Hello everyone! September is here and that means we only have 4 months left before this year comes to a close. I think we can all agree that this year has been heavy with changes and that overall cost of living has skyrocketed. This has made us here quite creative on how we can save on stuff like groceries and energy usage. But that’s a topic for another time. I wanted to share with you how things are faring and what I’ve been keeping busy with on the topics that interest me most! So let’s dive right into things.

On Writing

While I’m very saddened by the loss of our beloved cat Bobbie, I’m also very inspired to write stories about her life, both fictional and biographical in nature. So I’ve taken it upon myself to start work on a new novel with a very strong biographical tone about her life, the lives of our other cats and our own lives and how all of us got together. I’ve already written a rough draft for a first chapter and asked Bren to read it. I hope she’s as enthusiastic as I am about it.

I’m also extremely keen to continue writing about the fictional exploits of our cats with my Kevar novels and am currently working on some new ideas to incorporate into the overall story arc, as well as the individual character story arcs. I’m considering maybe posting a sneak preview as well, but I have to give it some more thought if it’s a smart thing to do.

On Reading

Some time ago I promised a friend of mine to proofread her manuscript. I’ve managed to read about a third of it now, but reading hasn’t exactly been a high priority for me the past week, as I am still mourning the loss of my dear Bobbie. I’m going to try and get back into it this week. I have a feeling that I need to start reading more and with the days becoming noticeably shorter this becomes a lot easier. Bren and I love curling up with a good book, with some tea and snacks.

I finished listening to The Tyranny of Merit, which was a very intriguing book, but it was a bit too focussed on the United States, so a lot of the content was lost on me, because I’m not a US resident and a lot of the things mentioned in the book don’t apply to me as a Dutch citizen. Still, it did offer a very interesting insight in how we’ve come to live in a world with such big differences between rich and poor.

My next listen is a book compiling articles written by Napoleon Hill, which was recommended and part of the library of books on offer when you subscribe to Audible. I just listened to it for a bit on the daily commute and it was most certainly a good start.

On Gaming

My current gaming time is divided between a couple of games. Death’s Door, which was a gift from Bren and has proven to be a fun and quite challenging Zelda-like experience. And the other time is mainly spent on Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. It is such a wonderful game and the Fire Emblem franchise really lends itself well to Musou style games and the story is really good. I haven’t even finished a single storyline, but I’m really loving it so far!

Upcoming Blogs

Before we moved I wrote two Stoic Shorts. I have ideas for new ones, so you can expect at least one new one this week. I also want to do more blogs on writing, so I think I’ll share some insight into the protagonist of the first Kevar story: Bo Damos. I’ll let you guess who she is based on. 😉

Have a great week!

~Jeffrey