Teaching Lows and Podcast Highs

Almost exactly as I predicted, term started and I dropped completely off the radar. Not a single blog post since September 1st, when term started. The truth is that the school I'm working at now has very high expectations and is also expecting the Inspectors any time soon. That translates to very late nights, working at the weekend, and generally not wanting to do anything other than vegetate in the evenings.

That's not entirely true. I play a bit of Final Fantasy XIV; it's fast becoming an escape from what I do, but this week is a prime example. The first time I was able to get on was last night, so it's not exactly taking up all my free time!

I've found time to do some writing. As well as continuing to work with Patrice Aggs, I'm collaborating with Nana Li on a project which should be finished soon. But it's not as much writing as I'd want to do, sadly.

I do plan to do NaNoWriMo, my second one this year, and the plan is to write Noctis Point during that month. Whether I actually manage to get the time is a question I can't answer right now. Work's getting busier and I'm getting more tired as we crawl closer to Christmas.

However, one thing I have managed to do is release a podcast every week, and a video on YouTube! I've yet to garner much interest, but that's to be expected. I think it's fairly niche, but hopefully eventually I'll just have been doing it so long that I get watchers/listeners through attrition. It's also incredibly handy; it's allowed me to spot several mistakes in Poisonroot, and also realise that I really don't like the first ten chapters or so. I should have rewritten them. They're a bit pants. Luckily, it picks up after that, almost exactly at the point where I started writing it as my NaNo two years ago. Funny, that.

I have found time to do some reading, namely 'Endgame: The Calling' by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton. It's the first part of an ARG (alternate reality game) sort of thing where there is a real prize of $500,000 in gold coins. Think Kit Williams' Masquerade or The Merlin Mystery (both of which, I know, date me slightly!). So far, it's fairly impenetrable to me, but that's because I just read it through like a normal book. If I really want to go for it, I'll need to sit with a notebook and actually try and solve some of the puzzles. There's a book signing next week in Waterstones, Piccadilly; I plan to ask the author why it's written in the present tense, which I find a little difficult to parse!

Hopefully it won't be another six weeks until I update this!