Mark Joseph Young's Blog: The Ides of Mark, page 8

Ide Not Expected

We are finishing a year--the twenty-fourth bi-monthly post in The Ides of Mark.  It has been an eventful year. On the heels of the publication of Why I Believe we saw the release of The Essential Guide to Time Travel , and followed this with the new edition of Do You Trust Me?   So a lot has gone into print in a short time. I am considering what should go that route next, but everything at the moment is too preliminary.

Meanwhile, the second half of April has not been barren.  We had six more chapters of In Verse Proportion , 85 through 90 continuing the stories for Bob Slade, Joe Kondor, and Derek Brown.  Meanwhile, the Christian Gamers Guild recovered an article I wrote for the Daedalus e-zine twenty years ago and republished it as RPG-ology #53:  In the Spirit of Radio , making suggestions for how role playing game designers can learn from the challenges radio faced with the rise of television. The Bible study continued with John 19:8 through 17, and included Musings:  Sheep , about whether they really are as stupid as people say, and Musings:  Missteps , about what we think are mistakes sometimes putting us exactly where we need to be.

As the month was reaching its end, I rather abruptly composed mark Joseph "young" web log post #444:  Ability versus Personality , an indictment of popularity-based talent shows and best books lists.  Meanwhile, I continued setting up Con Verse Lea for publication, and have drafted articles for Faith in Play and RPG-ology to carry me through March, so progress is being made.

As always, you can keep up to date through the Patreon web log.

A Good Fortnight

O.K., a fortnight plus one day, but with this twenty-third entry into The Ides of Mark let's not bury the lead:  my book Do You Trust Me? has been republished.  I comment on it at that Goodreads page about it; it's available from Amazon and most other booksellers.  I think it's an important book.

Everything else is pretty routine.  The month began with another song published, in mark Joseph "young" web log post #442:  The Song "Call to Worship" , which is a short liturgical song with a bit of discussion about liturgy included.  The blog otherwise stayed quiet until today, when it happened that it was time for the next In Verse Proportion behind-the-writings post, #443:  Versers Acclimate , covering chapters 64 through 84.

On the subject of In Verse Proportion , chapters 79 through 84 appeared, with more from Bob Slade, Joe Kondor, and Derek Brown.  I also continued posting to the Christian Gamers Guild Bible study, John 18:38 through 19:7. There were also three Musings posts, The Stone about why the angel moved it, which generated some discussion, Profiteering about people making money off Jesus, and Membership , which just posted today, about the meaning of the word.

The Christian Gamers Guild also hosted my Faith in Play #53:  Synchronicity , about ways to involve the illusion of the actions of God in a game.

I have been invited to do a small gig at a local bar a week from Tuesday, but probably none of you are near enough to be worth the trip. Otherwise, there's not much to tell. For more detail on what is happening and what is pending, see the Patreon web log.

Little to Show

I thought I would be announcing the re-release of my book Do You Trust Me?, but despite the amount of work that went into it this month it's still a few days away. Hopefully we'll be on it next time.

That means this twenty-second entry is pretty empty--the Christian Gamers Guild articles all posted in the first half of the month, and although I've written and/or formatted several more such that I've got articles ready through October in both series, nothing will be published until next week. I also put a fair amount of effort yesterday into prepping someone else's contribution to the site, as I frequently assist the webmaster in keeping things moving. Nothing went to the web log; tomorrow there will be another song. That means the only publications in the latter half of the month have been the "routine" ones.

Not that that's a dearth of material. After all, In Verse Proportion continued with chapters 72 through 78, three for Joe Kondor and two apiece for Bob Slade and Derek Brown. The Bible study continued with John 18:26 through 37 plus two Musings posts, Churches about how they appear to have changed since I was a child, and Entering , about faith, hope, and love.

On the silly side, I added to the Gazebos in the Wild series on my Instagram account, through the fourth entry at this point.

Of course, there are multiple irons in the fire; see the Patron web log to stay up to date on details.

Choosing Forks

If Goodreads had images associated with these web log posts, I would find one of a banquet place setting and crop the left side.  However, this has nothing to do with food.

Part of the basis for the title is that the month began with its only mark Joseph "young" web log post, #441:  The Song "Fork in the Road" .  Just yesterday I received a message from a musician complimenting me on it, which is a bit embarrassing since it is the last song on the shortlist considered for inclusion in a demo, but it was at one time the crowd pleaser of the band The Last Psalm, and the drummer of that band was thrilled to hear it again.

The first of the month also saw the publication of Faith in Play #52:  Pirates , considering the lessons in the archetype of those who plunder.  Today, two weeks later, the Christian Gamers Guild has also published RPG-ology #52:  Edison , republishing a Game Ideas Unlimited article about the balance between ideas and effort in creativity.

The Guild also sponsors the Bible study, which has continued with John 18:15 through 25, and two more Musings posts, Unworthy about dealing with feelings of unworthiness, and Loving which sparked some discussion about how God sometimes uses us to express His love to others.

The present novel In Verse Proportion also had the appearance of chapter 65 on the first of the month, featuring Bob Slade, and another today, chapter 71, featuring Derek Brown, with intermittent chapters for both of them and for Joe Kondor.

A few years back I started a series of images on my Pinterest account entitled Gazebos in the Wild; it's something of an inside joke among gamers.  It was not well received, and I gave up with images unposted.  However, I decided this month to begin posting them, from the beginning, on my Instagram account, mostly because I still haven't figured out what to post there.  They have gotten some positive response there.

I am still working on the Corpoises novel, although my publisher is less enthused than he was.  On the positive side, he has shown an interest in republishing my decade-old hard-to-find out-of-print book Do You Trust Me?, as he is shifting his emphasis to non-fiction, which has been doing better for him.  That will probably appear here in the not too distant future.

Behind the scenes I am frantically converting the next Multiverser novel, Con Verse Lea, from a Word document to individual HTML chapters for serialized publication.  This also entails doing a final major edit, culling information for support site character papers, and creating the behind-the-writings web log posts which will be launched at intervals once publication begins.  So more is coming; stay with me.

And I almost forgot to mention that you can keep current on what's being published and written, and what else is happening, by following my web log at Patreon, whether or not you become a patron.  Perhaps I'll see you there.

Ide Be Early

I had thought of several clever titles for this twentieth entry in The Ides of Mark, mostly to do with shortness of days.  It's February (O.K., you know that), and since we posted Picking Up on the fifteenth, it's only been thirteen days.  Technically, the ides refer to the fifteenth of March, May, July, and October--the thirty-one day months on the old Roman calendar--and to the thirteenth of every other month, but that's too complicated to remember, so we've just used the fifteenth as the half-way point of every month--except, of course, this one.

This being a short period, it's also a bit short on publications.  Both Christian Gamers Guild series articles fell in the first fifteen days and were covered in the previous post.  Of course, there were plenty of regular features.  The study in John picked up 18:6 through 14, and also included Musings:  Comfort , another benefit of suffering, and Musings:  The Plan , about how God's plan for our lives is sometimes about using us in the lives of others.

There was also continued serializing of the novel In Verse Proportion , chapters 60 through 64, the stories of Joseph Kondor, Derek Brown, and Robert Slade continuing.  These were supported by the only mark Joseph "young" web log post this time, #440:  Changing Worlds , looking behind the writing of chapters 43 through 63.

That doesn't mean I've been idle.  I have made progress on the new Corpoises novel, setting up the character sheets for the novel support site, and writing future articles for the Faith in Play and RPG-ology series.  So there's more to come.  You can keep current more readily by following my Patreon web log.

Picking Up

Last month ended on a slowdown, reflected in The Ides of Mark:  Twenty-two .  The first half of February, though, seems to have picked up a bit, with two posts to the mark Joseph "young" web log and two on the Christian Gamers Guild, in addition to the flurry of regular posts.

The month opened once again with a song, web log post #438:  The Song "Even You , co-written with my youngest son.  Then a few days later events transpired leading to the beginning of another, and different, novel.  I have begun writing--well, the introductory material about it is in web log post #439:  Corpoises:  Toward a Story , exploring the basic concepts which are the starting point for the book.  I have made a bit of progress on it since then, and have some rough ideas where it's headed, but it's going to require a lot of work.

Meanwhile, at the Christian Gamers Guild the first of the month was also the first Tuesday, so Faith in Play #51:  Protectors was released, another archetype article about what we can learn from those lone individuals who come to the aid of the defenseless; and since today is the third Tuesday of the month, it saw the publication of RPG-ology #51:  Motivation , reprinting a Game Ideas Unlimited article inspired by an episode of Stargate SG1.  The Bible Study list covered John 17:22 through 18:5, plus two Musings entries, More about whether anyone actually offers more than Jesus, and Suffering about an often unrecognized benefit of it.

The serialized release of In Verse Proportion continued the stories of Bob Slade, Joe Kondor, and Derek Brown with chapters 53 through 59. In related news, I have finished the read-through edit of Con Verse Lea and am still working on character papers for the In Verse Proportion support site.

Other than the reminder that you can get more detailed up-to-date accounts along with more personal information, whether or not you choose to support these efforts financially, through the Patreon web log, that's it for the first half of the month. There's more ahead.

Twenty-two

We have now all had a month--and a long month, at that--to get used to the idea that this is a new year. I'm here to recall whatever I published in the second half of this first month of the year, having of course covered the first half in the post Twenty, Twenty-one . This is the eighteenth post in this web log.

The mark Joseph "young" web log was quiet; there should be a new song post there tomorrow, but we'll cover that next time. Meanwhile, the Christian Gamers Guild republished another lost Game Ideas Unlimited article as RPG-ology #50:  Sentience , considering some aspects of intelligence and exploring how to create more alien aliens.

The Chaplain's Bible Study continued with John 17:10 through 21, and included two Musings posts, the first Murphy about recognizing the good amidst the troubles, and the second Flowers about the difference between doing something for someone because they would like it versus doing something to prevent them from being angry. This latter inspired a well-considered response from one of the students.

On the fiction front, the stories of Bob Slade, Derek Brown, and Joe Kondor continued in In Verse Proportion , with chapters 46 through 52. I've finished setup of that novel for publication and am working on the support site character sheets, and I'm also within a few chapters of the completion of the next, Con Verse Lea, but you can get details of that by following the Patreon blog, whether or not you are a supporter. I've floated the idea of writing a few out-of-story chapters, focusing on events not witnessed by my viewpoint characters, but thus far have received no feedback on that.

Twenty, Twenty-one

We began the year with a retrospective, web log post #435:  Hindsight is 2021 , which indexed almost everything published last year--I say almost, because it omitted a few things, specifically:
--The Faith in Play and RPG-ology articles, a dozen of each, had just been in an index at the Christian Gamers Guild site, which was linked;
--with hundreds of chapters of the novels, it was easier to post links to the tables of contents;
--the Bible study posts aren't indexed anywhere, again because of the sheer volume, and because they're reasonably well organized at the Groups.io site.

On that last, we posted the last verse of chapter 16, followed by the chapter summary, and continued with the first nine verses of chapter 17, along with two Musings posts, the first, Like, about recognizing that which we are to become, and the second, Videogame, about recognizing what matters.

Meanwhile, the novel In Verse Proportion continued the stories of Bob Slade, Derek Brown, and Joe Kondor with chapters 40 through 45 and one behind-the-writings post, web log post #436:  The Song "Trust Him Again". I also overlooked the posting of Faith in Play:  Mercenaries, another in the archetypes series, looking at what values these hired guns might teach believers.

Again I would be remiss were I to fail to mention that there are updates several days a week at Patreon, which you can access whether or not you are a patron. That has more personal information, references the content of individual articles, and includes more about what I am currently preparing and writing.

Years Go By

The sixteenth entry in a web log--well, that's not a particularly special number, but it is made special by the fact that this is posting on New Year's Eve, the end of 2021.  Tomorrow will be next year.

Although I have been busy writing and prepping materials for publication, it has been another slow stretch. In Verse Proportion continued, with chapters 33 through 39 covering more from Joe Kondor, Bob Slade, and Derek Brown.

The Bible Study covered John 16:22 through 32, with three Musings posts, Harmless looking at Christmas television specials, Birth impressed by how the cleansing requirements for new mothers protect children, and Heart about what God really wants.  The Christian Gamers Guild also published RPG-ology #49:  Stitches , looking at changes in a local hospital emergency room in a piece about getting setting details right, then today finished the year with a retrospective index recalling everything everyone submitted, 2021 at the Christian Gamers Guild Reviewed .

The mark Joseph "young" web log post had one entry, #434:  Foolish Wisemen , about those who celebrate Christ's birth but never go beyond that.  That blog publishes its annual review of all I've published on New Year's Day, so you will be able to find it there tomorrow, but it won't be linked here until mid-month.

I should also again mention Patreon, where whether or not you support me as a patron you can keep up to date on what I'm writing as it posts.

Not Much Said

Beware the Ides--today has been a rough day, but I promised to post this, so here I am.  For better or worse, it's been a quiet day.

Let's start with the Bible study materials, because I just posted there and still have the index open. The first half of the month covered John 16:11 through 21, and two Musings posts, the first one about Sharing , and the second talking about Christmas music under the title Carols .

I also continued publishing In Verse Proportion , chapters 27 through 32.

The mark Joseph "young" web log had only one post, the song posted on the first of the month, #433:  The Song "From Job" ; there was also a perhaps curmudgeonly look at the upcoming holiday in Faith in Play #49:  Oh, Christmas .

I should again mention that the Patreon web log announces new publications in close to real time, so you can know what publishes on a daily basis.

I don't expect the second half of the month to be busier, although I am still busily writing, but I will see you on New Year's Eve.