The Weird Stories of William Solomon: A Great Boolprop Olympic Challenge, Part One

Hello everyone, you might know me as chclover on Livejournal or as B. Scirocco on Boolprop.  Although I normally play Sims 2, I thought I'd dust off Sims 3, which I got years ago and occasionally try playing a bit.

As a disclaimer, I have only the base game.  I spent a good deal of time building a neighborhood using an altered version of Sunset Valley that was flattened and made easier to build; I mainly wanted the community lots to be a central location that was easier to reach than in the default neighborhood.  Check it out here:
As a further disclaimer, I am using a few mods; mainly some of the Master Controller mods to make non-played households remain fairly static, one to fix the Well-Rested moodlet, and one to enable Sims 2-style aging.

For my first challenge, I've been thinking of doing the Great Boolprop Olympics Challenge for a while now, and with the Summer 2024 event in its last week, I decided now was a good time to jump in.  For this challenge, I will be attempting to write fifty novels (in-game, of course!). Anyway, let's meet our candidate for this race.

 

 

 

Well, hello there, mister scruffy.  If you don't mind an interruption, could you introduce yourself?
"Hello yourself, boss.  I was just chilling at the library for a bit before I get to work.  The name's William Solomon.  If you don't mind, I'd like to finish this library book now."
The name William Solomon comes from William Sleator, the author of several novels I read as a teenager, and from Robert Howard's character Solomon Kane. 
As for the title of the challenge:  "Weird Stories" is a slight alteration of the fiction magazine "Weird Tales," and is meant to be alliterative to "William Solomon."

 

 

 

 

 

After finishing his book, William was sufficiently entertained to start on his first book, a non-fiction piece.  (I thought of the name because someone had labeled a cooler at work "Alpha Buf," which I think meant it came from Buffalo, NY.)
As a bit of extra information, William will be specializing in science fiction novels, because they're among the shortest to write--although to add a bit of extra challenge, they're not the shortest of all; it will take some work to manage fifty of them.  (This was the reason I named him after a science fiction author.  Appearance-wise, he's modeled after Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files, and in terms of personality, after main character Harry Dresden.) (1)

William didn't quite finish the novel before he got so tired it was time to go home, but he needed some dinner first.  I'm a bit surprised he managed it without burning the food; most of the sims I've tried fail at cooking all the time before they gain cooking skill.
"My boss might make me run an extra mile if he finds out I'm eating this and going to the diner all the time.  You won't tell, will you?"
Because part of the challenge requires getting a job and making it to the top, William had gotten a job in the military career first thing.  It would have been easier putting him in journalism, which requires writing skill only, but that would have been a little boring, and I didn't want him to have to write articles on top of books.  Also, I've heard that military science fiction is a real subgenre, although it's not one that I'm interested in.

William got up early enough to finish the final pages of the manuscript just as the carpool was honking for him. 
"About time!  My eyes are killing me staring at this screen, and stupid thing wouldn't let me send it to the publisher.  Why did these ever replace typewriters?  I was born in the wrong century."
Just be glad you're not literally Harry Dresden, or it would have never worked for you in the first place.  (I couldn't resist giving him the yellow ducky boxers from Grave Peril, though.  :P)

Huh?  Who's this stranger who walked out of the military base? 
"Sorry boss, they make me cut my hair for work.  Don't worry, my lovely locks will be back in business once I get on the weight bench."
He must have the same touch as Captain Shakespeare from Stardust, who somehow knew how to give someone longer hair after a haircut.

Sometime after the workout, in which he gained three levels of athletics skill (they must have fixed that bug where working out at the gym slows skill gain), William headed back to the library, and after reading the book he'd been given at work, started on his next book, a science fiction novel.  (The Pluto Syndrome is from the first Captain Carrot comic book.)

The next day or so, William was drained from staying up too late working on his novel and having to get up in time for work.  He had to go home and sleep for a few hours, but around nightfall, he thought he'd get out for a bit.  There was a playground right next to the library, so he had a great time on the swings; sadly, he didn't really have time to meet anyone new.  He did at least head into the library and write about twenty percent more of the novel that evening.

About half an hour after midnight, William arrived back home, having jogged all the way.  (No reason a writer can't be fit, right?)

William was lucky enough to have Thursday off, so after catching up on his sleep, he enjoyed the new stereo he'd bought as he worked away at his book, finally finishing in the late afternoon.
"As long as I don't have to stare at it, a bit of technology's not a bad thing, I guess."

On Saturday, William got started on his next work, a drama novel.  I decided that he should write at least one book of every type in addition to his science fiction works, not counting masterpieces.  Therefore, he'll need to write some other genres to unlock a few down the line, like satire.

Despite devoting much of Saturday to working on the drama novel, William didn't quite finish it in time to get paid for on Sunday.  It's going to take a while before he attains his lifetime want of earning $4000 a week.

 

A problem came up that week; I think he tried to use the computer on an unlucky day.  What with having only one point in handiness and a problem with electronics, William took the safe route and called someone to fix it for him.  On the plus side, he got on his boss Dustin's good side while the computer was down.  I had discovered that, since watching TV would have been counterproductive, dancing was the next best fun time.

 At last, the third book was complete, with a royalty more than twice the combined total of the first two.

It wasn't until Thursday that William got started on the opportunity he'd picked up the week before.  Somehow, he was already famous enough that one of his fellow soldiers wanted him to write her biography.

For a while now, while at the library, William had occasionally chatted with some lady visitors and had asked a few if they were single, without any luck.  However, he turned out to be looking in the wrong place.  On a trip to the gym, he met a couple of women, both roommates, who were eligible.  He'll have to try getting to know them and see how things go.

It had been somewhat slow going, but William was gradually moving up the ranks.

Because his job allowed him Saturday off, William worked hard most of the day on Lily's biography, and after waking early the next day, finished it a few hours before the deadline for royalty payments.  With that, he'd bumped his weekly pay to over $800; between his day job and writing career, things were looking up financially.

His new responsibilities at work required William to work on his handiness skill.  He took advantage of a day off to tinker with the stereo in hopes of improving the sound, but almost incinerated it--and himself--in the process.  I forgot that I'd included a fire alarm while building, but am I ever thankful I did.  It ended up not being necessary, though; he managed to put himself out, then extinguished the fire a little after the firewoman showed up.  (I am glad I read that Sims can shower to put themselves out; they're hopeless in Sims 2.)

William had tried chatting with Tamara and Emma over the phone to build up a connection, but things lined up so that only Tamara was available to head to one of the parks with him.  They had a nice time dancing by the pond, and William even caught some beetles to turn in later.

William got another promotion, with quite a noticable bump in pay.
"Feeling great, boss!  Although I've got a creepy feeling all of a sudden."
Apparently, bumbling detective Dick Gumshoe had the wrong suspect again.  (Yes, I made Gumshoe from Ace Attorney and added him to the neighborhood.  If you want to download him, here.)

"Hello there, fancy running into you again!  I was just about to put in some strength training for work, but if you're here for the same reason, you think you'll need a spotter?"
"Well, thank you for offering, soldier; I could use a man with strong arms.  Considering we met here again, maybe it's a sign... what's yours?"
I don't have a clue how astrological signs match up in real life or in-game, although considering that I gave William a Scorpio sign as well (Harry Dresden's birthday is Halloween), it surprises me that the same signs are compatible.  There wasn't as much training going on that evening as originally intended; they spent a good while flirting with each other before working out.

I forgot to take a screenshot of the beginning of the book, but William got back on track and rather quickly finished another well-received work of science fiction.  (I've been playing The Bard's Tale, which is why I happened to think of doppelgangers.)
With the fifth book finished, the challenge was now ten percent complete.  This is probably a good stopping point for now, before the last day of June.  Until next time!

(1)  I couldn't think of a fitting place to put it, but William's traits, heavily inspired by Harry Dresden, are as follows:

Bookworm (I do seem to remember that Harry enjoyed reading)
Brave (naturally, for a heroic character frequently facing down supernatural danger)
Technophobe (wizards and technology don't mix)
Unlucky (trouble seems to follow the protagonists around)
Good Sense of Humor (as close a trait as I could think of to "smart aleck")