J. Martin

June 4, 2023

Gradual Return to Regular Turmoil

As the last sixteen or so days were pretty insane, I had to skip last week’s newsletter and social media activities in general. What I’d originally thought I’d be terribly busy with were my upcoming book’s page proofs. But CRC-Press did a terrific job, so that turned out to be a cinch. Only one major issue needed fixing, involving three illustrations and two paragraphs—but for that, my own manuscript was as much to blame as was production. What did bog me down after all, however, was preparing the index! It was more work than I’d expected by an order of magnitude. For me, after all, “print” is a foreign country! But now I know. Next time, I’ll be better prepared, and equipped with a workflow solution I’m already working on. Deadline for all of that was last Wednesday, but then I had to travel to Cologne for three days, for the TH Köln KickStart/MakerSpace project status updates (I’m doing some mentoring there) and for the Indie Game Fest 2023 on Friday and Saturday.

The week before last, I published one AI/LLM/GPT Roundup on “selling bootlegs and creating Godzilla” at just drafts; two Instagram entries about two contemporary music performances at Düsseldorf Tonhalle and Korngold’s Die tote Stadt at Rheinoper, respectively, and a handful of new vintage-style travel squaries at Pixelfed. That’s it. Writing posts and posting pictures will commence soon.

As mentioned in my last newsletter two weeks ago, I’d run out of matter for the Sunday funnies, and I need to pause and stock up for a while. Thus, for some weeks to come, I will promote one game each week that I played at the Indie Games Fest instead—some soon to be released, some in development, some subject of publisher negotiations. My first pick, for this week, is Tiny Bookshop by neoludic games. (Disclaimer: CGL alumni/former students of mine are on the team, and one of my current/6th term MDH students is also involved.) As to its game type, it’s a “cozy game,” and it’s absolutely fantastic—I’m certainly not the target audience, but I fell in love with it right away. I’m not on Steam for various reasons, as most of you know, but if you are, you can wishlist Tiny Bookshop on Steam!

J.