Mark Brandon Powell's Blog, page 5

Destiny

 

Can't wait!

E3 2014

It is almost that time of year again, time for my birthday, and E3. It's like a present I get to open early. The predictions are stating to roll in, and I am excited. The gaming industry's biggest production, showing off what sights we have to look forward to in the future. Since I personally am going to be purchasing an Xbox One, I am going to spend the majority of my time focused on the games for it, but I like to be in the know for everything. I don't consider myself a fanboy of any platform, because that is the delivery service for my gaming experience, and I find it slightly against my gaming morals to fight about 'how' I game. I would rather talk about experience and gameplay.

For the longest time I considered mobile gaming with the same contempt as a plague.  It was all short, storyless games that held no interest for me. Over the last few years I have turned from that view and embraced mobile, because it's just another avenue, and not to mention the games have gotten significantly better with time, like they should have. Since then I have begun to believe that mobile can have just as full of an experience as console or pc gaming can, while pushing the conventional touch controls further, which will help get closer to science fiction reality. 

If you are wondering why I would be purchasing an Xbox over the PS4, it is really very simple. I like the controller better. It fits into my meaty mitts better. Since it has been doing that for the better part of 10 years I also have a lot of things connected to Xbox, and money spent with it. I still have my PS3 laying around, and love it...as a bluray player. Also on the off occasion I get to play a game, my 3DS is laying around, and my computer is a gaming monster that I built myself. So I am all over the place. 

On Fanboydom, I do think it is great to have those communities of passionate people behind a product or company. I also love the bickering, and get some good laughs out of it. I have my own fandom tendencies too. Star Wars/Trek or Trek/Wars (really looking forward to the new movies and new stories they are putting together, and the canon that will come from it), Square Enix, Bungie, Bioware, Gearbox, Valve, and Blizzard just to name a few. All I am really saying is that sharing is great, and entertainment, wherever you get it from, is great and should be celebrated.

 So back to E3, it has all the gaming news I love to hear about and dream about for the next year, and I will try to offer it up here. This is a part of what I love and I want to share it with all who will listen to the text of my voice. I may even have some voice to go with that voice once I get some time to set up a YouTube presence. 

If there is anything you personally want to hear about, like in the gaming or publishing world, let me know! Just leave it in the comments below or on any of the social sites I'm using.  

Happy E3 everyone! 

Ugh, I hate editing!

It is just a process that I have yet to come to like. I do, however, like the way my writing comes out once it's finished. So the question pops into my mind, do I like torturing myself? 

The answer is of course I don't, but there is a discipline in it, and sometimes I hate that. Editing and formatting are like a smith hammering at steel to make a finely honed blade. For every page that I edit, I get better at my craft and that is as important as the writing. 

Formating is another form of editing that I need to get better at as well. There are ways that books are set up and look, and presenting them in a professional manor is as important as placing a comma. I have a new designation for myself recently and it's an Indie Author. Being an indie author is being like being a professional author just without a publishing house doing all the other leg work for me. That does mean I get to keep all of my rights and all of my liability. So yay to self publishing, when done right, getting some respect!

Right now I am going through my second full edit of The Honeymoon, and I have been adding a lot more detail. Making sure each part is filled with sights, sounds, and smells. The more I scrutinize it the better I like it. 

Here's to the unpleasant, and inevitably awesome process of editing, because if I don't want to go through it multiple times, why would anyone else.  

The first chapter is available now for reading under excerpts, enjoy! 

New Cover!

The Zero Class will be getting a new cover before long, and here it is!

Well that was crazy!

I just had my daughter last night. It was awesome. She's healthy, and that is all I was ever asking for. This all started with my wife and I wanting a child, and now we have one.  

So happy birthday Vivian! 

Anticipation

I have a lot if things going on right now in my life. New child almost here, writing career being built, and a one year old marriage. These last few years have been the best time of my life. 

There is a lot of hurry up and wait in it though. Hurry up and take the test, yay we're pregnant! Now we have to wait. Hurry up and write something, it's needs to be on paper now. Now I have to edit it to make it sound better, and match more closely to what I want it. Marketing, yea that takes time. Hurry up and get to the wedding, it only lasts for a few hours, that I can scarcely remember, and now we spend the rest of our lives together.  

All of it is great but it isn't something that you can prepare for. It something you just do. Reading books, watching videos, and listening to others about parenting, writing, and marriage helps, but it's not the same.  

There is lots of built up energy and not everything can be done in a day. Even God took 6 days to create everything. So you need to know that anticipation is good, busting your butt is good, but rest is also needed. Time is also needed. If it takes time that's ok, most things that are important do.  

Failure

Losing is always hard. There is never a good feeling that is normally associated with it. Thoughout my life there have been times that I have lost and continue to lose.  

The only thing to take away from it a lot of times is the knowledge of the loss, the character building aspects of it. The parts that make you stronger, and keep those with you. Just don't see the loss as a loss with no gain. 

I just recently read something I wrote over a year ago, to myself, about my wife. In it I said that all the years I was alone, had all the rejection, the heartache, and fear that I would end up alone made me who I was. It made me better for my wife and more appreciative in an odd way that she was finally around. 

There may be times that she drives me nuts, or does things that I don't understand for the life of me. On the other hand, I wouldn't want it any other way because I already know how that is, and how much I don't want that. 

The road to success is build with the failures of the past. Failure isn't a roadblock, it's another brick in the road.  

 

Checking In

I am currently playing a new round of Skyrim on the computer, and I have downloaded a bunch of mods that enhance graphics and make subtle changes to the way some things work. 

It has been a blast so far (in a Fus Ro Da sort of way) and I have really liked the mods and upgrades. I have also been reading/listening, through Audible and Amazon, The Dresden files by Jim Butcher.  I have joyfully consumed the first three and currently working on the fourth.

His books are amazing. The detail and description that goes into each scene brings you there. I can't help but love the humor, which is my kind of humor. Ask my wife and friends about it sometime.  

I am currently in the middle of Summer Knight, and I really like the way everything is ramping up, and the notch gets raised on each book. I am taking in how he does his descriptions and making sure I put my flair of descriptions in my own writing. 

My daughter is going to be born on the 8th of April and I am really excited. I know that things will be more different than I realize but probably won't be as different as I fear it could be. All in all though, I am really looking forward to it. It is going to be a great new chapter in my life that I will get to share with my wife and new child.  

That mixed with writing and still wanting to play a game every now and then will be like trying to grab the sands of time with a bottomless bucket, and I know something is going to give and I know what it is. I'm sad about setting an old friend aside but there are more important things. For now at least. 

Speaking of writing, I am almost done with the first draft of "The Honeymoon" and it's really coming along faster than what I had planned and with more in it that I originally thought it would have. Hope y'all enjoy it. 

Waiting Rooms

I had to get my breaks changed today on my mini van. The shop was great, and worked faster than what the estimate was, but I was able to get a lot of writing done. On my iPhone. 

Thats right, I was writing on my iPhone, 2000 words to be exact, which is about two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets. That was a 5th of what my original goal for the peice was, and I am now within a few thousand words of finishing a rough draft of it.  

On a normal day, at my desk, I crank out about 1000 in the morning and another 500 or so at night, right before bed. It might have been a spurt of inspiration or it might have been a good effort of my captivated time.  

Now the van is all happy with new brakes, and I'm happy with the novella I am writing almost done, plus they were able to do it less then the original quote. Win-win-win, can't ask for more.  

Attitude

I split my pants today. Yup, you read that right, and I was at work. So I have some new pants on right now and they are awesome. 

Now when it happened, did I freak out or have a sour attitude for the rest of the day, nope. I just went, on my lunch break, to Walmart and bought new pants. Why would I write something about this, it's because it's about attitude. 

You are the person you are. For instance, when you get dressed and go to work, you don't become someone else, you go to work. At least 8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week, you are working. So who you are at work will be in part who you are at home and in other endeavors. 

Not everyone likes their job, and most people are looking for a career. Some place they can feel good about where they work, make a living and not dread working, but maybe even look forward to it. So even if it's a job you hate, it is still helping you make your goals right now. It's still paying bills, and food. I'm not going to say you have to change your idea about your job, but your going to have to like it for now while you work on what you want to do.  

You also need to be awesome at your job. Not liking your job is not an excuse for being bad at it, because just like when I played football and we practiced at full speed. You have to work out that muscle, and if you half ass it at work, you'll half ass your dream and not realise it.  

I know first hand how much that is asking for but I also know how good it feels on the other side, after the initial battles, wins and losses, and let me tell you it's worth it.  You will be better for it, trust me. 

So when you go through your day, you could cuss and spit, you could be pissed off at every little misfortune that comes your way, or you could laugh it off and write about it in a new pair of pants. Which do you think would make your day better.