NaNoWriMo is Here!

Even though I began to write my latest novel around the summer time...Sometime around July, I think. This novel is so close to my heart compared to all the other ones I've tried to write. Of course, I will still be working on my other manuscripts but the main couple keeps pulling me back in. Whether or not it will be published will remain to be seen. I've been lurking around the NaNo forums lately which is strange because I didn't do that last year or the year before that. The variety of fantasy novels are astounding as in "Holy, their stories sound really cool. My story is equally as cool, right?"

Ah, whatever. NaNoWriMo is more like a competition for my sanity as in "When am I going to finish writing one lousy novel?"

I did get started an hour after midnight. I managed to pound out 624 words before my eyelids failed on me. I only need 1376 more for today or even more.

NaNoWriMo!

Hey! I haven't been posting here much but at least I've kinda been working on my stories and novel. That is right. I've decided to jump from manuscript to short story to manuscript. Not very smart of me. Oh, well. I changed my layout again in time for Halloween. I don't think I'll be doing anything for Halloween even though I said that I might do a countdown in my last post. Haha I want to do a story about my gerbils and hamsters going treat-or-tricking and encountering something sinister though. Hehe Will that story come about before Halloween? I tend to tell myself to write stories for my favorite holidays which almost never come into fruition.

I went to the Boston Book Festival last Saturday. I was so nervous because I voluntarily went on a stage to read my own story out loud. My friends made it before my group was called so I was so happy. One of them told me that I sounded nervous but I overcame my fear of speaking in public for love of my stories.  I really enjoyed some of the other participants' stories. To be honest, there were some peoples' stories that I couldn't hear very well due to my anxiety that my friends might not make it and my own personal nervousness. It's over now.

I will be doing NaNoWriMo this year. Hopefully, I'll be able to win this year. Every year I say I would do it, I just quit before I even make it the goal. I'm also going to write a short story for a contest. I hope I win!

September Hello!

Hello! I haven't been updating this blog lately because I...don't have anything to say. lol Even if I think of a topic, I get bored as I'm typing the post. I'm hoping that my attention won't wander away as I'm typing this one.

Anyway, I'm starting to get into the Halloween spirit but it's still early September! I was contemplating doing a Halloween countdown thing next October. We'll see if it actually comes into fruition. Isn't it funny that I love to write but hates writing posts? lol
I thought that I would talk about something horror-related. Yesterday I was re-reading this particular detective slash high school drama story that I started in 2010. It was never finished and there are parts that I forgot about like who the hell particular characters are. That is not good. I still have to do my current WIP so I can't work on the detective WIP. However, I can talk about what Korean drama inspired parts of it. 
It is called Hon (or Soul) which is about a girl whose little sister was killed by a group of bullies led by the son of a successful (evil) lawyer. Her sister's soul enters her body and gets revenge for her death...or does she? This is a very psychological horror slash tragic drama. I will earnestly tell you that I do not like a lot of Korean dramas unlike my friends and mom. I actually enjoyed this one so much that I bothered to finish all the episodes. There were only 10 episodes. The music videos underneath doesn't depict the actual drama but it does put you in the mood for writing horror.

Is it scary? Only if you're the type who gets easily scared by blood and the typical Asian female ghost image. Seriously, I have seen so much Korean and Japanese horror movies that I've quit watching them until they come up with something new. Does it actually make you think about what you're seeing and makes you leak like a broken faucet? Oh, I cannot tell you how much I cried watching things crumble around the main character. The screenwriter of this drama doesn't like the main character!

A little writing

A little writing inspired by a Final Fantasy death scene: You tilt your head back, howling your agony to the Heavens. In response, the thunder crashes, the rain washing away the traces of blood. You think, "Can anybody hear me? Can anybody, anyone at all, tell you "Everything will be fine. I am with you now"? Exhausted, your body collapses back on the dirt ground. Your wet eyelashes flutter quickly like butterfly wings then stop.

Oh, Life...

Well, I'm back from ignoring this blog. I just fixed up my new blog yesterday. It's called Sunrise, Make Me Feel Love (the title was taken from a song by Caroline called Sunrise). It will be changed to something else later. It will be focused on whatever subject I have in mind. Like if I want to talk Brigitte Lin, my favorite actress or Lucille Ball, my favorite comedic actress or my current obsession with Sephiroth, the main villain from Final Fantasy 7. Seriously, Square Enix is so talented when it comes to making good-looking characters. Anyway...moving along...

How's my writing progress so far?

Grumble, grumble. It hasn't really been coming along. I've sort of just read a lot of fanfiction even though I have told myself time and time again not to read them. A lot of them aren't good and a lot of them are just too funny to not read. I've actually been reading a lot of smut then I stopped temporarily after an asshole tried to follow me home. I won't lie. It scared me shitless and made me so angry at the same time. How dare that guy scare me?!

The worst part of reading fanfiction again is that it makes want to write fanfiction again. Luckily, I quickly turned it into a potential novella. I added my own characters, of course. No plagiarizing here. There's positive sexual content instead of negative sexual content. 

I haven't even been reading novels that I took out. There's a pile of books that remains untouched though I am still reading "The Dog Who Knew Too Much." I'm still trying to decide if I should review other peoples' books.

To be honest, I rather share pictures of animals I took. I don't have much to say. It's hard to open up nowadays when friends you have tend to ignore you.

Stuck together in one small tank. I'm not sure if that's advisable.

I think I did a good job capturing this photo.

I love penguins!

Random Thoughts About Music and Writing

I'm a little anxious right now because I can't eat anything without throwing up. I think it's because of the caffeine in the tea that I drank that the banana in my system ended up in the sink. Thankfully, I made it to the bathroom before any of it got on my shirt. I didn't need a repeat of one summer day when I threw up on the staircase which is CARPETED.

My sleep schedule is also out of whack AGAIN meaning that I was struggling to sleep around 8 when these jackasses were jackhammering right outside my window. Sigh. I mean, why didn't they give us a notice? Lee Soo Young's soft voice (she is the Korean singer, most likely mispronouncing the opening song when you first come onto this blog) and ballad songs covered most of the jackhammering noises.

I'm listening to Yousei Teikoku to calm down my nerves. I've been listening to a lot of them ever since I came back from their concert at Anime Boston.
This is one of my favorite Yousei Teikoku songs called Filament.

After that, I found another band similar to Yousei Teikoku called Denkare. YT's leader singer, Yui-sama sounds awfully similar to the leader singer, Karen. This is one of my favorites of Denkare called Melancholy Rhythm. Isn't the album cover cool?

Then after that I found this J-rock duo called Asriel. Their music is so beautiful and so is their lead singer's voice.

Check out this song called Cartharsis

Putting aside my apparently growing admiration for Japanese rock/metal/symphonic metal, I've actually been writing bits and pieces for my debut novel (at least I hope it'll be my debut novel because I'm well aware of how sometimes your first manuscript won't be published). Unfortunately, my ideas for this novel come when I'm trying to sleep.

You know what is weird? I can't write while listening to music. Most authors have their own playlist for certain scenes like fight scenes but I easily get bored of the music. Then I want to change the music. Although, there was that one time at 3:00 A.M. when I was writing the scene where Lena, the MC who is dressed in a hanfu on her way to find her boyfriend and I kept playing traditional Chinese and Korean music.

I've outlined most of what will happen. There is the matter of the romance between Lena and her missing boyfriend. Guess what? The boyfriend won't be brooding and mysterious. ^_^;;;

The main bad guy will be surprising (I hope!). One of the antagonists will be a good-looking pain in the ass.

While I was daydreaming about this novel, I thought how cool it would be if this (finished) novel were an RPG video game! O_O! I would faint!

One of the struggles of writing is when you're writing something that might seem out of place. For example, Lena is a Chinese-American who is wandering around a European fantasy world in the first part of the book. I was worried if people might react negatively to that or whether I might be asked to change Lena to a Caucasian girl. I'm also struggling in writing parts of the journey when she's going through a fantasical forest. I am a lazy person who has never hiked or went camping before. -_- 

 

 

Even when my mom forced me into a summer camp, it was in Chinatown where you just get divided into classes due to age and go around a school building. Even at the end of the summer camp, we went to a place near a beach but we lived in a rented house so no actual camping was involved. Boring! 

Enough of my memories! I might come back next week to ramble on more.

Bye! Have a nice day!

The One With All the Flowers

I finally edited this blog so it's no longer humdrum looking. 


Found this on one of my Facebook posts.

So beautiful and calming especially on days when the world's gone crazy. 

Sometimes you just want to stop where there is practically nobody and check out flowers like these.

The defiant bloom

Some of these were taken on a rainy day. I had walked all the way to the nearest mall to get these heels just to find out they were sold out. I was soaking wet by the time I got home but couldn't resist taking pictures of these pink roses. 


Regarding my stories, I got a flash of inspiration this morning when I thought of making my main character, Karena play a Guzheng. It's a Chinese zither. It was an idea that came to me in the past though it was for a different story with the same characters. ^_^ 

A scene of a Chinese woman playing the pipa on the porch initially then it evolved into the guzheng. When you watch a lot of Chinese fantasies, you see a lot of characters play the guzheng to accompany a beautiful scene featuring long hair blowing in the wind, the woman or man being smitten by the player playing the guzheng. For some odd reason, the guzheng has always made me think of the piano, which is my favorite Western instrument.