Mark – Marked Up

First Strawberry

Of course it’s the first blossom, not the first strawberry. It’s still mid-April. That’s one that escaped the original bed. I hope to have this bed filled with them by fall, but for now it’s mostly peas.

Predator in the Garden

It’s not my first rodeo. The plastic containers on the left don’t have anything planted in them. They are there to give the cat something to knock over. The rightmost two columns are both peppers (Thai Hot and Poblano). I’m hoping they just have a longer germination time. The seed is quite old (at leastContinue reading “Predator in the Garden”

History Repeating

First off, I just love the song. It’s not actually repeating. It’s definitely rhyming. This should be familiar: When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands that have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equalContinue reading “History Repeating”

Dungeons

What is a dungeon? From a utilitarian perspective: A training ground. One can run about in the real world killing things (monsters, humans, random animals), but there are consequences. Even systemized worlds need ecosystems. If people wander around killing everything, the ecosystem will collapse. Dungeons are for training. One can kill everything inside without worryingContinue reading “Dungeons”

Enlightened, Monsters, and Animals

I’m not a big fan of the term “enlightened races”, but it exists and it’s convenient, so I’m adopting it. This refers to those races who naturally (without system fuckery) form societies. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Aliens, etc… This is not quite synonymous with “sapient”. Leaving aside the offspring question (i.e. are human babies sapient? It’sContinue reading “Enlightened, Monsters, and Animals”

How Does Magic Work?

This comes up in the context of a fight scene in Industrial Mage. Our intrepid hero casts a tornado-ish air shield around himself and it moves with him. Instead of a fireball, he creates a fire-whip, which behaves mostly like an actual whip. He casts water bullets at the bad spider creature, targeting the joints,Continue reading “How Does Magic Work?”

Learning 2 Write – XII

Scope Continuing the post on Endings – the irony of which does not escape me – I had a thought: It’s not (usually) that I get tired of a series, it’s that the series changes out from under me. Many stories (not just LitRPG) start with the struggles of our intrepid hero. As he overcomesContinue reading “Learning 2 Write – XII”

Garden Started

I planted seeds, yesterday/Sunday. Inside, of course. It’s 20 degrees with snow on the ground, outside. Adventure Cat refuses to go out. I’m surprised at how little I start inside. Peppers, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, and broccoli are pretty much it. Everything else (squash, melons, cucumbers, corn, peas, and beans) starts outside. I have herbs growingContinue reading “Garden Started”

Learning 2 Write – XI

Titles It occurs to me that I need both series and book titles. I have only one criterion: Book Title + Series Title + book number MUST be readable. Browsing through my Kindle for examples… Jack of All: LitRPG, Isekai, Survival Adventure (Book 1) fails in two ways. If one is looking at multiple books,Continue reading “Learning 2 Write – XI”

Learning 2 Write – X

Endings I just finished Ithria Book 15. It ended as I feared: Cliff-hanger. Sort-of. There’s enough said that there is no doubt whatsoever about what will happen (the bad guys are going to get their ass severely kicked), but the actual happening will be in book 16. This is more a case of “the lastContinue reading “Learning 2 Write – X”