Yes…my last day before mini-me comes home from Maryland. And as a last day push for verbiage—I have set myself a goal for another 8k words for today. I completed 2,800 this morning. I turned to my trusty iTouch to find a new writing quote—and this one popped up:
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. — Brian Littrell
Awwwww….
And then I tapped it again and got this:
If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don’t listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.” — Lillian Hellman.
!!!
Let’s face it—most of my muse’s half-life is spent on anime, movies, and games. And you know…it ain’t such a bad thing.
On Saturday I dropped my mother-in-law and mini-me at the airport and came home. Couldn’t do a thing until I knew they were on the ground in Maryland. Once she called me and I heard mini-me’s voice, poof. One minute I was sitting on the bed making out my To Write list and then out.
ZZZzzzzzz….
Woke up about 4:00 with a cat-butt in my face. Minion was demanding attention—and yes—her food bowl was empty. Made coffee. Fed cat. Sat at computer with DARK RESONANCE Scrivener file on the screen. Was having the WORST trouble differentiating between nodes, augmented reality, Matrix, submerging, Technomancer sprites vs Hacker programs, gremlins…my head was mush. Just holding together the concept of being in AR vs being in The Matrix.
Got on AIM (yes now there’s a solution, right? When all else fails launch the world’s largest time-sink) and a friend was online and I complained. She laughed at me and the conversation went as follows:
>HER: You need to play a game.
>ME: No, what I need to do is write. I have a backup of cosmic proportions.
>HER: Ever played .hack//?
Pause.
>ME: Gesundheit?
>HER: Baka. It’s an anime and game. You say it like Dot Hack. It’s about playing a game like WoW, only it’s called The World. Don’t know if it’ll help—but you do get your influences from the silliest places.
>ME: This is a game?
>HER: And an anime. Go here (URL snipped out) and watch the first series. .hack//SIGNS
>ME: Why?
>HER: Because it’s about a kid who can’t log off from The World. It’s a virtual computer game and every time he logs off—he reappears on the root server. And eventually what you find out is that he <—-bleeped out for those who haven’t watched it—->.
>ME: !!!
She had me there. So yes—I spent the next three hours watching anime. At 7:00 I drove to GameStop (put a copy of Pokémon Platinum on reserve for the next day) and bought .hack//Infection. The guy there—you know it’s sad when they know you by name at GameStop—told me I was behind the curve on this one—”Oh but you gotta watch the anime too…”
“Watched .hack//SIGNS already.”
“Oh then you’re good. You should play all of the first 4 games and then get to Haseo in the series for .hack//G.U., but you wanna watch .hack//ROOTS first before you play those games.” 
I played that game for 3 hrs (what a cool concept!), logged off (both from the game and The World—SWEET!!) and wrote 8,000 words. Collapsed. Woke back up in the morning. Watched more anime. Played more game. Drank coffee. Wrote another 3,000 words and then met a friend Sunday afternoon for some Dr. Who catchup time (and I hadn’t seen Joe in a while).
Went home. Snacked for dinner and wrote another 3,000 words before allowing myself more game and more anime.
Oh by the Great Electron: I am such a geek!
Ever have one of those moments…when the fog you’re writing through becomes crystal clear and all the pieces fall into place?
I had one of those this morning—I just wish it hadn’t of happened in the middle of morning traffic—with ne’er a pen or paper in sight.
Mother..Guppy.
That title’s a bit misleading isn’t it? Hehehe.
What it is—is an anime I fell in love with several months back. Adorable. What I found out this afternoon while perusing what DS or PSP game I intend on buying after I finish this book (because I WILL HAVE A GAMING WEEK) I discover this anime IS COMING TO DS! Whoohooo!
Word Destruction is a fantasy based on a world ruled by BeastMen. Humans are treated as little more than secondary citizens, and a war between the humans and BeastMen have created a sort of “truce” between them. There are also half-beast humans as well, though there doesn’t seem to be an explanation of where they come from. I assumed it was due to some fraternizing between the two.
Enter Morte—tall statuesque redhead with a huge Klingon looking weapon. She has in her possession a black crystal ball, rumored to be the Destruct Code of the planet. Because of this ball she is dubbed The World Destruction Committee. While in a small village she bumps into Kyrie—an adorable, pacifist kid who is serving and cooking. Kryie’s first appearance is that of a half-beast human. Basically he has ears and a tail. Morte is discovered by local authorities and puts a knife to Kryie’s neck—and his ears fall off.
Oops.
From that point on the two travel together, picking up a teddybear named Toppi with the irritating habit of saying Kuma after every sentence. Together they become the Destruction Committee — but what is interesting and kept me watching was the was the weird way the Destruct Code reacts when Kyrie is around. Through 13 episodes we’re lead through a rich world of incredible beasts and travel over sand seas and to meet up with a reoccurring traveler/trader named Agan….duh.
The climax is surprising, especially when it reveals Kyrie’s relationship to the mysteries Destruct Code.
This is one of those openings that just make me bounce:
And here is the game…I’d love to show the trailer for it—but I haven’t found a good quality one yet. Game is set for a July release. Yay! Just in time for my next trip to Oregon!
I am making headway—despite all my best efforts to sabotage it—and the darned thing is CHANGING on me as I go.
One of the fun things about writing — in a shared universe such as Shadowrun, or even in my own universe with Zoë — is always the process. I posted a while back about organic writing and plotter – ing. Well I’m in the middle of that—as well as taking little breaks and fixing what needs to be fixed on PHANTASM. Pause again to get other small projects out of the way as well (such as some BattleTech fiction I’ve been remiss on — since I killed off a major character — oops).
Trying to refine my getting to bed early and then up at 4:00 writing. And it was okay till this morning when I woke up after a crazy dream that my co-worker got an iguana instead of a dog…and then it ate her couch. What is that metaphor about? Sorta like dreaming that I’m being buried under a pile of mattresses and wake up to find my cat on my chest.
Big kitty.
I sat there for a while puzzling that out before realizing my computer wasn’t coming back on. Crap. Had to reboot, decided to make coffee. Ack, no creamer, so I made tea. Ooh, look at that Eggo calling to me. How many points is that? No…then how about a quick egg-white omlet. Orange juice. And it was close to 5:00 by the time I toddled back to my desk.
And then I realized the direction I’d written out in the Outline just wouldn’t work—so that meant building new train track to get to my destination.
Cheezits!
Forget the fact that I’m a HUGE Nathan Fillion fan. Or a writer.
I personally love the series premise—and Fillion can do comedy very well. Last night’s episode was great—kept me guessing on who did it. I do wish they’d keep up the Poker Game from the first episode, though. I don’t think it’s going to though. Iz sad.
I looked over on iTunes and right now there’s no season pass—it’s just a $5.98 on two episodes. I guess they’re waiting to see if the show sinks or swims. I personally hope it takes off.
4,000 words today on DR. Yay! Now wine and sleep….
I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat. — Edgar Allen Poe
Yay! The Editor and I agree, the new Shadowrun book—which focuses on Technomancers—has been given an official title…
D A R K R E S O N A N C E
I loves it!
Now I just have to make sure it doesn’t suck.
At 4 freak’n o’clock in the morning.
My alarm had just ended the 2nd snooze of the morning (announcing time for me to get up and write) when I heard a crash in the kitchen. I thought, what the hell is the cat doing now?
Until I realized the cat was sleeping above my head. Only she heard it too and proceeded step on me AND mini-me to get to the edge of the bed and stare at the door (this is no small cat).
I sat up and heard a crash again—like empty soda cans hitting the floor. I have a stash of them on the table in the dinning room—a pile we cleaned for recycling. I got up and of course the cat jumped down—and came down the hall behind me. I turned on the kitchen light and something flew at my face.
Minion—the cat—beat feet back to the bedroom.
Okay…so the scream that issued out of my mouth was as girly a noise as I’ve ever made. Mini-me had jumped out of bed too (having had her oxygen delayed momentarily from a 15lb cat on her chest) and had seen it go past me to the livingroom. “Mommy! There’s a bird in the house!”
“That’s not a bird,” I said as I started closing doors and flipping on lights. I ducked its circular tour of the livingroom as I went to the deck and opened the doors wide and flipped the light on. “That’s a bat.”
“A bat??” Her eyes grew wider in fear, then abruptly she grinned. “Is it a teddybear bat?”
Uhm…who knew? I just wanted it out of my house.
I felt a little sorry for it as it continued to crash into the front window—which doesn’t open—until I got a broom and maneuvered it (I never struck the animal—I like bats) to the back deck where it circled the chandelier once, made a relieved screech and whizzed out the sliding doors.
We have an arbor on our back deck, covered in Clematis which is about to bloom. I’ll be darned if that thing didn’t hang upside down inside of that tangle of vines and pant while my daughter—in the cold—in her nightgown—said “Aw…iz okay, little batty. Mommy wasn’t going to whack you. You can stay there and eat all our bugs!”
Needless to say—I was awake to write. It took another half hour to get the excited “I-have-a-bat-in-my-backyard 8yr old to calm down.
