Fooood.

I think Gluttony was named after me. Last night, I went out to a buffet dinner at the Sheraton and actually ate myself into mild stomach pains.

I'm still feeling the lingering food induced sluggishness today, even after a day's work packing, moving and driving.  It makes me feel... old.

Birthday Presents is picking up nicely on fictionpress.  Most of the readers don't actually leave a review (sadface) but a few are actually following it, which is cool.   I like having multiple chapters, because in the stats you can see how many people get past the first chapter, and how many have actually read the most recent one.  :)

I'm thinking of doing another Game In Play update before I edit the next Birthday Presents chapter, but editing the nano story is really hard - it's like trying to untangle paperclips.  I read back over some of the stuff and I realize that it doesn't actually make sense.  Not only that, but it's also crazy balls.  In 2012, I was up writing at all random hours, which might explain some of the crazy.  I don't even remember writing parts of it!  Also, the story is yet to end. I need to find an ending that puts a cap on the whole frothing pot of crazy.

I've also worked a bit more on Shadechasers (which, thanks to fictionpress stats I know that practically no on reads).  I'm wondering if it's because the main character's name is so weird.  Here's something from Chapter 5:

Pressed against the window seat of the cab in the van, Dawn’s face was as stone.  She wondered when Duck would learn that she was not going to answer that question.  The ugly truth was obvious enough, wasn’t it?  How many trials of this did she have to sit through?  She snatched Duck’s spoon before he could ferry another bit of yoghurt to his mouth, and ate it.  The melting cold sweetness on her tongue brightened her mood just as much as seeing the indignant look on Duck’s face.

I don't know if I'll enter the January Labyrinth Competition.  I've jotted some some line, but it all depends on if I can find a way to use it to develop some characters I have in mind.  All of my entries so far have been from characters that I'm trying to flesh out.  Stephen Theiss eventually becomes a student at Von Hohenheim's Academy, set in the present day on an island powered by alchemy.  Red and Lofae are characters from a story about the scheming of a powerful magic user called Tiam who is trying to seat his candidate on the throne.  And of course, Sasha Suter is from the world of Vert Glace which I talk non stop about.

A special kind of special

Birthday Presents.  Updated.

I'm puffing out my chest because I edited it myself, too!  Since getting home from work, I've spent 1.5 hours tap tap tapping away at my computer, and reading things aloud.  It's amazing how many mistakes you catch when you do that - I had to re-word almost every sentence of the chapter.  The implications of that for my past posts which haven't been edited is scary.

Fyloe just posted a link to this image on the forum which I think is quite fitting:

Thank you Sasha Suter

Ha! Just finished writing Birthday Presents.   I really enjoyed writing about a kick-ass female character.  No doubt at some point someone will point out the sexist and shallow undercurrent that forms the subconscious backbone of the story line... but meh.

I'm going to continue to model Sasha Suter off Black Canary.

Tomorrow, it's back to Vert Glace.

How anime is saving me money

Almost. Finished. Writing. Birthday Presents.  I think I've gotten a bit batty writing this story, because I'm starting to name chapters (these names are usually for myself so I can keep track of what each chapter is kind of about) things like "Where did Emron Krampft go?".  But it's almost done now.  It has to be.  After that, it's just about force feeding the chapter to my willing beta who takes it and turns it into something consumable by other people.  Thanks DJ.  I know the job is thankless.

Also, I've started to watch The Devil is a Part-Timer!  which is, if you suspend disbelief, a really cool anime.  It's definitely big on the laughs with some quote unquote touching emotional interludes.  Importantly, it's inspired me to live frugally... well, more frugally than I already am.  So weekly shopping for this week came to a grand total of  $40.70, just less than $20 short of my weekly budget.  It may have been lower, but I wanted to buy a fancy honey instead of run-of-the-mill honey.  And I wanted to buy fresh fish and not frozen/processed.  Does that make me a snob?

More importantly,

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO NOW WITH ESSENTIALLY 20 EXTRA DOLLARS.  WOO HOO.  MAKE IT RAIN!!!!

...I'm probably going to do something boring, like just save it.  :(

For a writer, I'm not really that creative.

A Case of Mistaken Identities

Had a busy weekend in Brisbane.  Here are the highlights:

Nandos.

That's a highlight in itself, but let me continue.  While I was stuffing my face with chicken, I saw the following lookalikes (no bullshit):

- an obese Hitler
- an average-joe Russell Crowe
- a really buff Steve Carell

I'm not sure what kind of alternate universe flows around the restaurant, but I can easily see how time-space-reality can be warped by seriously good chicken.

An argument I had with my partner:

Me: I'm pretty sure pink lemonade is made from lemonade and Ribena.

Him:  *laughs*  Ribena is prune juice.

Me: No it's not.  It's like a concentrated fruit drink.

Him:  It's more like a constipated fruit drink.

He won the argument at that point on the account of the awesomely bad pun.  For those who want to know, Ribena is made from blackcurrants.

Unproductive.

Only managed to squeeze out 300 words today.  I suppose that's better than no-hundred words.

I'm discovering places that I didn't even know existed in Aeryoine.  Did you know that the country has a palace, and a famous atrium?  Cause I didn't until today. This is why I write.

The Skysea Atrium was one of the great marvels of Aeryoine.  In size, it would have approached a small town.  The space was a cultivated landscape that was meant to represent all the territories of the country.  There was a large pond that represented the sea, complete with the outlying islands.  The country’s mountain range was a series of small, forested hills.  Wooden stair cases rose up the sides of the atrium to tiered walkways where visitors could marvel at the wonder from above.  The entire space was encased in a glass dome speckled with stained glass that acted as a time wand of sorts.  At each hour, what seemed like random splotches of colour would converge on stone slabs arranged deliberately in the space to create intricate portraits of the history of the country.

This is what happens when you spend too long browsing architect-porn.  I was google imaging, trying to find a suitably interesting picture to support the word 'architect-porn'.  I didn't find anything except maybe that there's some really disturbing sloth memes out there.

Not to get down in the new year...

But I'm finding it harder and harder to
a) find new anime that I like
b) find a fan subbed torrent of it put together by people who do it for the love of it.

It might be the end of an era.

Watching anime and writing go hand it hand for me.  It's why my characters are crazy balls.