Mark Joseph Young's Blog: The Ides of Mark, page 3

A Novel Approach

I decided this time to begin with the work on the various novels.  I've continued publishing Con Version with chapters 17 through 25, along with another behind-the-writing mark Joseph "young" web log post #501:  Characters Orienting again featuring Tomiko Takano, Derek Brown, and Brian "Barrelmaster" Cooper.  Meanwhile, A Dozen Verses is waiting in the wings, and I've almost finished setting up Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story, having gotten down to the character sheets.  Eric R. Ashley and I are also still writing Verse a Tile, and looking at several possible titles for the book after that, for which we now have three characters and starting worlds.

I'm also still setting up An Analytical Commentary on the Book of I Corinthians, and the Christian Gamers Guild posted RPG-ology #79:  Faith , considering it as a character trait.  The Bible Study continued with Mark 11:15 through 25, and Quotes ##109, 110 and Quotes ##111, 113, 114 .

The quotes continue daily.

At the request of a time travel fan who provided a copy, I posted #499:  Temporal Anomalies in Dean Koontz' Lightning , accompanied by a review here at Goodreads.

I also promised myself that when I reached half a thousand posts I would post #500:  A Five Cent Review .  This is my selection of some of the best posts on the blog since it began.

In the midst of all this, our youngest son announced that now that he is in his thirties he is going to get married.  We thus have to plan for a September wedding on a beach.

Once again you can keep up to date by following me on Patreon and other social media.

When I'm Sixty-Four and Then Some

The first half of June included my birthday.  Enough about that.

Having just started releasing Con Version and recognizing that it was a very long book by chapter count, I determined to post four chapters each week, which means chapters 9 through 16 appeared this month, along with the behind-the-writings web log post #498:  Characters Restart .  I'm still working on character sheets for Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story, and Eric R. Ashley and I are slogging forward with Verse a Tile and poking at ideas for the next in the series, for which I've proposed a selection of potential titles.

The Christian Gamers Guild released Faith in Play #79:  Mind , discussing whether or not we should be thinking about some of the things with which we entertain ourselves.  The Bible Study covered Mark 11:4 through 14 and included posts for Quotes ##104, 105 and Quotes ## 106, 107 .  I've also continued editing An Analytical Commentary on The Book of First Corinthians.

The quotes themselves continue daily.

Life has been complicated of late, so I think that's everything relevant.  Keep up to date through Patreon and other social media.

What Do May Flowers Bring?

As May ends, it's time for The Ides of Mark to look back on the past half month.

I launched Con Version , the eleventh Multiverser novel, and posted the first eight chapters featuring Tomiko Takano, Derek Brown, and introducing the new character Brian "Barrelmaster" Cooper.  I've continued work on Verse a Tile, collaborating with Eric Ashley, who went back to the beginning and revised the over one hundred chapters we had written, so that I had to go back and decide what to keep and what to strike from his revisions, but we are back to writing it.  I'm working on character sheets for Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story, and doing setup still on An Analytical Commentary on The Book of First Corinthians.

I have continued posting quotes daily from my books to Facebook and Instagram, and the Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Bible Study continued with Mark 10:46 through 11:4, complete with the chapter 10 recap.  I also continued posting select quotes on Fridays, ##93-94, 96, 98, 99, and 100-102.  The guild also published RPG-ology #78:  Recoil , exploring a way to bring into a game that cinematic fight in which the hero is losing and suddenly makes a comeback.

One of my time travel fans sent me a book to read, Lightning by Dean Koontz; I'm working my way through it and will post a Goodreads review and possibly a web log entry when I'm finished.

I actually think that might be everything.  You can keep track by following me on Patreon and other social media.

And in case you don't know the answer to the blog title question: Pilgrims.

Bookends

As of today I have uploaded to the support site the last character sheet for the novel In Version , having posted the final chapter 144 and run through sheets for Tomiko Takano, Derek and Vashti Brown, and James Beam and company including wives Sophia and Ashleigh and companions Bron and Turbirb'durpa.  It included the final behind-the-writings post #496:  Character Setbacks .  I hope on Sunday to launch the eleventh novel, Con Version; watch social media for that.

I've continued posting quotes from my books at Facebook and Instagram, numbers 121 through 135.  Quotes were also posted on the Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Bible Study, ##87f and 89 through 91, and the study of Mark continued with 10:35 through :45.  Meanwhile, the guild also posted Faith in Play #78:  Stakes .

I've continued working on An Analytical Commentary on the Book of First Corinthians, Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story, and Verse a Tile.  You can keep up to date through Patreon and other social media.

Shifting Focus

As I come to the seventieth entry in The Ides of Mark, I'm not sure where to start.

The Beauty and the Bell series I was editing for my friend E. B. Slayer is finished and published and reportedly doing well on Kindle; I should write a review--but I've been writing reviews this month, having finished reading a print copy and writing a review of my own Corpoise , and then late last night writing a review of a book I've been slogging through since Christmas, So Long Delores .

As of today I posted the penultimate chapter of In Version , chapters 137 through 143 appearing since my last post here, featuring Derek Brown, Robert Slade, Joseph Kondor, and James Beam.  By the time I return next month we should be just starting on the next, the eleventh Multiverser novel Con Version, with a change in characters to pick up some we've ignored for a while.

Also posted, the Christian Gamers Guild offered RPG-ology #77:  Wounds , a recovered Game Ideas Unlimited article about changes characters suffer through the story or game.  The Chaplain's Bible Study continued with Mark 10:24 through 34, plus two posts with Quotes 80, 81, 82 and Quotes 83, 84, 85.  The daily quotes continue on Facebook and Instragram, quotes ##106 through 120 from a variety of books.

Life has thrown a few curve balls, but we're still up to bat.  I invested quite a bit of reading time into trying to catch up on Verse a Tile only to have collaborator Eric Ashley realize that he had failed to send me his revised version, so I had to start over and work by comparing two documents, which is taking me considerably longer.  Meanwhile I've continued editing and setting up An Analytical Commentary on The Book of I Corinthians and Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story, both nearing completion at this point.

You can keep up through Patreon and other social media.

Come She Will

This first half of April has been dotted with disruptions, both positive and negative, including Easter, a family member birthday, a water heater leak, and a broken pipe, but I have been working.  I finished the editing on the final book in Beauty and the Bell, which turns a somewhat steamy Cinderella story into a hard-hitting crime drama, or something like that.  I also returned some attention to Verse a Tile, collaborator Eric Ashley having finished his polishing review, but I'm not very far along in catching up.  I continue working on An Analytical Commentary on The Book of First Corinthians and Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story, and posting In Version , chapters 131 through 136 with stories about Bob Slade, James Beam, Derek Brown, and Joseph Kondor, and a behind-the-writings mark Joseph "young" web log post #495:  World Crises covering chapters 121 through 132.

The Chaplain's Bible Study continued with Mark 10:13 through 23, and quotes ##69, 74, 75, 77, 78, and 79. Meanwhile the Christian Gamers Guild published Faith in Play #77:  Animals about our relationship with them, and quotes continued on Facebook and Instagram with ##91 through 105 from a variety of books.

Copies of my new novella Corpoise arrived over the weekend, but I've not had a chance to read more than a few pages at this point.  So far it looks good.

I was the featured guest on Christian Music Network Presents-Season 4 Episode 17 with Mark J Young .  I had expected there to be music spliced into the show, but apparently it's only linked from the bottom.

That about wraps up the month so far, other than to say you can keep up to date through various social media and particularly Patreon, and Lord willing I will return at the end of the month.

Marching On

Welcome back to The Ides of Mark, the bi-monthly update on what I've published and what I'm working on.  The big news this month is probably that the little horror novella Corpoise is in print and on Kindle.  I am still awaiting printed copies, and have only seen digital materials at this point.

A good part of my time in the past week or so has gone into an editing job, the third installment of the Beauty and the Bell saga.  I get hired for that because I'm particularly good at grammar, punctuation, and structure, and the author wants to get it right because she's doing it all on her own.

For this reason and a few others work has slowed on Verse a Tile although perhaps conveniently my collaborator Eric Ashley decided he wanted to go back over everything from the beginning and hoped I would pause my efforts for a moment while he figured out what was happening.  I have continued setup on Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story and An Analytical Commentary on the Book of First Corinthians.

Also continuing are the daily quotes, numbers 75 through 90, on Instagram and Facebook. Select quotes have also been added to the Chaplain's Study of the Christian Gamers Guild, including numbers 58, 59, 60, 63, 66, 67, and 68.  The Bible Study also continued with Mark 10:2 through 12, and the site released RPG-ology #76:  Derivative , recovering another Game Ideas Unlimited article about the nature of creativity.

Also continuing, of course, the Multiverser novel In Version posted chapters 124 through 130 continuing stories for James Beam, Derek Brown, Joseph Kondor, and Robert Slade.

I think that's everything.  There's been no forward movement on Valdron's effort to republish the books, but that's entirely my fault.  In the next couple weeks I expect to guest on the Christian Music Network podcast.  Otherwise you can keep up through Patreon and other social media.

Sort of Finishing a Few Things

I completed the project I mentioned last time, rebuilding the index of my Patreon web log posts.  I also sent the final text of Corpoise to Dimensionfold, and then when I mentioned wondering what to do with the behind-the-writings pages I had compiled, Ken Goudsward suggested including them as an appendix in the book, so that's happening.  He has forwarded the book to a few people hoping to get some comments for the back cover, so I'm facing a critical audience.

I have continued posting quotes to Facebook and Instagram, and including them in the Patreon blog, with ##60 through 74.  I also posted In Version chapters 118 through 123, stories of Joseph Kondor, James Beam, Derek Brown, and Robert Slade, along with a behind-the-writings post on chapters 109 through 120, mark Joseph "young" web log post #494:  Warring Worlds .

The Christian Gamers Guild brought forth Faith in Play #76:  Lineage , about the cultural importance of ancestry, while the Bible study continued with Mark 9:42 through 10:1, and included quotes ##41, 45, 47, 50, 51, 53, 55, and 57.

I attended the Christian Musicians Network breakfast Saturday, but have yet to reset all the clocks for Eastern Daylight Time.

Let's clean up the little things, the stuff I've been working on.  Eric Ashley and I have continued working on Verse a Tile, and I'm doing setup still on Multiverser;  The Thirteenth Story and An Analytical Commentary on the Book of First Corinthians.  Also, I've been invited to be interviewed on the Christian Musician's Network podcast, to happen in April.

And the possibly big news: Valdron Inc has decided to republish the three Multiverser books (Referee's Rules, The First Book of Worlds, and The Second Book of Worlds) plus the first novel (Verse Three, Chapter One) in new paperback printings, and is considering putting additional novels into print.  It's a shame that John Cross is no longer alive--he really wanted a print copy of the second novel.

Keep up to date by following me on social media and particularly Patreon.  I should be back at the end of the month.

Oops

This should have been written and posted two days ago, and my excuse is worse than lame, but I have been distracted by a project which is microns above nonsense.

I post a blog for my Patreon patrons.  It details work accomplished, work in progress, and life events that interfere.  I also keep an index of these in an HTML document on my hard drive.  I use it when I write these bi-monthly The Ides of Mark update posts, and sometimes I use it to figure out when things happened, like hospitalizations and financial issues.  Somehow, though, three years of posts, from the last post of 2019 to late November in 2022, got deleted from that record.  I kept noticing that there was a gap, but it wasn't until late last week that I actually examined the situation, determined the size of the problem, and discovered how I could, with some difficulty, access all the original posts at Patreon and so rebuild the index.  I have been doing that since the 26th, and am half way through, but it has been diverting me from quite a few other efforts.

One of those is that the little horror book Corpoise is technically finished.  I was in the middle of writing acknowledgements and a blurb when I realized I had to rebuild this index, and Ken Goudsward at Dimensionfold Publishing is waiting for me to send the finished file and my thoughts on the cover.  (One of the entries lost gave the date I actually started work on the book, which gave impetus to the project.)  He says it's a good length for a novella, and we've agreed on the title.

I've also got my collaborator Eric Ashley on hold on Verse a Tile, which made some progress before this disruption.  I have managed to maintain the posting schedule on In Version , with chapters 112 through 117 continuing stories for Derek Brown, Joseph Kondor, Robert Slade, and James Beam.  I continued setting up Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story and An Analytical Commentary on The Book of I Corinthians, and I have been posting quotes daily, ##47 through 59.

The Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Bible Study has continued with Mark 9:32 through 41, and posting quotes ##30, 31, 32, 34, 36, and 37.  Also released was RPG-ology #75:  Flashbacks , another recovered Game Ideas Unlimited piece.

We've been fighting with medical issues on top of everything else, but life is holding together for the moment.  I hope that's everything--I've forgotten to mention a few things lately at the Patreon blog, which is the best place to keep up to date on what I'm doing despite those oversights. Hopefully I'll be on time for The Ides of Mark for March.

A Minor Milestone

What must by now be a couple years ago I made a joke, and my publisher thought it was a great idea for a story, so I undertook to write it.  I wasn't entirely focused on it, and particularly because it was supposed to be horror, and although I have written horror and discussed how to write it, it's not a genre I prefer.  Anyway, I finished it a few days back, and asked three other authors to do a readthrough.  One responded enthusiastically, the second actually began reading it, and the third has not replied.  The story is probably too short to be a book, and I'm not sure I have an anthology in me, but the first thing is to see what my peers have to say about it.  Meanwhile, it means that Corpoises is off the plate for a while, at least.

I believe I mentioned that I was invited to be interviewed by Ken Goudsward for his Dimensionfold vidcast.  That's been done as the Time Travel Episode with Mark Joseph Young , on YouTube.  I have an invitation to do another of these.  We'll see.

I've continued posting quotes from the books, quotes numbers 32 through 46.  I've also been reposting select quotes as my Friday entry on the Christian Gamers Guild's Chaplain's Bible Study.  I've included ##13, 20, 21, 24, 26, 27, and 28.  The study itself continues the Gospel According to Mark 9:21 through 31.  The Guild also published Faith in Play #75:  Tourettes , about creating characters whose speech is peppered with irrelevant words and making it relevant within the game.

I have also continued publishing chapters 105 through 111 of In Version , the stories of Joseph Kondor, Robert Slade, James Beam, and Derek Brown, all dealing with aliens at the moment.  There was a behind-the-writings post on the mark Joseph "young" web log, #493:  Verser Engagements , covering chapters 97 through 108.  Meanwhile, Eric Ashley and I continue working on Verse a Tile, and have started poking at the next as yet untitled fifteenth Multiverser novel.

There was also a time travel web log post, #492:  Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Temporal Anomalies .

I have also continued setup of An Analytical Commentary on The Book of I Corinthians and on Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story.  You can keep up on the details by following me on social media and particularly Patreon.