Monthly Archives: January 2023

Two notes: print and WTF

anime nerd corner, IseTher (Light-ish Novellas)

Just two things before I forget, it’s been a long day:

  • Took print off the agenda for Therapist. I did a print layout, but the spine is so tiny that I can’t get a reasonably readable title to fit on it. It feels like a silly outcome, but oh well. I plan to continue with ebook releases and then put together a print edition if (when!!) the four novellas are done. An omnibus would be comfortably book-sized.
  • In the anime roundup, I forgot to mention another back-catalog series we started: Kemono Michi: Rise Up. Boy, where to even begin. Pro wrestling. Magical animal loving. Isekai. Yeah, I guess you begin there. Nearly every character is wholesomely dumb as a bag of hammers, especially the lead, who lives to a) pet every animal b) cause cartoonish bodily harm to anyone who harms animals and c) nothing else, that’s all, that’s the whole list. This was Spouse’s choice (as a pro wrestling fan), but I’m surprised how much it’s made me laugh. Who knew?

Why am I neck deep in romcoms

anime nerd corner, games nerd corner

Writing update: According to my notes, I started writing Isekai Therapist 2 just before Christmas, and yesterday I hit the end of the first draft. So it’s going well. In no way have I set aside Healers; it’s still brewing in the back of my mind. The change of pace continues, is all. And honestly, at this point I only have 4 novellas sketched out (#4 and #5 collapsed into one, I don’t think it’s going to condense more than that). At this pace I could have all four off the table in appreciably less than a year. Weird.

Game update: Got a new controller, continued Garden Story, it’s cute. Continuing my usual refrain, I’m not particularly good at Zelda-likes, or anything that needs reflexes. But it’s going fine. I seem to be ~90% of the way through the story. I think there’s just a final dungeon left, so I’m collecting all the collectibles and such.

Anime update: How did I become a person who keeps up with the current seasons, seriously? Within the last year. Very strange.

Continue reading Why am I neck deep in romcoms →

Meanwhile, 100 years later

anime nerd corner, games nerd corner, Recs

Somehow today feels like a hundred years after the last time I posted, one week ago. Maybe just from returning to work? It didn’t even go badly, heading back after the holidays. I don’t even know.

Just noting a couple of little things to check in:

  • Started writing a little bit of Healers 4? I don’t have the whole thing outlined in detail, which is exactly how I ended up meandering for years before finding my way two out of the last three times? I’m making the exact same mistake again? Hooray!
    It’s okay. I mainly wanted to try out some scenes and see how they felt. I have notes. I have themes. I have… some conflicts. It’s cool. Ish.
  • Got to beta read another excellent book; there are so many talented people out there!! aaahh! Another one that I hope to put on the official “read” list eventually, as well as plugging up to the sky on my teeny tiny little platform.
  • I thought I’d do more base-building in No Man’s Sky, but it didn’t grab me after all, so I set the game down. At least for now.
    Yet. Another. Switch controller is developing a bad stick — it was already pretty bad, but I could deal with it during most of No Man’s Sky — so I have only barely started another game, Garden Story. It’s a pastel-cute Zelda-like. Just for maximum contrast, I guess.
  • Anime nerd update:
    • Finished The Little Lies We All Tell. It continued to make me laugh? There were a few feels at the end? Who knew. Glad I tried it on a whim.
    • I think I mentioned Heaven’s Design Team already. If not, well. Heaven’s Design Team is effing adorable and surprisingly informative, and continues to be delightful. We’re coming up to the end, though, nooooo.
    • Following my spouse’s suggestion, we have started watching My Roommate is a Cat, which is uh… hashtag relatable, let’s say
      It’s about a (full-time, though) mystery novel author with extreme social anxiety who adopts a cat. You get about half the episode from his POV and about half from the cat’s POV. There are gentle hijinks, and more realistic cat behavior than you usually see in fiction. It makes a great wind-down show now that we’ve finished Laid-Back Camp. (except for the movie, still gotta watch that)
    • Finished my second watch of my aggressively weird extremely gay darling Sarazanmai, then started The Aquatope on White Sand. All I know about Aquatope is:
      • There were accusations of queerbaiting (two episodes in, and I see why)
      • It’s about an aquarium
      • That’s it
        Actually not a great pick for watching on the treadmill — it’s pretty and slow — but oh well.

That’s it. Working on establishing a habit of writing some fiction every day. Even a little bit. It’s been going well for a couple of weeks now. Time to continue.