selenicseas

Writing-wise, this month was not good. At all. I finally seem to have run out of steam. Originally, I had planned on writing 9,000 words, but halfway through the month I revised it down to 5,000. Thankfully, I was able to hit that – I wrote 5,260 words.

Since my goal for the year is to write a minimum of 100,000 words, I decided to adjust my monthly word goals from now on – 5,000 words per month is the new minimum. I'm at 88,080 words for the year, so I don't actually need to write 9,000+ words per month to hit 100,000. The lowered goal will also, hopefully, give me a break from the hand and wrist pain I've been experiencing lately.

I'd like to say I made a dent in my TBR pile. I would have, if I hadn't bought more books to refill it (I had, and still have, quite a bit of store credit at the local used bookstore, so it's not like I'm spending money on these books). I read a couple of short stories as well. Some of them made it into my July-September recommendations post.

The books I read are:

• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
• Translation State by Ann Leckie
• Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin

I didn't make much of a dent in my watchlist, either. After finishing season 2 of Twin Peaks, I wanted to make sure I watched both movies before moving on to season 3.

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
• Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces
• The Woman in Black

As for video games, I finished Link's Awakening and started Echoes of Wisdom, which I'm still playing. I'll probably write up a short review for it as well.

The Gate at the End of the World

Word Count: 5,290

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In June, I finished writing The Gate at the End of the World. Aside from that, I didn't write very much. I haven't had very many ideas for blog posts and only wrote one review, for Black Mesa.

I wrote 8,538 words in June. For the first time this year, it was difficult to reach my monthly goal (this time it was 8,500). I finished writing the above-mentioned short story and didn't want to move on to writing something else, which was a problem I solved by working on an old conlang and slowly fleshing out another story project I've been fleshing out in my head.
My local library's summer reading program started at the beginning of June, so I was pretty focused on reading books. I ended up reading eight in total:

• The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
• The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
• The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
• Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker
• The City & The City by China Miéville
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Provenance by Ann Leckie
• The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

I also read a grand total of zero short stories.

After seeing Suspiria mentioned by multiple developers in The Art and Making of Control, I decided that would be the first movie to watch in June. I then decided to watch a few other movies that were released in the seventies. Unfortunately, I didn't have as much time as I thought I did, so I only ended up watching one other movie: Carrie (1976).

• Suspiria
• Carrie (1976)

I finished playing Black Mesa (finally!) and started playing Half-Life 2, which I haven't had as much time to play as I thought I would. At the rate I'm (not) playing, it may end up taking me until the end of September to finish it and both of the episodes.

• The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick
• The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong
• The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
• The Art and Making of Control
• Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
• Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
• No Harmless Power by Charlie Allison

• Shaolin Soccer
• Edward Scissorhands
• Donnie Darko
• Hackers
• The Neverending Story