A Tired Tale

I have returned for yet another blog post.

In this week I’ve done little of note, at least to my own eyes. Yes, I’ve read many more books, only six this time though I’m almost done with a seventh. As for any other thing, I finished the latest season of Bojack Horseman. Sadly this will be the last, and the final episode won’t be out until the end of January next year. I still love the show, so that’s good. It also means they won’t run until the show is no longer any good. Already the show is enjoyable upon rewatching, so there’s that.

Other than this, the only thing of note was my car telling me that one of my tires was low on air. All of them appeared fine, and I assumed it was just the weather growing cooler making the pressure lower. Attempting to fill them with air, and noting their pressure, all but one seemed fine. However one tire refused re-pressuring. The nozzle didn’t let any air in, and some escaped. At the dealership they said everything was fine, and refilled the little amount that it needed. Still that doesn’t help the issue of not being able to do anything personally if it runs low. But as the years go by I’ve noted that the sensors are rather sensitive to such things, and it makes a light appearing on the dash not as immediately concerning. I suppose that’s better that way as apposed to it waiting until the last moment to warn us.

Now as to the book I’m working on, I’ve found little this week that I want to change. Small little things such as using the wrong word here and there did show up, but that’s an easy fix. However the story seems well in place now. Perhaps it’s time to return to writing instead of editing, I’ll have to see how I feel the next time I sit down to work. But as time goes on I have started to like how I’ve written things again, I guess it was a moment of doubt. Or perhaps it was that what I had been reading affecting me, and making me want to try other things. But now it all looks correct again, so there’s that.

Well, sorry for the short post, but I can’t think of anything else to tell. So, for now, I shall leave you. I hope you all have a wonderful week.

You Must Be Drunk link to the Amazon store here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8KH6WM

TTFN

What I’ve published

Walk On

click here for a link to the book

Outsider Trilogy

Click here for a link to the book

Poetry

Link to my author page on Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Steven-Oaks/e/B00MEGSEZ6

Or you can help me out on Patreon. Again, thank you. https://www.patreon.com/StevenOaks

Update: You Must Be Drunk is published. Find it here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8KH6WM. And I’m 57% into the new novel’s first draft. Doing a bit of pre-editing in the book right now.

– Steven Oaks

Follow me on the things below.

Reading, and Reworking

Greetings again. I’m back to write another post.

So this week nothing much of note happened. The plan had been to visit and play some D&D with my friends, but most of us were sick. Not myself of course, I don’t do that, it’s unpleasant, heh. Okay, really I just don’t get sick all that often, I feel bad enough when I get up in the morning so I wouldn’t be able to tell anyway.

Yeah, I figure it’s because I drink so much coffee that if I don’t have a bit I feel rather grouchy and out of it. Could be something else, but this is what I have. Also, I’m grouchy when I drink it, so maybe I’m just a grump. Or maybe I drink too much when I do imbibe, and when I don’t my body just needs it even more. Who can say, I’d rather not stop drinking coffee, I love the taste, even black as I take it. I suppose I could switch back to only drinking tea, but I burn through it so quickly the cost would go up for me. Coffee is cheap, and my particular desire for earl grey isn’t.

As for my reading habit, I finished only five this week. I blame my disinterest in a series I was able to hop back into because the later books just became available for kindle unlimited. I had liked the first few, but now I’m getting bored. I’ll try to finish the book I’m in the middle of now, but I’m not sure if I’ll continue. I eventually had to switch to something else because my mind would wander off and think about other things even as my eyes continued to scan the page. I’m not sure what is making me disinterested, but I just can’t seem to care about anyone in the book anymore.

However I’m still hopeful that I’ll reach my personal goal of 200 books read this year. There have been moments when I didn’t feel like reading, but they don’t happen often. The issue I’m running into is simply trying to find something interesting to read. It hasn’t been an issue the last few months, but here I am again. There’s so much out there, and while I limit myself most times to those books available in the kindle unlimited section, it can be difficult to find something that catches my interest without being by an author I already trust.

As for the book I’m currently working on, I’ve made it back to the halfway point, and I’m actually quite satisfied with it. As I have said, there are little things that I felt needed to be tweaked before I felt I should continue, and it’s coming along nicely. I have about sixteen chapters written already, and currently I’m working on chapter eight, simply reworking as I go back over things. It’s taking about as long as I assumed it would, so I guess I’m on track on that front. The inclusion of a particular character really helps, but I’m still thinking I need to rework the main one for story telling reasons. They aren’t terrible, but either they need to change a bit, or have a better foil as a companion. Real life influences aside, sometimes personal motivations just don’t mix well. Having them be too similar, at least emotionally just makes things too bland, at least for me. We’ll see how things go from here.

Anyway, I suppose I should leave now. Otherwise I’ll just ramble about things that no one finds interesting, heh. Have a great week.

You Must Be Drunk link to the Amazon store here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8KH6WM

TTFN

What I’ve published

Walk On

click here for a link to the book

Outsider Trilogy

Click here for a link to the book

Poetry

Link to my author page on Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Steven-Oaks/e/B00MEGSEZ6

Or you can help me out on Patreon. Again, thank you. https://www.patreon.com/StevenOaks

Update: You Must Be Drunk is published. Find it here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8KH6WM. And I’m 57% into the new novel’s first draft. Doing a bit of pre-editing in the book right now.

– Steven Oaks

Follow me on the things below.

Just Some Thoughts about Books

Hello there, I have returned.

Another week has passed, and I was able to read a few books. Only six for this week, but I will claim it’s because the Coiling Dragon Saga books are a bit longer than the others I usually read. However, I finished the series, and can say it was pretty good, if a little awkward.

The strangeness I would say comes from it being translated from another language, but what makes it a little unpleasant is the way women are treated. While there are relationships between men and women, claims of love and the like, women are almost treated like property. They can become powerful “Cultivators” as well, however if they are in a relationship they are generally seen as subservient to their partner. I’m not a fan of this, but perhaps others will just see it as a cultural difference. Besides such unpleasantness the books are well crafted, and the ending is satisfying.

As I’ve said before I enjoy reading a book that deals with power growth, though I mostly enjoy the beginning rather than the end of the journey. Mostly because when you get too powerful it takes a bit of the excitement away, especially when challenges can seem forced at that point. However the series never felt that way to me, as each confrontation was reasonable to the world. I won’t spoil the ending, as I think it’s at least worth a read, but what you are left with is an ending that fits exactly into the type of story these books were going for.

Another author I’d like to talk about, one that isn’t in this same sub-genre, is William D. Arand and his more explicit alternative pen name Randi Darren. All his books are well written, and I’ve read all of them, but what makes them more interesting beyond being fun is that they all are in the same universe. While things take place in different worlds or the like, you can expect to see someone from another of his series pop up randomly. It reminds me of how Heinlein’s books at the end all came together to form one universe, or multi-verse. While his books might not be for everyone, they are in the harem-lit genre and can be explicitly erotic, they at least are a fascinating look into how you can write several series in different worlds and yet somehow make them all apart of a larger story.

Other than this, I’ve not done too much else this last week. I’m still going through the current book I’m writing, trying to fix the narrative a bit. I like what I have, but sometimes I feel like scrapping it all and starting all over. Not because it’s necessarily bad or anything, but I keep getting flashes of ideas. Thoughts about how else I’d like to tell the story, and concerns about the personalities of the characters I have being too similar. I’ve two that while not exactly the same, might as well be with the way they talk to each other. Luckily I have a fun one that I’ve thrown into the mix, but she isn’t always around. I think I’ll have to work on the protagonist a bit, and perhaps age him up. Thirteen and introverted might not be exactly the best idea for him. I suppose I’ll decide when I get to the part I thought needed fleshing out. I’ve mostly gone back to make sure the previous chapters line up with the changes I was thinking of. So far I’ve not had to do too much, but it still takes time. Ah well.

Anyway, I think I’ll leave it at that this time. I hope you all have a great week.

You Must Be Drunk link to the Amazon store here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8KH6WM

TTFN

What I’ve published

Walk On

click here for a link to the book

Outsider Trilogy

Click here for a link to the book

Poetry

Link to my author page on Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Steven-Oaks/e/B00MEGSEZ6

Or you can help me out on Patreon. Again, thank you. https://www.patreon.com/StevenOaks

Update: You Must Be Drunk is published. Find it here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8KH6WM. And I’m 57% into the new novel’s first draft. Doing a bit of pre-editing in the book right now.

– Steven Oaks

Follow me on the things below.

The Coiling Dragon Series

Hello. How are you? I’m fine. Oh, so yes, I’m here to write yet another blog post so let’s begin.

Another week has passed, and I’ve read a few more books. I’d have read more, but each book in this poorly translated Chinese series are fairly long. I think it’s mostly because they repeat things rather often, for unknown reasons. I’ve really no grasp of the original language, so I can’t tell for sure if this is something common for them, yet it is apparent that pronouns aren’t really a thing. Meaning they tend to repeat an entire title of a person or place each time they are mentioned.

Another thing I’ve noticed that irritates me slightly is that the way they break things into chapters is very different than I’m used to. Almost in the middle of a thought they’ll randomly start a new chapter. Two people will be talking, and all of a sudden in the middle of their conversation it becomes another chapter. It makes it hard to find a stopping point for reading, and lately I just try to find my own break.

At times I wonder why I continue to read, and yet I find it fascinating. It can be a little hard to follow at times, but I can’t stop. I’m in the middle of the sixth book now, and I figure I might as well finish it. Of course I’ve read other books that have been translated from Chinese, but they didn’t seem to have this problem. Perhaps this is due to the person(s) behind the translation. Again, to my eyes, I think they are just using software instead of relying on a person who understands both languages for this translation leading to the awkward way things are worded. And yet, I’m coming to think of this series fondly.

I enjoy reading stories that talk about growth, either in skill or power, and this one certainly handles it fairly well. The issue I tend to have with other series happens when an individual becomes so powerful that there are no further threats, and yet they continue. Or the threats they give seem artificial. However the way this book continues, even after reaching the heights of power, the protagonist still has challenges they have to face. And these challenges don’t seem forced, it’s just they become more aware of the wider world and the powers that reside there that are hidden from the weaker people he came from. If it weren’t for the clumsy way it’s written I’d proclaim it a great series, but as it is I can only call it a fascinating challenge to read, even with the interesting things they talk about.

So as you can tell this series must have something to it as this is yet the second week I’ve talked about it. Though before it was mostly about the genre it comes from. I do enjoy the genre, but now the thing that is so charming is the way it’s written. I often bring up the little awkward moments with Samantha. I’m sure she’s tired of hearing about it, but I can’t stop. It’s so weird. And even if it’s not a great series I’m getting something out of it. Perhaps if you are into wuxia and want to read a blundering example of poor translation(my guess) give the Coiling Dragon Series by Wo Chi XiHong Shi a read.

Anyway, I’ll leave you here for now. I hope you all have a great week.

You Must Be Drunk link to the Amazon store here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8KH6WM

TTFN

What I’ve published

Walk On

click here for a link to the book

Outsider Trilogy

Click here for a link to the book

Poetry

Link to my author page on Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Steven-Oaks/e/B00MEGSEZ6

Or you can help me out on Patreon. Again, thank you. https://www.patreon.com/StevenOaks

Update: You Must Be Drunk is published. Find it here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8KH6WM. And I’m 57% into the new novel’s first draft. Doing a bit of pre-editing in the book right now.

– Steven Oaks

Follow me on the things below.