Monthly Archives: April 2026

Art is still happening…

Posted on by
Reply

Creativity has been hard to come by of late. I’m still struggling. Some of the work I have done is… stuff I’d rather not claim in fact. I don’t like it, but there were deadlines. I *have* been doing little things as I am inspired.

I’m still running the TTRPG Dungeons & Dragons game. There are still videos being posted and all the fun associated with sharing that story with my friends. It has also given me a framework to hang some of my inspiration on. I think this might be the way to rebuild or repair and restart the creation engine.

I have been working through a particular story line and striving to bring just the right words to the players to evoke images and push imaginations forward. Recently I decided to create a picture of an intricate door to accompany my description.

This is the result:

It is no masterpiece, but it IS complete. The first creative endeavor strictly for my own pleasure in quite a long time. Small steps, moving forward. Art can help, and creating things like this has always been part of me. It’s good to be moving that way again.

Am I a Crawler?

Posted on by
Reply

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Having just posted about a book that was a love story with romance and poetry… this is not that.

I was skeptical about this book. Anything with ‘buzz’ just sounds like a lot of disappointment waiting to happen. Pop culture often feels like a thing I want to avoid more than something I should know.

I have finished this one off at a very rapid pace – and have purchased the second in the series. That will stand as its own recommendation I think. Moving on to the second in a series is a rare thing for me.

This book could be considered a full story. Did I need to go to the second one? That is a pet peeve of mine – just stopping a story in the middle for the sake of creating a second book. I loathe that publishing tactic. This story teetered on the edge of that, but there was just enough closure to work. The writing style is very easy to read, with short chapters that keep the action moving right along.

The book starts with the set up from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and just moves in a different direction. Some of the humor seems cruel to me, but that, perhaps, is the point. The aliens aren’t trying to be nice, they’re trying to wipe people out while producing a Running Man style show where the characters are abused for the entertainment of the audience. I am not super fond of the main character, nor am I enough of a cat fan to be overly attached to the main duo. What this story does deliver is enough interesting world building to make the action feel important. There are a ton of threads dangling in the story that (if the author is good) will get tied back into the story later.

So… good, but will it carry past the second novel? We shall see.



View all my reviews

Time Shifting

Posted on by
Reply

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I suspect it will shock some people who know and repeatedly hear about my penchant for simpler hero stories and books that go boom, I very much enjoyed this book.

Is it flowery, poetic and romantic? Yes. It is all those things and more. It has a longing in it that the author brings out in each of the characters. So different, yet not really that different at all. When one is deeply involved in a thing, sometimes the only other who can truly understand is also deeply involved in the same thing. Being on opposite sides becomes academic when there aren’t any others who share the profound depth of knowledge and experience.

I can’t match the language skills of the authors, but I will say I enjoyed this elevated text. Love is not easy, and neither is the relationship in this story. The delivery methods for messages were fascinating. One that still stands out is, “…burn before reading…”. Time shifting stories often get trapped in a cycle of what if scenarios and technicalities, but this story only hints at the full background and gives just enough to make it believable. In the end, the simplest clues and the smallest actions give pause to the reader and concern for the relationship, while showing hints of a deepening love.

An excellent book. Absolutely recommend to the romantics out there.



View all my reviews