> X Growth As per my last goal, I smashed 220 in January and made it to 240+ by mid-February. By the end of February, I had made it to 256+ followers on X, and now I sit at 259. My goal for March? 270 followers by the month’s end. > A Monthly (formerly weekly) Short Story I haven’t written a short story in a minute. I plan to change this to a monthly short story of about 2-3k words. > A Weekly Newsletter This, too, will be changing to monthly with the March edition out this Saturday. > Daily Motivational/Non-fiction blogs These are being discontinued for the time being. I would like to make one per week at least, but I can’t make any promises.
The Shards of Arthur’s Shield < ████████████░ 99% I got my editor’s feedback and am now implementing it in one last read-through. I am also writing the Epilogue as we speak. The Early Years of a Great Mage < The time has come. The Student will begin to learn the ways of magic. (Coming December 2026) Brothers’ Feud < The Brothers’ Feud has had a name change and has been split into three books. The First of which will be coming in Spring 2028
How’s it going?
February was hard and stressful, with school, edits, and work, I have barely given myself time to breathe. But now, a rhythm has been discovered, and I believe I will begin to regulate again. I cannot wait to start writing the first in my first Trilogy, coming out this December. The name has changed, but I will keep “The Early Years of a Great Mage” as a working title.
Good morning, afternoon, or evening (just covering my bases). I have returned to the land of blogging and am excited to write this post. It might just be the coffee flowing through my veins as I sit at the coffee shop I so love (Cartel Roasting Co. in Tucson, AZ, come check it out, seriously), or it could be a sudden burst of inspiration from… uh… nope, coffee is all I’ve got to explain it. What gets you guys writing? Does the coffee stop the yawning long enough for your eyes to focus on the page, too, as it does me? Let me know in the comments.
In other news, the Kickstarter is live! Check out “The Shards of Arthur’s Shield” on Kickstarter today by clicking here (or on the picture to the right) and clicking the link you find on that page. The most expensive option is less than a triple-A game. This is all about building trust and hype, so tell your friends and “Trust me on this.”
I will be posting a progress update today, too, as it is the first Tuesday of the month. But know that the book is nearly finished. I will be doing one last read through with the notes from my editor in mind during the first half of March and will finalize the formatting by the end of march and I should have author copies in my hands sometime in April! I still can’t believe this is real, can you? I am finishing the rough draft of the Epilogue today, called “Jonathan’s Rest.” It is a heavy-hearted short story with which the story of Thomas will conclude and allude to what is coming in December this year ;).
Want to hear the latest on “The Shards of Arthur’s Shield,” my fantasy adventure novel? Click the picture below and sign up to get the latest and be notified when the campaign goes live on March 1st.
“For by grace are ye saved, though faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” -Saint Paul, Epistle to the Ephesian Church
As Christians, we are called to a higher standard by our saviour, Jesus Christ. We are called to keep his commandments if we love him. We are called to go to him for forgiveness when we fall short because, as Paul in Romans and John in 1 John tell us, we will and do fall short of God’s glorious standard. But we have an advocate with the Father.
Why do I bring this up? Well, recently, there has been a string of women converting to Christianity out of a lifestyle of debauchery, selfishness, and greed. The latest example of these is this:
This meme was posted to make fun of a woman who has recently announced her conversion to Christianity. This woman, Ashleigh Thao, joins a cohort of women who have been making an exodus from a lucrative lifestyle as an infamous internet adult material creator.
The meme expresses the feelings of a lot of jaded young (and many older) men who see these women as having taken the easy road to wealth and well-to-do-ness before “turning away” and keeping all their illicit gains and living a life of ease on the backs of men they led into lust and adultery.
This is an easy thing to feel. I myself feel jealous sometimes. Where is the “quick and easy” way to riches and fame for men? This is the thought on the mind of many young men who are struggling to make an honest living and keep their heads above water. This misses the point, however, I think. This was not a “quick and easy” thing for these women. This choice scars their reputation for the rest of their lives. It hangs like a dark cloud over their families for the rest of time. Does this mean their lives are worthless and unusable by God? Absolutely not. Praise God for that.
“He started with an old, dirty canvas; My sin left me tatered, bent, and marred. Then this artist turned his light upon my sadness, And began to wash away the blackest part.” -The Booth Brothers, “Masterpiece of Mercy”
God is a worker of wonders, the God of Second Chances, and the Blessed Redeemer. If you find yourself getting upset with these women, do me a favor and go read the Gospel of John chapter 8 again. Look at the woman caught in adultery and ask yourself, who are you? Are you the woman thrown down into the dust before the Master? Or are you a Pharisee in the crowd demanding of the Master what is to be done with her?
What do you think Jesus stooped down and wrote in the sand? Why do you think he wrote it in sand? We know the finger of God has power to carve his words in stone, but Christ chose to write these words in sand, which will be blown away or walked through within the hour and be lost. Why do you think those words were not written in the pages of Scripture?
What if the words were: “Lust, Anger, Murder, Greed, Blasphemy, Lies, Treachery, Betrayal.”
What if the words were the sins in the very heart of the Pharisees who stood accusing the woman caught in adultery? Can you imagine your deepest, most private sin being torn from the hidden dungeons of your heart and cast before all your friends? Then imagine Christ rises from the dirt and looks you in the eye and says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
When the Pharisees all dropped their stones and ran away, I can relate to that. We must remember, brothers and sisters, that we are sinners too. I have been guilty of Lust, I have been guilty of Greed, and I have been guilty of Envy. I could go on for another thousand or more words about my own personal sin, but here is the amazing thing:
“Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” -The Gospel according to Saint John the Beloved
Jesus, God, Creator of the Universe, for and by Whom were all things made that were made, bent down into the dirt that men wash off their feet; and asked the woman, “…where are those, thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?”
She said, “No man.” Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
If the God of Creation, the Uncaused Causer, the Unmoved Mover, the Word Spoken at the Beginning, the EGO EIMI (I AM) did not condemn this woman caught in adultery, how can we, those whose most righteous acts, according to the Prophet, are but filthy rags, condemn her, or any of these modern women who have turned from their wicked ways.
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” -The Prophet Isaiah’s Book, Chapter 64 verse 6
While I do not believe sinlessness is a requisite for salvation, as John says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not within us.” We are called to be holy as God is holy. But if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, and if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
But what if the woman falls away and gets back into that sinful lifestyle? We pray, that’s what. We pray that God would convict their soul and give them no rest and no peace until they repent and turn away. That is on the assumption that they were ever saved to begin with.
John says: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
Someone’s conversion is between them and God. If you confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you are saved; that’s what the Bible says. So, if someone confesses Christ to you, we ought to treat them like a brother or sister in Christ. When they do or say something that contradicts that conversion testimony, we should reprove them, which literally means, to “prove again,” by asking them to repent of the sin and confess to Christ again.
At the end of the day, we, as Christians, are called to judge with righteous judgment, but also to live peaceably with all men. If you try to peaceably reprove someone and they tell you off, wipe the dust off your cloak and move on. Do not waste your time arguing with them if they refuse correction.
Only time will tell whether or not the conversion of these women is legitimate or a grift for clout. In the meantime, join me in praying for these women, that God would preserve them on their walk with Him and bless them with the gift of increased faith and that He might multiply their grace.
“But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.” -The Gospel According to Saint Luke Chapter 10 verses 10-12
God bless you, dear reader. Thank you for reading. Follow me if you wish to keep up with what I’m writing.
Keep the Word, Keep the Faith, Keep it Up.
In Nomine Patris, et Filiie, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
This is it! 100 posts here on my WordPress blog. Very cool! Over these 100 posts, I’ve amassed 6 followers here on WordPress, 245 followers on X, and thousands of interactions across the two platforms. I am forever grateful for all of the support. Just the other day, I was having dinner with a friend who is also an artist I am working with, and he randomly brought up a post I made right here. I was flabbergasted, to say the least, because I never thought anyone would ever actually spend time reading the things I write here.
Now, onto some announcements.
Announcements
I have been working on the website over the last several weeks, trying to make the viewing experience here as seamless as possible. Now I have one more page to add, and I believe the construction will be done for a while. Today, I will be adding a Kickstarter page to the website, which will link you directly to the Kickstarter Pre-Launch page for “The Shards of Arthur’s Shield.” There you will be able to follow my progress on the Kickstarter and even get notified when the event goes live on March 1st, 2026.
I will also begin blogging on X and Substack, in addition to WordPress. X is the platform where I have the most reach right now, and being able to link to or share an article from X to X is much better for the algorithm. But fear not, my most loyal 6, I will be posting those same articles right here on my website. If you want my articles fresh and first, follow me on X @ABTimothyAuthor.
This journey has been very fun and has let me stretch my creative muscles with the short stories, the non-fiction blogs, and the reviews. I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. It’s only up from here.
God Bless you, dear reader, and God Bless me as I write.
Have you unexpectantly found yourself with a bunch of free time, like me? I recently had a Tutoring student who I would tutor for four hours a week tell me he is taking a break for two weeks. This has freed up so much time for those two weeks, so what am I doing with it? Well, what do you do when you suddenly find yourself with more free time? Tell me in a comment below.
I have decided to start getting caught up on a lot of reading I wanted to get done for the past few months, but haven’t yet. Is that my own fault? Maybe. But does that mean I can’t course correct now? No! You will never get anywhere in life if you give up before you even start. Never stare up the stairs, my friends, only step up the steps.
So if you find yourself with a sudden influx of free time, don’t waste it, like you might be tempted to, but rather use it! Tackle that backlog, fold those clothes, edit that book, or walk that dog. Don’t sit around and doomscroll X or Instagram (unless you are doomscrolling my X @ABTimothyAuthor, in which case keep going).
Today, I got to my “office” (coffee shop) three hours earlier than I would have on a regular Wednesday, so what am I going to do with all that extra time? Well, so far, I’ve read today’s Bible reading in my “Bible in a Year” plan, I’ve promoted my show “Keeping The Beacon Lit” on X, and now I am writing this article. What will I do with the rest of my time? Probably get a bunch of editing done on my book, The Shards of Arthur’s Shield, and troll around on X promoting myself and building my following (importantly, not doomscrolling).
What will you do? Tell me below, let’s chat about it!
Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, Of the Best State of a Commonwealth (Cont. again, and again)
We continue reading the introduction on the sixth page of my copy, beginning with the words, “I do not know whether it be worth while to tell what followed, for it was very ridiculous;”
In this paragraph, we meet the Fool, who is playing the part of the jester and is doing a mediocre job at it. When one of the men at dinner, for you will remember this scene, being one of Hythloday at dinner with a Cardinal and his house in Britain, makes note that Hythloday had taken care of the thieves, and the Cardinal had taken care of the vagabonds, and now there was but the poor to deal with.
The Fool pipes up and says that he can take care of the poor. He has dealt with them so much that they know not to waste their time begging him for alms anymore. The Fool suggests that the poor men be sent to Benedictine Monasteries to be made Lay-brothers and the women nuns. This suggestion upsets a Friar, who contests the idea, calling the Fool all kinds of names and insulting him with several insults from Scripture. The Cardinal shuts the whole thing down and calls out the Friar for not being prudent. The Friar quotes Solomon and says that he was just “Answering a fool according to his folly.” The Cardinal dismisses everyone for the evening after this exchange is done.
We’ve ended that discourse now and are back with Hythloday and More in the present. Hythloday explains that the fact that the courtiers of the Cardinal only applauded what the Cardinal liked in jest is the reason he won’t be a king’s counsel. More argues in the next paragraph that the opposite is true, and that this is the exact reason he should become counsel to a prince, however much he despises the courts of princes. More brings to mind Plato’s argument in favor of the Philosopher-king and says that kings need philosophers by their side to achieve this state and be the best ruler they can be for the people. Hythloday pushes back and says that the kings will not heed the wisdom of the philosophers in his court, and the only way to do what Plato was talking about is for the kings themselves to become philosophers. Plato himself found this to be true of Dionysius.
I believe this section is More explaining radical criminal justice reform, but couching it by speaking through a surrogate fictional character. To further distance himself from these radical thoughts, he tells the readers, ‘Hey guys, I’m right there with you, this guy should totally be a counsel or something, but he won’t listen to me, crazy, right?” I don’t know if More actually liked the idea of sending the poor to the Monasteries, but that would be an interesting thing to see.
The next motion in the conversation is Hythloday talking about the advice he might give to a king. The King of France has so many decisions to make about different lands that he wishes to subjugate and add to his empire. One wise advisor would give one form of advice that would involve conquering a piece of land, another would give advice about playing the long game of diplomacy, and another would give advice regarding a wholly different approach that would still increase the King’s power because more power is ultimately what the king wants. Hythloday, on the other hand, would argue that the king would abandon his expansionist ideals and focus on building up the stability and prosperity of lands already under his control. To support this idea Hythloday brings up a totally real country that was next to the also totally real Utopia, whose king conquered another country and was advised to give up the second country because the people of both countries would not prosper under, nor would they want to live under a divided king and have, as he puts it, “a groom that should be in common between him and another.” The king took the advice and gave the other country to his brother and went about making his own country prosperous, and it worked! But Hythloday asks More if he honestly thinks that this idea would be taken well in a king’s court.
This section contradicts the idea that Utopia, as a whole work, is proto-communist. For communism, you see, is globalist, and this section is inherently anti-globalist. This is a very isolationist idea.
Conclusion
I ended my reading this night, on page 37 of the text. I believe I should be able to finish the discourse section in two more note-taking sessions. If this intrigues you and you feel inspired to go read some old literature, consider subscribing to my WordPress so you get emails whenever I post a new part of this series or any other I am currently working on. Or sign up for my Newsletter to get updates every week on Saturday.
Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, Of the Best State of a Commonwealth (Cont. again)
We continue reading the introduction on the sixth page of my copy, beginning with the words, “While I was talking this, the Counsellor, who was present, had prepared an answer…”
In this section, the Counsellor is about to speak up to debate Hythloday, but the Cardinal speaks him down, saying that they can debate if they have time to meet up tomorrow, as there is not enough time to have that debate today. Instead, the Cardinal asks, essentially, “What should we do then? If we lessen the punishment of criminals and stop killing thieves, then that will only embolden them to commit more crimes, right? If death already doesn’t stop them, wouldn’t things get worse if we loosen up?”
Hythloday responds by disagreeing. He doesn’t think that taking someone’s life from them for something as petty as money is working. This is because it treats all crimes the same as the Stoics may wish to do. But the reality, Hythloday argues, is that if people realize the punishment for theft is the same as murder, they would rather kill the person they are stealing from than leave them alive after the theft to testify against them. The same principle that Hythloday argues should restrain the death penalty for them, that being money is not worth the same as a human life, would work in reverse here to save the lives of those persons who have been killed during a robbery. If the thief fears not for their lives, they are more likely to leave the person alive and take their money only.
In the next paragraph, Hythloday answers the question, “What more convenient way of punishment can be found?” He goes on to describe a people he encountered during his travels in Persia. They are a content people with set borders that are not rich but are not poor, and don’t have to worry about invasion due to their geography and a tribute they pay to the Persian King every year. They are called the “Polylerits.” This name, should the reader understand the Greek roots, will tell the reader that this is a fictional people used as a prop by More to describe a political idea. Hythloday explains that these people, instead of killing their thieves, enslave them. This slavery is not what we today think of when we think of slvaes, rather this slavery is more of a Civil Service paid by the criminal to atone for their crimes. A thief must pay retribution to the victim of their crime, and if they can’t pay it, they are put to work by the state to earn the money that goes to the person they wronged. Giving one of these slaves anything is fine, so long as you don’t give them money. Giving them money, weapons, or aiding them in their escape is punishable by death. Escape itself is also punishable by death. To encourage the slaves to behave, they entice them to tell on slaves who have escaped or are planning to, by offering anyone who gives them information either money, if they are a free man, or liberty, if they are a slave.
The slaves are also forbidden from speaking with slaves from other counties in the state. This prevents a wide conspiracy towards rebellion. The Punishment for discovery being death, and the reward for betrayal being freedom, helps maintain this system. There are also several that are set at liberty every year because of good behavior on their part. The Counsellor says that this could never happen in England, as it would be too much of a risk and require too much upheaval. Then the Cardinal speaks up and says they could try it on a smaller scale, where a prince could condemn a thief to death and then forgo their punishment while keeping them in this “slave” state to test the idea. If it helped reform the criminal, then all the better; if not, they could just kill him. The cardinal also says this could be a good way to deal with some of the vagabonds on the streets, too, which many voices at the table agree with.
Interstingly Hythloday points out that the table seemed to disagree when the slavery concept was only in regard to criminals, but as soon as the Cardinal threw vagabonds in the mix, they all jumped on board.
Conclusion
I ended my reading on page 29 of the story as a whole. Slowly but surely, I will have the whole of this book notated here on my blog. It will be interesting to see if I get the chance to turn these notes into some kind of essay during my college career, but we will have to wait and see. If this intrigues you and you feel inspired to go read some old literature, consider subscribing to my WordPress so you get emails whenever I post a new part of this series or any other I am currently working on. Or sign up for my Newsletter to get updates every week on Saturday.
Five days ago, I started a new game called Warhammer 40k: Space Marine. Just two nights ago, I finished the campaign on hard difficulty. I can say without doubt that I had a lot of fun playing this game. I got frustrated, I quit playing for a night because I kept getting crushed by the same checkpoint, only to then beat it on the first try the next day, and I really enjoyed the story. Perhaps because I was playing on hard mode, every emotional beat felt earned, every word of encouragement from the 2nd Lt. Mira lifted my shoulders, and every challenge overcome felt well fought. If you are looking for a fun arcade-y run-and-gun sci-fi experience (and you’ve already beaten all the Doom games), this would be a great game for you.
Story
The story of Warhammer 40k: Space Marine takes place on an Imperial Forge World. These worlds are massive, planet-sized factories. Their purpose is to provide the Imperial Militarum with all of their tech, like guns, tanks, ships, and Imperator-class Titans. The initial purpose of the Space Marines’ arrival on the planet is to push back the invasion. The world has been overrun with Orks, and only a small contingent of human defenders fights on to secure a future.
You play as Captain Titus of the Ultramarines. This legendary chapter of Space Marines is only called upon in the most dire of straits. You fight through the Xenos horde and find your way to the last human officer on the planet, 2nd Lt. Mira. This woman is a no-nonsense, brass tax kind of lady, and she expects and gets the same from you. You are both there to do a duty. She gives you intel on how you can destroy the main anti-air battery the works have, which has been preventing the landing of the liberation fleet.
After destroying the battery, you get a distress call from a member of the Inquisition. You find him gravely wounded and near death. He needs your help recovering an experimental power source from somewhere deep in the factory. On the way, you pass by a War Titan, a massive machine, said to be a gift from the Machine God, which looms over you, a sleeping giant.
You collect the powersource and survive exposure to unfiltered warp energies. The Warp is basically hell, so you were able to withstand the forces of hell pouring into the room. Neither you nor the Inquisitor can explain this. You push on and find your way to the top of a tower, where you are meant to use the power source to wipe out the Ork hordes. But you are betrayed. The inquisitor had died after he made the distress call to you and was possessed by a daemon of the warp. He and his Daemon Primarch have been manipulating you and your battlebrothers this whole time. You manage to take the powersource back and eventually utilize it in the Titan to blow up the spire where the Daemon is trying to open a Warp Portal big enough to bring an entire fleet of Daemons here from the warp.
After the spire is destroyed and the Daemon’s plans thwarted. You embark on a quest with your battlebrothers to kill this Prince of Daemons once and for all. You do. But exposure to the warp and resistance to it is considered heresy. So, after all is said and done, instead of getting the girl (Lt. Mira), you are arrested by the Inquisition and hauled away in chains to be investigated. A tragic ending to an otherwise heroic story.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
4/5 stars. I would highly recommend this game for anyone who likes the Warhammer 40k setting or heroic stories with tragic twists.
> X Growth I am well on track to reach 220 Followers on X before the end of the month. I am at 213 currently. > A Weekly Short Story I plan to edit or write a short story at least once a week to release alongside my Newsletter. So far I am 2 for 2 > A Weekly Newsletter So far I am 2 for 2. I am considering changing this to a monthly newsletter. > Daily Motivational/Non-fiction blogs Of 13 days this year I have posted 7 Non-fiction blogs as of this blog. If I post one tomorrow that will keep me at about 4 per week.
The Shards of Arthur’s Shield < ████░░░░░░░░░ 31% I have an appointment with my editor on the 21st to go over a game plan. So I have till then to finish getting the book up to first draft standards. The Early Years of a Great Mage < I will be placing this on the back burner until I have TSOAS off to a pro-editor. Brothers’ Feud < I will be placing this on the back burner until I have TSOAS off to a pro-editor.
How’s it going?
January is just beginning, but with December behind me and the whole of 2026 before me? I am feeling hopeful for the first time in a long time. Please pray for me if you are a praying kind of person.
