Hello all!

It’s been an exciting week for writing. In my RL fantasy writing carrer, I just finished Book 10 of my upcoming series. I also finally managed to get the finale of Ultimate Harem Fantasy published this week.

I really enjoyed writing that series. It started as a lark. A summer of procrastinating back before I had ever heard of COVID.

So last April, I had to retire my trusty Toshiba. I bought her in December of 2010. My first ever laptop. It didn’t get much use. But then in 2013, I started writing. The Devil’s Pact was written on my desktop and this laptop while I did my day job on breaks and what not.

It slowly became the only thing I wrote on until by 2014, I was writing everything on it. The Devil’s Pact, the Battered Lamp, My Fallen Angel, and more. I was a writing machine.

But that sort of heavy use takes a toll on a laptop. It gerw older and older, teh keys started wearing out, then the CPU fan died. It started overheating. The case began cracking so that I had to use duct tape to hold it in place. And then…

It was time to retire the old girl. April of 2021.

So I ordered a used Toshiba off the internet. It arrived. We had a good time until August. The H key came off. It broke. I could no longer write with it. So I broke out my HP. It was a laptop I used for doing office work. Like writing this post. I replaced it in 2020 for a faster laptop. At the same time, I ordered a brand new one. The same model that I’m writing on now. One just for writing. It’s got a great keyboard.

I ordered it August 4th not knowing that it would be end of September before it shipped. They did not say that when I bought it. I started writing on my old HP. It was slow, but it was working out. It lasted a month. A fucking month. Then the C and D key stopped working when I pressed them.

That was a frustrating morning.

So I pulled out my second laptop. A Dell I bought back in 2014. My original “office” laptop. I had bought it to write on, too, but I just kept using that Toshiba.

The Dell had some issues, but it got me through September and into mid-October when finally, my new Windows 10 Laptop showed up. With Windows 11.

They “upgraded” me.

Windows 11 has a garbage task bar. It’s complete trash. Windows took a dump on anyone that uses a lot of programs or multiple documents. Thanks to the internet, I added a simple .dll file to my computer and Voila! Windows 10 taskbar. So it’s usable for writing.

In fact, it’s been great for writing.

Now the reason I don’t use my office laptop is i have extra screens that attach to it. This makes it heavy and bulky. Not convenient for moving about, but when I have to my publishing, my formatting, my editing, making covers, it’s wonderful.

So those are my laptop woes of 2021.

Hope it didn’t bore you.

In reading, I finished Banished From the Hero’s Party 4. This sort of lighthearted story got into some deep ideas about destiny, free will, and more.

This was a tense and exciting light novel that drew me. Some good stakes. Characters in peril. And it was a great wrap up to the first arc. I’m curious to see where things go with the Hero.

Anyways, it’s about Red. He’s the older brother of the Hero. His job was to guide and protect her until she came of age and could fully use his powers. Sadly, his abilities couldn’t keep up with hers and the other heroes she assembled.

He was holding them back, or so Ares the Sage claimed. Red agreed and retired to have a simple life where he runs into Rit. She once was in the hero’s party and they reconnect. A nice, simple love story. Some fun. then…

Story got real!

And speaking of stories getting real, I finished a three-part manga called Strawberry Fields Once Again. It’s some fun, sugary yuri fluff.

Akira is a girl that never wants romance. She thought her parents had the perfect marriage until her father left mom for his pregnant mistress. When Mom died of cancer begging to see the man she lvoed who never came, Akira realized romance was a curse.

Then on her way to school a girl name Pure appears, says she’s Akira’s fiancee from seven years in the future where they’re about to be married, and has traveled back in time to fulfill Akira’s wish.

For them to have met in high school.

What follows is a fairly standard friends to yuri lovers arc until things got real in the final volume. Stakes. Ethics of changing time.

It went from fun to actually engaging. Couldn’t put it down. So thumbs up for it!

Lastly, I’ve been reading In Another World with My Smartphone. I’m on Volume 4. It’s a fun harem series. I mean, at least it’s going for full harem route. Girls are onboard with being his wives even if they’re still going the whole slow, anime route.

It’s fun fluff. Nothing to special. But there are always hidden gems to find in light novels. Really good stories that masquerade under fluffy disguises.

Maybe Another World is one, but I doubt it. Still, I like the characters.

This week, Noah Pink’s A Flower in the Dark was my favorite show released by iStripper. She’s a cute bottle-blonde from Spain. I love her shows. Not a real dirty one, but she is so delicious.