Well, I survived tax season, and now for the moment I’ve been waiting for: The release of my first novel, The Visions of Bezek!
It’s been a long journey. I still recall a late college night, writing ideas for the story. I would have probably failed the CPA exam if I put this much effort into writing back then. Ha. So it’s a good thing I’ve only worked on this project periodically over the years. Moving forward, though, I plan to stay focused on my ZanderverZ works. I’ve got a lot of stories to tell.
As this journey ends, I’m embarking on the next. It’s a psychological/domestic thriller about dating called He’s Going to Kill You. The details are shrouded in darkness, but I’ll be releasing more info about it in the following posts. In the meantime, I’m looking back at April in this post to see what I’ve done with my life.
My wife and I have been on a journey for about a year now to watch almost every Studio Ghibli movie. For those of you that don't know, Studio Ghibli produces movies similar to the Disney movies of my youth. I’d already seen a few of the most popular ones. I’ve got some fond memories of the Princess Mononoke VHS at the local video store, but that is an ancient story for another time. During this April, I found a Ghibli gem that I’d missed. It’s called Princess Kaguya. If you've seen it, you know how charming it is. If you haven’t seen it, go check it out.
From the Amazon description:
"Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthralls all who encounter her—but ultimately, she must confront her fate and embark on a transformative journey."
It’s a unique, beautiful story, and it’s the best thing I saw all April. There’s an exceptional steelbook, Blu-ray edition on Amazon. You can use my affiliate link to get it here, if you're interested. They’ve got a lot of stunning steelbook versions of the Ghibli movies. I'm eyeballing the Princess Mononoke steelbook at the moment. That's easily my favorite Ghibli film.
I also took some time to do a nostalgia dive back to one my childhood videogames. You may have heard of it. It’s called Banjo-Kazooie. It’s an outdated puzzle/platformer with clunky camera controls. So naturally, I love it. It’s a comfort game for me. My wife and I also started It Takes Two. It’s a great coop game, but I’ll admit the story has yet to hook me. I fear, it’s a one and done kind of game, but the journey’s been fun so far.
For May, I’ll be rediscovering how to live in a world where I don’t work sixty hours a week on taxes. My co-worker calls the recovery period "tax-relax." Seems legit to me.
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