Music for the Day

Some books can be simple, particularly straightforward adventure books in a fantasy or science fiction setting. But, on the other hand, some books can be complex, with a long line of politics and talks and questions that can’t be answered easily, and if they can be, they’re often tricky. And usually, the latter books have a series while the former is more individual. This book is more in the middle, with a complex and deep plot, yet it’s the only book with the only other book, Creatures of Light and Darkness, being a companion piece rather than a sequel/prequel.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

Mahasamatman, who preferred to cut the Maha- and the -atman and called himself Sam, is uneasy about the world he and the others created. A world where he and the others rule over it under the guise of Hindu gods and squashing human’s technological progress under the excuse that they are not ready. Sam decided to rebel against the world order, whether by founding this world’s Buddhism to the people or an outright war against the gods.

It’s definitely a complex novel, and because of that, it never got a film adaptation despite various attempts. After all, it deals with the complexities of religion and the questions of the human body and soul, especially with machines that cause reincarnations of sorts through transfer even into other species and gender. And if that last sentence didn’t clue you in, the book is technically science fiction, but it uses fantasy tropes. So, in short, a fusion of science fiction with fantasy, making a science fantasy book.

If you want to better understand what this book is about, imagine Asura’s Wrath as a book that is less over the top and more philosophical.

If you want to read for yourself, here are the links.

Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/3j2n3w2d
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/yf7uj69x

Music for the Day

I know it may seem odd to suggest this since I mentioned that my late mom reads mysteries, not me, but I do read them. I’ve read those silly Wishbone Mysteries Book series, and I read The Three Investigators when I was a teenager. So it’s not that I dislike the genre; I have other preferences. Though my personal favorites are the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

So, why do I suggest reading mystery stories? To put it simply, it’s because they have the purest structures on how a story is progressed.

Think about it for a moment. To write a mystery, especially a good one, you need to set up all of the pieces, the clues, foreshadowing, Chekhov’s guns/lectures/etc., for the readers to follow along. A mystery story needs a sound structure because it’ll fall apart otherwise. After all, you can’t just pull something out of your pants every time you write yourself into a corner because audiences would see through it in time and lose interest. The same goes if the mystery is utterly clueless since the whole point of a mystery is to follow along and piece together the puzzle.

This isn’t to say that you can’t be loose. After all, I said that I lean more to the pantser rather than the plotter, but I don’t entirely make it up as I go along. Usually, I have an outline in hand, and I have the ending in mind when I begin a story and any significant events. Sure, some characters get more expanded than I thought, and the story doesn’t quite go as I envisioned it, but I stick to the significant events and ending.

The point I’m making is that a mystery book teaches you a lot about plot structures. It teaches you how to set up the plot, the characters, events, foreshadowing, and plenty more. You can take much of the same structures to other genres, and it’ll work just as well. It is the rawest form of a story, which you can learn a lot from. That is why I suggest reading a good mystery novel.

Music for the Day

It has been an odd year, I admit. Not just because of all the drama that happened but also for not having a gaming computer for a year or so.

If you guys don’t know or don’t recall, the computer’s motherboard was dying last year. Despite the chip shortage, my dad and I managed to get a new motherboard once we realized the issue. However, for some reason, it acted weird. And by weird, I mean that it turns itself on and off at random. Even stranger is that it happens faster the longer it’s plugged in (I left it unplugged for that reason) so that, if I unplugged it for a couple of days or so, it would work fine for some days before it turns itself off and on again.

To this day, I’m still not sure what caused the issue. So many of my friends, acquaintances, and even my dad are baffled by the problem. Perhaps it was a motherboard with some glitches, or it was an incompatible motherboard. But, by the end of the day, it’s just a derpy motherboard.

Since then, I’ve been using a backup laptop that is more meant to write on rather than to play games with. Heck, Minecraft is too much for this laptop, and because it’s intended to do serious, not distracting work, I haven’t installed any of the chatting apps on this computer. It honestly makes me feel cut off, almost to the point where I want to buy a Steam Deck. After all, I have many games I want to play on the PC.

I’m hoping that, sometime this year, I’ll get myself a new gaming computer. However, I don’t think that is 100% realistic because of the move and because of real-world events happening now. Regardless, I want to chat with my friends on a computer once more than just my smartphone, which is already showing its age (and by that, I mean how the touchscreen freaks out sometimes, usually once a day).

That’s all we can do, really. Hope for the best, fear for the worst.

Music for the Day

I managed to contact the Home Depot that I’ll be working at and explained the situation. Luckily, the HR at that store was understanding and granted me an extra week and a half of leave time, which should be more than enough to complete the move. I’m hoping that it will be the last time I’ll extend my leave time.

I took down some posters, which felt painful to me since they had been up since I had been in that room. I’m only keeping a few of them since I want to start off as fresh as possible. Even so, the room felt emptier as a result. As if that room was no longer mine but someone else, which technically it is.

I’ve packed some of my clothes, specifically the special ones and work shirts, and some of my board games. Perhaps, one day, while there or on a trip, likely as Megaplex, I’ll bring one of the games. One of them is Muffin Time, which I am excited to play.

Regardless, I’m hoping that we’ll start the final move to Arkansas as soon as my dad returns from California at the beginning of next week. It’ll be an extended trip since we’ll be taking a detour to Texas to visit a couple of relatives and give them some of the money from the house sale. It is legally their inheritance based on the laws of the time.

Please, wish me luck and offer some prayers.

Music for the Day

So, remember what I said yesterday about making the final move this week?

Yeah, it’s not happening yet. Apparently, my dad will visit California this week for one last visit with some relatives and get a gift. After that, it’ll be a few days until he comes back. And then the final move will happen within the next two weeks.

Sigh. It’s a recurring thing that happens with the family. We often withhold information from each other, often with the excuse that we either told them and didn’t, or we did and forgot.

In any case, I’m going to call Home Depot and explain to them the situation, hoping that they’ll extend my leave for a couple of weeks more. I’ll even get my dad to talk as well, if only so that I’ll find out any more surprises.

I’m so stressed out now.

Music for the Day

This week will be a big week for everyone in this house. Namely, that we’ll be making our move from here to Arkansas. At least, that is my hope for the week.

My biggest concern is that we’ll be delayed for whatever reason. I know that sounds silly at first but think about it for a moment. Next week will be my work workweek at the Home Depot there. I’ve already pushed the starting day a couple of weeks because it took my dad and I building the wooden boxes (for gardening tools and general tools) longer than expected. I want to keep to my promise and give a good first impression to the new Home Depot.

I still have plenty of hope that it’ll be done within the week. Today, we got a bunch of cardboard boxes for the move (though I think I’ll need a bigger one for the bigger board games). And I’m hoping that we’ll be saying goodbye to this house by Thursday.

Again, it’s strange for someone like me, who lived in this home for so long, to finally move out. Even stranger is to go from a desert to a forest. But I’m hoping it’ll be a good move once we get going.

Because of that, I doubt I’ll do much writing (outside of these journals) until the move is complete. For stuff like this, some need to be sacrificed for a moment. But I hope to get back into writing with a vengeance next week. Besides, I’ve already started doing some research for the next story, which I mentioned to you guys.

In any case, enjoy your week.

Music for the Day

I’m sure that plenty of writers has hit this kind of wall before. You begin your story and write a few or even several chapters for it. But then, you stopped. Not because you don’t want to write anymore, but because you hit a block in the plot’s path and have no idea how to get around it. And after trying to think about getting around it, you just gave up.

I have seen writers here, plenty of them my friends, who slammed against it and decided to stop writing that story. Even deleted the work they had done, which I find to be a shame (which is part of the reason why, when writing book-length stories, I wait until I have the story completed before posting them). Hitting a wall when writing is frustrating.

While it is familiar with writers who are pantser, it can hit even those who plotted their stories out. One of my friends, who deleted a book they were writing, actually plotted out a fair chunk of their story to set up a twist (a twist that I foresee, but a twist nonetheless). And even Deviant Reunion/Battlefield, which I mentioned multiple times, I actually set up an outline, but I stopped writing it after doing a few chapters.

There can be multiple reasons for writer’s block. Perhaps it’s because you are feeling burnt out. Maybe you wanted to write something fresh but are unable either because you worked on this one story for a long story or audience/commissioners/publishers want you to keep working on this same story. Perhaps you rely on letting your fingers do the writing/typing so much that, as soon as you cannot let them flow out, you cannot think of anything. Or perhaps you wanted it to be precise, pausing the story just to iron out a flaw earlier on, even if it meant doing the same for several other stuff that has the same mistake until you gave up on it being perfect.

Just as there is no solid reason to hit writer’s block, there is no one solution to bypass it. The only thing that I can do is offer you suggestions. Any one of them can work, or none of them can work. The only thing that matters is if it works for you.

If you are feeling burnt out, rest for a bit. Stand up, do some stretches, walk around, and even catch up with some friends for fifteen minutes. If you can’t work on anything new for whatever reason, try to find an outlet. For example, if the new story won’t leave your mind, write it anyway and hope for the best. Instead of doing it perfectly the first time, try writing it down, flaws and all, before going back and rewriting it from the ground up, even if it means keeping some perceived flaws. After all, perfect is the enemy of good.

In short, don’t try to force it. Instead, take a break, walk around, do stuff that stimulates your imagination, work on other projects, and don’t make it right the first time around. But whatever your way of overcoming your writer’s block, don’t forget it.

Music for the Day

Welp, that was an amusing April Fool’s Day. I enjoyed all the comments I got from yesterday’s journal more than you think. After all, I see that everyone sees but doesn’t observe. And, on that note, a mystery novel to suggest.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.

Hercule Poirot is returning from a case in Syria on the titular Orient Express. He was approached by a man, Samuel Ratchett, who feared for his life and asked for protection. But Poirot, getting bad vibes from him, declined and, after a snowbound night, Ratchett is found murdered with twelve stab wounds. As such, Poirot and two others, Bouc and Dr. Stavros Constantine, must figure out which passengers on the train murdered him.

I’m sure that many of you folks know the famous reveal in the story, though I will not spoil it to anyone who doesn’t know. But, hey, I once had a classmate back in high school who didn’t realize the connection between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so it’s still possible.

Regardless, it is a delight to read through. I’m not a significant fan of mystery novels, my late mom was, but it is still a good read-through. It’s fun to read through it, seeing how Poirot pieced together the events, even though there is one loose end that he didn’t definitely figure out and the culprit didn’t confirm or deny. So, I can assure you that you will still have some questions to think about, even knowing the reveal ahead of time.

If you want to read for yourself, here are the links.

Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/ycknm282
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/4fzmxcyd

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Music for the Day

Welp, it’s the end of March already. And I must say, it has been a curious month. I have since left the Home Depot that I’ve worked at for two years and will be working at another in a new state within a couple of weeks. I have spent more than a week traveling with my dad to get some stuff to Arkansas and back again. Within the coming week, everyone will be heading over to Arkansas.

Speaking of, today, the house has been officially sold. This house, which I’ve lived in for thirty years, is no longer my family’s. It’s interesting, especially for a place that has been paid off for so long. Hopefully, the new owners will be able to pay it off in time.

I admit that I haven’t posted any new stories as of late. It’s not because I’m burning out or getting distracted by the move, though that doesn’t help. The issue is that I have three stories, all in a rough draft state, that I cannot proceed with. Two of them, a gift and a commission, are because he wants to do the editing himself. And the last one is because he asked me to wait until he gets more funds.

Sometimes, I am just too nice.

It’s also not looking good on the Patreon front. Because of money-related reasons, I lost a couple of patrons, cutting the people supporting me there by half. I don’t blame them at all, and I wish them luck. At the same time, it still sucks. If you guys want to support me on Patreon, I’ll share with you a link.

In any case, share your thoughts on how this month went. I just hope that next month will be better.

Music for the Day

First off, I apologize to anyone concerned about the last journal. It’s not like me to share so much of my vulnerability. After all, my burdens are my own.

I will admit that I’ve been feeling stressed out as of late. Part of it is because of the upcoming move to Arkansas. Soon, I’ll be going to a completely different environment, one that I’ll likely struggle in for a couple of years or so. And, as someone who lived in comfort for years, it seemed intimidating.

Another part of my stress is on the writing aspect. No, I’m not feeling writer’s block. Quite the opposite. I have so many ideas I want to go through; the struggle is picking one and writing down notes to expand it into a proper story. Hopefully, within the coming months, I’ll thin out some of those ideas.

One of these ideas is a prequel to Xenofox. It has been on my mind for a few years now, even though it’s no more a prologue to the story, something that I feel that Xenofox is just one chapter of. I often wonder if I should do a proper novel on Xenofox or just leave it with this and a few short stories within that ruined world. It’s something that I find worth thinking about, though I seek to distinguish it from the Xeno games, the inspiration.

Another idea is something that I came up with while waking up one morning, something that I hinted at Twatter about. Did I just call it Twatter? Regardless, I find it worth going forward. It’s a speculative science-fiction story where a self-sustained ship with some of the brightest on earth left for 100-200 years. The mission was to see what these people would do with all desires for needs fulfilled with a ship that granted them. And when it came back, the group that came inside found that all was not well.

Those are just a couple of ideas burning in my head for a while now. Some are shorter, others are much longer. But regardless, I wish to write down as much as I can.

In the end, my stresses are my own, and I don’t wish to add them to you all. I hope that things will go better once the final home is built. Again, I wish you all the best.

Music for the Day

If it wasn’t clear already, I am the self-deprecating type. I tend to comment on how much I suck, the stupid stuff I did, etc. In fact, though my memory can go on or off, I tend to remember every screw-up I did. In fact, among the earliest memories of my life is climbing up on a bookcase or sort that is around six feet tall and falling down. I’m not sure how old I was, maybe five or six, give or take a year. All I know is that I landed on my head, cracking it.

It was stupid then, and it’s stupid now.

Yeah, I tend to hang onto my screw-ups harder than I should. It doesn’t help that it seems that I keep screwing up, especially with people. So, if you were wondering why I tend to rely on making RPs and sharing pictures/stickers rather than conversations, that’s part of the reason since those are the ‘safer’ way of talking with others. It doesn’t help that, to my great shame, I tend to rely on passive-aggressive tactics.

It’s honestly to the point where, regardless of how I feel, I’ve been trying to get myself to think that if people have a beef with me, it’s all my fault. After all, they wouldn’t be angry or annoyed with me for no reason. And that, even if I am troubled by other’s antics, it’s better to think that I was wrong to think so and go along with it rather than share my point of view or, well, anything.

Perhaps this is poisonous thinking. I’m not sure. All I know for sure is that it never goes well whenever I showed my frustration, be passive-aggressive, or get into a debate or argument. No matter if it’s short-term or long-term. People I have chatted with decided to block me or blacklist me because of it, regardless of my regrets or reasons.

And, you know what? It would’ve gone better if I had done nothing but go with the flow. Sure, my opinions and comments may get ignored, my positive actions negligible, my presence tolerated at best, but if there is one thing clear to me. No one forgets a sin I have committed. Months, years, decades, it doesn’t matter, nor does it matter how trivial it is. My negative words and actions, no matter how little, destroy so many friendships.

It’s to the point where I wonder why I exist. I am sure that my characters and stories brought plenty of joy. Yet, does a little bit of good undo my sins? From my point of view, the answer seems to be ‘no.’

Yeah, this journal got a little depressing, didn’t it? But I’m sure tomorrow will be better.

Music for the Day

I don’t think it’s a secret that I have multiple versions of Daren. Daren Crevan, my main OC; Daren the kitsune, also known as A-Fox; Daren the Ninetales, known as A-Ninetales; Daren the Spacesune, though they don’t call themselves Spacesunes; and Daren the Divine Ninetales, the all-powerful deity. You can also count Daren in his werefox/weredraox form, A-Fox in  Tails230’s Deity Stone series, and even Astrid, Daren’s TG form, as their own separate characters. So, there are a lot of versions of Daren.

Is it because of outrageous narcissism, especially since my own name is Daren? Or is it because I’m just that uncreative in naming stuff? I lean more to the latter with the dosage of things falling into place like that.

To explain, when I first created who is now known as A-Fox, it was with the full intention that he would be Daren Crevan’s feral kitsune form. In fact, though I haven’t revealed it in the stories proper, Daren is a kitsune who has already lived for over a hundred years by that point. So, it made sense to me to set it up with the stories Deviant Reunion/Battlefield being the ones that revealed it.

But then I stopped working on Deviant Reunion/Battlefield and slowed down my writing. And it got worse while working for Amazon. And while technically I was still writing, it was for a class during much of the same period and remains incomplete. And then A-Fox steered himself away from the core Daren, effectively becoming his own character, one who is gluttonous and eager to make others round.

A similar thing happened with A-Ninetales. He was initially supposed to be one of the many forms A-Fox takes, with plans to make him just as fat as the other forms. But then, because of an out-of-the-blue role-play session with  TraskFox, who updated A-Ninetales’s ability, so he grows from fire and such, he began steering his own path away from A-Fox. As such, where there was just one, now there were three.

As for Daren the Spacesune part, it wasn’t that special. When  VengenceMkII started his Spacesune universe along with  Fizziekauben, he was making various users of the Crimson Flag chat into Spacesune characters within the verse, usually the ones with the fox fursonas. After a while, he did mine, and since the others’ Spacesunes were known by their usual character’s names, it was only natural that the same happened to me. And so, Daren the Spacesune was born.

As for Daren the Divine Ninetales, while the others (except the Spacesune) were more incidental in their creations, he was more deliberate. So when I went over to  Alterflane with the idea, it was with complete certainty that this would be an alternative version of Daren. Not only that, but I also brought in some of the ideas that I was thinking of going through with the main Daren stories so that, even if I don’t write them, they exist in some form.

As for the others, I won’t get into detail only because this journal is long enough as it is. But regardless, I hope this sheds some light on why I have so many versions of Daren. And boy, do I feel like an uncreative hack for letting that happen.

Music for the Day

And by completed, I mean I got through the main story, seek out all Pokémon, and caught Arceus itself. And boy, was the battle with Arceus a tough one. Of course, it didn’t help that I was doing a self-imposed challenge on resetting the game every time I fainted (which I think I fainted about seven times, give or take). Call it me being prideful, but I love the challenge of facing the bosses and taking them down while they’re at full health.

So, what are my overall thoughts on this game? Personally, I find it an excellent mainline game, the best since Pokémon Black/White/Black2/White2. However, I will admit that, though I wasn’t the series’ most prominent critics since their jump to 3D, I wasn’t too impressed by them either. Don’t get me wrong, I like some elements; for example, the Mega Evolution was pretty cool, and Dynamaxing is still excellent as a macro fan. Plus, form variants of older Pokémon are the best new thing. It’s just that those games felt pretty lacking, especially Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, where they only really diverge from the original Sun/Moon late into the main story.

But Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a breath of fresh air that the franchise really needed. Though the graphics can get choppy, especially in the distance, I didn’t mind because it was so much fun to play through. Plus, I find the main story to be engaging. It reminds me of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, and, as a fan of that side series, it makes me happy. I don’t want to give too much away regarding the story but let me tell you this: you’re on a mission from Arceus.

The music in this game is also pretty sweet, which I’ll set up as the music for the day. It’s atmospheric lovely out in the fields, yet intense during a boss fight. The controls and the open-ish world (it’s not an actual open world, more like the ones from Monster Hunter) also go well, and I will be happy if it continues in the future.

In short, if you are a fan of Pokémon, this is a must-buy.

As an aside, does anyone else find it dumb that, to get Arceus in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, you have to complete all main missions in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which has the final mission where you fight and get Arceus anyways? I get the idea of having extra goodies in one game if you happen to have save data from another. But this, you have to nearly 100% it in this game to get the extra goodies in another. It’s just dumb.

Music for the Day

Now that I think about it, I should’ve set up my titles as ‘Stories That I Recommend’ since I have a broad range of interests in various media. Manga, comic books, movies, TV shows, and even video games. But eh, maybe I’ll retitle it in the future. But for now, here is another book for you all to read.

The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

The setting is Jerry Pournelle’s CoDominium universe. In this future, the United States and the Soviet Union put aside their differences and became one union, even going out to the stars together. This book is one of the farthest points in the universe, though you don’t need to read any of the CoDominium to understand this one. Basically, after a rise and fall of a human empire, a new one, the Second Empire of Man, is rising and trying to claim the first’s former territories.

And yet, by pure chance, the Second Empire received proof of alien life when an alien probe came by New Caledonia, with the pilot dead. So, after much debate, the Second Empire sent two ships, MacArthur and Lenin, to the Mote star system to make first contact with the aliens, who they dubbed Moties. The MacArthur is there to make the first contact discussions and research, while Lenin makes sure no human technology falls to the Moties’ hands.

And things went wrong.

It is an excellent book, made by two esteemed writers. While some writers have difficulty working together, these two not only managed to do so but did it while ironing out the other’s flaws. It is also a well-crafted first contact story, with debates on whether to trust the Moties, split between the military and the scientists, and how difficult it is to trust the other. Whether it’s soldier or scientist, human or Motie, profiters and soldier/scientist, it is hard to build trust if you don’t know what the other is planning. And how it ends, well, you just have to read it yourself.

There is a sequel, The Gripping Hand/The Moat Around Murcheson’s Eye, and while it has a slow start, it does make sense since part of it deals with the political side given how the last book ended, and it does pick up after you get past that point.

If you want to read for yourself, here are the links.

Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/58hsntnp
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2p9xm8ev

Music for the Day

It’s something that both my dad and I talked about regarding stories in multiple formats, but especially books. A major flaw that even good writers fell in, which I hope to avoid, though don’t hold me on it. After all, the future is always unknown the farther you go, and though we say that we won’t fall for something like that, it is still likely. And I fell for that Steam scam myself (which I mentioned a couple of years back) when I should know better.

While I’m confident it can happen in multiple genres, it is most prominent in fantasy/science fiction stories. Namely, writers’ attempt to be the next J. R. R. Tolkien, whose works effectively changed the course of fantasy fiction. Once defined as fairy tales’ fantasy and barbarian fantasy, The Hobbit and especially The Lord of the Rings turned fantasy fiction into what we know today: a mythical past where gods once walked the earth and with elves and dwarves walking along with us humans.

A very tempting thing that writers do in being the next Tolkien is making multi-books epic where the scope of the world is even more enormous. Where the cast is at the hundreds, with each having their own point of view chapter. And where you delve into each town, city, or even country’s culture, each with their own history that shows how they came to be.

Except, that misses the hidden genius of Tolkien’s work.

The thing is, the scope of Middle-earth is vast. It has rich characters living within it, and each civilization’s culture is unique and distinct down to its language. Which makes sense. Tolkien himself stated in multiple letters in various different ways that Middle-earth was meant to be a mythological Europe past.

But here is the thing: Tolkien kept the story focused on what is truly important for the story. Namely, the titular fellowship themselves with a rare exception and their journeys. Whether it is Frodo and Sam journeying to Mordor, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas fighting various battles in the War of the Ring, or Merry and Pippin rousing the Ents to attack and destroy Isengard, the story still kept its focus on these characters.

That wasn’t to say that other parts of the conflict weren’t necessary. For example, the Battle of Dale was a crucial battle and siege that the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain and Men of Dale barely held, even losing both of their kings in the process. But because they did, they prevented Sauron’s forces from joining up the armies of Dol Guldur and ravaging west into Middle-earth, perhaps even going as far as Rivendell until Sauron’s fall. But it would’ve bloated this story, one with which none of the main characters could indirectly intervene.

By trying to focus on what is essential for the story, even if it meant leaving fantastic scenes in the appendices, Tolkien managed to create an epic fantasy that, even to this day, all fantasy fiction are scaled to. And when fantasy writers try to become the next Tolkien by making an even more epic story with a more epic scale, more characters, and such, they risk losing track of their stories. Sooner or later, especially if they don’t have all their notes in check, they risk derailing their stories, whether by padding or by trying to think of how to tie everything together.

So, that’s my advice if you plan on making a multi-book epic story. Instead of going big, try to focus on the essential parts, even if it means leaving stuff as extra materials. If you don’t, you risk writing yourself in a corner with little idea of resolving the story. Or writing a battle where much of the main characters do nothing of importance in it.

Music for the Day

I will be honest with you, everyone. I am at a stressful point in my life now. The pathway where things will never be the same ever again. Within the next week or so, everything will change.

If you have all been paying attention to these journals, you should know that my family, dad, sister, and I, are moving away from Arizona to Arkansas. It will be a completely different environment than what I’m used to. In March, it has reached temperatures of 80F here when it’s nearly half that where we’ll be moving to. Heck, we joked about it being only four months of summer, three months of winter, half a month of spring, and half a month of autumn. Maybe shorter.

Another reason why it’s so stressful is that I have never moved from place to place in my life. This home I’m at has been that way for thirty years. And next week, it will no longer be that way. It will be another person’s home. And while my dad wished to keep this place even to rent for others, because of legal reasons, he could not. And the incoming homeowners already have big plans to do significant changes here, so it’ll be unrecognizable if I ever visit here again.

My dad shares his hope with me regarding the farmland he brought. Hopes about a steel house for all of us to live in, with solar panels and backup generators powering the property. Perhaps even using the spring for generating power that way. And growing crops and orchards, even if it will take years for them to fully mature, and multiple guest cabins for vacationers or hunters. Not to mention a fruit drying system and even a local and online store to sell excess foods and such.

Of course, my dad doesn’t have full hope that he will be fully functional once everything is up and running. Which is where I come in. Namely, I should uphold the legacy of the business he is building up. Golden Hind, if you were wondering. He also hopes that, by that time, I would be a full-fledged writer, publishing stories (though more likely at independent publishers or Amazon). He even has plans for a private writing cabin for me to write without the distractions of home.

But as they say, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Even if that enemy is nature. After all, there are many ways that it could go wrong. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan and hope. After all, that still gives a goal to desire for. All that is really needed is adapting to the situation if things don’t plan. And even if the path you used to head to that goal changes, as long as it’s good and moral, you can reach that goal despite the differences.

Music for the Day

It’s always a tricky question because there are multiple answers that one can give at any time. After all, the paths not taken could have numerous forks in their wake. As such, who knows if that path would be better or not. However, I’m sure that we much deal with the courses we find ourselves in and change it if we can.

There’s always that story I mentioned in a previous post about Deviant Reunion/Battlefield that I think might have been. Like I said, I wrote down a couple of chapters before I stopped. I’m still not sure, though it might be out of demoralization or guilt since I believe I inadvertently skipped a class in finals week during that time. The question I wondered about is: what if I did complete it back then? Would it be a big step up or a disappointment? Would I have kept writing seriously, or would I have done a similar hiatus thing?

Another question I thought about is the idea of collaborations. To be honest, I thought of stories made with the idea of a collab with some fellow writers. And, given that I was still new, I thought that I would learn from my seniors at the time. But, of course, I learned plenty before I even wrote down the first chapter of Fines Malum, so who knows if I built up my courage and asked.

In fact, this is why The Demise of O-Ren and the Return of Daren story has been a WIP. It has always been a collab idea with another writer, though I’m not going to say their username. In fact, they don’t know it since I haven’t suggested it to them at all. I sometimes wonder what would happen if I did. Would they reject it, or would they agree to it? If they did, would they be open to more collaborations? Even now, I’m still not sure.

I saw some writers, some who I consider my friends, who wrote some fantastic stuff before they dropped off. Just that some lost motivation while others weren’t getting attention despite posting a chapter a day. I wonder what would happen if they persevered instead of quitting for their reasons. Would they be among the famous writers on these sites, or would they still be unknown? Would I have kept forward on my writings to keep up with them, or would I still have a hiatus? I don’t know even now. All I hope for is that they’re happy with their paths.

But regardless of the past, which is unchanging even as I type down this sentence, the important thing is to keep moving forward. If we focus on the past and keep on asking such questions, the future will hit us like how the end of this sentence hits you. And we wouldn’t be able to steady the course of the future. So we should learn from the past, not live in it, and head to the future together.

Music for the Day

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is the first proper game I have ever played a Legend of Zelda game. I don’t mean that I haven’t played any others before because there is one (Zelda II: The Adventures of Link). But I have no clue how to play it back then. I remember distinctly being confused about where to go on the first screen since I never played any game like it.

Yeah, I was a dumb kid. Of course, it didn’t help that my cousin, not I, owned this game. While he lived across the street back in those days, it’s not as if I have access all the time. Not helping matters is that our NES died when we got a Nintendo 64, so we can’t borrow it from him anyway.

Because of that, I consider The Wind Waker the first Zelda game that I have played. I remember many years ago seeing that haunting ad on TV. I’m not sure, but it struck me pretty deep. And while my mom was shopping in a store (I believe Kmart), I saw the game behind a case. We didn’t own many GameCube games back then, with Super Smash Bros Melee being the most prominent. And me, being an eleven-year-old boy, seeing that game there, I begged mom to buy it for me. So she did, though it might have helped that it comes packaged with a free guidebook.

Back then, I didn’t go on the internet all that much. So I had no clue about this controversy regarding the game’s art style. Nor did I have any idea of this E3 tech demo of what it seemingly used to be. As such, I came into this game free of biases that the internet had at the time.

As someone who is autistic, it was hard for me to grasp a story back then. Part of that is that my autism manifests itself like a bizarre combo of ADD and OCD. In fact, the school system thought I did have ADD and wanted me under medications for it, and when my parents refused, they threatened to pull me into foster care. My parents responded with a hard no and gave them documents that proved that I have autism, not ADD, which convinced the school to back off.

Even so, I still understood the story. It helped that, while my reading understanding skills were lacking, I understood pictures and animations too well. So, it wasn’t that much of an issue playing The Wind Waker and reading through a guidebook with photos.

So, what do I think of it? I still think it is a fantastic game and a fantastic introduction to the greater Zelda universe. The music is outstanding, something that I like to listen to when the need for Zelda music hits me. The gameplay, while tedious with the sailing mechanics, is still good. And while I haven’t 100% it back then, I managed to in the WiiU HD edition. Plus, the story still hits me, especially on the message of moving forward instead of lingering in the past.

While I still haven’t completed all Zelda games, I do have hope for it. After all, it was because of my mom who purchased this game when she could’ve convinced me or ignored me that got me into this incredible franchise. And since she passed away nearly fifteen years ago, I still feel like I should do it if only just for her.

So, I suggest you all play it if you can.

Music for the Day

It’s one of those topics that I think about whenever I have a walk outside, usually at night. After all, whether you draw or write, being motivated helps fuel you. And yet, I have seen plenty of cases where some genuinely creative people lost motivation for years and even a decade. And I will admit that I’m one of them.

While I blame my time at Amazon for it, I’ll also admit that my dry points began earlier. Perhaps I let myself get distracted from being in a chat community (Crimson Flag). Or maybe, after writing a couple chapters of Deviant Reunion/Battlefield, I got demoralized and stopped. Perhaps one of those days, I’ll go back to that story and write it. But, of course, it’ll be different. Heck, one of the ideas I had at the time has been thrown off of canon during that time.

If you were wondering what that idea is, A-Fox, also known as Daren, was supposed to be Daren Crevan’s feral form that he would develop in a story. And then A-Ninetales, also Daren, separated from A-Fox when he developed macro powers. If you were wondering why I have so many Darens, that is why. The timeline got split into three!

Which makes me think of a story where they’ll all meet up.

What was I talking about? Oh, yes. Motivation. It’s dangerous to lose motivation, especially when you get yourself rolling. After all, losing that would cause you to lose momentum, and once gone, it’s challenging to regain it. I should know. Even after returning to posting my stories for a few years now, I don’t get the same number of favorites, views, comments, etc., that I used to with my stories.

Which leads me to a tricky point: how do you regain motivation? It’s one of those things where it’s different for every person. For some, chatting with folks about your writings can be a good refuel. For others, treating it like a career instead of a hobby can be an excellent reason to get motivated. For myself, it’s to get into a different place from home, like a library or a workplace, where I get myself motivated.

Indeed, it’s how I managed to get back into writing. Back in 2018, a few months into working for Safeway, I got into a habit of coming to work early. I believe it’s because I was a few minutes late for work due to traffic, and while I wasn’t reprimanded, it made me careful in making sure traffic doesn’t screw me over again. So, I got there early and, because I was asked not to clock in early unless demanded, I often sat in the Starbuck café waiting until one day I got the idea to use that time to write. So, I did, and I made my comeback with The Pokémon Prometheus.

Regardless of how you find your motivation (unless it involves illegal or immoral actions), I do encourage you all to seek it rather than wait for it to come. If you don’t, you may find yourself waiting weeks, months, years, or even decades for it to come, and it will be less worth it the longer it takes. After all, once the wheel of creation stops rolling, people will leave, and even if you do get it moving again, it’ll likely take you a long time to get back to where you were.

Music for the Day

I’m sure that all of us are inspired by something we have seen throughout our lives, whether it’s some kind of book or TV show or the like or something we witnessed. Sometimes, it’s more subtle; others, it’s a rip-off. And I’ll be honest when I say that I lean on the rip-off side of things, especially at the beginning of my writing (coughToothandClawcough). Perhaps it’s the same with everyone, but I doubt it.

If my previous snarking didn’t tip you off, one of my biggest inspirations for writing back in those days is a British TV show Doctor Who. Of course, I don’t watch much of it these days (and before you ask, it was midway into Moffat’s era that I dropped off), but I still follow it, seeing how it’s going. And it shows in my writings.

The strong inspirations I got from it to the point of ripping it off is why, even now, I’m hesitant to continue the Medicus Transformation Stories. I still have ideas on where it’ll go, but it’s still a reminder of how unoriginal I was back then (even if ‘original’ is a moot point in story writing). Even looking back on it now filled me up with cringe. Perhaps I will eventually write that Snivy TF that I’ve been hinting at, but it’s in the back burner for now.

Another strong inspiration for my writings is fantasy works, especially The Legend of Zelda and The Lord of the Rings. The Zelda part is evident, considering some of the characters’ names. Yet, I deeply love The Lord of the Rings, from the universe’s history to the characters. And I especially love how the story, while a significant part, is only a part of a greater whole. That is something I think is impressive for a writer to do.

Among the more recent inspiration of my works is the Xenoblade Chronicles series. While not everything is perfect (I’m still waiting for Xenoblade Chronicles X 2.0), I love each game’s deep and thematic elements and how great the characters are. Enough that I’ve made my own attempt, Xenofox, which I did my best to be less rip-off than previous attempts. It depends on the person, but I believe that I did my best to distinguish it, much like how Xenoblade distinguish itself from Xenosaga and Xenogears. And, if I ever decide to expand on Xenofox, I intend to go further. In fact, there is another work where I took inspiration from Xenoblade, but I’ll leave you all to guess.

And while there are plenty of more works, I don’t want to go over five hundred words. I want to keep it short. So, if you wish to, please share anything that inspires you.

In an attempt to not make mega posts like the last two times, I’ll be devoting this journal series as one book per journal. I’ll do my best to make this a weekly post every Saturday, so you can look forward to hearing about books or series that I enjoy. So, without further ado, here is today’s novel.

Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

It’s a book that I’ve alluded to in several posts and commissions I got, even if not all the details were correct. It’s because it’s one of my favorite books and one that not many people read. So I’ll give you the basic premise, though I’ll not explain everything.

It’s about a boy named Harry Houdini Marco and his summer, which looked as though it would be his dullest yet with his friends leaving the neighborhood. Of course, it doesn’t help that he is clumsy even for his age, often getting new bruises over old ones. But then, after meeting a mysterious salesman just as clumsy, Mr. Mazzeeck, he found that the possibilities of the summer really opened up.

Again, this is just a basic premise. It’s an urban fantasy, though without any existential threats. And while it’s a children’s book, it’s a surprisingly deep one, the kind that we should be having our kids reading. A story about possibilities, beliefs, and how good can burst out from a mistake. It’s a feel-good kind of story and, even though it was originally published in 1966, it has such a timeless feel to it.

If you want to read it for yourself, here are some links.

Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/y9e72cck
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2p857vkk

To explain, during college’s 2019 fall semester and 2020 fall semester, I took a couple of classes. They are Reading for Writers. I should point out that I have to take the course twice to get a Certificate in Writing in college. Along with the Portfolio class, this class has a sizable queue line, which was why I couldn’t retake it for the spring 2020 semester.

I brought this up because, as stated in the class’s name, I have to read a book or, on a rare occasion, some short stories within a week or so and tell the teacher my thoughts on it. I consider some books, such as Battle Royal by Koushun Takami and The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes, excellent books. Others, I do not. Those books I despise.

Now, if you love those books, it’s OK. After all, we all have different tastes. In fact, I’m pretty sure some of you don’t like the novels I enjoy, and I’m OK with that. All that matters is that we don’t force each other to like books and such that we won’t want anyway. So, without further ado, let me list the books I have to read for class that I despise and why.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.
If there was a definition of overrated in science fiction books, this would be it. Won multiple awards, including the Hugo and Nebula Reward, highly acclaimed by critics, and even ninth on the TIME’s top ten fiction books of 2009. And yet, I felt nothing but despise for it.

The core reason why I hate the book story is the writing style. Now, I know any writers among you know of ‘Show, Don’t Tell,’ correct? But, unfortunately, this book is that to the extreme. If you open up the book, you will find yourself lost without anything explained. For example, what are these springs, and why are they used as an energy source? What are these calorie companies? Why should I care about Jaidee Rojjanasukchai? Heck, why should I care about any of these characters when I don’t know who they are?

In short, after a few chapters of seeing scenes with no explanation on what is this kind of world this is and why, I gave up and read through Wikipedia for answers. And to be blunt, if I need to check on another site to figure out the story of your world, then your storytelling sucks. Let the reader be engulfed in the world, not be watching from a window or a screen.

And it’s not as if we don’t see our characters’ thoughts because you do. They’re just as filtered with limited information on who they are and their motivations, which is only apparent when I looked on Wikipedia. Really, the only character that I find myself invested in is the titular windup girl, Emiko, because she is a left-behind slave forced into servitude by a sex club. And, while it’s just a personal point to me, even after turning thirty, I still get discomfort by sex, nudity, and the like.

Another problem I have is that while it’s listed as a bio punk science fiction book, it’s pretty much a dystopian book. Dystopian is a genre that I don’t enjoy too well, which I’ll explain later. But from that alone, don’t expect a happy ending.

I also read a short story, The Calorie Man, by the same author, though it’s more tolerable since, while it has leaned heavily into showing, it does explain the world better than the book.

The Beast of Cretacea by Todd Strasser.
Before explaining why I hate this book, let me go back to the book that I enjoy, The Legacy of Heorot. It’s a science-fiction retelling of Beowulf, where a colony on a newly christened planet, Avalon, found itself attacked by a reptilian alien species they dubbed the grendels. Yes, the characters are in many ways self-aware that they are in a retelling, but with some differences. For example, unlike Beowulf, who is meant to be an idolized hero and later ruler, Cadmann Weyland is a flawed man. He is a soldier in a society of scientists. He is cranky, especially with how careless and dismissive his fellow colonists are. He gets injured during a fight against one of the grendal. And when he finally got vindicated that threats were lurking around, he bailed on the colony to start his own home. It took months for him to forgive them, and he still refused to rejoin them even in the end. Though it’s hard to blame him considering what happened, it’s clear that he has some flaws. And that, plus more, makes this an excellent book that I highly recommend.

As for The Beast of Cretacea, it’s a science-fiction retelling of Moby-Dick and a poor one at that. In fact, even calling it a retelling is a lie since most of the plot is original. It’s a classic American novel poorly wrapped around a terrible story. And while all of the characters have the same names from Moby-Dick, none of them, especially Captain Ahab, have their original characterization and nuances. Moby-Dick, if you don’t know, is about Ahab hunting for the titular Moby Dick from the viewpoint of Ishmael, even after fate gave him every reason to turn back. Yet, this book is more about Ishmael, his past and his adventures, while the Ahab plot is just there.

To be fair, Moby-Dick wasn’t just about Captain Ahab’s quest since it’s also about whaling and such. And yet, everyone remembers the Ahab plot since it’s such a Shakespearian tragedy, where a man as great as him fell because of his fatal flaw after ignoring every reason to turn back. It felt hollow in this book since we barely get to know him or Starbuck. Plus, it ends with a twist full of fridge logic that it’s just dumb.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
I know. It’s another beloved book that won multiple awards, such as the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and got adapted numerous times, the most prominent being the 2017 Hulu TV Show. Heck, even my teacher of that class considers it his personal favorite (after being forced to read it three times by his classes). But, unfortunately, I don’t like this book.

One of my biggest problems is with the dystopian angle, something that I mentioned back in The Windup Girl, and it’s time for me to explain my issue with it. My problem is that, once you get down to it, a good chunk of dystopian novels is that they’re pretty much misery-induced satire. To explain what I mean, I don’t see them as stories in a traditional sense (exposition, rising action, climax, etc.), but a dark parody of the world, especially in a political sense. So, for example, a third of Nineteen Eighty-Four is a satire of Stalinist Russia, with the plot only opening up at the second part. Brave New World is a satire of capitalism, precisely the mass-producing kind where even the citizens are mass-produced. The Windup Girl is a satire of capitalism, though more in the vein where corporations rule what is left of the world, with foods genetically engineered so that you cannot reproduce them on your own. And The Handmaid’s Tale is a satire of religion, particularly the misogynistic kind.

If you like dystopian novels, that’s cool with me. In fact, I even listed one of my favorites, Battle Royale, which left the satire part of it in the background. Just that, to me, they don’t feel like genuine novels most of the time. In fact, I enjoy Brave New World more than Nineteen Eighty-Four since that has a more traditional story structure. Again, it’s just the satire part of it dominating the plot that off-puts me.

I also have a distaste of misery kind of story. Now, I don’t have a problem with dark narratives. But I don’t like misery for the sake of it. That and sex, which is why, no matter how acclaim they are, I’ll likely never read any of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin or go past the first episode of Game of Thrones.

I also don’t like main characters who are there to be bounced around with no control of their path. Now, I do get it when it’s the beginning of a story, but it gets less and less tolerable as it goes on. And the thing that will make me flip a table is when, at the end, when the characters have a chance to prove themselves, they get bailed out of it. Of course, that isn’t to say that is what happened in this novel since it ended ambiguously, but it’s still annoying. In fact, the book ended just when it could’ve gone on exciting paths. As such, I can’t help but despise it.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
Imagine this. You take the worse element of The Beast of Cretacea that it’s a pseudo-retelling of a classic American novel. Then you combine it with the dystopian world from The Handmaid’s Tale. What do you get? This book. Do I need to explain why I hate this book since I did a thorough job on those two?

Well, there is one thing I can add, specifically which American novel retelling it is. It’s The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. And, to its credit, it is a more honest retelling than The Beast of Cretacea. Yet, it still wasn’t enjoyable. Even my teacher admits that it’s a discounted version of The Handmaid’s Tale. In fact, after a few chapters, I pretty much broke and instead skimmed as fast as I could, checking on Wikipedia to see anything I missed, and instead read through 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. I highly recommend that over When She Woke.

That’s pretty much it for books that I despise. And, if you read any of those books and love or at least enjoyed them, I have no issue with you. After all, you should read what you love. In fact, if you have any books that you hate or feel are overrated, please share.

This isn’t really a template on how everyone should write. After all, everyone has their own style and preference. Some people rely on an outline; others would write plot summaries with word count a third of the story. There isn’t a right or wrong answer here. This is just how I do my writing, and I’m open to suggestions for ways to improve.

On the line between ‘plotter’ and ‘pantser,’ by my own admittance, I lean more on the pantser side. If you don’t know what I mean, a plotter is a technical writer who sets up an outline and character profile, which can be thick with information, before writing the story. In contrast, a pantser is the type who writes on the fly with only a thin, if any, setup. Of course, both styles have strengths and weaknesses, such as how a pantser would often lose track of the plot while a plotter’s prose would feel dry. But both are valid in ways to write a story.

Like I said, I’m more on the pantser side. However, that isn’t to say that I don’t know how the story will end because I generally have an idea of how it’ll end. In fact, I usually have a broad-stroke notion of how the story will go in my mind before writing it. But when I’m writing, I find myself adding ideas or even characters that I didn’t think I would put in. For example, in The Pokémon Prometheus stories, David the Zoroark wasn’t meant to be that prominent of the character. In fact, if you check out my notebooks where I first write it before typing it in, he first appears during the ‘hide the macro Faith the Vulpix’ part of the story, and he was nameless too. But then, partly due to Zoroark’s ability Illusion, I find myself adding him in more and more since it was so useful. So, when I typed it in, I added him in scenes and even created scenes for him to appear in (he wasn’t originally in the hospital scene, for example). And, perhaps as a consequence, I made Mayor Richard villainous since, in the original notebook, he was more bumbling and simply greedy. And that was his persona even when typing in the story until I wrote in: “After all, she wouldn’t be big enough for her to resist him with their help.” At that point, that’s when I realized what kind of character I should be writing Mayor Richard as, and I wrote him as such, even going back and adding in moments that made him more ominous. Though I still feel that I only got a proper grasp of his character in The Pokemon Prometheus: Maya’s Story (which is where I also have a better feel on Maya’s character), even if he only appeared for a moment.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing for The Pokémon Prometheus and later stories? It’s hard to say. All I know is it made what was originally a duo with Faith and Adrian into a trio with Faith, Adrian, and David, especially in The Pokémon Prometheus 2.

That isn’t to say that I don’t write outlines since I do at times. In fact, I feel that not starting with a strategy for A Massive Unwinding made writing it originally rougher to begin with. In part, the only thing I genuinely have a grasp on in the story is the final few dialogs when starting off, not the in-between. I’ve rewritten it a few times until I’m satisfied, partly because I realize how to use Ame’s artistic skills to good use in the story itself. I’m trying to create outlines so that I don’t make the same mistake again.

If you wonder how I generate such creative juices that allow me to think up stories in a broad stroke way, I think best when I’m walking. In fact, I would sometimes mutter to myself a tale I’m thinking of. Though that can be interrupted with a hypothetical discussion or debate with people I know. It’s the same when showering, though that tends to be more depressing and even self-loathing, so I don’t really rely on that. In fact, A Name More sprung up in my mind while walking one night, though it took me years to write it down. It went through several changes, such as how the original route that the werefox/Blondie and Mr. Tolle took to get from Australia to the United States was through Blondie hiding in some luggage during a flight. But when showing the heavily compressed story to college classmates, they don’t believe that he would survive the flight because it would be too cold/atmospheric pressure would be too much, etc. So that was why I went with a ship instead, even though it made the story longer.

As for writing it, I used to write the story down in notebooks, 8 by 5 inches for the short stories (and The Pokémon Prometheus since I didn’t think it would be that long) and 10.5 by 8 inches for the longer stories. I’ve changed to writing the rough draft on the computer since when writing The Pokémon Prometheus 2 on notebooks, I realized just how slow and impractical it would be going forward, especially since I’m a faster typer. To explain what I mean, I first started writing it sometime in the middle of August 2019 and finished in late July 2021 in four 10.5 by 8 inches notebooks. When I typed it in, the time it took for me to write was from August to November 2021. That’s a lot shorter, isn’t it?

Of course, I have a couple of hiatus writing it, but that’s beside the point.

I still kept the spirit alive by typing in a rough draft first, sending the file into my phone, setting it in the ReadEra app, and rewriting it again from reading it on my phone. The reason why I do that is because, while I do have an idea of how the story will go and end, I feel that rewriting it from the top will allow me to have a better grasp on the tale, making it consistent and even adding in some foreshadowing and such. To go back to A Name More, I was writing it by parts and rewriting them individually when originally writing it rather than having it all written down before rewriting it. It was necessary since it was also written for a class (incidentally, it was with the same teacher who I first wrote the heavily compressed A Name More, so it was also a bookend of a sort). While it did well, it was only at the fourth part, with Blondie leaving his refugee and home, the shower and mirror scene, and the discussion with Mr. Tolle is where I grasped the heart of the story. While I did add events and such to set it up, I still feel that if I was doing it my usual way, I would’ve made it more organic. Even so, I’m still happy with the result.

As for writing it, it’s a bit wobbly when scheduling it. To explain what I mean, one of my strategies when writing it is to go to work an hour or two early and write it there. For days off, I used to consider it an off day for writing, but since finishing The Pokémon Prometheus 2 in notebook form, I’ve been going to the library to write, so I generally write during the weekdays and have the weekend off, with some exceptions. I usually write for an hour or so, writing over a thousand words a day, unless I really want it done. I hope that I will write more with more hours with the move to Arkansas. As for why in the workplace and at a library, I find writing it at home too distracting. And while I’m aware of some mental tricks to help me, my house has been deeply ingrained into me to be a place to rest. But if you have any suggestions to improve my writing pace, please share them with me.

Once done and edited (whether by myself or with friends/dad), I send the copy to a number of my friends and see what they think. Of course, it’s not uncommon to see that only a few actually read it, even if it contains content they love. And I don’t begrudge them for that since we all have a life, and not all of us can drop everything to read it. But, at the same time, I feel disappointed, especially if it’s a story that is only three pages long (and tease me that they’re ‘halfway’ through as in have a link open but haven’t read it yet). Even so, I still won’t stop sending them my stories. I’m a pest that way.

And after all of that, I set them up to be posted. I post them on FA, DA, Weasyl, FN, and even Patreon (in fact, Patreon supporters can check out the rough draft if they’re interested). Though it’s sometimes convoluted since each website has its different story posting setup. Even with PostyBirb, it’s silly since I have to time the posts on DA and FN so that they’re posted around the same time as FA and Weasyl, and I’ve gotten distracted at times.

And boy, did this journal go on longer than I intended. Whoops. In any case, I hope you folks find it informative, and if you are writers as well, please share how you write.

Welp, it’s my birthday today. I confess that it feels kind of strange since I turn thirty today. Where has all the time gone?

As I hope all of you folks can see, I’ve been writing. And I hope to keep on writing in the future, especially since I hope to make it a career. So even if it’s only a part-time kind of deal, I still hope to keep doing what I love. So even if only a few noticed my passionate projects, notably The Pokémon Prometheus series, I’m happy to provide my content to you.

Though I confess that not everything has gone well today. I am currently battling a cold, and while it’s not as bad as it was a couple of days ago, it meant that any actual birthday plans for today are put on hold or canceled. Still, I’m happy, especially with those who remember my birthday. And I got some neat shirts from my dad (even though the closet space for shirts is getting cramp).

And speaking of which.

I was on a road trip with my dad for the past week, going from Arizona to Arkansas and back again. All for preparation for the family’s move there. During the trip, I finished the rough draft and did the final draft of Aleph’s Surprise Trials. And how I got sick in the first place. Still, it was neat to see it snow, especially since I don’t usually see snow where I lived for the past thirty years. But, of course, that will change with the move.

In any case, I hope to still be alive and still writing for the next thirty years. And maybe finally publish something by then. There’s a story that I hope will kick off my writing career that’s been in my mind for at least a decade. So if and when I ever finish The Pokémon Prometheus 3 and any related stories, I’ll see about writing it at last, even if it’ll be three, six, or even nine books.