Update #121 WARNING: Wall of text incoming

Beep! Beep! This is your one and only warning, there are no more previews here. There's nothing to see here! Go home. Disperse. Only suffering and despair of your eyes await here. Away with you! Shoo! Oh no, here it comes! The wall! It's closing in on us! RUN!

Sooo... Vacation is over, I'm back. I always read a lot on vacation, this time I brought two books in order to ensure that I'd have something to read on the way back. The King of Elfland's Daughter, and Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. Both fairly normal length novels. I wouldn't call them polar opposites, but they're certainly very different books. Both were very enjoyable reads, in their own way.

The King of Elfland's Daughter is something I heard recommended as something to read as a pre-Tolkien fantasy novel, it's from 1924. It's really more of an elongated fairy tale than it is (to a modern fantasy reader) a fantasy novel. The words? Fancy. The prose? Wonderful. The vibes? Immaculate. I expected a heavy read, old and chewy. Instead I got wondrous and whimsy.

Would I recommend this novel to a certified Tolkienatic? Absolutely! Would I recommend it to someone looking for regular ol' fantasy? Absolutely not! Also, I'd just like to point out that the author's name is Lord Dunsany. How's that for fancy?

As for Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, well it was published in 2019 so it was bound to be different. Far less whimsy, and really no magic at all. But then again, the main character is an engineer, and to some of us math may as well be magic. It is indeed about a siege, but let's just say that the book took turns that I didn't expect, and it was a fun ride. If the phrase "unreliable narrator" makes you feel all tingly inside, then I would recommend you give it a go! I, for one, will definitely be checking out more of KJ Parker's work.

Unfortunately, I finished reading them a day early. Which left me woefully unprepared for the flight home. As such, I desperately had to find a bookstore that sold stuff in English. The one I found has got to be the most cluttered shop I've ever entered, books, children's toys, papers, pens, and knickknacks all over. Not very many books in English, but I did, surprisingly, find one gorgeously illustrated hardback copy of Mythos by Stephen Fry, which is a book I had intended to read since I saw it referenced in his later book Heroes. Which I incidentally bought at an airport a few years back. Because of that, this cluttered shop gets an A from me.

Side note: I got to the part about the muses (and further). I would like to think that I have Erato whispering in one ear, and Thalia screaming in the other. That would explain my general state of confused apathy, can't hear anything over the cacophony.

Other than reading, there was a lot of sun, a lot of walking about (I love walking about), very pretty views (a direct reward of the walking about), a little bit of bathing, and a cave which seems to have been inhabited by... I was going to say by a homeless person, but once you have a cave of your own you've probably upgraded to caveman. Well, I'm not going to whine about someone needing a roof over their head impacting the aesthetics of my vacation, it was just something utterly unexpected to me. That's what you get when you grow up in a country where most people would freeze to death if they tried surviving for a year in a cave.

Also lots of good food. Gyros, kleftiko, souvlaki, and we shared a tomahawk stake that was delicious. I, uh, have a much easier time eating meat dishes in general. Not a big fan of fish/seafood, and there are quite a few vegetables that ruin me, either due to taste, or due to wrecking my intestines. *Sniff* Why can't I eat garlic bread without the wrecking? WHY?

...

I feel bad complaining about that after talking about someone without a home of their own. Let's wish our caveman the best! They'll surely have things going their way in the coming year!

That aside, Imma be honest, I've missed working on something creatively. It's been my daily routine for a long while. Well, except for a bout of sickness, and maybe I missed a day when I moved as well. But other than that, I think I've done at least something every day for a long while now. Even before I started on making this game I began the routine, it was a direct result of doing a 100 Day Writing Challenge, one made by a Tim Claire. Would highly recommend if you're someone looking to get the motivation to write, great stuff.

Man, I've recommended a lot of stuff today. Which is rather silly, since my first recommendation was to not read this wall of text that is lacking in fancy previews to break up the monotony of the text. Ah well.

Right, so about getting back to business. Goal will be to finally finish scene 10 this week, and get on with the rest of the episode. You get one extra spicy preview up above at least. That's really all I have to say about work this week, I suppose. Makes sense, I haven't worked any. That's vacations for you.

Anyway, that's a big enough wall of text for today, I think.

Thank you very much for your support, and I wish your week feels like a fairy tale of appropriate length!