gaming

Christmas!

~ JP Marshman ~ Leave a comment

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Hey, blogosphere. Merry belated Christmas! How was it for everyone? Full of joy and festivity and family fun?

Me, I had two Christmases. First time ever for that. On Christmas morning, I went to my mother’s and had family time, then today for Boxing Day I went to James’ family’s house after some very brief deal shopping (all I bought were ski pants so I don’t have to wear tearaways or snowboard pants whenever I want to go cross country skiing). I’ve always wanted to own the Tudors tv show, ever since watching it a few years ago and that bastard, Netflix, removed it from the stream. So my mother got me all four seasons in a box set. James got me a house coat that’s designed like R2-D2, because, hey, turns out I really like Star Wars. My brother got me a hardcover compilation of the Mass Effect comics, as well as a bottle of Grey Monk wine. Grown up gifts!

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It didn’t feel like Christmas this year to me. It was a green, foggy Christmas – and I grew up with white Christmases, where we had so much so we could build tunnels through it. We had a bit of snowfall this year, but then it rained and melted most of it, then iced over. And we were hardcore pea soup fogged in this year, which I’ve never encountered before. I think that, and that my house wasn’t decorated, nor was James’, had something to do with the fact that it didn’t feel like Christmas. And besides, Christmas is more for kids than it is adults.

I guess that means I’m an adult now.

Hm.

Something to ponder.

How was everyone else’s Christmas (or other holiday they might celebrate!)?

So, I’ve been bad

~ JP Marshman ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been playing a lot of Guild Wars 2 lately instead of writing. Because I apparently have no soul. But! I will say it has been quite the adventure. Some friends finally got the game and we made a guild. There are many lulz to be had. If you want to see just how many, and what exactly I’ve been up to lately,

 check out Elisa’s blogs about our super happy fun times in GW2, because we are a hilarious group of gamers.

I know you’re jealous and want to be friends with us.

Line dancing charr, because why not.

Wow, I am the worst at blogging

~ JP Marshman ~ Leave a comment

I was doing so well for a while there, too.

But let me list excuses why I’ve been neglecting you forgive me:

  • James was back in town
  • I had one health crisis—
  • —followed by another
  • On my two days off this week, I played probably 24 hours total of Dragon Age: Origins
  • and got no writing done whatsoever
  • Star Trek TNG
  • Preparing for Halloween
  • Work
  • I sometimes have a social life
  • I played a lot of Dragon Age

So I’m going to try blogging on a regular basis again, and pick my lazy ass off the floor. I’m also going to try to push past this strange laziness of putting off Abominatino, and I’m going to go hard editing Purity, because I still intend to release her around Halloween, and that’s coming up soon. September and October are going to be busy months, so I’m going to be sporadic, but less so.

/endupdate

Music, and when it blows your mind

~ JP Marshman ~ Leave a comment

I’ve already discussed briefly how important music is to me when I’m writing. I have folders of about 500 songs on iTunes from an assortment of sources – movies, video games, tv shows – that suit me well when I’m writing particular scenes. They’re orchestral, for the most part, scores and soundtracks, and only a few have vocals. It’s the music that makes your hair stand on end while watching a tense scene in a movie, or the peaceful melody you hear while wandering the countryside in your favourite video game.

music

On the left, you can see how my folders are laid out, according to the mood of the scene I’m writing. I also have a folder for Purity alone, which is filled with darker industrial music, like the Queen of the Damned worst movie ever but amazing music soundtrack and Marilyn Manson. Things that suit vampire stories.

Continue reading →

A basic writer Q & A

~ JP Marshman ~ Leave a comment

Because they can be insightful, because I have nothing better to do that’s a lie, I should be developing the world of Changeling more, or writing more Abomination, or editing Purity, or starting on the rewrite of Of the Arbour, or–

And hey, maybe it’ll give everyone else more of an idea of just why I do what I do, and where this all comes from.

Taken from the deviantART page of Elisa Nuckle.
1. When did you start writing?

I’ve been writing stories for most of my life. I cleaned out my closet recently and discovered so many little half-baked stories that I’d come up with when I was younger than ten. I’ve known I’ve wanted to be an author since I was 13, but only recently have taken the major steps toward that goal, and actually written something worth publication.

2. When you were a beginning writer, what did your write primarily? What do you write now, primarily?  (i.e. romance, fan-fiction, poetry)

I wrote plenty of Star Wars fanfiction that will never see the light of day. From there, I began to write sci fi stories that were based closely on Star Wars. In grade seven, a friend and I wrote a novel about vampires called Tears of Blood, which was completely scrapped save for one character: Fane, the son of Dracula, who now resides in Purity. I now usually write fantasy, high and epic. Continue reading →

I’m inspiring!

~ JP Marshman ~ Leave a comment

Guys! Guys! I got another award! And I’m being humble about it!

On Windy Days awarded me with the Inspiring Blogger Award! I’m flattered and totally deserve it and everything.

The rules!

* Display the award logo on your blog Boom, done!

* Link back to the person who nominated you Good for me!

* State seven things about yourself

* Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them

* Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements

Seven facts!

  1. I listen to score music more often than I do regular music with vocals and shit. I find listening to scores more inspiring (more on that on an older post) and just better. I feel more when I listen to a score. It’s emotive.
  2. I’ve recently developed an addiction to Guild Wars 2. I have three characters: a level 42 sylvari mesmer, a level 38 human ranger, and a level 3 (woo!) charr engineer. I don’t usually like MMOs, but Guild Wars is special in that you don’t have to pay and you don’t have to play with others. I don’t play well with others; I get freaked out whenever someone tries to add me to their group or guild, due to only ever playing single person RPGs. And I play games so sporadically sometimes that I could never pay monthly.
  3. I’m not super great at learning languages, but maybe one day I’ll shell out the cash to learn Latin and Welsh. Two of the only languages that interest me are both extremely difficult and terribly impractical.
  4. I’m a hypochondriac. As soon as one little thing goes wonky in my body, I’m convinced I’m dying.
  5. I handwrite more than I print. But I type more than I handwrite, and I get hand cramps if I write for more than a few minutes.
  6. I’m becoming Carrie Bradshaw. I have plenty of pairs of fancy, impractical shoes, I’m a writer, and I drink cosmopolitans. Now I just need a Mr Big.
  7. I have a mug collection, a shoe collection, and a t-shirt collection, and I always change my hair. I have quirks, clearly. (This isn’t a real fact, what is wrong with me.)

Elisa Nuckle

Bethany Sanjenko

Cassidy Cornblatt

Pepijn Krijnsen

Kim EA Davis

A Fettered Mind

Preston Fuller

I haven’t listed fifteen, because I am UNCONVENTIONAL.

Thanks!

Halp?

~ JP Marshman ~ Leave a comment

I recently downloaded from Steam the lovable old game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and installed the Restored Content mod that returned to the game content that the developers had to cut prior to the rushed release date. I love this game to bits, due to playing it all the time as a child, and I was fascinated to see what restored content I could fiddle with.

I had always known about the sub-level of the Telos military base, the one with the locked door that you can never enter. Cut content. I always knew it was the door to the HK manufacturing plant that G0-T0 took over after Revan abandoned it. So I was super excited once HK-47 initiated the quest to find out where the HK-50 droids were coming from so he could hunt them down and kill them. Continue reading →

I’M BACK!

~ JP Marshman ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been away for a coon’s age! Or at least it feels that way. I haven’t had access to my computer in a few weeks, because of reasons. I still had internet access, but only through my iPod so I couldn’t exactly update the old blog all up on there. So lately I’ve been reading a lot, socializing some, and playing a lot of Draw Something (play with me!)

Unfortunately, being without my computer meant that not a lot of writing was accomplished. There was a few thousand maybe written in my leatherbound notebook for Abomination (the tentative title of the Changeling sequel I’ve started) so  Continue reading →