I am…shocked, to be honest! There are always days where the writing feels slow or where research seems to eat up most of the time — so it’s rewarding to see just how much work was actually done overall.
• Surprising thing from this month: unexpected world building. Just some interesting developments in terms of other nations, other cultures, and other hidden societies around the world. I hope that it paints a more believable and living world for readers to enjoy speculating about.
• Overall, I would say that I’m maybe a quarter of the way through the outline I’ve made? It genuinely feels like I’m not making much progress in terms of tackling the plan, but at the same time moments of discovery about this world and the characters keep showing up. I suspect this book will be longer than Book One and also require a great deal more editing time.

Greenhouse Museum/Nosia Archives

• Doing some editing on Greenhouse Museum. Nothing story changing by any means, at least not yet, just fixing errors that made their way into the blog version. It happens.
• Nosia has had a lot of world and character building done this month. Some writing too, but honestly nothing to really talk about at the moment. We’ve got some interesting places to discover, a few tragic pasts to work through, and a gilded cage to bust out of.

Exploring Spirit

• Phew. Just, phew. I have more than enough material for a part one on Vivekananda — from birth to when he traveled to the US. While my notes are finally organized for it, and I plan on beginning writing it this next month, I wouldn’t expect anything final until June.
• Much like with Mary Eddy, this Vivekananda series will be broken into two parts. I’m still looking for a source — Swami Vivekananda in the West by Chattopadhyaya, Rajagopal — to help me get another perspective on the topic. Rajagopal’s work on Vivekananda’s history in India was incredibly helpful in piecing together the left-out parts from Nikhilananda’s biography. So, if you happen to come across Swami Vivekananda in the West somewhere, let me know so I can see if maybe my local library will grab a copy for me!
• After that, I think we might take a brief detour into a more modern Christian Scientist: Doreen Virtue. We spoke about her briefly during the Crystal Children discussion we had almost a year ago, so I figured it was time to revisit it with our new perspective into the New Age and Christian Science belief systems. Not sure where I want to begin, but I’ll pick one of her books to work through and — who knows — we might even do a little stream about it! Will definitely keep you updated when a plan comes together!

Streaming/Vibe Checks

• First off, just wanted to take a second and say thank you to everyone who has come by the stream lately! I’m one follower away from hitting 100 followers. I know that seems like a very low goal to be celebrating, but to me it’s really big.
• We have our 12-Streams of Summer coming up soon too! In June, just before the solstice, I’ll be on every night for two hours doing the various things we love to do. We’ve got LEGOs, random games, a new story to check out, and just general fun times to look forward to. Hope you’ll be able to stop by!
• Also, Vibe Checks…I know it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written one. Some updates on that front:
  • Life by You was postponed until June of this year. This is why I haven’t already done a review of that. Admittedly, I haven’t kept up on why they delayed the release. I can only hope it’s to put out a game they’re proud of.
  • Sunnyside will be released in May! There is still no information (that I can find easily) on what the retail launch price will be. Once it’s available (and maybe had an initial bug patch), I’ll be in the weeds playing it for the review!
  • Still no release date for the following:
    • Love, Ghostie (says 2024)
    • Witchbrook (says ‘Coming Soon’)
    • Paralives (says 2025)
• If there are other games you’d like me to do a Vibe Check on, let me know! Given that we’re about to wrap up the Wadjet Eye Humble Bundle, I’m tempted to do a Vibe Check on those games. It would definitely look a lot different from past Vibe Checks on cozy games, but it could be fun! Let me know what you think!

Overall, I think that’s it for the month. Some solid progress, a few ideas for the future.

Stay safe and sane out there! See you next month!