As the song lyrics go ‘these are a few of my favourite things’.

There was some lively debate in the household earlier this week as both my other half and I are currently playing two different installments of Assassin’s Creed at the same time. For those of you with inquiring minds, he’s playing ‘Black Flag’ and I’ve returned to my perennial favourite ‘Unity’. With only one usable console in the house, we have fallen into a semi-peaceful agreement over who gets to play when.

Naturally, this means that whoever isn’t playing takes on the role of (in my case) helpful spectator or (in his case) incessant back-seat driver.

Just kidding, of course, his interjection is very helpful if somewhat non-specific.

What I cannot make peace with, however, is our conflicting views on cut scenes. I watch them. Intently and obsessively. He’ll watch the first time, but after that, it’s skipping time. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve seen a Skyrim character manage to spit out the first word of a sentence only to be brutally cut off before revealing anything. I get it. When you know what’s coming you don’t particularly feel the need to watch it again. Unless you’re me.

I love how cinematic video games can be. For me, it’s a part of the world-building. It’s just as important in games as it is in books or films. Especially as I will always choose story arc over game features.

I could spend hours watching Jacob Frye run around London with nothing but a potato in a sack for a weapon because, oh those beautiful 19th-century church spires. Do I want to level up my stealth points? Yes, but not as much as I want to shimmy up those viewpoints to get a good look at Constantinople.

In non-gaming related news, work is underway on book two of the Vanguard series. My days have become filled with a combination of caffeine, wanton keyboard destruction, and not sleeping. Second book stress is real.

So, as many writers do, I use music to soothe my chaotic mind. When I wrote ‘We Men of Ash and Shadow’ I created a Spotify playlist that I shared on Twitter (the link should still be there if you care to find it, and contains some excellent tracks in my opinion).

Since I started writing I’ve been on something of a musical journey, searching for artists whose work helps me get into the right frame of mind to create the sort of world I want to build. I’ve included a few honorable mentions below, who I would highly recommend if you’re looking for an evocative soundtrack to set your own writing sessions to.

Ivan Torrent – @IvanTorrent on Twitter, ‘Afterlife Extended’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5g6ps3H1-UUrsine Vulpine – @UrsineVulpine on Twitter, ‘Arcanine’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV0kbqtOE802WEI – @2WEIMUSIC on Twitter, ‘Survivor’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUq4F95e4HEDamned Anthem – @DamnedAnthem on Twitter, ‘Uprising’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w48-1IQxnM

Lastly, I made a promise to myself a few weeks ago that I would try to reduce my caffeine intake. For someone with an undeniably low tolerance for stimulants, I do consume an inadvisable amount of coffee/diet coke. It’s not big. It’s not clever.

If you’re wondering how that’s going I’m currently on my fourth caffeinated drink of the day and it’s only 11:30 am. So it’s going about as well as Vanguard’s efforts to stop making terrible decisions (if you’ve read my book, you’ll get it). Some might say that would go some way to explaining why I’m generally awake until 3 am writing. I’d argue that it’s not the caffeine. It’s just inspiration. Cool, refreshing, inspiration.

‘We Men of Ash and Shadow’ is available now on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Shadow-Vanguard-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B08FJ6PY9M