April 7, 2022 by Robert Bishop

Mega Update

Okay, so I suppose it’s time for one of those I’m still alive posts again. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet but there is quite a lot going on these days. (New book here if you want to skip this post!)

The last years have been hard on everyone, and that includes me. At first, the forced isolation seemed like a dream for us writer-types; just being locked in with nothing to do aside from writing. Well, for me that wasn’t the case at all. Not only did I bring a lot of baggage with me into the quarantine, but being holed up inside didn’t give me much in the way of inspiration. Me and my family already felt kind of dead in the water before the lockdown, and basically being stuck together for a year didn’t help matters much. So we got the hell out of dodge and moved halfway across the country, yay! I now reside just outside of Oslo, the capital of Norway, which after a year of isolation was a colossal system shock. Compared to any other town in the world it’s really not that big, but when comparing it to my hometown I might’ve just as well moved to Tokyo or New York. There’s people everywhere! And I love it! I think . . .

It’s gonna be fine . . .

So that’s the boring personal stuff out of the way: New place, new town, new job and new clothes. Same family, same stupid face and same imagination. (And lack thereof, occasionally.) I can’t guarantee anything when it comes to my writing, but I haven’t been completely out of it the past five years either, just way too lazy to post updates about it. So for the three or four people reading this, here’s a three-pronged update on my current projects! I shall call it Bishop’s Trident! Or not . . .

New book

This should’ve been its own post a million years ago! The book was more or less written in 2016 and 2017 I got it printed in 2018 but there were some issues with the cover and some scathing but very welcome feedback from a couple of early readers. I finally got around to editing everything and fixing it up in 2019 and then I just kind of released it into the wild without promoting it at all.

If you’re one of those promotional/self-publish/indie/marketing channels on social media you’re probably choking on your lunch right now. I got . . . sidetracked, okay?

Anyway, the book is called Empress, and is dedicated to an old colleague of mine. (It’s a little different than my other stuff, while still taking place in Noman.) It’s a great first foray into the Noman universe if you find Awakenings to be a little too massive. It’s on Amazon now both as paperback and on Kindle.

S’ilvia has given up hope long ago, certain her disease will be the end of her. She sets out to strike a final deal before that happens, to make sure her empire will survive. Her legate, however, still clings to the faint hope a cure can be procured. Rumor has it there’s one among the ancient ruins and choking humidity of Phran; a secluded H’arian city deep in the mystical jungles of Noman. But the shadows are long in The Wet, and according to the locals, they come alive at night. S’ilvia has to count on a lot more than words if she wants to earn their trust. She might even have to call on something from her dark past.
Robert Bishop – Empress

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January 12, 2018 by Robert Bishop

Defending Mass Effect

So . . . I loved Mass Effect: Andromeda!

Yes, I am a hardcore fan of the Mass Effect trilogy. Yes, I played them to the end three times. No, I didn’t hate the ending enough to let it ruin the rest of the games.

So, what? I’m reviewing video games now? No, I’m not, but this is a series I love dearly, and I’m sick and tired of seeing the one-sided arguments laid out against it. This isn’t a review of Andromeda, but a quick argument that it was a decent game. At the very least. it didn’t deserve to end up on so many worst games of 2017 lists. I’ll briefly touch upon the hate 3 got before moving on to Andromeda. If I vanish suddenly and without a trace, a crazy Mass Effect Zealot did it! Also: If the statement above render my opinion useless to you, you’re a giant tool, but I understand. (I really don’t, but whatever.)

The unending waves of hate:

Wubba lubba dub dub! I saw this video, and was immediately reminded of my own experiences with the Mass Effect series. I’ve had people come up to me in the streets because of my . . . fashion choice. I bought the jacket you see in the picture below because:
A) I love me some Mass Effect.
B) I was doing a new playthrough of the entire trilogy (femshep represent!) and couldn’t for the life of me get over how awesome these games are.
C) And this is the most important bit: The black and red design and the N7 logo are among the coolest looking uniform/armor/costume things I have ever seen. I probably would’ve bought an N7 item without even knowing about Mass Effect if I saw it at the store.

But I digress: What I’m trying to say is that the hate is completely off the charts on this one. I’m fine being greeted with ‘Commander,’ or ‘Shepard,’ (who on earth wouldn’t be?) when I pass someone on the street. But when I’m stopped and almost asked to explain myself, or asked whether I bought the jacket before or after playing Mass Effect 3, that’s bordering on harassment. I don’t want to have a discussion, drunken or sober, with someone screaming in my face about crayons and kindergartners, color choice and what huge pieces of shit the people at Bioware are. (This happened, by the way, step by step.)

‘This is my favorite jacket on the citadel.’

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December 27, 2017 by Robert Bishop

I’m not dead!

Just wanted to let you know I’m still alive and hard at work! Most of you probably won’t care all that much, but as long as no one is downright disappointed, I’ll take it as a win! Most ‘writer’ sites will have you believe that you need to blog at least once a week if you’re going to succeed in this line of work, which makes me about 59 weeks overdue. Oh well.

I don’t mean to sound sour or anything; they might be right for all I know. I’m planning to post more in the future, but for the time being I have my hands pretty god damn full with other things.

This post/update/newsflash/whatever serves three purposes (purposi?): It helps me get my affairs in order before the new year hits; it gives you all an update on what I’ve been doing and where Frostbites is; and it serves as a kind of ‘new beginning’ for myself and this site. (Did I really just write that? Ugh!)

That’s write (harr, harr, harr) folks! Robert is going to try something he’s never tried before: He’s going to work harder and be more structured when it comes to his writing! (He’s also going to stop addressing himself in the third person.) I have like, two or three readers now, as well as a writing gig on the side, so I need to step up my game. As many of you know, something strange and wonderful happened right around my previous blog post, and that is my sole excuse for delaying Frostbites and everything else:

Scary, wonderful, breath taking and time consuming!

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October 12, 2016 by Robert Bishop

Stop the negativity!

This one is for all you negative nellies out there. And you youngsters too. (I know, I’m not that old myself, but bear with me, please.)

Don’t dismiss an entire concept outright just because someone else has trouble with elements of it.

What on earth did I just say? Let me simplify: When someone is having trouble related to their significant other; don’t immediately say, ‘This is why I’m never getting married.’ First of all, you don’t know that, no matter how old you are. If you’re divorced, I can understand that you’re a little scorned on the subject, but if you’ve never been married, you can’t possibly know enough about it to just dismiss it like that. This goes double if you’re young, because young people – myself included – have a tendency to generalize and simplify most things. Never getting married, never having kids, never doing this or that. Yes, you are, my dear. Not because it’s the grown-up thing to do, but because someday you might actually want to.

‘I’m never having kids, they’re so annoying!’

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September 20, 2016 by Robert Bishop

Is it worth it?

Relationships. How much should you really invest in them? Are all of them worth it?

No, I’m not getting divorced or anything, but there are some burning bridges behind me. I’ve lived a mostly sheltered life free of conflict, but there’s been a few incidents and confrontations over the years that really, really put me off people and much of their bullshit in general . . . No, I’m not trying to do the cool introvert-y thing where I ‘hate’ people because I’m so much better than them. I just genuinely can’t seem to invest in people I don’t care about. Subsequently, the list of people I care about is short and growing shorter.