Happy (early) Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope this season of gratitude finds you well—and with a lot to be thankful for.
That said, Thanksgiving is at the end of the month, but Halloween was just a few days ago… I’ll give you one guess what my family’s costume theme was this year.
Welcome back to my monthly newsletter! If you like what you read here, or any of the blog posts I share each week, consider subscribing. That’s also a great way to keep up with my writing projects—two books self-published, and I am well on my way to making the third happen next year!
Writing and Publishing
Inner Demon, the audiobook… IS FINALLY LIVE! Supposedly the book has been accepted by all retailers partnered with InAudio/Findaway Voices, but I was only able to find links to the below three. In either case, I’m extremely excited to have finally hit this milestone and I’ll keep uploading the Inner Demon main page with more audiobooks as they become available.
And with that, I can finally lay Inner Demon to rest and put all of my efforts into the next book—for now, anyway.
Speaking of the next book, it’s entirely possible that I will be finished with revising Halfwhisker part 3 (Inc Under) before the end of the week, at which point I’ll be able to send it off to test readers. Such a thing would be ideal, as I really would like to get into Part 4 early in November—if I want to have a chance to finish this round of revisions before the end of the year, these are key dates to hit!
To provide a little more clarity, here’s the gist of Halfwhisker: Hazel, also known as Halfwhisker, is a mouse of Whiskerroot. She’s done with danger and adventure and wants nothing more than to settle down and have a family with the love of her life—but everything is upended when she discovers she’s a carrier for the biting madness, one of the most deadly diseases known to mice. For the slimmest chance of finding a cure, Hazel must join an adventure led by the bloodskræcher Thorn, who is traveling to the lands of ancient (and mostly gone) Man hopeful to find an ancient artifact that will allow him to defeat the Rat King’s mindless rat army, which threatens Whiskerroot’s very existence.
- Part 1, In Whiskerroot: Hazel is comfortable with her life in Whiskerroot, and hopeful that she will marry Bramble soon—but that gets disrupted by Bramble committing to go off on an adventure with the bloodskræcher Thorn. Things are made even worse when Hazel learns she’s a carrier of the biting madness, but at least there’s a slim hope that she could be cured if she helps Thorn find the thræctannan, an ancient artifact of fallen Man.
- Part 2, The Man-Colony: Hazel (and the others) travel to the Man-colony nearest Whiskerroot. Their mission: to find the mjurans, a mythical species of mouse-like creature that may know the location of the thræctannan, as well as how to use it.
- Part 3, Inc Under: Hazel (and the others) discover the mjurans, but find these creatures fabled for wisdom to not be so wise—and to be very xenophobic. Hazel must escape imprisonment, avoid a rat attack against the mjurans, and flee through an unexpected outbreak of the biting madness to have any hope of survival—let alone of discovering anything of value about the thræctannan.
- Part 4, The Laboratory: Now for the final leg of the journey: surviving the harsh road to the ancient Laboratory where Men kept the thræctannan, surviving the dangers there, and hoping that it will be able to heal Hazel. All this while the dreaded Rat King closes in on the same location…
The Blog & Etc
In October, I played Hollow Knight: Silksong… and, as a result of that game taking over so many facets of my life, I did not read and review as much as I usually try for. But I still think the blog posts that did come to life are quite interesting outside of my usually realm of reviews and such.
I did write one review, and that for Space King. This was followed by some self-reflection on my journey as an indie author, and a look into The Princess Bride (specifically, the book versus the movie—yes, a book exists for The Princess Bride, and it’s really good):
- The Princess Bride: One of the rare instances where the book and the movie are equally good, despite both being very different in key ways. Do you prefer your fairy tale satire on the sincere or sarcastic side?
- SPACE KING: SPACE KING NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION ARE YOU A BOY OR ARE YOU A MAGGOT GO WATCH THE MALE POWER FANTASY KNOWN AS SPACE KING1
- Metamorphosis: What’s it mean to be a “real” author? For me, anyway—and other thoughts.
What Am I Reading?
… Again. (These poor books entered my radar around the same time I transitioned from just playing Silksong to getting locked in.)
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, Comanches is a history novel about the Comanche Amerindian tribes—although it also provides a lot of details on immediately surrounding topics, such as other tribes and nations that the comanches warred with, to the point where later parts of the novel feel like they’ve largely left the comanches behind. I’m reading it both to learn history and to draw inspiration for a future novel.
In Deathbringer, a young woman is killed on the day of her wedding, a magic sword revives her, and she has a limited amount of time to get revenge or die again, and permanently this time. I’m excited for it! (As an update from last time, it appears the book is available on Amazon again—but, per the usual, I recommend using any service but Amazon as much as possible. Amazon’s apathy is very destructive for the publishing industry right now—ah, but that’s a separate topic.)
Anything Else I Recommend?
I just so happened to play two board games themed around surviving islands recently, and I really enjoyed both—so why not share both?
Survive the Island
In Survive the Island, you command a group of ten explorers who are looting a deserted island for treasure—along with a bunch of other competing groups. Unfortunately for you, the island starts sinking, there’s man-eating sea serpents in the waters—and man-eating sharks—and a kaiju just pulled itself out of the ocean’s depths and is rampaging across the island… Oh, and a volcano just became active… Do your best to keep your team alive, while retaining as much treasure as possible!
Survive the Island is a delightful exercise in pure chaos. In the first round of the first game that I ever played with my family, a bit of beach sank, killing about three adventurers (via shark) before they even had a chance to move—and things just spiraled further out of control from there (in a very fun way).
Two other things I appreciated about the game: First, the rules are very simple to learn, but it feels as if the game has a lot of hidden complexity to master for those interested. I’ll find out if I have the opportunity to play more. Second, this game is really easy to set up and take down despite having lots of pieces, which I love.
Hellapagos
In Hellapagos, you are one survivor among many stranded on a deserted island after your cruise ship capsizes. You, for the most part, need to work together with other players to gather food and water, as well as build rafts in the hope of escaping the island—but if the food, water, or rafts run out, you have the choice to fight for your survival or take one for the team. Your choice.
A party game for up to thirteen players, but that can still be played in thirty minutes to an hour, Hallapagos isn’t meant to be taken seriously—in fact, taking it too seriously will probably lead to hard feelings when your friend reveals he’s had a hidden revolver this entire time, and now he’s going to shoot you in the back over a last sandwich. Maybe not even the last one. When approached in the right spirit, however, this game is an uproariously silly time. I think I nearly peed myself laughing…
- Except maybe skip Episode 1 after the opening minute or two. It really is the weakest of the three out so far. ↩︎
Boo Ludlow 
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