Book Review: Top Hat Express

Top Hat Express, by Alex Wolf. I shall grant this work 4.5 out of 5 stars, for while it enlightens, entertains, and reveals the players of MMOs in a most meta (human) light, it does not quite reach the sublimest heights of supervillainy! Mwah-ha-hah-ha-hah!

Lost in Translation up on AO3

Okay, reviewing my list of stuff on Fanfiction.net I found a few that I missed getting to Archive of Our Own.

The Case of the Fried Brain

Taxes. *Flop*

Manga Review: The Savior’s Book Café Story in Another World

Okay, sold. I admit it, Volume One got me; bam, straight in the wish fulfillment. A book café you can run just for fun, cooking and reading as you like? A stable living, food, shelter, defensive magic, and all the books you want? Five out of five stars, right there….

Plotbunny: Library of Doomsday

I’m still not sure I could reliably write a LitRPG. But a few days ago I got hit with an image of a librarian guy trying to survive a couple years after a System Apocalypse, being threatened in his own library (where he’s hiding a Strange Person he wants to talk to) by some Adventurer-classed guys.

Book Review: Dungeon Life

Okay, who’s up for a nice break from RL worries?

Dungeon Life, by Khenal. I’ll give this a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars; I could have gone for a little more depth in the town characters. But that’s a minor thing. This is a fun Halloween haunted house of a romp. A little bit scary at points, but mostly fun.

Raiders of the Lost Plot

A heck of a day yesterday, so….

Have a few movie- and trope-related thoughts on writing, the constant struggle. Dum da dum dum, dum da dum….

On Writing: America’s Dumbest Inspirations

Okay, here’s a writing question for you: how do you write characters being stupid?

I’m not talking about your hero being up a week straight, wired on coffee, and bloodstream near totally adrenaline after the last monster attack so they miss things. That’s stress. Anybody can be stressed. Not anybody can be mind-numbingly, jaw-droppingly, oh-my-God-I’m-ashamed-to-be-the-same-species stupid.

Musical Crossover Inspirations

Been slowly editing and getting some fresh stuff written into the Colors draft. Music is known to be a helpful aid for creativity. Here’s some bits of oddness you might find of interest!

Who wants to write some nonstandard pirate stories?

The Tyrannical Rein of Spellcheck

Spellcheck is not a substitute for editing. Trust me on this.

And yet more and more often these days, even in books published by mainstream presses, it looks like people are using it for exactly that. Too often I’ve been jarred out of my suspension of disbelief because of a glaringly wrong word.