Keith's January Newsletter

Keith's January Newsletter

January 01, 2021

Welcome, One and All, to 2021!

I hope the rest of 2020 went off without a hitch for you, and that your new year celebrations were nice and covid safe.

It was a busy last month for me, mentally speaking, so without further ado let's get into it.

What's Your Purpose?

I've been watching a lot of Wil Wheaton's Table Top on Youtube, for reasons that will become apparent, which has in turn led me to watching some interviews with Wil Wheaton himself.

In one of them he talked about doing an acting course where the instructor asked them all to think about what their purpose was? What were they trying to achieve. ie: For the instructor his purpose was to take away fear. Wil Wheaton's purpose, within the context of acting, was to play the bad guy.

It made me wonder what my purpose was with my writing?

As far as I'm concerned my job, aside from the whole "be entertaining" bit, is to give people permission. I want to write a wide variety of authentic characters who react differently yet honestly to things, allowing people to see themselves in them, and to realise that it's OK to be who they are because other people think that way too.

I know that sounds a bit [

insert derogatory expletive here

] but it matters. I downloaded Tik Tok recently, to see what it's all about, and I was surprised by how open and supportive a lot of the videos are.

They talk about behaviour and situations that I used to think I

had

to put up with (for a myriad of reasons) as being wrong and toxic, and that it's right to think they're wrong and to want to walk away. I'm talking about women explaining to other women that to treat your boyfriend a certain way is wrong. Or men explaining to other men that, no, we do not all think like that, and in fact yes, you

are

the bad guy.

Sometimes all people need is that permission, that agreement, that level of understanding, to realise that maybe it's not you that is wrong, but in fact the other person / situation / rest of the world, and that's what I want to give them. I want people to see themselves in the things I write, and realise that it's OK to be a thing, do a thing, to think a certain way, or indeed not to, as the case may be.

Like I said, mentally speaking it has been an interesting month for me. It won't change how I do what I do very much, but it has helped give shape and form to my intentions, and that is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

News from the Steam Factory

As already mentioned, I've been watching a lot of board game videos this month, and that's because I've started work on a board game of my own, to augment the world of Hammersmyth in new and interesting ways.

Of course I can't go into too many details just yet, I'm still working it all out, but it's called Steam Machines (for now) and it will be a 'Ticket To Ride' style set-collection game where the players win by building the best and most valuable steam creations.

I've no idea if, how, or when it will be released on the general public, I may do it as a Kickstarter campaign some time in the coming year. For now I'm just happy scribbling down ideas as I work out the approximate point values of a large Robohamster vs a small Whirlygig.

I've also been busy building sets and props for a film I hope to make soon of the short story

.

There's still a lot of work to do, and I need to buy a decent microphone because I don't have one yet, but I will get there eventually. (NB: Top tip from a reformed film maker, people will watch any kind of picture so long as the sound is OK.) Hopefully when the next newsletter comes out I'll have some exciting news (in time for my birthday!).

I may also do an audio book once I have a decent microphone, although that is still a bit of a peripheral dream at the moment. It makes sense to do though, since the more ways you can get someone to experience your stuff the more chances of success you will have. I actually did a blog post recently

which you might find of interest. And you can check out my two launch videos too while you're there (if you haven't seen them already). I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.

What I've Been Reading

I've finally finished reading Enola Holmes by Nancy Springer. Took me a while, despite it being such a short book. My mind hasn't been on reading much at the moment.

**If you're dying to read it and/or haven't seen the film, minor spoilery type stuff ahead.**

It's good, really well written, but not as good as the Netflix film, mainly because the film does more with the main plot - the kidnapping of Lord Tewksbury (it kind of just ends in the book) - as well as bringing to a conclusion the 'sub-plot' - her mother's disappearance - which I assume carries on throughout the rest of the series, but which really didn't go anywhere in the first novel.

As I've said before, it's well written but a little short. I don't regret buying it, I'll probably try more Nancy Springer in the future, but after seeing the film I'd rather watch that again than read any more of the books. Such is the way of things sometimes.

And that's it from me. Time to go do day one hundred and forty three of my ongoing yoga streak.

My best to you all for the coming year. May it bring blessings you never expected, and surprises that will make you smile.

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith