Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 34
May 13, 2014
It's Tuesday again....
So, that means that I've posted Tate's latest installment. It's sexy times again... because Alex and Valentine have rushed back to Robert's house to try to play at a little B&D. And... let's just say Alex is not very EXPERT at the whole dom thing....
http://www.wattpad.com/49931265-unjust-cause-part-8-of-tops-and-bottoms
Because you know what? It's not all 69 Shades of Awesome. I don't know about you, but I'm lucky to be able to THINK during sex, much less plan out how to get someone tied to the bed. And, part of the fun of this particular experiment in self-publishing is that I get to write sex the way I want. I'm personally very fond of silly, vaguely-awkward, (more like my real life experiences) sex. I mean, I still hope, one day, to write the super-hot, yet not, scene in which the cat interrupts the sexy times, because YOU KNOW you've had that happen, and far too often we don't celebrate that stuff for the wonderfulness that it truly is.
Plus, I queered things up some. Not just by queering the dom/sub status of the traditional male/female (which I ultimately don't do in this one, but which I plan to by the end of this story), but also when Valentine is talking about this former lover, who is a phoenix. This person is reborn presenting as different gender with each fiery rebirth, but Valentine is VERY ADAMANT that Jin never CHANGES gender, just presents differently.
This is very important to me.
I suspect, if I were still being traditionally published, this would be one of those things I would have fought with my publisher about, and more likely than not, eventually capitulated on. To this day, I'm bummed that I gave up the fight for Matyas' queerness in the Garnet Lacey series. In the book in which Garnet gains the power to see people's inner gods and goddesses, I'd wanted Matyas to have a goddess inside. It wasn't going to change anything about him, not one thing, but I got a very firm 'NO. IT IS NOT DONE.' Boys had to have gods, and girls had to have goddesses, full stop. I THINK I managed to have a waiter in Paris who had a goddess, but that was okay because he was just a throw away character. Because GOD FORBID someone people liked be just-so-very-slightly-hinted at having queerness of any kind!! Dude was sleeping with a girl at the time, even. Though one, I might add, who wore sensible shoes and had a dog, but we won't talk about how CLEARLY I WAS SIGNALING HER QUEERNESS. (This was Izzy. In my head she was a butch bi-woman.)
Not that I have FEELINGS for REASONS.
Sometimes it's so very hard to remember that it was science fiction that taught me the radical notion that you can't judge who you'll love by your lover. A story written by Theodore Sturgeon in 1953 called 'A World Well Lost' was my very first exposure to a sympathetic queer character. I found much more relatable men and women in Elizabeth A. Lynn's books, and, a lifesaver, given that I grew up int the 1970s in a smallish town (though to be fair to LaCrosse, there was at least one gay bar, and my father had an out lesbian colleague at his Catholic college.)
And I did write queerness into my science fiction, rather blatantly. It was just less okay in romance. I will say, this is why I tended to capitulate on fights about this stuff. I mean, I always felt I was trespassing into a foreign land, anyway. (As some of you know, I was lucky to remember to include certain bits of male anatomy.)
Anyway, it's nice to be able to stretch a bit in this. Of course, now we have to see how it goes over with "my public."
http://www.wattpad.com/49931265-unjust-cause-part-8-of-tops-and-bottoms
Because you know what? It's not all 69 Shades of Awesome. I don't know about you, but I'm lucky to be able to THINK during sex, much less plan out how to get someone tied to the bed. And, part of the fun of this particular experiment in self-publishing is that I get to write sex the way I want. I'm personally very fond of silly, vaguely-awkward, (more like my real life experiences) sex. I mean, I still hope, one day, to write the super-hot, yet not, scene in which the cat interrupts the sexy times, because YOU KNOW you've had that happen, and far too often we don't celebrate that stuff for the wonderfulness that it truly is.
Plus, I queered things up some. Not just by queering the dom/sub status of the traditional male/female (which I ultimately don't do in this one, but which I plan to by the end of this story), but also when Valentine is talking about this former lover, who is a phoenix. This person is reborn presenting as different gender with each fiery rebirth, but Valentine is VERY ADAMANT that Jin never CHANGES gender, just presents differently.
This is very important to me.
I suspect, if I were still being traditionally published, this would be one of those things I would have fought with my publisher about, and more likely than not, eventually capitulated on. To this day, I'm bummed that I gave up the fight for Matyas' queerness in the Garnet Lacey series. In the book in which Garnet gains the power to see people's inner gods and goddesses, I'd wanted Matyas to have a goddess inside. It wasn't going to change anything about him, not one thing, but I got a very firm 'NO. IT IS NOT DONE.' Boys had to have gods, and girls had to have goddesses, full stop. I THINK I managed to have a waiter in Paris who had a goddess, but that was okay because he was just a throw away character. Because GOD FORBID someone people liked be just-so-very-slightly-hinted at having queerness of any kind!! Dude was sleeping with a girl at the time, even. Though one, I might add, who wore sensible shoes and had a dog, but we won't talk about how CLEARLY I WAS SIGNALING HER QUEERNESS. (This was Izzy. In my head she was a butch bi-woman.)
Not that I have FEELINGS for REASONS.
Sometimes it's so very hard to remember that it was science fiction that taught me the radical notion that you can't judge who you'll love by your lover. A story written by Theodore Sturgeon in 1953 called 'A World Well Lost' was my very first exposure to a sympathetic queer character. I found much more relatable men and women in Elizabeth A. Lynn's books, and, a lifesaver, given that I grew up int the 1970s in a smallish town (though to be fair to LaCrosse, there was at least one gay bar, and my father had an out lesbian colleague at his Catholic college.)
And I did write queerness into my science fiction, rather blatantly. It was just less okay in romance. I will say, this is why I tended to capitulate on fights about this stuff. I mean, I always felt I was trespassing into a foreign land, anyway. (As some of you know, I was lucky to remember to include certain bits of male anatomy.)
Anyway, it's nice to be able to stretch a bit in this. Of course, now we have to see how it goes over with "my public."
May 7, 2014
MangaKast and More
Mason and I have recorded our 8th podcast: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/eight-is-great/
And... I was tapped to participate in SF Signal's MIND MELD. This time the question is about what books you read and re-read. Check out all the wonderful answers here: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/05/mind-meld-books-weve-worn-out-re-reading/
Right, well, I just ran out to the coffee shop to post all this, so I don't have a lot of time. Enjoy these! See you when we get back.
And... I was tapped to participate in SF Signal's MIND MELD. This time the question is about what books you read and re-read. Check out all the wonderful answers here: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/05/mind-meld-books-weve-worn-out-re-reading/
Right, well, I just ran out to the coffee shop to post all this, so I don't have a lot of time. Enjoy these! See you when we get back.
May 6, 2014
All the way from Indiana: A New Installment!
Tate's newest installment is up!
In this episode, Valentine reveals more about his past and Alex finds herself deeply jealous of someone who died over a hundred years ago... http://www.wattpad.com/48927549-unjust-cause-part-7-kinbaku-and-kitsch
Go get it!
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm actually writing to you from the Blackbird Café in ValParasio, Indiana. If you go to the Wikipedia page I linked to, you'll actually see the block that the Blackbird is on. I also took a few pictures of this place to be uploaded when we get back. Particularly for my friend
empty_mirrors
, I also took a shot of the vastness of Illinois. She didn't ask to see it, but we were talking about the distances in the US (because it *is* rather unfathomable that we drive for ten hours and don't even really go more than a couple of states in distance.) And, so when we stopped at a rest stop, we happened to be across from a giant wind farm and there's nothing but a whole lot of empty space and the giant turbines spinning in the breeze. It was rainy and overcast, so I hope the picture really shows how desolate and empty that part of the country really feels.
At any rate, we're here visiting my mother-in-law/Shawn's stepmom/Mason's grandma. Mason has this month off, so it's a good time to do our traveling.
One of my favorite things about visiting grandma is that there really isn't a lot to do. I finished reading Ben Aaronovitch's RIVERS OF LONDON/MIDNIGHT RIOT and I'm looking forward to starting MOON OVER SOHO. I also brought along Bleach 60 (which our library finally had and I'm looking forward to re-reading) as well as a couple of volumes of FMA.
My single LEAST favorite thing about visiting grandma is that she has no wifi. So, I have this tiny window to do ALL THE THINGS, when we sneak off to the coffee shop at 7:00 am. I feel bad about it, but it really kills two birds with one stone. Grandma is a Norwegian originally from the Iron Range of Minnesota, so her coffee is... typical of that sort of person. I won't say it's 'bad,' but I'd have to drink three hundred gallons of it to feel SEMI-human. So it's better for all of us, if we get up at the crack of dawn and hang for a couple of hours at the café.
On the Saturday before we left, I had a Loft gig that I knew was going to be... "interesting" to use another Minnesotan phrase from the moment I walked in and they did the classic, "And you are...?" The library had no idea I was coming or where my event was supposed to be held, despite the fact that it was the sort of thing people had to have REGISTERED for (I was expecting three, which was never sterling, but often, with proper signage and walk-ins, you can gather a larger crowd.) But, while the Teen library blushed in deep embarrassment, I found a spot to settle and made sure that the Circulation staff (what I usually am) knew where to direct people. I got two out of the three I was expecting, but it actually turned out all right. They were two boys, a little older than Mason, who really liked the READ part of the "Reading to Write" program. So, we talked books and exchanged recommendations (most of which I passed on to Mason.) We were having such a good conversation, actually, that we ended up going over by fifteen minutes.
But that whole day was crazy, actually, because we were packing to leave, Mason had swimming, D&D, AND it was the day that Shawn and I needed to pick up the wisteria we ordered from the friends of the parks. Alas, the friends neglected to inform us that the plants we'd be picking up were BARE ROOT, so, in the middle of all this chaos, I had to take time to plant FIVE WISTERIA. Of course, it was more than digging holes and plunking things in, because we're actually trying to replace the hops that we foolishly let cover our fence. Hops are... yeah. They grow fast. They spread. So, I spent most of my "planting" time actually tearing out giant, ropy rhizomes. It was fairly insane, so showing up to the "And you are...?" just seemed like a continuation on a theme....
In this episode, Valentine reveals more about his past and Alex finds herself deeply jealous of someone who died over a hundred years ago... http://www.wattpad.com/48927549-unjust-cause-part-7-kinbaku-and-kitsch
Go get it!
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm actually writing to you from the Blackbird Café in ValParasio, Indiana. If you go to the Wikipedia page I linked to, you'll actually see the block that the Blackbird is on. I also took a few pictures of this place to be uploaded when we get back. Particularly for my friend
empty_mirrors
, I also took a shot of the vastness of Illinois. She didn't ask to see it, but we were talking about the distances in the US (because it *is* rather unfathomable that we drive for ten hours and don't even really go more than a couple of states in distance.) And, so when we stopped at a rest stop, we happened to be across from a giant wind farm and there's nothing but a whole lot of empty space and the giant turbines spinning in the breeze. It was rainy and overcast, so I hope the picture really shows how desolate and empty that part of the country really feels.At any rate, we're here visiting my mother-in-law/Shawn's stepmom/Mason's grandma. Mason has this month off, so it's a good time to do our traveling.
One of my favorite things about visiting grandma is that there really isn't a lot to do. I finished reading Ben Aaronovitch's RIVERS OF LONDON/MIDNIGHT RIOT and I'm looking forward to starting MOON OVER SOHO. I also brought along Bleach 60 (which our library finally had and I'm looking forward to re-reading) as well as a couple of volumes of FMA.
My single LEAST favorite thing about visiting grandma is that she has no wifi. So, I have this tiny window to do ALL THE THINGS, when we sneak off to the coffee shop at 7:00 am. I feel bad about it, but it really kills two birds with one stone. Grandma is a Norwegian originally from the Iron Range of Minnesota, so her coffee is... typical of that sort of person. I won't say it's 'bad,' but I'd have to drink three hundred gallons of it to feel SEMI-human. So it's better for all of us, if we get up at the crack of dawn and hang for a couple of hours at the café.
On the Saturday before we left, I had a Loft gig that I knew was going to be... "interesting" to use another Minnesotan phrase from the moment I walked in and they did the classic, "And you are...?" The library had no idea I was coming or where my event was supposed to be held, despite the fact that it was the sort of thing people had to have REGISTERED for (I was expecting three, which was never sterling, but often, with proper signage and walk-ins, you can gather a larger crowd.) But, while the Teen library blushed in deep embarrassment, I found a spot to settle and made sure that the Circulation staff (what I usually am) knew where to direct people. I got two out of the three I was expecting, but it actually turned out all right. They were two boys, a little older than Mason, who really liked the READ part of the "Reading to Write" program. So, we talked books and exchanged recommendations (most of which I passed on to Mason.) We were having such a good conversation, actually, that we ended up going over by fifteen minutes.
But that whole day was crazy, actually, because we were packing to leave, Mason had swimming, D&D, AND it was the day that Shawn and I needed to pick up the wisteria we ordered from the friends of the parks. Alas, the friends neglected to inform us that the plants we'd be picking up were BARE ROOT, so, in the middle of all this chaos, I had to take time to plant FIVE WISTERIA. Of course, it was more than digging holes and plunking things in, because we're actually trying to replace the hops that we foolishly let cover our fence. Hops are... yeah. They grow fast. They spread. So, I spent most of my "planting" time actually tearing out giant, ropy rhizomes. It was fairly insane, so showing up to the "And you are...?" just seemed like a continuation on a theme....
April 29, 2014
A New Installment and other News
So, first off, I proudly present the next installment in the continuing adventures of Alex Connor, Hughes County Coroner and magical detective: Part 6: A Dragon's Confession. The teaser this time: "In this chapter, Valentine makes a startling confession..."
Oooooh, what could it be? Go find out!!
In other news, I got asked to participate in an SF Signal's Mind-Meld again, so I'm going to be composing my answer to that soon. When it's posted over there, I'll link here. This one is actually kind of meaty, so I've been doing a lot of thinking, pre-writing. Hopefully this will NOT mean that I'll be scrambling the day before it's due (which is Sunday).
Speaking of this weekend, I'm also going to be making an appearance at the Ramsey County Library not as a page... though in a PAGE related way! I'm going to be the presenter for the Loft's "First Pages Program."
Here are the details from my website:
On Saturday, May 3, 2014 from 2:00-3:30 pm I'll once again be the Loft's "First Pages" instructor for te "Read to Write" program. This time it will be a little closer ot home at the Roseville Library (where I work as a page!). The library is located at 2180 Hamline Avenue in St. Paul, MN. For more information call (651) 724-6001 or check out: http://www.rclreads.org.
The description for the program (which is a repeat of the one I did in Chanhassen) goes like this:
Can reading The Hunger Games teach you to be a writer? You bet it can! By reading as much fiction as you can get your hands on, available right here at your public library, you can become the writer you've always wanted to be! Come learn what Harry Potter can teach you about world building in fiction; what Neil Gaiman can teach you about creating memorable characters; and what Veronica Roth's Divergent series can teach you about plot! After this 90 minute session you'll be inspired to write your own mind blowing fiction.
Which isn't AT ALL DAUNTING as a the instructor...
Last time in Chanhassen, I had a blast, but I can't say we stayed 'on topic.' I think in preparation for this event, I may solicit ideas from other people about which books taught them what. I tried to do this with the students I had on hand at Chanhassen, but that conversation petered out really quickly. We ended up having fun talking about other writing challenges and trying out some bizarre story prompters, but it wasn't 'as advertised' and I feel a bit badly about that.
So... thoughts? Are there books that taught YOU something specific about writing?
Oooooh, what could it be? Go find out!!
In other news, I got asked to participate in an SF Signal's Mind-Meld again, so I'm going to be composing my answer to that soon. When it's posted over there, I'll link here. This one is actually kind of meaty, so I've been doing a lot of thinking, pre-writing. Hopefully this will NOT mean that I'll be scrambling the day before it's due (which is Sunday).
Speaking of this weekend, I'm also going to be making an appearance at the Ramsey County Library not as a page... though in a PAGE related way! I'm going to be the presenter for the Loft's "First Pages Program."
Here are the details from my website:
On Saturday, May 3, 2014 from 2:00-3:30 pm I'll once again be the Loft's "First Pages" instructor for te "Read to Write" program. This time it will be a little closer ot home at the Roseville Library (where I work as a page!). The library is located at 2180 Hamline Avenue in St. Paul, MN. For more information call (651) 724-6001 or check out: http://www.rclreads.org.
The description for the program (which is a repeat of the one I did in Chanhassen) goes like this:
Can reading The Hunger Games teach you to be a writer? You bet it can! By reading as much fiction as you can get your hands on, available right here at your public library, you can become the writer you've always wanted to be! Come learn what Harry Potter can teach you about world building in fiction; what Neil Gaiman can teach you about creating memorable characters; and what Veronica Roth's Divergent series can teach you about plot! After this 90 minute session you'll be inspired to write your own mind blowing fiction.
Which isn't AT ALL DAUNTING as a the instructor...
Last time in Chanhassen, I had a blast, but I can't say we stayed 'on topic.' I think in preparation for this event, I may solicit ideas from other people about which books taught them what. I tried to do this with the students I had on hand at Chanhassen, but that conversation petered out really quickly. We ended up having fun talking about other writing challenges and trying out some bizarre story prompters, but it wasn't 'as advertised' and I feel a bit badly about that.
So... thoughts? Are there books that taught YOU something specific about writing?
April 28, 2014
Rainy Monday
Shawn, Mason and I had a nice weekend. We spent a good part of Saturday morning estate sale/rummage shopping, which was a blast. There were a couple of church basement rummage sales, including a really awesome book sale at St. Olivet's, which is this beautiful Congregational church close to the Merrim Park Library. In fact, Mason and I were done early and we just sat an admired their gorgeous 'gymnasium.' Shawn and I joked that we were tempted to join the church just for the building.
St. Olivet's was a stark contrast to the house we stopped at that was just down the road from Stepping Stone Theatre (behind the law school). It was... straight out of a Stephen King novel, not only had it suffered HARDCORE neglect (on a squalor level), but, you know how most of the time you can feel the good strong bones of a house underneath all the grime and disrepair? Yeah, no. This house had been born with a mutated, malformed skeleton. Because, even though people had 'remuddled' it over the years, there were pieces that were clearly original that were just... odd. Like the second story... prayer alcove? It looked like people had been using it last as a closet, but it had been built with a stained glass window and a little buildt-in kneeler. The rooms were also all off at odd angles, which were perhaps originally meant to be 'charming' or even 'eccentric' but came off as cramped and wrong after time had worn the beauty away.
Mason, who has a very low threshold for bad vibes, walked in and instantly said, "Oh, no. Let's just go." Shawn and I pushed through with sheer curiosity and, much to Mason's chagrin, we both brought something home from that house. (Shawn got a roll of rope and I found a leather wallet.)
That house was one of the ones that all the sale-rs had to stop and chat with strangers about (which, if you aren't from around here, you might not realize what a BIG DEAL that is in Minnesota.) I would say something to Mason like, "My god, look at this, the original builders didn't even finish off these floor boards..." and the person passing by on the way up the stairs would feel compelled to stop, look, and then comment about some other odd feature they'd seen in the garage or elsewhere. The estate sale workers kept trying to sort of reassure people by saying, "This house is old. It was built in 1913." To which, I replied, "Our house was built in 1911. It doesn't look like this. Something more than time happened to this house." To which, they had no other response than, "The workers are coming back on Monday."
The other thing that pissed off all the estate sale-rs that came through was that, possibly to fund the remodeling, the prices were jacked up. There were things there that should have been marked ten bucks (generous) that were set at SEVENTY.
Mason shadowed me through the whole house saying, "This place is like a HOG (Hidden Object Game)." Because on top of all the weird angles and decrepit-ness the estate sale workers had just piled all the goods in boxes and in tables in a way that just made it all seem that much more chaotic. Even the back yard garden was a mess.
It was kind of amazing, really. It was the sort of place that sticks in your head, and it may have to work its way into a novel, because it's too good to waste, you know?
Sunday we spent doing some housework, baking cookies (for real! I made chocolate chip!) and playing some board games. It was that kind of day because we woke up to a rain that beat down steadily all day long.
During some of my housework, I started a new anime series. I'm now watching Witch Craft Works. I'm not entirely sure I can recommend it. It's weirdly compelling, though. The story is about "an average high school boy" who, it turns out, has a witch guardian who considers him her "princess." A lot of the humor in the story has to do with a shounen reversal. She gets all the power-ups, is popular and aloof, and he's just kind of a pretty/handsome load she constantly has to rescue. Weirdly, that kind of works for me. All the villains and side-characters are female, too, so it's very much a conscious 'see, this is what you look like!' in terms of reversing all the gender stuff.
I'm watching it on Crunchyroll, so it's a new anime, only just having aired this year in January in Japan. There are 12 episodes, and I'm just about to start #4 with today's load of dishes. I suspect that if this anime follows the flow of most 'new-ish' anime, the real action will start now that they've set up the characters and the situation. I feel like it was right about episode 3 or 4 that Rei was introduced in Free! Iwatobi Swim Club and that's when things really started rolling.
At any rate, I'm enjoying that.
Today my plans are to get a good start on my new Tate installment. I have to say that given time, the serial thing on WattPad is starting to work better for me. I've decided that I'm not allowed to look at my statistics, which helps, and only concentrate on the comments. I have one really faithful reader (who is not actually someone I know outside of this context), so I'm kind of writing this for her. She leaves comments at the end of each chapter and is even starting to try to guess at the plot, WHICH I TOTALLY ADORE AND HAD BEEN HOPING FOR. So, that's working.
More importantly, having the publishing deadline of once a week on a Tuesday afternoon, means I'm writing forward every week. This is a very, very good thing.
Plus, even though I hate it, it seems like my social media blast about the updates are getting re-blogged (at least a friend saw it happen once), so that's kind of all I can hope for.
I really do think this is the sort of thing that might become a THING given enough time. For now, I'm along for the ride... and it's keeping me writing on a Tate project.
St. Olivet's was a stark contrast to the house we stopped at that was just down the road from Stepping Stone Theatre (behind the law school). It was... straight out of a Stephen King novel, not only had it suffered HARDCORE neglect (on a squalor level), but, you know how most of the time you can feel the good strong bones of a house underneath all the grime and disrepair? Yeah, no. This house had been born with a mutated, malformed skeleton. Because, even though people had 'remuddled' it over the years, there were pieces that were clearly original that were just... odd. Like the second story... prayer alcove? It looked like people had been using it last as a closet, but it had been built with a stained glass window and a little buildt-in kneeler. The rooms were also all off at odd angles, which were perhaps originally meant to be 'charming' or even 'eccentric' but came off as cramped and wrong after time had worn the beauty away.
Mason, who has a very low threshold for bad vibes, walked in and instantly said, "Oh, no. Let's just go." Shawn and I pushed through with sheer curiosity and, much to Mason's chagrin, we both brought something home from that house. (Shawn got a roll of rope and I found a leather wallet.)
That house was one of the ones that all the sale-rs had to stop and chat with strangers about (which, if you aren't from around here, you might not realize what a BIG DEAL that is in Minnesota.) I would say something to Mason like, "My god, look at this, the original builders didn't even finish off these floor boards..." and the person passing by on the way up the stairs would feel compelled to stop, look, and then comment about some other odd feature they'd seen in the garage or elsewhere. The estate sale workers kept trying to sort of reassure people by saying, "This house is old. It was built in 1913." To which, I replied, "Our house was built in 1911. It doesn't look like this. Something more than time happened to this house." To which, they had no other response than, "The workers are coming back on Monday."
The other thing that pissed off all the estate sale-rs that came through was that, possibly to fund the remodeling, the prices were jacked up. There were things there that should have been marked ten bucks (generous) that were set at SEVENTY.
Mason shadowed me through the whole house saying, "This place is like a HOG (Hidden Object Game)." Because on top of all the weird angles and decrepit-ness the estate sale workers had just piled all the goods in boxes and in tables in a way that just made it all seem that much more chaotic. Even the back yard garden was a mess.
It was kind of amazing, really. It was the sort of place that sticks in your head, and it may have to work its way into a novel, because it's too good to waste, you know?
Sunday we spent doing some housework, baking cookies (for real! I made chocolate chip!) and playing some board games. It was that kind of day because we woke up to a rain that beat down steadily all day long.
During some of my housework, I started a new anime series. I'm now watching Witch Craft Works. I'm not entirely sure I can recommend it. It's weirdly compelling, though. The story is about "an average high school boy" who, it turns out, has a witch guardian who considers him her "princess." A lot of the humor in the story has to do with a shounen reversal. She gets all the power-ups, is popular and aloof, and he's just kind of a pretty/handsome load she constantly has to rescue. Weirdly, that kind of works for me. All the villains and side-characters are female, too, so it's very much a conscious 'see, this is what you look like!' in terms of reversing all the gender stuff.
I'm watching it on Crunchyroll, so it's a new anime, only just having aired this year in January in Japan. There are 12 episodes, and I'm just about to start #4 with today's load of dishes. I suspect that if this anime follows the flow of most 'new-ish' anime, the real action will start now that they've set up the characters and the situation. I feel like it was right about episode 3 or 4 that Rei was introduced in Free! Iwatobi Swim Club and that's when things really started rolling.
At any rate, I'm enjoying that.
Today my plans are to get a good start on my new Tate installment. I have to say that given time, the serial thing on WattPad is starting to work better for me. I've decided that I'm not allowed to look at my statistics, which helps, and only concentrate on the comments. I have one really faithful reader (who is not actually someone I know outside of this context), so I'm kind of writing this for her. She leaves comments at the end of each chapter and is even starting to try to guess at the plot, WHICH I TOTALLY ADORE AND HAD BEEN HOPING FOR. So, that's working.
More importantly, having the publishing deadline of once a week on a Tuesday afternoon, means I'm writing forward every week. This is a very, very good thing.
Plus, even though I hate it, it seems like my social media blast about the updates are getting re-blogged (at least a friend saw it happen once), so that's kind of all I can hope for.
I really do think this is the sort of thing that might become a THING given enough time. For now, I'm along for the ride... and it's keeping me writing on a Tate project.
April 23, 2014
New MangaKast
Mason and I have done it again! (We don't know when to quit!!) Check out our latest MangaKast, if you're so inclined: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/seventh-heaven/
April 22, 2014
Newest Chapter on WattPad
My/Tate's WIP has been updated!
In this installment, more and more evidence seems to point to Valentine's involvement in the death of the body found at the base of the clock tower. http://www.wattpad.com/46894855-unjust-cause-part-5-werewolves-and-autopsies
In other news, Mason is home from school again today. On Friday, he'd had a stomach ache that had devolved into throwing up in the morning. Then, he seemed to develop cold/flu symptoms (cough, runny nose) and then on Monday morning he woke up with a high fever (101.5) and a bright red rash on his face. After some debate (and consulting Dr. Google), I took him to the doctors. I'd come prepared for the idea of "Scarlet Fever," which sounds like something out of a Victorian novel, but which is really just strep on steroids. Alas, the rapid strep test came back negative. Our pediatrician is super thorough, so she had Mason's chest x-rayed in order to rule out pneumonia. He didn't have that either. So, he's kind of a mystery and she had to go with the diagnosis of A Thing That's Going Around, and is treating from bronchitis with a side of antibiotics. The antibiotics seems to be working already. He took his first last night, and his fever broke. I'd have sent him to school today, but I want to give he antibiotics a chance to really kick this thing. It's pretty scary, honestly, and I don't think he should infecting any of the kids in his class with his ugly bug.
But, as a bonus I don't have work at all this week, so we can hang out, the two of us. Now that he's not voluntarily napping (which is scary with such an active kid,) I'm more relaxed about it all. His fever seems gone too.
In this installment, more and more evidence seems to point to Valentine's involvement in the death of the body found at the base of the clock tower. http://www.wattpad.com/46894855-unjust-cause-part-5-werewolves-and-autopsies
In other news, Mason is home from school again today. On Friday, he'd had a stomach ache that had devolved into throwing up in the morning. Then, he seemed to develop cold/flu symptoms (cough, runny nose) and then on Monday morning he woke up with a high fever (101.5) and a bright red rash on his face. After some debate (and consulting Dr. Google), I took him to the doctors. I'd come prepared for the idea of "Scarlet Fever," which sounds like something out of a Victorian novel, but which is really just strep on steroids. Alas, the rapid strep test came back negative. Our pediatrician is super thorough, so she had Mason's chest x-rayed in order to rule out pneumonia. He didn't have that either. So, he's kind of a mystery and she had to go with the diagnosis of A Thing That's Going Around, and is treating from bronchitis with a side of antibiotics. The antibiotics seems to be working already. He took his first last night, and his fever broke. I'd have sent him to school today, but I want to give he antibiotics a chance to really kick this thing. It's pretty scary, honestly, and I don't think he should infecting any of the kids in his class with his ugly bug.
But, as a bonus I don't have work at all this week, so we can hang out, the two of us. Now that he's not voluntarily napping (which is scary with such an active kid,) I'm more relaxed about it all. His fever seems gone too.
April 19, 2014
Pumped from Using the Prompt
Mason accused me of being hyper after having eaten all the Reese's Peanut Butter chocolate eggs (which I may have done), but I don't think it's the sugar that got me all jazzed. I had a surprisingly good "First Pages" gig at the Chanhassen Library today. I mean, I actually don't know if I taught anything to the THREE (hey, I was only expecting ONE, so this was an improvement) teens who showed up. But, I had a blast playing with the plot generators that we found on-line.
A couple of my favorites:
For absolute zaniness (including robots poking each other at a funeral), you really need to press "random" and try out one of the generators at http://www.plot-generator.org.uk
The other one that entertained us (though probably me more than them): http://www.springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_randomators/plotgens.htm
From the springhole site, I got the prompt for how I got my superpowers: "Bought them from a fairy."
In response, I wrote this:
They told me if I wanted to get superpowers, I had to buy them from the fairy. The problem was you never knew what it’d cost you. Fairies are fickle, you know. Sometimes they just want something mundane in exchange. I heard of a guy who got the power of invulnerability and all it cost him was a slice of Munster cheese. Other times, they wanted too much, stuff no sane person would part with. Sure, you’re immortal, but your body is gone, and you’re just stuffed teddy bear without even the ability to move or speak.
I don't know if I'll do anything with it, but it's kind of a fun start, isn't it?
The 'First Pages' is an interesting concept, and I do mean 'interesting' in the Minnesota sense. There's a kind of a theme to it. This one was generally supposed to be about "Reading to Write" and the description talked about what kinds of things you could potentially learn from reading books. But, the way that the education department bills it to their instructors is that you're supposed to be far more flexible than that. You're supposed to go in ready to teach that OR ANYTHING THE PARTICIPANTS ASK FOR. We talked a little about what books had taught us about writing (the answer is, of course: EVERYTHING,) but, generally, I'm supposed to go in and ask them what they want to learn... and wing it. I happen to be really good at teaching on the fly for the most part, but I always leave wondering if the participants (I hesitate to call them students in a situation like this) got 1) what they came for, and/or 2) leave feeling as though they got something out of it. I mean, the good news is that it's entirely free. I get paid, but they don't have to pay to play. So, I supposed anything I give them is worth the price they paid, if you look at it that way. But, they are giving up 90 minutes of their day, so I do feel like they should leave feeling like it wasn't a waste.
I never know if I achieve that or not.
Being an extrovert who is pushed to improvise, however = wired.
So, I came home, ate a lot of chocolate and was a little too silly while playing a game of Star Munchkin with Mason and Shawn. :-)
Oh, and yesterday, with his day off, Mason wanted to go to the Mall of America with his allowance and buy a big ol' LEGO set he'd been saving up for for forever. He got a LotR's set "The Tower of Orthanc." It's massive.
Plus, I got an unexpected royalty check, so we decided to splurge a bit as a family. We went book shopping at all our favorite used bookstores. Mason came home with LITERALLY a box of books. I got these:
I got Black Widow 1-8 and Full Metal Alchemist volumes 1-8 (missing #6). I also picked up some Shonen Jump issues that had Bleach in them to added to my collection. I like getting those to see what else was running in Jump at the same time, and because there are often little asides that give you names written in Japanese and whatnot.
Now, I'm going to try to harness some of this energy to write! Wish me luck.
A couple of my favorites:
For absolute zaniness (including robots poking each other at a funeral), you really need to press "random" and try out one of the generators at http://www.plot-generator.org.uk
The other one that entertained us (though probably me more than them): http://www.springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_randomators/plotgens.htm
From the springhole site, I got the prompt for how I got my superpowers: "Bought them from a fairy."
In response, I wrote this:
They told me if I wanted to get superpowers, I had to buy them from the fairy. The problem was you never knew what it’d cost you. Fairies are fickle, you know. Sometimes they just want something mundane in exchange. I heard of a guy who got the power of invulnerability and all it cost him was a slice of Munster cheese. Other times, they wanted too much, stuff no sane person would part with. Sure, you’re immortal, but your body is gone, and you’re just stuffed teddy bear without even the ability to move or speak.
I don't know if I'll do anything with it, but it's kind of a fun start, isn't it?
The 'First Pages' is an interesting concept, and I do mean 'interesting' in the Minnesota sense. There's a kind of a theme to it. This one was generally supposed to be about "Reading to Write" and the description talked about what kinds of things you could potentially learn from reading books. But, the way that the education department bills it to their instructors is that you're supposed to be far more flexible than that. You're supposed to go in ready to teach that OR ANYTHING THE PARTICIPANTS ASK FOR. We talked a little about what books had taught us about writing (the answer is, of course: EVERYTHING,) but, generally, I'm supposed to go in and ask them what they want to learn... and wing it. I happen to be really good at teaching on the fly for the most part, but I always leave wondering if the participants (I hesitate to call them students in a situation like this) got 1) what they came for, and/or 2) leave feeling as though they got something out of it. I mean, the good news is that it's entirely free. I get paid, but they don't have to pay to play. So, I supposed anything I give them is worth the price they paid, if you look at it that way. But, they are giving up 90 minutes of their day, so I do feel like they should leave feeling like it wasn't a waste.
I never know if I achieve that or not.
Being an extrovert who is pushed to improvise, however = wired.
So, I came home, ate a lot of chocolate and was a little too silly while playing a game of Star Munchkin with Mason and Shawn. :-)
Oh, and yesterday, with his day off, Mason wanted to go to the Mall of America with his allowance and buy a big ol' LEGO set he'd been saving up for for forever. He got a LotR's set "The Tower of Orthanc." It's massive.
Plus, I got an unexpected royalty check, so we decided to splurge a bit as a family. We went book shopping at all our favorite used bookstores. Mason came home with LITERALLY a box of books. I got these:
I got Black Widow 1-8 and Full Metal Alchemist volumes 1-8 (missing #6). I also picked up some Shonen Jump issues that had Bleach in them to added to my collection. I like getting those to see what else was running in Jump at the same time, and because there are often little asides that give you names written in Japanese and whatnot.
Now, I'm going to try to harness some of this energy to write! Wish me luck.
April 18, 2014
Black Widow
At the library yesterday, I gravitated toward my usual favorite section to shelve: teen (because they have all the manga and the comic books.) So, I came across this:
Black Widow: The Name of the Rose (Margorie Liu/Daniel Acuña). According to the back cover copy, "collecting Black Widow 1-5, plus some material from Heroic Age #1."
When I started it, I was a little afraid it was going to make me feel old again, like the new Hawkeye title did. The art is similar, but deeper:
But, for some reason, I really enjoyed the heck out of this title. I think maybe it's partly the fact that Black Widow is super-competient. She also gets beaten up, being mostly human, like Clint, but... she's just so much smarter and independent. Looking back to Hawkeye at the scene where Clint can't figure out how to untangle his cords for his entertainment system and calls Iron Man/Tony Stark, it's hard not to compare it to the time Stark is called in here... to find out that the reason Black Widow was attack was because she was secretly carrying a recording device, collecting spy information on EVERYONE (ally and enemy alike). Clint comes off as a moron; Natasha kicked your butt and you didn't even know it.
There are also a couple of scene that made me hyper-aware of Black Widow's sexuality. Guess what, guys, she has boobs. But, what SHOULD feel like gratuitous fan service never entirely did--even the scene where she's tied up, naked. I think the reason was because she comes off so completely unfazed by it. Like, 'ho-hum' bad guys are trying to make me feel vulnerable using my gender. Ah, well, I guess I'll just have to escape and KICK THEIR A$$ES WHILE COMPLETELY NUDE.
It's weirdly awesome.
I recommend it.
Black Widow: The Name of the Rose (Margorie Liu/Daniel Acuña). According to the back cover copy, "collecting Black Widow 1-5, plus some material from Heroic Age #1."
When I started it, I was a little afraid it was going to make me feel old again, like the new Hawkeye title did. The art is similar, but deeper:
But, for some reason, I really enjoyed the heck out of this title. I think maybe it's partly the fact that Black Widow is super-competient. She also gets beaten up, being mostly human, like Clint, but... she's just so much smarter and independent. Looking back to Hawkeye at the scene where Clint can't figure out how to untangle his cords for his entertainment system and calls Iron Man/Tony Stark, it's hard not to compare it to the time Stark is called in here... to find out that the reason Black Widow was attack was because she was secretly carrying a recording device, collecting spy information on EVERYONE (ally and enemy alike). Clint comes off as a moron; Natasha kicked your butt and you didn't even know it.
There are also a couple of scene that made me hyper-aware of Black Widow's sexuality. Guess what, guys, she has boobs. But, what SHOULD feel like gratuitous fan service never entirely did--even the scene where she's tied up, naked. I think the reason was because she comes off so completely unfazed by it. Like, 'ho-hum' bad guys are trying to make me feel vulnerable using my gender. Ah, well, I guess I'll just have to escape and KICK THEIR A$$ES WHILE COMPLETELY NUDE.
It's weirdly awesome.
I recommend it.
April 16, 2014
More Incoherent Squee from Me
Mason and I recorded our sixth MangaKast podcast, and it's up for your enjoyment.
http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/podcast-the-sixth/
I kind of wish I could be slightly more articulate about why Ao no Exorcist is so awesome. I'd love to drag more people into that fandom and there are only 56 chapters to-date, so it wouldn't be hard to catch up.
In other news, there is a "wintery mix" falling on the ground right now. That's right: SNOW. I can hardly believe it. It's not right. At least my strawberries are still mostly covered by mulch, so I think they'll survive this. The question is: will Minnesotans? Because I think a lot of people are ready to weep (myself included.)
http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/podcast-the-sixth/
I kind of wish I could be slightly more articulate about why Ao no Exorcist is so awesome. I'd love to drag more people into that fandom and there are only 56 chapters to-date, so it wouldn't be hard to catch up.
In other news, there is a "wintery mix" falling on the ground right now. That's right: SNOW. I can hardly believe it. It's not right. At least my strawberries are still mostly covered by mulch, so I think they'll survive this. The question is: will Minnesotans? Because I think a lot of people are ready to weep (myself included.)
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