State Of The Drewnion

June 22, 2019 by Andrew Uphoff in Blog

For those of you don't know how much I love puns, you now know.

Life has been keeping me inordinately busy the last few months on top of me trying to figure out why my mental state is unstable more often than not. This is why I have been on an unspoken hiatus for quite some time.

Between work and spending an extra 20 hours in the kitchen every week trying to keep food choices healthy, trying to find time for walks and stretching, and spending time with Connie I am super swamped all the time it feels.

That may be me still trying to find my balance. The problem now is finding motivation to write when I'm impossibly worn down from day to day life. I want to make a change and move towards Writing being my life, but that takes time and energy that doesn't seem to be present in my every day life at the moment.

I do work on Uncharted Territory and a couple other small fun pieces, but overall writing isn't happening much.

A few things I have been mulling around is starting Blog posts for the food I'm making, product and game reviews(when I have time to play games that is), and things that I can stop and pick back up at any time.

My hope is that I can find a balance that allows for time to write while not neglecting the rest of my life, though working a day job really makes that difficult(especially when you're spending 7hours a week driving alone to get there).

Sadly it's not even about making a career out of it anymore. Even my desire just isn't there nearly as much when I'm constantly bombarded by the rest of life at random times.

I have so many story ideas that pile up, which is good for the future when I find time to write. Maybe at some point I'll catch a lucky break and find someone who believes in the writing enough to give me an opportunity to work towards that future.

That may be a publisher, or it could be enough people banding together places like Patreon to help support an indie author in their life struggles. I'd like to revamp my Patreon yet again and try to find a dynamic that provides me with incentive to write, an incentive for my readers to become Patrons, and an incentive for more of my Patrons to become involved in the indie community as a whole.

To give you all an idea of how many story ideas are accruing with all this time(because I still have time to daydream when I'm on auto-pilot at work or doing house chores), here's a list of a few ideas I've got in mind:

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1) Uncharted Territory - The Blessing of Frau Holle - First novel in the Sci-Fi series, following Rey Lionhart as she explores an abandoned Lintenell Research Starship to find why it was left to the void of space with a whole crew of AI still on board.

2) Uncharted Territory - Part Two - Still in brainstorming phase. A story arc involving Rey, an intergalactic guardian belonging to an ancient order of peacekeepers known as Valkyrie. and a curious girl locked in stasis aboard Uncharted Territory with a terrifying and dangerous past.

3) Uncharted Territory - Part Three - Rey arrives at the destination given to her by Dokk, a cosmic being known as a Wight who possessed a savant Justiciary during the events of my first novella(Forming a System). Why would Dokk send her to the Pangean homeworld? Better yet, why is the Pangean Homeworld still living in Post-Survival times when they're capable of Post-Scarcity technology?

(Note: I am seriously debating sending Bartholomew in to a publisher, though I'm still debating. It really all depends on how publishing Uncharted Territory independently goes for my first full Novel venture)

4) Bartholomew and the Purrlosopher's Stone - Fantasy/Anthropomorphic animals. Our feline hero makes his first joint adventure to the shattered ruin of Omeowha, Tabraska. Will he and his newfound companion Countess Reyna find riches, or find themselves in more trouble than they bargained for?

5) Bartholomew and the Squirrel Ritual - Off to the land of forest and critters, Bartholomew is tasked with investigating strange energy spikes coming from the Squirrel homeland of Nutchester. What could these squirrels possibly be doing to frighten Ricky, Bartholomew's liaison to Raven society?

6) Land Of The Ley-Lines - Tales Of The Freyan Valley - A Short story book compiling previous and new Fantasy works in the Land of the Ley-Lines world of Dorana. Featuring Kim the Necromancer, Marcus Wainright, and Mary MacGregor as they find their place in a world of magic and technology.

7) Land Of the Ley-Lines - A New Empire - The first full-length Novel in the Land of the Ley-Lines series. Following Marcus Wainwright and his struggle to evade detection of his magical prowess. His father had told him stories of the emperor kidnapping children and forcing them into the Freyan Academy to become war mages for isolationist efforts. His life was extraordinary before joining the Freyan guard.

8) Chained Reality - The Junto - Urban Fantasy/SciFi - Modern America has been shaped by corporate expansion, government reliance, and a small faction of people using peaceful voluntary means to better their communities. Serge Kamada's dream of becoming a volunteer-based society may seem like an honorable goal, but reality often pans out the way we want it to. Could this eccentric secretive philanthropist have more of an agenda than simply helping those around him?

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There are definitely more ideas but these are the major pieces I'd like to work on and release as full novels first. I also have another Sci-Fi/corporate dystopia piece I've been thinking as a standalone to send to publishers regardless of my Indie career.

As an Indie author I do believe it could only do me good to work with a real publisher to understand how the rest of the industry works.

I'm glad I could take some time and let people know I'm not dead, and I'm definitely not done with being a writer. Life has taken a busy turn, though it can turn at any time again.

Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with me the last few years and still do check in from time to time. I hope I can get more content rolling soon!

Though if you'd like to help make that more of a reality, please be sure to subscribe as a Patron, Follow me on Twitter(@chainedreality), and let your friends know about the indie author doing his best that they can help for as little as $1/month!

If I can get 1000 Patrons at $1/month, I'll already be making how about much I do at my day job which could open up so much more time to write and produce more content!

Thanks again for your support and I truly hope you've found something valuable in your time here!

- Drew

Anthem Legionnaire Tomb Locations

February 27, 2019 by Andrew Uphoff in Blog

Recently I’ve been playing quite a bit of Anthem and a friend had needed the locations of each Legionnaire Tomb. So, I hopped in my Interceptor and worked my way around to find locations to make it easier for others to find as well! Once you’ve unlocked all of the Legionnaire Challenges and you’re ready to start hunting for Tomb Entrances, I hope this helps make finding them a little less frustrating.

Question Everything: Higher Education

February 27, 2019 by Andrew Uphoff in Blog

When you think of education, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For most people in America I would wager school comes to mind in some form or another. Whether it’s a picture of an older professor detailing a lesson plan for a classroom, or the massive bill that comes with it these days, education is centered around the idea of a central(and most of the time physical) school framework.

Even our definitions seem to include this expectation of a centralized school being involved. But as we push towards the future, are we considering that these expectations may be purely cultural? Is it truly necessary to have a centralized form of education for our society to function properly?

Well, that depends on how you view the nature of information. The truth is in the age of technology we now have an inordinate amount of tools to learn independently. Not only do we have entire blogs and youtube channels dedicated to sharing personal knowledge, we have website programs that are free and accessible to everyone that provide the same level of knowledge a college education brings.

Borderlands 2 - A Corporate Dystopia

January 01, 2019 by Andrew Uphoff in Blog

Borderlands is a marvelous role playing game cleverly disguised as a shooter. The world of Pandora is littered with bandits and corporate death bots looking to kill you for you know, ‘cause reasons.

Many stories throughout history have taken to telling tales of the dangers of Capitalism run rampant. None have done it in such a way that can only be described as a psychological cluster-bomb.

Not only is Pandora a place where corporate workers go to lose their minds(and often times their lives), it’s also center to a vast trove of alien technology. Any corporation would become insanely powerful with Eridian tech on their side.

That’s where Handsome Jack was hoping to take the Hyperion Corporation.

As I play through Borderlands each time it never ceases to amaze me the levels of insane the denizens of Pandora must truly be to run around shooting each other for fun. Even small side quests tell funny(and sometimes insanely sad) stories of people’s lives on such a deranged and chaotic planet.

Scooter, the Vault Hunter’s resident mechanic, has a series of side quests that detail his non-existent love life. One girl decides to become a cannibalistic sewer mutant rather than date him. Another just shoots herself in an abandoned shack when you give her a card with some righteously awful poetry from him.

Final Fantasy XIV - A Suggestive Housing Post

October 16, 2018 by Andrew Uphoff in Blog

Final Fantasy is a series most people who know anything about games are aware of. While there have been two MMORPGs in the Final Fantasy Universe, FFXI and FFXIV, I am currently a part of the latter.

While hardly the first game to implement this system, FFXIV has something called In-Game Housing.

What Is Final Fantasy XIV’s In-Game Housing?

It’s exactly as it sounds. A system that allows you to purchase a home for your In-Game Avatar.

While this system has oodles of nooks and crannies I could write for hours describing, I think I’ll leave that to the FFXIV wiki.

My focus here is to pinpoint ideas behind the importance of In-Game housing and how we can expand it to create a whole new layer of gaming.

For many purchasing a home in-game is a difficult and time consuming task If it’s not hidden timers and lack of availability, it’s the sheer cost of the land and housing permits before you even think of the costs of furnishing it.

The psychology of ownership within games is fascinating, especially when you realize it’s driving entire business models in the gaming industry.

Keeping in mind this psychology, I think it’s safe to say that In-Game Housing can actually be a very big deal for both gamers and game-makers.

In the case of FFXIV, I truly believe there is a lot of solid groundwork to build on for a brighter future for this game concept.