Where I’ve Been: A Sneaky Side Project

I know I’ve been quiet (Instagram posts notwithstanding) for the last month. I accidentally got caught up in a new side project that isn’t related to my writing — a project that was foreshadowed by my December blog post about The Sims 4.

I started a YouTube gaming channel. (Wut?)

I’ve been pondering investigating this for a while; my son is nine and an avid watcher of “let’s play” gaming videos on YouTube, so much so that he wants to have one himself, one day. I kept telling him that I didn’t know how it worked. (If you watch my channel, it’ll become pretty clear I still don’t! 😉 )  Simultaneously, over the Christmas break I got drawn into watching some Sims 4 let’s plays … and suddenly, in January, it seemed like a good idea to investigate starting one for myself.

My boy finds Sims 4 boring, honestly, but he’s very excited that I’m a YouTuber. He wants me to tell everyone I know so that lots of people follow me and I become super famous. #goals Of course, I’ve told maybe two or three other people, because I’m a middle aged woman and I suspected people might think I’d gone a bit senile!

What made me decide to write this post in the end was the fact that I had the exact same reaction when I was writing Isla’s Inheritance, my first novel. I was embarrassed. I didn’t tell anyone I was doing it till it was done. And I get the same enjoyment from writing as I do from making these videos — The Sims 4 lets you create characters and tell all sorts of stories with them. It’s loads of fun, and I’m going to own it.

…

So, uh, I guess I should post the name of the channel.

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It’s AussieCassPlays.

BE GENTLE WITH ME, GUYS. The first few videos I posted weren’t great — I had a few problems with the game sound. But the two children I know who watch a lot of this content assure me that my videos are better than average for a starting YouTuber — at least I’m not breathing all over my microphone, apparently! (Phew.)

If you don’t like The Sims 4, my videos won’t be for you … but if you want to have a quick look and make fun of my accent, that’s totally fine too!

I’m still writing. I don’t ever see that changing. And I don’t imagine this blog is going to turn into a Sims 4 blog — I’ll still post reviews and other writing-related news.

But I will do this too.