Fun Stuff

Fancy Some Christmas Music?

Max Misc , , ,

Hey folks! I’m on my Christmas Vacation, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some content! So today I’m linking back to a fun post we did last year where I encouraged everyone to share Christmas tunes in the comments after sharing a few of my own favorites! And once again, like a Bernie advertisement, I’m asking for you to chip in! Save that I’m pointing you folks to the comments to share youtube links to your favorite Christmas carols, songs, etc! Let’s give everyone the gift of some more holiday music to enjoy! Here are a few of mine—fresh, not from last year’s—to get you all started!

Christmas Everyday by Gia Farrell
In Wonderment of Winter by Gareth Coker
Across the Frozen Expanse by Abadoss
Last Christmas by Jimmy Eat World
Let It Snow by Chris Isaak

That’s some of what’s in my Christmas playlist? How about you? Merry Christmas, readers!

What If … Colony was a Game?

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All right folks, I did promise you something goofy, fun, and light-hearted while I did my taxes (though I don’t think I used all those words exactly), so here we go.

What if … Colony was a game?

Any kind of game. Board, tabletop, video, whatever. And yes, I’ll admit to having thought about this before and formed some of my own ideas (shades of that old game design education shining through). But what about you guys? If Colony hit it big and picked up a Netflix or Amazon streaming deal with all the usual tie-ins, what sort of merch would you want to see, specifically when it came to the entertainment tie-ins. Could any of them be anything special, or would they just be shameless cash grabs? Who, if you’re this specific, would you like to see handle such a product (for example, I’d love to see Colony as an RTS title by Blackbird Interactive in the style of Homeworld; the sub combat would add some great wrinkles and bring terrain to full fruition in an already awesome RTS style).

That’s it! That’s the discussion! What sort of game would you want to see tackled, and what would it look like? A Colony board game? A 4X? A collectible card game? Go nuts!

NOTE: As of posting, I certainly know of no streaming deal or tie-in products with the book (and I would be the first to know). This is more a fun exercise for some of you to really exercise those creative muscles.

And who knows? Maybe someone from Leder Games or Wizards of the Coast will stumble across any discussion, get interested, and something really cool will come of it. We’ve got Godzilla and Street Fighter Magic the Gathering cards. At this point, anything is possible!

So hit those comments!

Let’s Share Some Christmas Music!

Max Misc , , ,

Hey folks! Max here!

So I’m not quite on my break yet, though as of posting, that might be a different story (got my COVID booster today and it’s expected to knock me back a bit). But it is the Christmas season, and I was thinking about that this week, and well … Though I can’t deliver an Axtara sequel out of thin air (sorry folks, but not even the magic of Christmas is as strong as the realities of writing), I can do some fun stuff.

And one thing that I undoubtedly like about the holiday season is its music. I love Christmas music, both the goofy fun stuff and the more solemn, thoughtful pieces. I’ve been listening to my Christmas-channel on Pandora for weeks now, enjoying every minute of it.

So hey, why not share a few of my favorite Christmas songs here? And ask all of you what yours are? At the worst, we get a few minutes of joyous Christmas music to listen to, right?

No beating around the bush here. Let’s dive right in!

Now, I don’t know if it’s just because I loved the movie as a kid or if because it captures—to me, at least—the feeling of Christmas night, but I love the song Carol of the Bells. For me, this is the song I built my Christmas Pandora playlist around. I love it. It’s a bit mysterious, but also joyous, with various versions over the years focusing on different aspects of it, but all of them good.

Compare these two versions, for example. Both are fantastic. Both great. Both the same song, but also their own takes.

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Flash Fiction – Firstborn

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Hey folks!

So last night I was browsing the web before (planning) to go to sleep when I spotted a writing prompt on Reddit, and well … the creative brain took over. Next thing I knew it was past 1 AM, and I’d written a fun little story about man who makes a deal with a witch for his firstborn child, but has already, unbeknownst to her, cheated.

You can see the Reddit Writing Prompt that spawned it here, but for a short bit of flash fiction I was quite happy with how it turned out, and figured it deserved to be on the site. So here you are, folks. Firstborn.

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Quarantine Chat: Colony – The Film (Or Show?)

Max Books! , , , ,

colony-finalHello readers! As we settle into the second (or for some, third or fourth) week of pandemic quarantine, I figured it’d be nice to help ease the stress of things to talk about something amusing and entertaining, even if, at this time, only hypothetical:

What if … a studio bought the rights to make Colony a feature of some kind?

It’s a fun hypothetical because there’s a lot of different ways you could do it. Film. Series. Animated. Live action.

Which one would you want to see? Or better yet …

Who would be the actors? Who would you want to see playing Jake, Anna, and Sweets? Who do you think could fill the shoes of the trio?

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Max Misc , ,

You know, I wasn’t going to post anything for a few more days, just so no one missed the Christmas story I put up … But I’m gonna link that right here and say “Hey, you should check that out.”

So hey, you should check that out.

Now, why am I posting? Because I just came back from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and … Yeah, I enjoyed it a lot.

I mean, you should probably see this one for the visuals alone. It’s incredible. If someone at Pixar isn’t going “Why didn’t we think of that!?” for some of these visuals, it’s only because they haven’t seen it. I’m not even sure how to describe some of it (though I’m sure a film student would have a better shot). Suffice to say, there’s a whole team of brilliant animators over at Sony pictures who deserve accolades for some of the incredible visuals they pulled off. It feels like a comic that’s coming to life in front of your eyes. Again, I can’t explain it in technical terms, but the visual treats the trailers show off? They’re not even scratching the surface.

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Your Year in Books

Max Misc , , ,

Okay guys, this is cool. Yesterday I was alerted via Reddit to a feature of Goodreads I was not aware of: The “Your Year in Books” feature.

What is it? Well, the name is pretty self explanatory, but basically it’s a shareable page that summarizes all your reported reading so far that year. The number of pages you’ve read across however many books, the most popular book you read, the least popular book you read, your average review rating, the highest-rated book you read, and so on and so forth. Basically, it summarizes whatever you’ve put into their site into a really neat little infographic you can look over and see. It’s your year of books at a glance.

So, that’s pretty cool. If you’re a Goodreads user, at least. And while I’m not a heavy user by any means, I have been using it to simply leave a rating for each book I read, and even that’s enough for it to make a neat little page on it.

But they also made these pages shareable. That’s right, each one’s got a link you can share so you can swap pages on books read with people you know. And well … yeah, why not? After all, it’s kind of fun to see what people read.

Anyway, here’s mine. Everything’s there save the book I’m reading right now, which in all honesty isn’t getting a great rating anyway. Take a look, and while you’re at it, if you feel like it, share yours in the comments. I’ll keep a close eye on the filter so that they don’t get filed under spam.

Is there something deep behind this? Not really. It’s just fun. I like looking at stats for things, and this is a neat one. Plus, it’s cool to see all my readings in one place and kind of laid out with some additional info. I definitely can see a few series I binged on here, as well as some random pickups from my library, some of which were good, and others which were … not so good.

Just fun, end of the year, holiday stuff. So, what’d you read?

2017 in Review—The State of Unusual Things

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Before you start, there’s a Christmas Sale on! Colony and Dead Silver both are reduced prices through Christmas! Perfect for last minute gifts!

This year … was rough. I’m not going to lie.

To be fair, that wasn’t the writing’s fault. More it was other circumstances. Like the knee injury I acquired in June (which is still healing) and every thing that it brought with it. Okay, mostly it was the knee injury. Pretty much just that. With the knee injury came medical debts, which brought extra work shifts, and that then led to less writing time, and …

Well, let’s just say it’s not been the best year. Which is kind of a lousy lead-in to a year in review article, but it was bound to happen sometime, right? I mean, no matter what, one of the years writing had to be a rough one.

Anyway, 2017 marks the third year of Unusual Things being up and open. Which means that despite how rough this year was, it’s time for another look back at the year in review to see how I did compared to years prior, and make plans for what’s coming.

You ready? Let’s take a look.

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Two Years Online: Looking Back and Racing Forward

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What’s that? A special event? You’re right!

As of yesterday, Unusual Things has passed its second annual landmark. That’s right, as of March 2nd, 2017, Unusual Things is now two whole years old!

Holy cow. Two whole years. Which means that it’s been over four years since my first book was released. And maybe three, three-and-a-half since I started writing posts about writing that would transform (or evolve, take your pick) into a weekly series called Being a Better Writer.

But the work hasn’t stopped there, either. Since the creation of this site, I’ve released several new books, completed drafts on a few more yet to arrive, started a Patreon account … and who knows what all else. I’m probably forgetting a few things.

It’s been a busy year. Few years, really.

Anyway, my point is that it’s the second anniversary of the site! And you know what that means!

Stats! Oh yes. It’s time to dig in and see how the site has done compared to the first year, and how it’s doing overall! So, to start—

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2016 in Review—What’s My Progress So Far?

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Sands and storms, it’s time for one of these already? Even more alarming, this nears marking the the third anniversary of Unusual Things?

Boy, the days really fly, don’t they?

Well, it is what it is. Time marches on. Which means that once again it’s time to take a look back at my goals, accomplishments, and the like during this year and see what I’ve gotten done. It’s time to put 2016 under the microscope and look at some hard data.

Honesty? I expect that I got less writing done this year … though I published more, and definitely worked just as hard. It’s just a byproduct of what I worked on. 2015 was lots and lots of writing, while 2016 ended up being the year I published a lot of that writing. Which meant that I spent a lot of time trapped in the editing process.

Plus, I started working a second job every week to make ends meet, which also cut into my writing time.

I mean, that’s not bad. But both definitely slowed my pace, and while my “total” word count for productivity stayed pretty good (remember, I count editing as a 20% wordcount for tracking reasons), my actual wordcount for words written probably dropped for the year.

Granted. Next year I think I may see a bit more equilibrium. Maybe. Right now I’ve only got one book in editing, and one that I’m working on. Then again, next year may be a repeat of this year: two releases, lots of editing.

I guess I’ll find out. For now though, let’s take a look at 2016.

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