I'm doing very well, thank you.

Pressing forward with my writing, (I'm just starting chapter 3 still stuck on Earth),
and finding a little time for games here and there.

How's the world turning for you?

Thanks :D

I knew you would find a way to not be kept away... for long

<ruffles the little blob playfully>

... :P

Pretty good. Handed in my bachelor's degree certificate request and it has been acknowledged that i have everything i need for it. Unless something unexpedted happens i can continue with my master's :D.

I think i missed this before: What are you writing?

Congratulations! What is your field of study?

I'm writing an epic fantasy series (sword and sorcery), with multiple worlds, though it starts on Earth,
and it does start in America, but only because the region has a lot of mystery in its history, so I tied that,
and some of the Scandinavian mythology intertwined with it as well. ;)

The plotline is fairly simple, a good versus evil, with a powerful evil wizard who was defeated but not destroyed, who is returning. The story of the prehistory to this story being written has also been outlined and could be a series in itself. There is also a bit of a coming of age tale woven in for good measure as some of the main characters (the kids from Earth) are growing up through all the travels and battles. ;)

I'm stuying geography.

The premise of your writing sounds interesting. Definitely somthing i would read :).

Edit: Corrections and Additions

I've been working on the development of the series for over ten years, and had most of the first book written years ago, but I changed a lot of things in the last three years, so I am re-writing the books from the very beginning. it is a much better story now, that I've gotten old enough to write it how I want it to be.

I spent a year alone just on working out names for places and characters so they will be consistent. I've even developed a 5000 year history for the first world encountered, and a history that ties all the different worlds together that goes back to the beginning of time. heh!

It is seriously a huge project, and I probably should have starting out publishing a single book instead of an entire series... Still, I'm motivated to finish this project. The first two books will be almost a stand alone, since they take place on the first world encountered, I'm not sure if I can fit the rest of the story into a third book, so it might be four books total by the time I'm finished. The good thing is I know exactly how the entire story will end, and it is a really good ending. :D

Wow. A real opus magnum :). Impressive and a lot of work. It sounds really fleshed out. Good to hear that you are still motivated after all those years. Keep us informed on the progress, will you?

It is hard at times to keep the motivation over such a long period of time, that is for sure,
especially with all the unforeseen circumstances that life can throw at us along the way.

I certainly intend to keep everyone here updated on the process, and publications. And the best
thing to hope for is that once the books are published, they will be adapted to video games!

Another one of my dreams is to design video games, and the books are a path to that end. ;)

You're right, it's a very beautiful country, although the heat does get to me in the summer, particularly because it's a Mediterranean climate, which means no summer rainfall. And month after month of baking heat with no rain becomes unbearable after a while. I long for the huge summer storms of Africa, where the heat builds up and builds up until - with a huge clap of thunder and flashes of lightning - the rain explodes out of the sky like a waterfall. And afterwards the earth sings, and all is clean and fresh.

They do indeed have wood-fired ovens all over Spain and Portugal, and the bread they make in them is out-of-this-world. I am often stunned to see locals filling their supermarket trolleys with plastic-wrapped, mass-produced, pre-sliced, soggy cotton-wool stuff called 'bread', when you can wander around to the nearest bakery and buy a little bit of heaven. :-)
But they don't much use the ovens for pizzas, and most of the pizzas I've had here have been the deep-dish type, which I loathe. There are a few reasonable pizza places around, but very few. I love Italian food, and there are a lot of 'Italian' restaurants here, but they seem to specialise in the kind of food that package tourists like. Few of them are authentic at all.

Fortunately the simple local Portuguese food is always good - grilled fish or chicken with fries and salad and great bread, not to mention great wine. And my favourite is chicken piri-piri, chicken with hot sauce - if they know you, they'll make the sauce extra hot - yum!
Hmmmm I'm getting hungry!

Call me stupid, but if you live in Portugal, isn't the term "local Portuguese" redundant? :P

That sounds really tasty! Do you have a recipe for the chicken piri-piri that you can recommend? If not I'll just go searching on the internet, since it sounds great.

You might think so, but there are so many foreigners who live here, that one has to make the distinction. :-) We are surrounded by restaurants serving just about everything except Portuguese food, and they're all 'local'. I guess it depends on how you define 'local'.

*welcome wave* How are you today? The Wednesday picure is so cute, I like it!