The Hard Truth About Fantasy Fiction …

I want to be a fantasy writer some day. So what do I do? I read fantasy fiction …


I’ve timed myself. I read at about half the speed of the modern college kid, I would think. That’s because, due to hearing voices, I’m often distracted. Perhaps it’s also my age. I’m 41 now. My concentration isn’t what it used to be, either.

So I picked up A Game Of Thrones. And what did I notice? Within the first 150 pages, there’s the murder of a child, a scene of incest, the child-marriage and wedding night description of a 13 year old girl who is terrified she’ll be beat up by her brother if she refuses or does not satisfy her new husband.

I never even knew you were allowed to write about such taboo subjects in fiction. But then look what happened? This fantasy fiction, Game of Thrones, is some of the very best, having been awarded and turned into a TV series.

I’ve learned something about fantasy fiction. If you want to write it: Shock your audience. At the very least: don’t be boring.

The hard Truth About fantasy fiction is that there’s murder, rape, incest and paedophillia in it’s pages. Furthermore, everybody is straight and white.

I’ve always stated that, were I to write fantasy fiction, mine would be a much more sanitized, clean type of fantasy fiction, with young adult readers in mind.

Maybe that’s why my fiction will never sell, nor ever be a best-seller. Maybe I’m too old, too cynical.

I’m learning a lot by reading fantasy. I’m learning about what I can and can’t stomach, not just about point-of-view characters.

Shock your audience, I suppose. That’s what Game Of Thrones did.

Nah I’m good y’all. None of that for my fantasy fiction. Mine’ll be different, clean, sanitary. And probably terrible.

Until next time!

Steve Mini from the 6.

Training myself to read. 50 pages a day?

I’ve read books my entire life. But often, especially after being diagnosed, I took a long hiatus. I thought I ‘d never read again; I kept hearing voices which would interrupt my concentration.

Fortunately medicine has worked for me. I’m now on a 3-month injection cycle, and back in University taking just one course per year. Some day, I’ll graduate with a BA in English Literature.

I picked up “A Game Of Thrones” thinking about how much I love fantasy, and how much I’d love to try and write a book like that. There’s many things I don’t like about Game Of Thrones, but even more things I admire and respect about the books, now that I am finally reading them.

I’ve tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to read 100 pages a day. This would take me an hour and a half in my prime, when I was a young man; It would now take me more than 4 hours now that I am a little older, slower, and get more distracted.

I think this is too much, so i’ve halved my reading to just 50 pages a day. At this rate, It would take me more than two weeks to finish an 800 page book. I might be able to finish just two fat fantasy books a month.

Which brings me to my point. The reason I’m reading again, and training myself to read a little bit every day, is that eventually I want to try my hand at writing a fantasy trilogy or book. I know it will be hard, and that I might not be commercially successful. But my love of fantasy stems from a very young age. I need to try to write a fantasy book, else I’ll never know how and why I failed at it?

Besides, I’ll have to write a collection of essays, and at least one literary work of fiction and some poetry. I am a writer, after all.

I will graduate with a BA in English Literature four or five years from now, after being a part-time undergraduate, off and on, for more than two decades.

I hope to write after that. Winter is coming, as the game of thrones simply states, and I hope to be ready. I’ll read up these books then start on another fantasy trilogy in a few weeks. It could be months before I’ve finished reading a couple of fantasy trilogies, so that I have something to compare to my own writing.

My own fantasy series, called: Patriklironomicon, is about a young female elf who pretends to be a boy. This unusual novel came to me rather a-quickly, one day, whilst I was plotting; I outlined three main characters and their stories before the day was done.

At this stage it’s just an idea. But I have a rough draft of an outline, mostly in my head.

I also want to write, what I’d call a space opera, if they’re even called that anymore. It’s about vampires in space, and about genetically modified humans waging a war, interstellar, against them; I guess I should read Dune and emulate it’s greatness; it’s certainly a space opera I could get behind. So we’ll see. Lots of reading to do first. Then, a little writing. But for my space opera I’m inspired a little by the Warhammer 40k universe. Just when will it get it’s own movie or series?

But anyway. I’m years away from a first book or any sort of final draft. I might graduate from school before trying to publish my first book – and that’s four or five years away. And I might choose to self publish on amazon and not bother with traditional publishing houses. I doubt I’ll have many readers, but I do like to write. Why not self-publishing on amazon?

Anyway, update you in a few.

Steve Mini from the 6

Met a girl; Started Writing…

I’ve met a girl online somehow. She’s from New York. She said she’s thinking about moving to Toronto. I think we could hit it off if she ever does.

She has inspired me to start writing a little. I’m a part-time undergrad living with a disability. Though my concentration is limited and I struggle to read at times, (I don’t read as much as I used to), despite this I take one course per year at the prestigious University Of Toronto where I study as an English Literature Specialist completing an Honors Bachelor Of Arts.

I take just one course per year. I have 4-5 more courses left. So that’s 4-5 more years.

I figure if i start practicing now by writing every day, I might have some material for when I graduate. Who knows? Maybe I can bang a book or two out this year and pay somebody to edit them.

I’m thinking of self-publishing on amazon and creating a printing press company. Nobody’ll read my books except friends and family, but that’s alright.

I don’t have high expectations. But i’m a writer of some kind. I need to make this work. I’ve been studying English literature for nigh on two decades. It’s about time.

So i’ve opted for a daily routine of writing, even if it’s just for an hour or two after my league of legends matches are over.

I’m usually free 10pm – 3am and that time is consumed by Jungling in the League Of Legends. Writing might slowly replace my gaming time, however.

I’m honestly pretty excited to finish a fantasy book i’m writing, dubbed: Patriklironomicon about an elf princess who needs to pretend to be a boy. It’s cheesy, but it’ll do.

I also would love to write a vampire book as a sci-fi novel.

I’m also writing an autobiography about hearing voices and talking to myself. I was homeless for two years.

I also have many theories regarding Paranoia, Schizophrenia, and in general, hearing voices, about which I’d like to write a few essays and articles and collect them into a volume.

I also write poetry at times, though not as often as I’d like.

Catch you on the rift, summoners – or on google docs. I might livestream my writing sessions, if anybody is interested.

Take care.

I’ll update in a few days or weeks, and tell y’all how things are going with the writing. By then I might have a rough draft along with a sample to share. Though I’m wary: good stuff inevitably gets stolen in the public domain. I can’t imagine someone claiming to have written the work I’ve shared, but stuff like that does happen. Screw that. I’ll only sparingly share samples therefore. But i’ll update you. It’s a journey. I’m taking the first few steps.

Stephen M. Miniotis,
11 April 2022.

Jungling in League Of Legends after 9PM

Hey y’all. I found it extraordinarily difficult to complete my courework this year. I just barely squeezed by, probably with a 60% or less, to pass my course. Had to write three essays for this half course and read four books and a bunch of short stories, which I found difficult to do because of a lack of concentration.

I’ve been hearing voices as always, but sometimes I end up pacing in my room and talking to myself. I’ve made an extraordinary recovery and am able to even complete one university course every year, but I do have periods of down time where I’m pretty bad.

To keep my mind busy, learn a new skill, concentrate, make a few friends and socialize, I’ve been Jungling in League Of Legends. Every night after 9 or 10 PM i pop onto my stream and get annihilated. I’m of a very low rank but it’s quite fun.

I find that I don’t get tilted at all, and only ever blame myself … I’ve got a strong mental game. I don’t think I get tilted either, just disheartened and upset with myself if I constantly lose or get badly beaten. if I get badly beaten one or two times … I just give up for the night and say screw this ima do somethin else.

Y’all are welcome to follow me as I learn the game. So far in low ELO we almost always need AP every game, so I’ve been spamming Amumu. If I’m lucky and we don’t need AP I pick Warwick or Nocturne. I’m also learning Diana, another AP champion, in case Amumu is picked, banned, or I’m bored of him and just want to play a different AP champion.

I find this champion pool is really good, especially for a beginner. Diana is probably the hardest champion of the bunch, so I tend to avoid her, but do mix in a Diana game every now and again just to get the hang of her. She’s the only champion who doesn’t have a CC in my pool of champions I’ve just mentioned – other than I guess her Ulti which sort of AoE pulls everyone in to her. Is that even a CC? Whateves.

I also should play more master Yi but I instead just ban him every game. He’s the one jungler who always carries in low ELO – yeah I don’t want to ever play against a Master Yi at all.

Since we do always need AP every game, I’m contemplating Fiddlesticks too, or AP Shaco. I prefer AD Shaco so I’d rather learn Fiddlesticks since he’s sort of an AP assassin with his ulti and he has a fear and a silence – so he does have CC. Fiddlesticks also has one of the quickest clears in the game if you can learn how to pull two camps at once, which I usually do not do. But we’ll see.

I’ll update this blog less often and twitter a little. Message me on facebook if ya’ll need to chat with me (I ignore chat on twitch.tv and don’t really interact there – instead I play chillstep instrumentals without vocals and just focus on the game).

Cheers.

www.facebook.com/StephenMiniotis

www.twitch.tv/StephenMiniotis

Started a Journal, after all these years…

5 Jan 2022 Wed.

My cholesterol was high so I started walking every day for over an hour. Whilst walking, I started recording myself talking. That’s right, y’all, I’ve finally started a journal, after all these years …

I don’t remember much about my life, like what the voices were even talking about during my psychotic episodes or breaks with reality.

I would love to pursue sessions of hypnosis to unearth these memories, but I probably can’t afford a professional to do so and don’t know of anyone who could help for free.

But what little I remember, I will talk about in my walking journal, now that I have to walk one hour a day, I might as well record myself talking whilst doing so…

What I will be talking about in my walking journal/diary are what kind of books I want to be writing, outlines of various stories or books on my mind, and quite possibly, descriptions of the voices in my head, sort of like character sketches …

Though I don’t often talk too much about what the voices say, I can say that I used to play dungeons and dragons with the voices in my head as player characters. It got to the point where I unearthed an entire metaverse full of characters, villians and heroes, just by talking to the characters in my head.

Can this be a podcast some day? I hope so.

Catch you on the block, hoodies.

Steve Mini from the 6.

2021 Dec 25: Started playing Apex Legends

I started thinking about playing Apex Legends since a buddy of mine is an avid player with over two years experience and a love of the game.

I’m thinking of starting out as Bloodhound and keeping it pretty simple. Dropping in and knowing if anybody else is around you or has been, is very useful to a beginner.

Gibraltar also seems enticing because he can often revive others from safety (surrounded by his tactical shield) and in general takes 15% less damage and his orbital bombardment seems very strong.

But I think Wraith will be my second backup pick since she hears voices when someone aims at you, and can go invis to escape. Heck, I hear voices too. Call it a kindred spirit. But anyway, her hearing voices is super useful to beginners like me.

WIth these two picks: Bloodhound, then Wraith, I should be able to learn the game, drop in, find weapons, know which ones to discard, and in general, have a little fun, within a few weeks.

I’ve never played battle royals so picking up Apex is a big deal for me it’s like learning how to surf when you’ve rode a bicycle your whole life. It’s a whole new world.

Cheers.

Memoir fragments: “Two years all but homeless”

From his notes that might become a memoir: “The ‘Frenia: Neologisms & Word Equations”. Steve Mini from the 6ix.

I remember spending two years all but homeless, because I adamantly refused to take my medications for paranoid schizophrenia, and was absolutely out of my mind. What did I do? I hopped on a bus in Toronto and transferred cities and got out of the bus, a few hours later, in Ottawa, broke and crazed, and checked myself into a homeless shelter in a new city.

I knew nobody in this new city, but I was adamant: no to meds. I also thought that secretly someone was trolling my mind with synthetic telepathy via satellite somehow: that they could read my thoughts and communicate with me telepathically. I was hearing voices that I thought weren’t my own.

Maybe it was the Russians. You ever think about that? Perhaps I was an enemy on foreign Canadian enemy soil. There is no such thing. But when you’re ‘frenic, you come up with a few dandies sometimes. At least, that’s what I did.

I ended up changing my name to a travel alias. George Ohwell. What had happened to me was certainly Orwillian; The joke was on me. So for two damned years, nobody knew my real name and everybody called me George. George Ohwell. Perhaps I was safer that way; only G-d knows.

At the shelter, absolutely refusing to show ID, I was helped regardless by a kind old soul, who took me in, wrote down George Ohwell, and helped me get government issued documents by that name, without any identification papers.

It was official. I was all but George Ohwell in practice as well as in theory. I even had a library card with George Ohwell written on it. I was going places. And fast. As fast as I could walk, that is. I don’t drive and recycle everything and keep a low profile, as well as a low carbon footprint.

2.0

From Ottawa, it was easy to walk into Gatineau Quebec. It was right across the bridge. I had a couple of girlfriends in and around the area, I was fortunate to be quite charming in my yout; Some were from Gatineau, QC and some were in Ottawa proper.

… (fast forward past the homelessness part): I used to walk to Gatineau by crossing a bridge, and drink a beer there. Eventually, the most curious of things happened. Somebody from Quebec invited me to live with them and co-rent a room; which I accepted, having had, thanks Heaven and G-d hisself, just enough for the rent every month and a little extra for myself. I was poor; I would eat at the soup kitchen in Ottawa, then walk all the way back to Gatineau, every day.

Somewhere, in either city, I can’t recall, I met a young’un, a bambi, as I often called them, someone too young to sleep with, someone that could only really be your friend. I was all prim and proper, and fretted about such stuff. Heck even if she were of age, what’s that, 16 in some parts? I still felt it proper to only sleep with women 18 and older. We became great freinds, and chilled together, but I suspected that young bambi wanted something more than what I could offer her, that is to say, she wanted more than a friendship. Now I’m not sure, because I made sure nothing happened, and never advanced anything, but I always did wonder: did this young bambi have a crush on me?

I always figured, because she would come around with two best friends, two young men, that one or the other would have made an excellent partner for her. But no, she always seemed to suspiciously want to hang around with me, which I, being paranoid, suspected.

One or all of these fine young folk were indigenous, and we ended up calling ourselves “the wolf pack” for some reason, don’t ask me why. At any rate, I’ve always been a lone wolf, so I took to this monikor, this wolf pack, rather well.

Perhaps I was never officially inducted into this pack, perhaps the pack lives on, today, without me; it’s membership closed even to my own persons, who may or may not have named the whole shabang. I don’t really remember. But hey, wolfpack, if you’re out there, and remember me from Gatineau QC over in Ottawa, Ontario. Say hello. Gosh you’re probably adults now. Are all three of you still friends? Were those two male friends, your cousins, or brothers? I’m confused.

Sincerely,

George Ohwell

(Steve Mini from the 6ix).

647 986 6324 text me.

—
Fragment 3:

One day, I was “fortunate” according to the voices in my head, to be served a heart in the soup kitchen. At first, I thought nothing of it, and almost bit into it; but then I realized, nope, it is, literally speaking , the heart of an animal that I was served at the counter, over in the soup kitchen. I might still have a picture somewhere; for I was an amateur photographer, though not many pictures survive, if any. I’ll have to look.

But anyway, a heart. In my soup. Who would have thought?

I would have taken it, and held it high, and allowed all the other patrons to know me by my real name, and bang my chest, et cetera. but I did nothing of the sort. In fact, I said nothing to the soup kitchen, and deposed of it ingloriously. I am paranoid schizophrenic at times, and laugh curiously to myself, about jokes nobody understands, but I never did act on impulse. I don’t obey the voices, and thankfully, I was never dangerous. I’d like to think, after all these years, that me and my voices have a working relationship, and that they have rightfully subordinated. I’m still wary.




A Memoir: Money = G-d = Evil

Rough drafts, released in the public domain. I suppose a final draft won’t be published, perhaps self-publishing on Amazon’ll have to do some day. 647 986 6324 text me if interested. Steve Mini. (Nobody really ever does “and then they publish your released information”).

When I sat down to write a memoir, I thought to myself. What does a poor, pleb of a pauper like me, have to say, that nobody has ever said before? With aplomb I say unto you, that money = evil = G-d, and that, therefore, a kind sir(s), that money is evil and so is G-d.

Why that hyphenate? Because I assume already that you know that which I assume, and won’t tarry on for very long. Perhaps I meant something else entirely, in which case, no to you; Such is the way of secrets, of hyphenates and aphorisms.

This knife of wit shall grow dull with the scraping of time, and even the old joke, now new and fresh, that money is evil, and that therefore, so is G-d; shall know it’s time.

Perhaps one day, when I’m a rustic millionaire in a painting, remembered as such, though often opposed and sentimentally blind, I’ll be remembered, not for my wealth, but for my art, which is, the last indignancy. No to G-d.

Shall I proceed to explain the why and how, or are we, men of wit, already in agreement that we already know the rest, having been said by better men, and that we shall now agree, that money is evil, and therefore, G-d hisself is so, just this one last time, for old time’s sake.

I’ll give you a buck to publish, but you won’t give me a dime to write. But I don’t have a buck, how’s that for G-d; Up next: The Sermon on a mount (Whilst mounted up, a High Warlord Warlock on my PvP mount, I wrote a sermon.

Nobody gives a damn. Go broke you hobo-looking maniac of a lunatic. Said the voices in my head (Paranoid Schizophrenic, by the way).

That’s not at all what I felt, however. Curious that even I, am opposed to myself. Perhaps I am opposed to being evil; but I am evidently so. Therefore, please give me my money now.

Your evil persons, rather inept

Steve Mini from the 6ix, from his “Neologisms and Word Equations: The ‘frenia”.



Gaming: Damage is King! (League Of Legends)

Though I love playing defensively, inheritely i need to learn how to play hypercarries in the Jungle. You’ve all seen the highly ranked replays. Carries who build 100% damage and nothing else. Carries who only build a little survivability to eek out that extra damage by staying up a little longer.

I’ve realized something. Damage is king. It allows you to clear faster, getting back to ganking. It allows you to dominate the early to mid game, by one-shotting squishies. It allows you to set the tempo of the game, by getting a few kills. It allows you to clear objectives faster.

That having been said, I’ll wuss out sometimes and play a tank in the Jungle. Or a bruiser hybrid, who also builds defensive or hybrid items with defensive stats on them.

Hypercarries are hard. But once you learn them, and focus on damage or DPS, you’ll be a literal monster at this game.

DOn’t wuss out. Pick characters who compliment building items for maximum damage.

Here’s my favorite ‘hypercarries’ which I build damage on:

Jungle Carries:

Master Yi
Kha’Zix
Nocturne

I’ve also recently added:

Wukong (exotic pick)

As an ‘exotic pick’. I build blade of the ruined king second on him. Because of his clone W, which is now also a dash, and they also buffed his ultimate R, which can now be cast twice, and they also buffed his Q, attacks from minions now reduce it’s cooldown, In general he’s not a bad jungler.

But you know who I want to really jungle with and troll a few games? Predator Darius. Maybe my offrole should be top lane. I like many of the top lane champions. Another exotic pick I play as a tank in the jungle, who’s usually a top laner, is Dr. Mundo. Or Mordekaiser, even. You see I used to like playing tanks in the Jungle. No wonder i’ve been bronze or iron every season. I never really learned how to maximize damage and carry.

Check out my champion selection, KDA average and win rates on the link that says ‘OP.GG’. All my links here: Also follow my twitch and subscribe to my YouTube, where I shoutcast high level replays:

https://wlo.link/@StephenMiniotis

Other Junglers I play or want to learn:

Brusier Hybrids (a mix of damage/defensive stats):

Warwick
Xin Zhao
Jarvain IV
Mordekaiser (AP – exotic pick)
Amumu (AP)

Tanks (on which I build purely defensive stats):

Sejuani
Dr. Mundo (exotic pick)
Zac