Відео

58 books is astounding 😮

Your cat is so adorable omg! 😍

If somebody ever asked me what was the strongest influence on my book, I'd 100% say Final Fantasy. Very relatable haha. There's something really appealing to me about the mix of a vaguely medieval but also modern world in a fantasy story that I totally got from JRPGs. I've played most of the FFs, but FF6 is my favorite overall. If I could inject the vibes of that game directly into my bloodstream I'd be happy. I'm really crazy about the world of Ivalice in FF12 too.

I loved both SNES Final fantasy games too!

The original Civilization 1 is one of my all-time favorites. In every 5 years or so I just Google a browser emulator version of it (there are plenty), then I spend about a night or so to max out map Earth on Emperor difficulty without saving games. It is not that hard at all. After immediately capturing 3-4 cities (typically I keep restarting until the first 10 rounds are optimal enough) and building an armada of chariots/settlers I follow the best tech order to get democracy as soon as possible. With optimal play armors are available around AD 0 and conquering the world is a piece of cake. There are two important hindering bugs: 1. too much future techs trigger deadly pollution and runaway global warming on Emperor mode, switching off research after about future tech 30 is wise 3. the civilization score screen causes memory leak if it prints too much and then the game slowly and painfully falls apart, so not opening it is essential. The newer Civilization games are too complicated to me, although I appreciate small details like the accurate global warming emulation of Civilization 6 extension pack 2? 3? (Nations organize climate conferences but no one ever decreases his emission, they just stockpile weapons and hope the others die earlier because of the heat.) But with all of my hobbies and interests, I never would have enough time to truly play out all the features of a newer Civ game (anything that is >=3).

Ahaha this happened to me since July, I started 3 different books in one month, and it’s out of my control 😂❤ I totallyyyyyy understand what you’re feeling & talking about

Thank you so much for this video! I was geeking out so bad when you mentioned FF IV. Yay! I was so excited to hear someone who loves it too! I am a big FF and Legend of Zelda girl. Like you said, games do help us through both good and tough stuff in life.

I loved Xenoblade for the storytelling and world building, the music, and the scenery (I loved the idea of humans living on the bodies of these ancient titans). I draw a lot of inspiration from video games for settings because it’s fun to get to walk through a world and see how the scale, terrain, atmosphere, etc affect the characters. More recently I’ve enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West for their settings as well as Elden Ring. Skyrim is sort of a classic now, especially for its sheer size and the beauty of the terrain. I usually have an easier time imagining characters and their appearance, but the setting can easily get overlooked and video games have helped me catalogue a huge range of features that can be mixed and matched to create the different biomes/worlds in my stories.

Yay, you actually made it! Thank youuuu. I have to say when you mentioned Civilization, I imagined belligerent, nuke-happy Gandhi as your next book's antagonist (or a plant-man novella?). Shout out to renting games in the 90s and having to save for 500 years because they were so expensive though (and that weird bro marketing). I'm not sure if you've played Alan Wake, but I recently read Blake Crouch's Wayward Pines and it has the same amazing PNW horror/sci-fi vibes! My pick for games getting you through hard times has to be the original Life Is Strange for the sheer character development.

Love hearing about your first JRPG! Mine was Wild Arms, finally something turn based that didn't make me too anxious...

my first jrpg was final fantasy 10, and it also deeply changed my brain chemistry lol

Love the purring cat finale. That's a great addition to any video.

What is that awesome looking textile in the background?

When my 20+ year relationship imploded I went into my lair and played The Sims for a year. I created multiple characters based on my ex and tortured them endlessly. Poor misguided but deserving dudes were engulfed in grease fires while cooking, drowned in pools, served spoiled food, and my personal favorite, fence or wall him in with no escape and gleefully watch his slow demise. Good times!

Not really a video game, but I've been making some of my story characters in Hero Forge. I hope your kitty feels better soon.

"who's the weirdest character?" I felt so called out! LOL out of the final fantasy games, i liked the "crystal chronicles" best for their cute designs, simple game play and cozy stories that still had a lot of weight. I'd definitely say they're the "girlier" games, but i loved playing them and just being immersed in the little worlds. a couple other games i adored, but no one really knows them were "Legend of the Dragoon" and "Phantasy Star Universe" they were just fun heroism stories, for all their flaws i loved playing them for HOURS on hours. LotD definitely was my introduction to expansive world building and character arcs. I remember adoring the tragic story behind the character Rose, having held so much guilt and isolation in her life that it was a scary thing for her to open up and accept new friendships. There's a character death that destroyed me because i never thought a character i played as and had control over could DIE. As the other characters are mourning his death, i'm right there with them. But i think all these games gave me my love for fellowship/friendship stories more than romantic ones. While there was a romance in each of them, the focus went more onto these individuals coming together, fighting alongside each other, and genuinely enjoying the companionship -- making jokes, talking nostalgically about their home life, meeting each other's families -- but knowing that once the adventure is over they'll happily part ways with the hopes of meting again someday. it's different from the found family trope a lot of people love, i'm meh for it. i think in a found family there's that togetherness / ride or die aspect. That the characters take on familial roles to fill a void in each other's lives, and are less willing to part for any reason evn when the adventure ends fellowships, i think, is more of a finding your community while being able to maintain your own identity. They're not as reliant on the others being a constant in their life or needing to fill a void. They just like hanging out and work well together. And that's the biggest influence over my writing 😅

Lidiya, I apologize in advance, this is going to be way too long. But you've tickled a part of my brain that doesn't get out to play very often and I have T H O U G H T S. Re: Games getting you through. The Mass Effect trilogy got me through some SERIOUSLY hard times. Life was falling apart and it was such a "mass"ive (hah) and expansive universe to sink into. I latched onto it like my life depended on it (and I believe that it quite literally DID depend on that anchor for awhile). Re: Games that I love. In general, games that I love tend to be adventure based and story driven. (Which is why I WISH that I loved JRPG's 😭 So many unfinished games have gathered dust on my shelves over the years that I finally admitted to myself that they just aren't for me. I can appreciate watching someone play them, but I think I get overwhelmed by the grinding and managing multiple characters? It's a true shame. I'm a musician by degree and you can bet your biscuits that Nobuo Uematsu is on my iPod(so to speak), but I don't have the emotional connection that someone would that actually played the game.) Early games were N64 era for me. I was playing Ocarina of Time before I could read. My sisters got SO ANNOYED because if they were there I demanded that they read the dialogue to me. Otherwise, I cut grass and played my Ocarina with abandon. Most recently my favorite games have been the Horizon series. I'm a bit late to the party, but honestly I enjoy being a bit behind the times when it comes to media and games. Everything is magically ready for you! Other mentions for loved games with uncounted hours: Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons (+Stardew), Fallout series, Console Elder Scrolls series (although I did not understand Morrowind until I started playing DnD), Witcher 3, Any Mario sports game to kill the time (MARIO STRIKERS FOR GAMECUBE IS SO SO SO SO UNDERRATED. SO SIMPLE. SO EDGY. AND UNEXPECTEDLY VIOLENT.) To name a few. Re: Bonus Information You Didn't Ask For 1) I'm struggling to find games that speak to me anymore. I look at new releases and just feel uninspired. I don't know if I'm sensing things becoming more formulaic across games or, hypocritical to that complaint, the innovation within longstanding series happens to turn me off. Like the most recent Zelda game went builder-mode and I couldn't follow it down that path. There is also this sense that there is a lot of bloat in games with either unnecessarily complicated systems (seemingly for the sake of complexity, not for a worthwhile system to understand) or five million collectible skins or different weapons that are actually the same with a tinge different stats. Maybe I'm just getting old and crochety because "they don't make games like they used to", but maybe they don't make games like they used to? 2) Do you find that as you change in real life, your approach in games changes (and therefore the experience of the game)? I see this most in myself in RPG style games that don't have extended dialogue. For example, I consider myself a minimalist and in my most recent Skyrim save I'm like, "Why do I need all this junk? I'm literally never going to use all these cabbages! I have 20 previous saves of evidence to prove it!" And so my playthrough becomes breezy and light because I don't feel compelled to search every dang urn in every dang crypt. Or after having a realization that I don't actually have to do the "Right" thing all the time or be maximally efficient in my life, my most recent Stardew save has been unashamedly chill. (No, Mayor Lewis, I don't care to find your purple pants. Find them yourself.) It's like the games are a place to test out lifestyle? Or even, how you act in games can be a mirror to how you are in your own life. Bless you if you read this whole thing. Again, this part of my brain just doesn't see the light of day very often and I am commenting more out of a compulsion to express than anything else. I am in no way a writer but I am so here for your content. I'll be back! ❤️

Final Fantasy, Castlevania, and Legend of Zelda were my primary influences when I was younger, and there are still some superficial elements from those games in my stories; they aren't too hard to find if you squint and metaphorically extrapolate. My later inspirations were from D&D, Vampire: the Masquerade, and other tabletop RPGs.

Ooh yay! We’re looking forward to this one!

so fun to hear about how video games have inspired you. I've not tried world building yet, considering it for my next novel. I usually just use modern cities. I currently play Fallout76 and 7 Days to Die

Even though it’s pretty recent, the game “Dredge” inspired a whole novel for me. It’s a “Lovecraftian horror fishing game” if that makes sense. I thought the dialogue and atmosphere were so AMAZING that I had to imagine more of a world like that myself. Highly recommend it. Still working on that novel a year later but the aesthetics / soundtrack live in my head rent-free. 😂

Ooh Final Fantasy huh? Pokemon got me through so much growing up! As a little kid I TECHNICALLY wrote some Pokémon fanfic. Team Rocket, strangely enough, inspired some of my writing as a teenager. A lot of what I wrote as a teen was very anime, one novel in particular was heavily inspired by Higurashi lol.

Tomodachi Life! I so wish they would come out with another version of this game. I also made all my fantasy characters on there or on the Sims just to get some ideas flowing. Final Fantasy 9 really inspired me back in the day as that was the only FF I had access to back then for a while. In terms of slice of life inspiration, Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons really inspired me to look at the daily lives of characters to make them feel richer in my writing. And finally...Dragon Age 2. I think DA2 was the game that got me out of one of my writing dry spells that had lasted for years. It still influences my fantasy worlds, and I have the soundtrack playing when I write my fantasy scenes, too. I loved this video and thank you as always for sharing!

Alpha Centauri was a blast. It was Civilization in space.

You look cozy!

I am just like you I'm messy and get anxiety if company wants to visit. I'm not worried about wearing makeup as long as I'm showered and clean clothes on I'm happy. I don't like the to watch the channels that are fussing with decor and magazine perfect homes. You are down to earth and you are doing what you love to do. Those young girls will eventually catch up to us older ladies lol I'm glad I found your channel. Be happy with what you want to do don't worry about what's got to be done it will be there long after we're gone lol

Im on an editing phase this november but i LOVE to hear you talking about your projects

I missed this update among all the doomscrolling. Thank you for your calming presence ❤

If you hear of any programs we can donate to in your neck of the woods for kids for Christmas, please share a link!! 💛

Love the purr!

I am working on a romance novel for my wife. I've never written a book (I've tried in fantasy and horror), and I've barely read any romance. So I'm kinda crash coursing through this, listening to Ali Hazelwood novels on audiobook, outlining, and writing. I have a rough outline, and two chapters written but I'm pushing my goal to closer to christmas

I’m trying to just do the typical 50k this month… but I’m over 10k behind so it’s not happening 🙃 lol. Still not giving up on the challenge though, because I know if I do that I won’t have the motivation to be as productive. Also, I’m in the middle of 6 different projects right now, all in various stages of completion. 😵‍💫

This really helped, thank you ❤ 2024 hasn’t been kind to me, but I just kept on going. I have to push my pre-order back, but it’s better to do that than put out a product I’m not happy with.

A magneto’s kitty and writing chit chat all in one video? I’m sold❤

❤ Thank you.

That Dress!! It’s beautiful!

Your dress is gorgeous! And thanks for sharing about the incense…I am definitely interested in trying some out. Do you know if any incense types are harmful to cats?

My goal is opening my document every day and writing a bit. I've had a lot of anxiety the past few days so things have slowed down a lot. But I'm taking a week off around Thanksgiving and hoping that will be a lot of good writing days.

My “writing” challenge is a dark high-fantasy project where I’m building/creating the world and characters. This was an idea I had that just isn’t letting me go so here I am, never having written high-fantasy or created an entirely new world 😅 But the idea excites me SO much which hasn’t happened in a long time. Let’s hope I actually get to write this and that all this work leads to something 🙏🏻 Been loving your videos recently fyi 😊

Like you, I am always tempted to work on that which I should not be working on.

I wouldn’t worry too much about correlations between your book and current events. Some of the best advice I ever received was that people are going to find or make meaning with your work and you have no control over that. I follow an author and people keep asking him or even giving little mini lectures about the blue coffee mug in his book and what it means (people have some pretty intense explanations of its symbolism). He finally came out and said it’s blue because that was the mug he picked that day while writing and showed the mug in question. It was that simple and yet people have it meaning anyway.

Thanks for the cozy writing challenge idea. I have managed maybe 2000 words so far. But the idea keeps me coming back as I am just beginning to figure out how much I will actually creatively write in my extremely busy and involved life. My goal is at least to manage some sort of short story. If i can put a beginning middle and end together, i will feel accomplished. I really don't have time to write but it is a new hobby, more or less. (Circumstances have made my gardening hobby less attainable). I have noticed an improvement in my mental clarity as well as the capacity to focus and communicate. I seem to be reviving vocabulary I otherwise lack opportunity to use. I am really just learning a new form of play and it is seeping into my everyday character in a noticable way. Very fun. Thank you for your videos. They are very pleasant to listen to.

I'm so jealous!!!

Petition for a second channel dedicated to cat cuddles ASMR hehe

Been cold up here in ky, hotter today though. Autumn and winter are usually so pleasant. Breezy.

It seems like magic to me that you are "in the groove" because I am in a slump this week. I actually really like working on multiple projects at the same time. (And not boring at all btw) I did rewrite some lyrics for a Halloween song, rewrote the melody, finished it, wrote parts and did my first Garageband recording which I had been procrastinating on forever - the recording itself is a bit of a train wreck because I have a lot of work to do on my "tech" but I still feel like I succeeded in breaking through that block. Though I am in another domain, hearing about your creative does really inspire me.

For my November writing challenge (low key mini-challenge version), I decided to set aside Wednesday mornings for an alpha-reading project. The first week went great! Second week was the day after the election and I felt so scattered, I couldn't work on the project at all. I did do some journaling about my feelings. I'm happy with that. I'm not going to stress over it. Things happen. I just keep on truckin. I thoroughly enjoyed your rambling. When the muse strikes, well, we can't control it. Best to go where inspiration leads. You're getting the writing done. You're getting the videos out. You're putting content on your Patreon/Substack. It seems like you are killing it, honestly. Congrats on hitting 100 paid members. That's phenomenal! And well deserved. 💖

This whole vlog is just so relatable! I also try to keep one priority project with some alternates and I totally know what you mean about how they just...do what they want! Also worrying about plot structures and rewriting and PHEW. I've done pretty well this month with my word count goals but am struggling a little with feeling like my current book is doing what I want it to do. It's complex and long, but I want it to all click into place! Glad I'm not the only one who goes through the process like this--it's just the way writing is sometimes 😅

I think I liked it better when you looked at the camera, it feels like we are watching you watch yourself, LOL 😁

That cat is majestic. I'm happy to say I managed to set goals, finally. I'm shooting for 20,000 words written this month. That's not that much for me, and my main focus is on building up reviews for my mostly undermarketed backlist.