Hey Everybody!

It’s been another busy week, but I wanted to give you the scoop on my most recent project and some important lessons learned in the past week.

This week’s game project was a platformer I call ‘Elemental’:

If you’re not familiar with the name ‘platformer’, just think Super Mario Bros.  That’s the basic idea.

Look at that incredible character design!

Now, with my first math test this week and a bunch of other assignments coming due, I had less time to work on this game than the last.  However, I foolishly developed a design that required far, far more work than I initially realized.

The basic premise of my game is that the player’s character takes on attributes of the environment when they touch it...

Well, folks, it’s time to finally give you the scoop on my school adventures so far.  To sum it up in just a few words: it’s been great!

Wait, don’t go just yet!

I talked last week about how school has been keeping me busy.  That’s an understatement.  It’s quickly become apparent that I’m working on school projects from about 9 am (slightly after arrival on campus) to between 7:30 and 9 pm every day.  And that’s not just weekdays – that includes some busy weekends, too.  Only by being super proactive with my work have I been able to keep up on posts and other writing.

But that’s not to say I’m not enjoying the experience.  I haven’t had a single day yet where the time moved slowly.  Not a single period has been boring, or lacked the opportunity to learn something...

It’s been quite a blur the last couple of weeks, folks!

With the start of school I’ve been hard pressed to find time to do much of anything but study, and it’s only Week 2!  Seeing as a couple of my classes really haven’t even gotten started yet, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a hectic semester.

Before school started, however, I had the chance to participate in the annual Seattle spectacle known as PAX, or Penny Arcade Expo for the uninitiated.  It’s a giant gaming convention that thousands of people and groups participate in every year, including DigiPen.  The indie (small independent developer) presence at PAX is huge, and it’s a great way for the DigiPen students to show off the games they make at school.

It’s also a ton of fun...

Leaving those beautiful Redwoods, Mike and I headed North to my new home: Seattle!  Or technically, Redmond.

I haven’t lived through a winter here yet, but the city really is a beautiful one:

Trees line the avenues of the city, and between Puget sound and the mountains surrounding it, you get quite a view.

As you might have guessed, this picture is from the Space Needle.

Most of you know about the Space Needle, but you might not know all of it’s history.  It was built for the 1962 World’s Fair, at a cost of $4.5 million.  Incredibly, it was almost never completed because a suitable plot of land couldn’t be found.  Since it was being privately financed, it couldn’t be built just anywhere, and had to be within the area designated as the fairgrounds...

Sorry folks – I promised a new post Thursday, and it’s almost ready to go, but I haven’t had a chance to finish it yet between school and PAX Prime happening this weekend.  I’ll have my final travel post and a follow-up post on PAX next week!

I’m aiming to have my Seattle post up tomorrow or Thursday, depending on how busy my schedule is Wednesday with orientation, but I wanted to make a quick post about the book and e-publishing.

The last few weeks have been very enlightening to me, especially regarding the amount of work it takes to get anywhere in the field of writing.  I’m not talking about writing the book itself, which is in many ways a Herculean effort alone.  I’m talking about the marketing and getting the word out about it.  Just three weeks ago, I was selling 50 books a day on Amazon and climbing.  Now I’ve dropped to around 30.  It’s extremely troubling, as you might imagine...

I’m deep into the Book 2 edits now, and it’s going more smoothly than I had hoped.  I’ve still got plenty of work to do, but it appears we’re still on track for an October release.  Look for The Phoenix Fallacy Book 2 in October, with more updates and writing tips to follow later this month and in September.

Let me also just give a quick shout out to my readers and reviewers.  I can’t express my thanks for all your support!

Every great review makes a huge difference, adding credibility to my book, and garnering more attention for it.  I really appreciate each one of you who has taken the time to give me a review, even those who didn’t give me five stars.  I can’t expect everyone to like it, but judging it fairly makes it clear that the book is worth a new reader’s time.

Thanks again t...

The final leg of my cross-country journey is upon us, folks.

After spending more than a month on the road – and as much as I’ve enjoyed visiting friends and family, seeing incredible sights, and meeting new people – I’m definitely ready to wrap things up.  But there’s still one more person to see, and a few places to visit.  My stays were brief, but they definitely left an impression.

My first stop after leaving LA was the unique cultural center that is the city of San Francisco.

San Francisco (SF) is different than any other city I’ve ever visited.  First off, driving into the city is quite spectacular...

My next stop was the West Coast of California – LA and Corona del Mar!

If you’ve never been to LA or Corona Del Mar, you might not understand how accurate the title of the post is, but honestly, a bad day in either of those locations can trump a good day somewhere else.  The California sun is pretty much always shining, but it doesn’t get insanely hot, like Twentynine Palms, or humid, like Florida.

If you’ve got to pick one place to visit in California, it’s hard to go wrong with Corona del Mar.  When I say the weather is perfect, I mean it’s PERFECT.

For those of you living someplace other than right there (or maybe San Diego), imagine being able to leave your windows and doors open year round because the temperature is always fantastic...

The Golden State welcomes you!

As I journeyed further West, my next stop was the desert town of Twentynine Palms.  Home to one of the largest military bases in the world, and perhaps the site of the most strangely located Naval Hospital in history.  Dry and barren, except for the Joshua Trees, the desert really is a neat place, if you know where to look.

But first, you have to know the rule: don’t go out in the middle of the day.  It’s brutally hot.  Morning and dusk are your friends.

If you remember that, you’ll be fine.  The temperature actually falls to very pleasant levels during the evenings.

I came to this dusty land to see my Uncle Jay, Aunt Shelly, and Cousin Jeff.  My uncle is in the Navy, and currently posted at the Robert E. Bush Memorial Hospital...