Updates, updates

[pyjamapants]

Chapter 7 of TWoG has been added to the queue, well ahead of schedule. Betas are on hiatus off and on through the end of the year, so this will mark the last upload until late December. I'm quite proud of the chapter... parts of it were a complete bitch to write, but I *think* I did the characters (and their UST) justice.

I'm drawing close to the end of my little tale, and I hope once I've wrapped it up that I can solicit some constructive criticism here on my LJ. Reviews of the fic. would seem to indicate that I'm the most hilarious, clever author ever, and I'm nearly certain that's not the case. Nearly certain. I'm looking forward to ending the story so that I can look back over it with a more objective eye and improve my writing.

Penning and publishing the story has been such a roller-coaster: Getting over some serious anxiety about writing emails, much less a chaptered story; basking in the glow of the story's initial reception (finding it recommended by several individuals and the digest was an enormous boost to my confidence as a writer); relearning seemingly all punctuation and grammar rules; trying not to get sucked into the trap of clinging to reviews for affirmation; finding that some reviewers just seem to have their feedback permanently set to squee, regardless of author or story; being desperately afraid that I'd made Severus adorable and that Hermione was a complete Mary Sue; and, having more fun than I dreamed possible while making some excellent new friends.

Comments

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

**Goes into seizures of ecstasy** Oh, GOD. That is the best game ever. I pity people who don't know about Catan. Do you play Settlers or the expansion - Cities and Knights?

[natasnape.livejournal.com]

Not much any more *smiles* but the icon remains. Too simple, too much chance. We moved on to Power Grid, Puerto Rico, Oasis and such.

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of Power Grid or Oasis, but we also play Puerto Rico. <3

Do you have any recommendations?

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm curious - are you of the opinion that Settlers is too simple? Or do you mean Cities & Knights? I really enjoy the scrabble for resources and hexes when you are playing the five to six player expansion of the Cities & Knights expansion. We were thining about picking up some of the other versions - like Starfarers - but they didn't get terribly good reviews.

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

PJPants jumping in here....

We have Seafarer's and can barely muster the will to play it, much less vanilla Catan, after our friends bought Cities and Knights. It's so much more interesting. And the addition of the Paper-City-Upgrade ability of earning resources on every role makes the game particularly challenging.

We haven't played Puerto Rice, Power Grid, or Oasis. I'll have to check those out. We do play Carcassonne and have most of the expansions for it.

I have played the online version of Starship Catan at www.playcatan.com. It's interesting enough that I play, more or less, every day.

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

AGREED about regular Settlers. It's HORRIBLY dull once you've started playing the expansions.

ZOMG. I had no idea there was a website like that. I will have to check out Starship Catan. <3

We love Carcassonne. We consider that our "mobile" game. Whenever we are going to go to a bar or to meet up with a couple of like-minded friends at a casual restaurant, we always trot it out.

You sound like-minded. You're not anywhere near Delaware, are you? *Smirk*

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I'm not near Delaware.

I gots to play 3 games of Cities and Knights for my birthday!

[natasnape.livejournal.com]

PJPants, I hope you don't mind us bursting into this game discussion at your LJ.

I wholeheartedly recommend Power Grid starting from 3 players, Puerto Rico from 4 and Oasis at 5. Each game is quite different from each other and in my opinion, all are gems.

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Oh, I certainly don't mind at all! I encourage it.

I do highly recommend the Cities and Knights expansion. It adds several layers of complexity to the game. Seafarer's really doesn't add much complexity at ALL to the game, but C&K does.

I'll definitely check out Power Grid and Puerto Rico. 5 can be a little harder for us to pull together.

[natasnape.livejournal.com]

Basic Settlers or Seafarers; I haven't played Cities & Knights and certainly never in six players. We muster three players often and four occasionally. As soon as we have five, I try to convince everybody towards Oasis (you must help other people to win - auctions) or Puerto Rico (advanced game with many winning strategies and minimum chance). Power Grid is a new favourite (winning player is penalised, so you must quietly lurk behind and build your base and then strike quickly or suffer through penalties) together with St. Petersburg (Catan-like in building your empire and partitioning resources, but more straightforward and less opportunistic). Java used to be our battlefield (3D wrapped in beautiful design, but slow), when Carcassonne ended blasted a few times. We played it instead of marriage therapy, so our games have the tendency to become cut-throat. Other games I enjoyed include Euphrates & Tigris, Zooloretto, Abalone, Bang!, and games I dislike are Alhambra, Caesar & Kleopatra, Transamerica, Niagara, Ice Age and the least favourite of them all - Monopoly.