Just a small update. After a couple of interesting games which intrigued me but weren’t deserving of a good score, we have Fire Emblem: Awakening.

This was a game I declared dibs on for reviewing duties and luckily so as my colleague Ray Webster picked it up and we kept messaging each other about our character choices. When I politely told him that I’d laid down the dibs first, he was fine with that, saying that his review would just be a giant picture of the character, Sully.

My review’s a bit longer than that, but the tl:dr version is “buy this game if you have a 3DS”. My flatmate went one further and bought a 3DS specifically to play this game. It’s worth it.

The full review is here. I hope you enjoy.

I was kindly sent two review copies of games and in the last two days they’ve been posted at D+Pad Magazine.

My first was for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate. Castlevania’s a series where I know way more about the games than have experience playing them. It was a lovely looking side-scroller which got me all wistful for Metroidvania games. Luckily the 3DS store also had the very first Castlevania for sale so now I’ve the first and most recent Castlevanias!

I’m also surprised that I’ve found myself missing the 3D on the 3DS after playing a bunch of old DS games. It’s weird, given that it’s a total gimmick, but it does still look quite interesting.

The second review was more difficult, for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. I feel bad for the review score that I gave it, but it’s totally justified in the piece. A gorgeous (kind of) game with some interesting (and frustrating) mechanics. It was great to sink my teeth into, but so strange and so stuck in its ways that my enjoyment often felt blocked. In my flat it became known as, “Chorey McChoreson, the most chory game ever.” I should stop naming inanimate objects.

WRITING UPDATE!

I forget if I’ve mentioned here, but there has been a layout of an Explosion High! strip sighted. Things are going a little slowly, but as two full-time workers with a bunch of life events going on, we’re going to have a slow start.

I’ve started a stricter (in theory) timeline for proofreading Play Dead. It’s 285 pages long (I finally went through the proofreading copy and added page numbers) and I’d only read 20 pages. To get through the next 265, I have to proofread 9 pages a day.

I’m on Google Plus! Find me there and you’ll see weekly round-ups of the comics I’ve picked up. See my inability to manage my own standing order! Marvel at my bedroom carpet in the background of the review photos!

LIFE UPDATE!

My campaign of “20% More Awesome” is happening bit by bit. I’ve left my old job at Lloyds Banking Group, and even though I miss my old colleagues terribly, I don’t miss the commute or Haywards Heath. That alone is a pretty damn awesome thing, like at least 2-5% more awesome all by itself.

I’ve been trying to do a thing a month, like a couple of Rock Band nights at mine with a bunch of people, a couple of film nights. Now I need to arrange some outings to help my anti-hermit stance. Not sure what yet.

Oh, and soon there’ll be a couple more pieces on this site, not just fiction, but a little bit about my problems with owls. Yes, owls.

This week, I have managed to write a piece of flash fiction for the contest. The contest was to write a 1,000 word story inspired by random clicks on the fantastic site, “They Fight Crime!“

My random result was, “He’s an obese zombie astronaut with nothing left to lose. She’s a sharp-shooting blonde socialite in the wrong place at the wrong time. They fight crime!”

The idea I came up with was a combination of strange pulp adventure and stereotypical buddy cop action drama. My proofreader Steve said of it, “you deserve to go to hell for all the terrible… pulpyness…”

So without further ado, here is Dulcie St. Clements and Astronaut Jones in… Spoiled Meat!

This is late news, but I completely forgot to link to the review. Soon on D+Pad there will be my initial views on the PS4 show last week, along with those of the other journalists on that site.

In other news, I’ve started proofreading Play Dead. I’m not instantly disgusted and hateful of it, so that’s good. I’d say how far through, but I forgot to put page numbers on the proofreading copy. I’ll sort that out soon, too.

I have a tumblr at fakedtales.tumblr.com and Explosion High! has a currently empty one at explosionhigh.tumblr.com. In unrelated news I don’t quite ‘get’ Tumblr. The Magnificent Mike Armstrong has been a great help with sorting out the technology side of things, as well as doing some amazing designs of core and supporting characters. I may have been hasty in saying that EH! would be good to go by the end of the first quarter, but now it’s looking like mid-year is more likely.

This review is for [Rec] Genesis, the third part of the amazing [Rec] series. Sadly, out of the two reviews I’ll be posting, this is the bad one.

The current plan is that I’ll go through it with a red pen, rip it apart, dissect what worked and didn’t, make a full pile of scene cards (I added a bunch compared to the stack I had before, and might change the order a little). Some of the voices will need a few tweaks to make them more distinctive and I need to sort the accent out.

This month will be scripting Metal Made Flesh #0′s new draft, the fourth, I think and the start of the proofreading. After that, I’ll be spending I think about three months rewriting the novel, splitting it into three mini NaNoWriMos. Then proofread, then edit.

And then I’ll repeat it until the book’s done. Hopefully it’ll be done this year and I can do the same with Point of Departure, my first book.

Writing a novel is a long game…

Already, I have a novella half-written, a first draft I’ll be editing of Play Dead, a comic to make with Simeon Aston, a webcomic with Mike Armstrong which should be out in the first quarter of next year. I have a party planned for January, and a brand new PC which will actually work, unlike my last one. It’s all lined up and I’m ready to take the shot.

2013, I’ll meet you soon enough, then I’ll crush you, drive you to your knees and hear the lamentation of your women.

It’s almost time for NaNoWriMo 2012. I’m excited, and a little nervous.

These are the selection of tools I’ll be using for the month, going clockwise from the top:

* My netbook. The Netronomicon. It’s getting on a little now, and decorated with last year’s NaNoWriMo stickers from my lovely MLs. The charge isn’t great and I no longer have MS Word, but it’s where the work gets done.

* Coffee. My lifeblood. If I’m not drinking coffee, I’m probably not awake.

* Scene Cards. I’m adding to these all the time, but they’re my rough guide to the book. The blue cards on top are my character continuity notes.

* iPad. It’s a fairly new addition. I’ll be getting a keyboard for it soon so that I can type in a more portable way.

* The Magnificent and Horrifying Lugia. He’s standing in for my iPhone, used to take this photo. The iPhone is used for fitting music, for keeping my schedule and for any research I can find out in seconds. If it takes longer, I write “>>>” to go back to.

* Back to School Pad. The project’s set in a school. I felt it was fitting. I keep character studies, location guides, notes, rough scenes, lines of dialogue and any media to check out in here. I also have a list of common baby names from 1997 for any extras.

* Pens. I collect these like my brother does lighters. I either have a million or none. Luckily it normally borders on the ‘million’.

* Whisky. Because I’m mortal, I’m a writer, and I have needs, damn it.

In addition to these tools, I have people who will help me:

* Steve. The webmaster of Faked Tales and proofreader. He’s normally the first person to tell me when I’ve gone insane on a project.

* Alex. The proofreader who gives the fastest hit of information and knows all the terrible things I watch so he knows if I’m skirting too close to any other media.

* Graham. The gun nut. One of the nicest human beings… with a ton of knowledge about firearms. Really useful for this project.

So now, finally, I am ready. In eight hours I’ll be getting ready to set off for work, to write on my commute, my lunch break, my commute back and then the hour before the NaNoWriMo party. I can’t wait.

Thanks to everyone who’s followed me, who’s read the articles, and to my wonderful helpers. I’ll still be making a few posts here, especially to tease my post-NaNoWriMo projects. I hope you’ll stick around, and I hope you’ll have an amazing NaNoWriMo!

Charles Etheridge-Nunn

Writer of Play Dead, NaNoWriMo 2012.

Preparing for NaNoWriMo

What is NaNoWriMo and why am I reading this?

The Big Idea

Theme and Mood

Characters

Setting

Arc

Scene-by-Scene

There will probably be one more piece, but as an extra feature, rather than a core part of this series.

In other news