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20 entries. 15,000 words.

January, 2018

  • Survey Revisions Continue. 2018-01-17 3:30 PM.
    • Editing
    • Process
    • everettrenshaw.com

    I promised myself I would try to write two writing posts a month. Technically this should be the second one, but it’s actually just the first one. Oh well. While I have not been extremely happy with my progress on editing “Survey,” my 2016 NaNoWriMo project, I have at least *made* progress on it. Last time I described how I was highlighting sections of text that needed attention, and I have more-or-less completed that. 697 words.
  • The Authorities by Scott Meyers (Audiobook). 2018-01-26 9:58 PM.
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Published by Rocket Hat Industries. Read by Luke Daniels. Produced by … Scott Meyer? (Presumably the author paid Luke Daniels to make the audiobook.) Sinclair Rutherford is a young Seattle cop with a taste for the finer things. Doing menial tasks and getting hassled by superiors he doesn’t respect are definitely not “finer things.” Good police work and bad luck lead him to crack a case that changes quickly from a career-making break into a high-profile humiliation when footage of his pursuit of the suspect—wildly inappropriate murder weapon in hand—becomes an Internet sensation. 316 words.
  • The Land: Founding by Aleron Kong (Audiobook). 2018-01-26 10:36 PM.
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • everettrenshaw.com

    The Land: Founding: A LitRPG Saga: Chaos Seeds, Book 1 by Aleron Kong Self-published. Read by Nick Podehl. Produced by Tamori Publications LLC. Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter’s destruction. This is definitely a winner for the largest number of sub-titles within one title. I have no idea where I heard about this book or why I got it. 302 words.
  • Pandemic: The Extinction Files by A. G. Riddle (Audiobook). 2018-01-26 11:08 PM.
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Pandemic: The Extinction Files, Book 1 by A. G. Riddle Published by Riddle, Inc. Read by Edoardo Ballerini. Produced by Audible Studios. In Africa, a mysterious outbreak spreads quickly. Teams from the CDC and WHO respond, but they soon learn that there is more to the epidemic than they believed. It may be the beginning of a global experiment-an event that will change the human race forever. Another one where I have no idea how or why this book got into my Audible library. I don’t know if it was recommended to me or if I just randomly clicked on something on the front page of the site to try to use up my Audible credits before I cancelled my subscription. Probably that latter one, because I had a lot to use up, and I try to vary my genres now and then. (I think this is a “thriller.”) 1,083 words.
  • Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (Audiobook). 2018-01-27 1:41 AM.
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Gardens of the Moon: The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1 by Steven Erikson Published by Tor Books. Read by Ralph Lister. Produced by Brilliance Audio. The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen’s rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins. 461 words.
  • The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Audiobook). 2018-01-27 11:31 PM.
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • everettrenshaw.com

    The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu) Published by Tor Books. Read by Luke Daniels. Produced by Macmillon Audio. I got this a long time ago because it won the Hugo in 2015, but I only just got around to it in my January 2018 listening binge. Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision. 492 words.

March, 2018

  • A Very Morose Writing Update. 2018-03-19 2:14 PM.
    • Writing
    • Process
    • everettrenshaw.com

    # Monday, March 19, 2018 I promised myself that I would write about writing twice a month. The last writing post I published was January 17, over two months ago. Brace yourself for a shocking revelation. My writing is not going well. This could explain why I haven’t been rushing to tell you about it twice a month. I am writing this post in Visual Studio Code, because perhaps it will inspire me. I love VSCode. I am writing in Markdown format, and watching the little preview window on the right-hand side update as I type. It’s very satisfying. 1,277 words.
  • Why Self-Publishing Might Be A Mistake. 2018-03-28 6:09 PM.
    • Writing
    • Process
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Recently I saw a tweet from someone contemplating self-publishing some of their writing. They didn’t sound confident about it. It prompted me to write this post. I’ve thought about this for years, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it was a mistake to self-publish Lute of the Sparrow on Amazon. It was an informative experience, true. But the only thing I really gained from it was the first-hand knowledge and experience of formatting a book for e-publishing. At the time I thought that would be worth something, but in retrospect, it’s not. The process has probably changed entirely since 2011 anyway. 1,515 words.
  • Besieged by Kevin Hearne (Audiobook). 2018-03-30 5:32 PM.
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Published by Del Rey. Read by Luke Daniels. Produced by Random House Audio. The ancient gods are alive and well in the modern world in this hilarious, action-packed collection of original short stories featuring Atticus O’Sullivan, the handsome, tattooed, 2,000-year-old Irishman with extraordinary magic powers from Kevin Hearne’s New York Times best-selling Iron Druid Chronicles. Listen time: 8 hours, 46 minutes, between 1/26/2018 and sometime in February or March? I finished listening to this a while ago, but forgot to write about it. There isn’t much to say, really. It’s another book in the Iron Druid Chronicles, and if you liked any of the previous entries, you’ll like this one, too. 229 words.

May, 2018

  • The Tragic End Of A Bird Nest. 2018-05-22 5:06 PM.
    • Writing
    • everettrenshaw.com

    A couple of “flycatcher” birds returned this year to nest outside my back door. (I don’t know their exact species but I think they might be Eastern phoebes.) I watched in fascination as four little baby birds grew up in the nest this Spring. I took tons of pictures of them. I setup a streaming webcam so I could watch and listen to them from my computer room. (The parents would chirp and scold me if I stood at the door to watch.) I even figured out how to stream an image from my DLSR camera fitted with a telephoto lens. 1,639 words.
  • Scourged by Kevin Hearne (2018, Audiobook). 2018-05-24 12:28 PM.
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Published by Del Rey. Read by Luke Daniels. Produced by Random House Audio. Unchained from fate, the Norse gods Loki and Hel are ready to unleash Ragnarok, a.k.a. the Apocalypse, upon the earth. They’ve made allies on the darker side of many pantheons, and there’s a globe-spanning battle brewing that ancient Druid Atticus O’Sullivan will be hard-pressed to survive, much less win. Listen time: About 9 hours, 5/22-23. (At 120% speed.) 599 words.
  • The Bear and the Nightingale (2017, Sample) by Katherine Arden. 2018-05-25 4:06 PM.
    • Books
    • Reviews
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Published by Del Rey. A magical debut novel for listeners of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman’s myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice. I have this idea that I will try to read a sample of a Kindle book every day or at least a few times a week for a while. I don’t read enough, but I can’t really bring myself to buy Kindle books if I’m not sure that I’m going to like it and read the whole thing from start to finish. I feel pretty guilty if I buy a book but then don’t like the first chapter, and I feel pretty resentful when I try to read a whole book that I don’t like. So I’ll just take advantage of these free Kindle samples while they’re available. 566 words.

June, 2018

  • The Expanse Re-Watch – S1E01, Dulcinea. 2018-06-05 2:30 PM.
    • Television
    • everettrenshaw.com

    I started to write a blog post about The Expanse Season 3, Episode 7 (Delta-V). That episode seemed to be the beginning of a brand new story arc, perhaps the start of a new book in the source material. I didn’t particularly care for the episode, and I ended up ranting about all the things I didn’t like about The Expanse, especially in Season 3. I’m fully aware that others love this show and praise it endlessly, and most consider Season 3 to be the best one yet, while I’m over here struggling to find a single thing to hold onto and enjoy. I wondered what I was missing. Surely I must be missing something? 2,943 words.
  • The Expanse Re-Watch – S1E02, The Big Empty. 2018-06-07 2:30 PM.
    • Television
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Join me as I re-watch The Expanse, Season 1, to try to find out where the show went wrong for me. Summary I’ve decided that I’m just going to quote Wikipedia’s brief episode summaries here, instead of spending all of my time writing my own summaries. The point of these posts is to explore what I think of the episodes, not retell the episodes. The Big Empty was written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and directed by Terry McDonough. I am noting the writers and directors, by the way, to see if I notice any patterns in which writers or directors create the episodes I like or dislike. 1,630 words.

October, 2018

  • Winter Arrived Today. 2018-10-22 1:51 PM.
    • Writing
    • NaNoWriMo
    • everettrenshaw.com

    I woke this morning to an almost literally freezing cold house, which means that we can no longer pretend that the cold months of the year won’t happen. By “we” I mean “me,” because there are some people who actually like the transition from summer to fall. I personally spend most days between November and March in three or four layers of clothes, moving slowly, barely staving off uncontrollable shivering fits, unable to concentrate, hiding in the darkness that consumes most of each day. 582 words.

November, 2018

  • NaNoWriMo 2018 Vlog Experiment. 2018-11-03 12:37 AM.
    • NaNoWriMo
    • everettrenshaw.com

    I’m trying an experiment this year for NaNoWriMo. Instead of writing blog posts about my progress, I’m recording “vlogs” about it. I created a YouTube channel where you can watch me ramble about my NaNoWriMo journey this year. My goal is to record a short video every day talking about my progress, the challenges I run into, how I deal with them, etc. Things that I think might be educational or inspiring or helpful or just funny to other writers. A lot about “the writing process” and how I’m feeling about the project as I go along. Thrills, chills, spills. Stuff that I would normally write about, but I’m just going to talk about them instead. I would rather reserve my writing energy for the NaNoWriMo draft as much as possible. 302 words.
  • NaNoWriMo 2018, Day 3 Vlog. 2018-11-04 12:36 PM.
    • NaNoWriMo
    • Vlog
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Kind of a long one. A better day. Hilarious text-to-speech on the iPad, switching scenes, what I like about my writing so far, blanks between writing sessions, thinking about getting Scrivener for iOS, starting fresh every day, finally getting into the world of the story, bringing complex modern sociopolitical themes into the backdrop of the sword-and-sorcery city setting. 58 words.
  • NaNoWriMo 2018, Day 4 Vlog. 2018-11-05 1:45 PM.
    • Writing
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Considerably more talking than writing on day 4. Morning update: Irish accents, daylight savings, second Mythica movie, nervous about iOS Scrivener, feeling mute when I’m not able to type on a keyboard, struggling to differentiate character voices in dialog. Evening update: the story so far, NaNoWriMo community and me. 49 words.
  • NaNoWriMo 2018, Day 7 Vlog. 2018-11-08 3:06 PM.
    • NaNoWriMo
    • everettrenshaw.com

    It’s interesting to watch view statistics when you upload a series of videos to YouTube. You might think, as I do, that if you say, “I’m going to upload a series of videos to YouTube, one every day, and here’s the first one,” that people would know and understand how to find and watch the complete series if they’re interested, and you’ll get similar view statistics on each video. But you’d be wrong. The first video will get some views, if you have any followers at all, and then the remainder of the videos will get zero views because everyone will wander away and forget about you amid the rest of their busy daily lives. So from time to time you have to keep reminding people, on social media, or in blog posts like this one. :) 194 words.

December, 2018

  • NaNoWriMo 2018, Day 30 Vlog. 2018-12-01 2:37 PM.
    • Writing
    • NaNoWriMo
    • everettrenshaw.com

    Last vlog for NaNoWriMo 2018, unless I record one more epilogue a bit later to show how I reorganized my Scrivener project. Validating 50,247 words. Lack of editing. Thoughts on what to do next. Reflecting on the month. There are in fact 31 vlog videos, which you can find in this NaNoWriMo 2018 Playlist on YouTube. All the ups and downs of writing for 30 days. 66 words.