I made some progress on Chapter 20 of JJ. If I can stick to my schedule, I should be able to finish it and Chapter 21 this week. If I’m really good, I can get through Chapter 23 as well. That’d be nice. Stay tuned.

After going the whole week without making any progress, I started in on the new version of Urgill’s Chapter 5 of TTWC3 and rewrote the start of her epilogue to match the changes. I really need to buckle down if I’m going to finish the dang book. Well, I’ll be moving on to JJ, but I may try to spend a little time on TTWC3 as well. I’m going to try to make more of an active effort to dedicate a specific time for writing to ensure I can at least maintain the minimum progress. Stay tuned.

I did a little writing on Chapter 4 of CeleKing1, but most of the time I earmarked for writing was spent on research and the peripheral materials. Those are important, too, so it’s not like the time was wasted. Now it’s time to switch over to TTWC3 and actually make some progress this go-around. Stay tuned.

I skipped another day but then made up for it by powering through Chapter 2 of CeleKing1. I’ve already written enough to meet the week’s quota, so anything after this point is a bonus. The book won’t start serialization until November, so if I can at least get halfway through before then, I’ll be good. That seems entirely probable. Just gotta stick with it. Stay tuned.

Though I went a couple days without progress (other than more catching up on the review backlog), I more than made up for it during yesterday’s roadtrip, finishing Chapters 1 and 3 of CeleKing1 and making considerable progress on Chapter 2, some 3K words in total. If I could finish Chapter 2 and possibly Chapter 4 before the weekend’s out, that’d be good. I’d then have to figure out exactly where the story goes from there, so maybe I should devote a little time to better defining the plot. Stay tuned.

Wow. I’ve been doing terribly when it comes to meeting my quota. I blame the Sakura Taisen event in GBF. Not my fault at all. >_> Well, I did manage to make some progress on Chapters 24 and 25 of JJ, but not nearly enough to make up for lost time. Did a lot of work on my review backlog too, for whatever that’s worth. I guess I’ll be switching over to CeleKing1. Stay tuned.

We’ve wrapped things up with our first lead of TTWC3 and now it’s time to take a deeper look. While Rowland is placed in the “king” role opposite to Solon and the Monarch Lich, he actually has greater affinity to the “knight” characters Ionathas and Caligo. Whereas Solon is the idealistic wise old king and the Monarch Lich is an archetypical evil overlord, Rowland is a very different sort of leader, bold and brash yet not without a good share of cunning. He takes a force of a few hundred and and manages to defeat one of the greatest strategists of that time backed by a military superpower. Now, admittedly, if the full strength of either the Zephyrian army or the Army of Light had been brought to bear against him, he probably would’ve been defeated. Similarly, he wouldn’t have been able to emerge victorious if the Dominion dispatched the sort of forces the Zephyrians contended with in the Darklands. However, success is as much a matter of skill as it is luck.

Rowland was a more interesting character to write than either Solon or the Monarch Lich because he was morally grey. Both Solon and the Monarch Lich have complexity to them, but they’re situated close to poles of the white-black spectrum. Rowland, however, is listed as a chaotic neutral in that he does whatever he pleases to benefit himself (and to the degree that he thinks outside of himself, his cause). You might be forgiven for doubting his sincerity when he speaks of working for Notos’ benefit. I do believe he’s a patriot, but not to the point that he’d serve the motherland to his own disadvantage. He refused the crown, but he still rules as a king in all but name. That being said, he didn’t go for hereditary rule because he cares enough about the country to not entrust it to anything so unreliable as his own progeny. If this all sounds somewhat contradictory, this blend of the selfish and the selfless, it’s because Rowland himself is riddled by such contradictions. It might be a problem for him if he stopped to fret about it rather than just charging on ahead.

I’ll save a discussion of his relationship with Simona for her section. I will say, though, that he uses people so cynically that he has little notion of true affection for anyone else. You could blame losing his mother at a young age, having a father obsessed with the cause above all else, and being raised primarily by a fanatically loyal and deeply infatuated servant. That’s not to say he lacks any redeeming qualities in his interpersonal relationships. He generally gives as much loyalty as he gets and while he may have his share of unsavory deeds, he’s far removed from the list of my greatest monsters.

Loss is a common theme throughout the Trident War series. Victory comes at a price and that’s for the lucky ones. However, of the entire cast, Rowland is perhaps the lead who gains the most and loses the least. That might make him something of a Karma Houdini in the eyes of some, but it’s something interesting to note.

Well, that should do it for Rowland for now. We’ll be back in seven weeks to discuss Simona. Stay tuned.

I found myself hooked on Chapter 24 of JJ and wrote some more on it. I may well finish it before going back to work on the earlier chapters. If all goes well, I may well finish the book on the next cycle. That’d be something. Stay tuned.

I’d like to place the blame entirely on finals for not having done a lick of writing all week, but that’d be a lie. I’ve been playing a lot of GBF, even having gone so far as to set up an alt account and run the two simultaneously. Yes, I know I’ve written about my tendency toward gaming addiction and I very nearly pulled out a while back, but I’m still at it, for better or for worse. I did at least write a number of reviews, but story progress is my bread and butter (even if it has yet to earn me either bread or butter).

Well, a week of no writing finally caught up to me and I stayed up an extra hour just so I could put some time into JJ. Because inspiration struck, I jumped ahead to write on Chapter 24. I need to go back and finish the earlier chapters. Gives me a goal. Stay tuned.

I missed two days, largely as part of an effort to take advantage of the boosted gatcha drop rate in GBF. Didn’t get much out of it, though. I made progress on Chapter 1 of CeleKing1. Not enough to make up for the lost time but good progress all the same. I’m supposed to switch over to TTWC3, but I may spend a little more time with CeleKing1 first. Stay tuned.