We’re about a week out from my self-declared due date for novella feedback, which means that if all goes well, I can launch it within a couple of weeks?!

• collect any other feedback
• make some more edits based on that (I’ve gotten some great comments already!)
• finalize text, test digital version again, lay out for print
• design paperback spine/cover (have the digital/front cover now)
• Today I’ve managed to outline most of 5 novellas in the series, to complete the overplot that’s teased in this first one. ???? I mean, none of this existed even in the slightest glimmer 3 months ago. I’m consciously deciding not to question it, and to run with this as long as it lasts.

Still working on outlining the next Healers book, too. I feel like I’m still in the “dump out all the Legos on the floor and sort through them” phase.

I’m in a real “what even is my life” moment this fall. That writing project dropped out of the sky; finances are good actually? not perfect, but good?; and some irksome but not dangerous health stuff came out of nowhere and left me in a holding pattern until I can get it dealt with.

And on a very trivial note, somehow I’m watching 4 currently airing anime series, which is far and away more than I’ve ever followed.

Spy x Family – I’ve written about this before, and so far Yuri is the only aspect that really annoys me. The fact that nobody knows Anya is only four years old and expects so much out of her is stressful to me, but not enough to throw me out of the show.

Do It Yourself! – Apart from some “wacky foreigner” stuff that was on the teeth-gritting side, I still really enjoy this one. The last episode had an AutoCAD training montage. The one before that had a fairly practical sequence on how to do resin casting. Hello. You have my attention.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – When the fanbase says “hey look, it’s Utena with mechs,” I’m going to at least try it. And it’s not exactly Utena with mechs. It has its own storyline and worldbuilding going, and whatnot. I’m a couple of episodes behind on this one, and I cannot remember all the names of the characters yet (heyyyy people who said you have to have, like, 5 named characters per novel or you’re doing it wrong). Still, enjoying it.

The Little Lies We All Tell – I tried this out on a lark, and all I can say is “unhinged Azumanga Daioh“. Maybe because I don’t watch shows like this too often, and lack other comparisons. Basically, it’s a “series of shorts” structured show about 4 kids at a girls’ middle school who all have secret identities: a former ninja, an alien commander who is just waiting for a pickup after her ship crashes on Earth, a mediocre psychic, and a boy who was forced to trade places with his twin sister. Most of the comedy doesn’t revolve about the threat of being found out, as I might have expected; it revolves around the secret identities causing unexpected reactions to various situations. It’s extremely goofy.

I’m only two episodes into this one because I just throw it on occasionally. But it has genuinely made me laugh. Just as long as it doesn’t lean any further into that “evil sister takes photos of her brother when he’s uncomfortable in girl’s clothes” gag, because… I have laughed sometimes at the cartoonish evil of the sister character, but also, these kids are in middle school and this is a queasy gag at best. Please stop. Thx.

So that’s this month’s Nerd Check-in. Gaming-wise, I got to the final boss of Star Ocean: First Departure R, got pasted to the wall, realized I should have been leveling up and making better equipment all along, and… …kind of gave up. I enjoyed it, but not enough to go back and level up / make better equipment for 50 more hours. That was my doing; I knew I was ignoring item crafting in a game that put a lot of emphasis on it. Oh well. It was cute.

I didn’t read any guides until I was midway through the game, and ended up with a party I strongly suspect is made up of leftovers: the main four, then Cyuss, Pericci, T’Nique, and Welch. I stg I never even got the chance to recruit the mage lady, or anyone else. Shrug. It was an entertaining-enough ~30 hours.

There are a ton of games on sale on Switch this week, so I will probably pick up either Cult of the Lamb or No Man’s Sky next. Probably NMS, because we’re getting into winter hibernation time, and an extreme time sink sounds appealing.

Edit, a couple of days later: Got NMS. I live on an ice ball and shoot rocks with a laser now. It’s fun? Also, every time I’ve gotten unjustly swarmed by the Sentinels whilst trying to mind my own business docking with a station, I’ve just ragequit and reloaded. But it works, so I’m still playing. I’m here to collect rocks and scan unsettling chimera creatures, okay? Leave me alone.