The holidays are over, and that means the Spring semester. That’s probably the biggest news I’ve got, which is pretty sad. But, as a monthly tradition I seem to have inadvertently started back in November, here’s an update on all the things I’m doing. What games I’m playing, what my future writing plans are, and how my life is going in general.

In December I finished the second novelette, now titled “Change in the Winds”, in the Nacre Then anthology. I also recorded an audio version of it, and you can listen to it on YouTube here. The third novelette will take place in Zephira, a nation of monks that live amidst the clouds. While I already know what the main conflict is going to be, I’m not planning on jumping right in any time soon. I seem to have been having a harder time getting into “writing mode” lately, so I want to try to sort that out and take a breather before I take on another larger project.

As a side note to this, from now on, every Monday I will be releasing another audio short story on YouTube. Today’s reading is the first two Lisa Stenton stories: “Spiritwalkers” and “Suicide Note”. The two stories are about eighteen minutes total, and you can listen to them here! That being said, I do want to write another Lisa Stenton short story soon, but no promises.

I’m also excited to write quite a few Review posts! I recently saw Rogue One, and I’m starting to get into Path of Exile. On top of that, Diablo’s twentieth anniversary is coming up, and I’ve also been playing the original on the Playstation recently. All of these are prime candidates for reviews, so it’s a little frustrating to suddenly have too many things to talk about on that front! I plan on writing these reviews in the order in which I mentioned them, so stay tuned.

While I’ve been playing a lot of Path of Exile, I’ve also recently putting a little extra effort into hitting Platinum rank in Overwatch. I’m inching there ever so slightly, but it’s pretty hard when you play alone on a laggy computer, and your main character is somebody that requires a lot of team coordination! I consider myself a very positive person when playing video games in general (getting mad only makes victory harder), but it can really be hard to remain optimistic in such playing conditions. That’s why it’s taking so long!

As far as reading goes, I’m about halfway through The Wise Man’s Fear, the second book of the Kingkiller Chronicle. So far this one hasn’t sucked me in the same way as the first, but it’s still quite well written in every regard. After I finish it, I plan on actually reading Hero with a Thousand Faces (I’ve read the first quarter of the book twice now.) Perhaps after that I’ll give Wheel of Time another chance, but I’m not sure I’m willing to give it one just yet.

Last, but certainly not least, the next semester begins on Tuesday for me. I’ve registered for five classes, but I don’t know if I’m going to be taking all of them. I got an email from one professor and he sounds like a real piece of work, despite his good reviews. (He doesn’t even allow used versions of the newest edition of the mandatory textbook.) So I’m a little tentative about the classes for this semester. In general it’s been kind of messy, but we’ll see.

I hope you’ve had a great head start to the new year. I’m pretty optimistic about where I’m headed, personally. I can’t wait to see what the months to come bring. If you feel like you’ve already fallen behind, don’t sweat it. Sometimes plans don’t go the way you want them to, but a good opportunity is never far ahead if you keep putting one foot in front of the other.