Some of you might remember that a couple of months ago I asked for book recommendations for my little sister. I think you’ll all be happy to know that… I didn’t buy her anything you guys recommended! Haha. I’ve added them to a list that I may look at later if my choice of a Christmas present goes over well.

I bought her The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which was a favorite of mine when I was around her age. She’s currently going ot the same school I went to, so if the curriculum is the same she’ll be reading that book in class in two years. I think that if I can actually get her to read the thing, she’ll feel pretty good about saying, “I’ve already read that!” when it comes time to read it in class. Maybe it’ll encourage her to not pay any damn attention in class, but ideally she’ll be proud she already read it. Assuming she even opens the book I gave her. If she does read it and dig it, it has the advantage of being part of a pseudo-series. I can sucker her into reading the other Narnia books as well.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading myself, but it’s not exactly recreational. I spent a whole load of money in the last couple of weeks on books for research purposes. That sounds far more eggheaded than it actually is. It’s a lot of books on mythology and and feudal/medieval eras in various parts of the world. Europe and Japan are the biggies right now, and I plan on moving into other parts of Asia as well shortly. China, Korea, et cetera.

A really long ass time ago I mentioned on WoW Insider that I was working on an Eastern Fantasy setting. That’s still something I’m working on. It’s going to be a delightfully pulpy and (mostly) original story and setting, but I still want it to have some foundation in the mythology of the areas it’ll be based on, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading and a lot of watching documentaries. I have no intent of being purely historically accurate, but I don’t want to be one of those guys either. You know what I’m talking about.

I think it will be a fun setting, I just don’t want to go too deep into development without really knowing what I’m doing. i think that you’ll like it when I actually have something postable. I have some old-ish concept art for a couple of characters from my awesome girlfriend that I would post, but I don’t know if she’d appreciate that or not. You should leave comments asking her to let me do so!

I’m still working on my Western, somewhat more traditional (but still pulpy) setting, but I’ve been working on that on and off for years. Literally years. I have never dedicated hefty time to it until now, but it’s existed on paper and in my head in some iteration since I was 15. It’s absolutely nothing like that it was at that time, because my god was it terrible, but it’s technically the same project. Technically. I also have a single concept art for that, but again, I don’t think she would appreciate me just posting it out of the blue. Again, ask her to let me do so! By the way, my readers that filtered over here from WoW Insider, you may have heard of her.

You guys will be seeing a whole lot of me (and maybe her!) pretty soon, because I’m getting my own apartment come February. That means I’ll have a lot more workspace to myself and hopefully I’ll have decent stints of uninterrupted work time rather than my current family-related interruptions and in an ideal world, more time to yammer. So, get ready.

Bonus question of the day: Do you guys have any experience with simple, easy to use ads? Google ads are the easiest and simplest, but I can guarantee I’ll be loaded up with WoW gold selling ads because I mention my job now and then. I’d like to avoid that. Are there any similar alternatives?