Writer’s Diary: May 2024 Update

Welcome back, one and all! I’m back from break, and I’m feeling refreshed and ready to go!

Let’s not waste any time and get right into the update! Here’s the plan for May!

First, let’s talk movies. Having caught my breath, I’m ready to tackle yet another marathon. This time around, I want to delve deeper into one of my favorite genres: the kaiju genre. Specifically, we’re gonna check out Godzilla’s greatest box office rival: Gamera! I’m super excited to delve into this series and explore a side of kaiju history I’m less familiar with!

But first, I need to do some catching up. Firstly, with the new season of Doctor Who on the horizon, I’ll be delivering my article on the 50th anniversary special. Better late than never, right? After that, you can expect my review on Amazon’s ‘Fallout’ TV series. I’m late to the party, I know. Even so, I enjoyed the show quite a bit and I’m excited to talk about it. After that, it’s all about the giant turtle.

Next up: books. My new job gives me a lot of time for listening to audio books, so I’ve got quite a bit of material to discuss. First up, I’ll be reviewing ‘Last Argument of Kings’ by Joe Abercrombie, bringing our reviews of the First Law trilogy to an end. After that, I’ll be catching up with Travis Baldree with ‘Bookshops & Bonedust’; I loved ‘Legends & Lattes’, so I’m super stoked for this one! Since I’ve also been re-reading the ‘Stormlight Archive’ series by Brandon Sanderson in preparation for book five’s release later this year, I’ll also be bringing back ‘By the Cover’ to discuss the amazing cover art of book three: ‘Oathbringer.’ Beyond them, you can expect another Poirot adventure and an H.P. Lovecraft short.

Yes, I’m still reading ‘A Dance with Dragons’ by George R.R. Martin. It’s a big book and I’m a slow reader. Besides, if Martin is allowed to take over a decade on ‘Winds of Winter’, I’m allowed to take my time too.

Onto Wednesday and the variety slot. First up, I want to discuss one of my favorite anime clichés: transformation. After that, we’re going back to Dragon Ball Z to discuss one of the best fights in the series. Then I’m gonna take a look into the ever expanding world of Berserk fan animations and why they’re so fantastic; there are some truly incredible works coming out, and they’re only getting more impressive with time. To wrap up the month, we’ll be doing a character analysis. On whom, I haven’t decided yet, so it will be a surprise for all of us.

Now we come to video games. During my break, I’ve had time to break away from my crippling ‘Helldivers II’ addiction to play some other games. To start, I want to check in on ‘Final Fantasy XVI’ to see how the recent DLC and updates have improved the game. I’ll also be discussing ‘Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth’ spoilers at some point; think of that one as a sort of part two to my original review. Past that, I’ll be doing a few ‘Best Boss Battles’ focusing on Elden Ring bosses. Gotta get ready for the ‘Shadows of the Erdtree!’

Finally, we have anime. With a new season starting up, it’s time to have a look at the lineup and see which shows I’m interested in. I’m also planning to discuss the evolution of CGI in anime, and how it’s changed from a visual blight to a whole new direction for the medium. Of course, I’ll be continuing my re-read of Berserk as we progress further and further into the ‘Falcon of the Millenium Empire’ arc.

Now, I need to address the elephant sitting in the corner: a new season of ‘My Hero Academia’ is around the corner. Since near the beginning of my blogging career, I’ve reviewed every episode of every season in the ‘My Review Academia’ series. It’s become something of a tradition over the years.

But I’ll be real: my interest in the show has waned to almost nothing since the series began. This comes across a lot in the reviews of seasons five and six; they’ve become negative and repetitive. Writing these articles isn’t just time-consuming and exhausting, it’s also depressing. As the show’s quality has dropped, they’ve become more and more negative, with only occasional bits of positivity. It isn’t fun for me to write, and I can’t imagine it’s fun for you guys to read. So, with some regret, I’ve decided to let the tradition end.

I will be reviewing the season as a whole, though. Just not weekly.

To wrap up, a quick update on the books. During the break, I put a brief pause on work for the main two novels and spent some time working on fun side projects. Now that the break is over, I’ll be focusing my efforts full-time on editing ‘Father of Monsters.’ I aim to have that done by the end of the year. Then, come 2025, it’ll be time for peer reviews, edits, and finally: publication.

I do intend to share those side projects with y’all one day. But for now, I’ll just enjoy building up a back log of goofy adventure novellas.

With that, our update is complete. I’m energized and excited to get back into blogging. Hopefully these articles will be as enjoyable for all of you as they already are for me.

Thanks a bunch for reading! Have a wonderful day, y’all!