I know I say this every time the website has an overhaul, but I have to say this is  the best-looking my site has ever been. Phil has done an amazing job, and deserves a very public “thank you” and a link to his two wonderful websites, Sodaware and Phil Newton.net. Sodaware is dedicated to his shareware business, and contains some excellent hand-drawn art too. Phil Newton.net is dedicated to “Improving Every Day” with insightful articles on getting things done, motivation and productivity tips. If you want to fine-tune how you approach your life, it’s a great website to visit.

If you’re a new visitor then welcome and thanks for coming! A great place to start is to browse the archives or check out the Best Bits in the sidebar on your left, and please bookmark me with Ctrl + D, subscribe to my RSS feed, leave a comment and spread the word!

Over the coming weeks we’ll be seeing more development on the elusive novel, another Player P.O.V. article as I take another look at my beloved Beyond Good and Evil and many, many more memorable posts. I aim to update at least twice a week, so please do check back and I hope you enjoy your stay!

   I am currently listening to God Only Knows by The Beach Boys

This occurred to me whilst watching “Snakes on a Plane” last week (watch those hits skyrocket!). Whenever I watch a film and a character plays games, it’s rarely a normal part of their character – they’re either kids who won’t do their homework, grown-ups that wildly thrash about, tongues flapping, or have some other form of abnormality that stops them functioning normally. Probably caused by games, but that’s another story.

I wrote a CV a few weeks ago, and didn’t feel that “playing videogames” was a good hobby, even though “reading books” and “watching films” would be fine, and are arguably more passive activities (contradiction?). I like to believe that you shouldn’t feel ashamed of anything you enjoy, but when writing that CV I felt ashamed to say I enjoyed playing games. That’s sort of upsetting.

Games are bigger business than ever, and will be all over the media this Christmas with the new console launches. Does this validate the existence of games? Are games acceptable now that everyone knows about them?

I really want to know your take on this, which is why I’m hosting a special “The Collected Writings of James Newton” podcast – catchy name not included! – for you to air your views. You can get in touch in these ways:

Skype – JamesProsody. Leave a voicemail!

Email – mail@prosody.co.uk. Either attach a sound file (mp3 please!) or just write your comments down. I’ll be happy to hear them.

Leave a comment here on this post.

However you do it, do get in touch – I’d love to know if you think games are – or will ever be – acceptable and “normal”. Here’s another thought – would you want them to be?

I am listening to Can You Feel The Sunshine? by T.J. Davis.

Well I didn’t quite manage 1,000 words of the book but I did around 500 of actual prose, and another 500 of notes, ideas, characterisation and so on. Unfortunately that’s not really a lot when you think about it – Hannah mentioned that NaNoWriMo books have to be 50,000 words long to qualify, so I am 1% of the way there. Small steps, I suppose.

More to come every day, including some possible extracts if they’re good enough!

Note – normal blogging service will continue whilst I write the book, don’t worry!