Hubpages Wednesday: Kumi Koda, the Japanese artist you may have heard of.

...If you're into that sort of music, that is.

This week's theme is on Kumi Koda, a highly popular J-pop artist who has made her mark as a hyper-sexualized dance machine and ballad crooner. Okay, I love Kumi. She's amazing. But she's not everyone's cup of tea. But if you like dance songs and great ballads, you at least have to click on the video below and give her a try!

Up for grabs are two album reviews of hers: JAPONESQUE and Dejavu. I recommend JAPONESQUE out of the two, but of course you should read both of them. *hint hint*

That's all for this week. Bit of a hurry because there's only 15 minutes left in Wednesday and I have a novel to edit!

All My Characters Are Orphans

RUN CHILD. RUN FOR THE HORIZON.

Okay. Not all of them. But my point is that I've noticed over the years almost all of my main characters have Absent Parent Syndrome. Specifically, Absent Mother Syndrome.

Let's break it down by series:

CROSS//

Danielle - Mother is (presumed) dead, father is dead, both from separate car accidents before she was in kindergarten. (In a previous life, both her parents died in a similar fashion. Oops!)

Devon - Father ditched before he was born, mother was emotionally distant growing up and did fun stuff like drugs and getting them evicted everywhere. Needless to say, he doesn't talk to her much. (In a previous life, both of his parents were assassinated in front of him when he was a teenager. Wee!)

Miranda - Mother is emotionally distant and abusive, father is kinda-sorta destroying half the universe.

Yumiko - Yeaaaaaaahhh. No.

NAGNOMEI

Jack - Parents are murdered while he is away as a teenager. Spends the rest of his life wishing he could avenge them better. Blah blah blah.

Jessie - My only character with an emotionally healthy mother around. Congrats! Dad's a dick though, so we still fill my status quo.

Roku - Parents are murdered in similar fashion to Jack's. Spends the rest of eternity pretty bitter about it.

Zachoran - Mother died during childbirth. Father is emotionally distant and abusive but dies of tuberculosis anyway.

MY POINT IS...for some reason I love killing parents or otherwise screwing up my MCs' relationships with their parents (especially their mothers). It's bizarre to me because I have a great relationship with my mother, and even though my real father skipped out when I was a toddler I was raised by a step-father pretty early on. All I can figure is...I'm lazy. I already have a million characters and if I don't have to deal with MCs' parents then wooooo! Seriously. That's all I can figure. Although  I do love me some "mommy didn't love me" angst in novels. 

Do your characters tend to have parents around, or are they emotionally and maybe  even realistically roughing it on their own? 

Weekly Writing Check-In: Halfway to Camp!

It's Mother's Day, but I'm going to leave all mother dribble for a post tomorrow about characters and their mothers. Today, it's check-in time.

...

Hm.

Well, if nothing else, I have the rest of this chapter of CROSS//Process mapped out and ready to be written before Camp starts next month. The trick is to actually write it now. I've been writing about 500 words every night before bed, since it's easiest for me to go to sleep if I write in bed beforehand. I'm not sure if I'm going to outline what I want to write for Camp - part of the greatness I felt last August was totally winging it and seeing where the horror stories of these characters took me. I already know the general outline of their stories and I think that's good enough for me with this story.

Otherwise, I spend most of my work time now doing freelance writing and editing. I have a few projects popping up at the moment. The thing that blows is that none of them are paying me right now. I'm lucky to have a house to live in rent free and food I don't have to pay for (happy Mother's Day, Mom!) but I'm almost 25 and like making my own money. Sigh. Unemployment. SIGH. LIFE OF AN ARTIST.

I'll be back tomorrow with more Mother's Day relevantness. Maybe. You know how I've been with posting on the right days lately.

Friday Flash: "No."

"Do you love me?"

"No."

"Is it because I'm a man?"

"No."

"Do you love her?"

"No."

"But didn't you tell me you wanted to get engaged to her?"

"No."

"Are you just saying that now to soften the blow of not loving me?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"No."

"Aha, I got you!"

"No."

"You're more agitated than usual tonight."

"No."

"Is that all you can say?"

"No."

"Then say something else."

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"I love you."

"No."

"How do you know how I feel? Are you me?"

"No."

"Do you want to be me?"

"No."

"Do you want to be with me?"

"No."

"I thought we were at least friends."

"No."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"...No."

"You hesitated."

"No!"

"Then here, why don't you be with me?"

"...No."

"You hesitated again."

"..."

"Do you like that?"

"N...no."

"Are you sure?"

"No..."

"I thought so. You told me you liked that before."

"No..."

"Is your memory cloudy?'

"No."

"You know what else you told me before? That I was the only person who could understand you. That I was the only one who saw you for who you really were inside. That you would stop the world if it meant keeping me near you until we were old and gray and fading away. You tell me lots of things when we're alone, like now. And I will tell you now, that I love you. I love you so much that I put up with your stubbornness and your hateful ridiculousness because it's better than being without you."

"..."

"Do you love me?"

"Yes."

Hubpages Wednesday: Orange! WEAR IT!

I love orange, but I wouldn't wear these~

...I have no idea why I'm a day behind on all my posts. Except for the fact it's still "Japan" in my head. See, I always posted Hubpages Wednesday on Thursday mornings in Japan because...well, I could! Guess I still could, but it's actually Friday in most places now. Lol. Oh well.

Anyway, this week we're focusing on How to Incorporate Orange Into Your Fashion and Wardrobe. I'm kind of an expert on all things orange, you know. That includes wearing it. Wearing orange is something everyone should do. DO IT. Do it.

Now I want to talk about a little something else that's been going on at HP. A couple days ago, this happened:

All those red arrows (well dots, according to this small pic) indicate a rise in traffic! See, on Tuesday, my traffic across the BOARD tripled! Woah! I have no idea what caused this but I was so excited! Because my income that day more than tripled as well! Sadly, it only last a day. :( I hope to recreate it in the longterm but I have no idea what cause it to begin with...

But yes. Orange. What color do you most often wear?

Dreams: Inspiring ideas and sucking up time since forever.

I am always this beautiful when I sleep.

I'm the type of person who dreams often, vividly, and with almost total recall. My dreams are usually so off the wall that friends and family enjoy a play-by-play the next morning. Just last night I dreamt I was back in high school doing one of my college finals (yup!), but my adviser hadn't received my thesis yet and I had five minutes to send it off before I had to take the school bus home! But of course the printer wouldn't work and my computer ate my flash drive! Eventually I said "LOL HILDRED YOU GRADUATED LIKE TWO YEARS AGO" and I woke up immediately. Har.

Most of you know by now that my series CROSS// was inspired by a dream I had a few years ago. I've had lots of dreams inspire my writing, such as the other night when I dreamt I was with some girl I didn't know and was on the run in my own dang house. The part where we perused through a book of signatures inspired a scene I'm in the midst of writing at this moment.

Now, I'm not the type to roll over when I wake up and write what I dreamt about in some notebook. I've always maintained that if the idea was good enough I'd still remember it later on. No, it's the dreams that nag at my brain all day that end up in my stories. I guess at the end of the day my dreams are my ultimate muse.

How about you? Are you a literal dreamer? Do your dreams factor into your writing?

Weekly Writing Check-In: Oh, there's the sunshine!

Yeah. Sunshine.

Woah, look at that! There's the sunlight! After swimming home every day in Japan, and then bringing the most recent typhoon home with me, there's finally some sunshine outside! And when there's sunshine, and me sleeping as late as I want, and blah blah blah that means it's time for...camping?

Drat! About two days ago I suddenly remembered Camp next month. I was a bit put off because I haven't been in the writing mood lately, and I need to finish this chapter for a clean slate in June.

But then last night I had a dream about that novel, and my brain concocted a movie-scene that, when I woke up, I was all about! So this morning I sat and wrote about 1000 words in CROSS//Process and am totally excited about it. Hell yeah.

I won't go much more into it since I'm going to talk about dreams tomorrow for my first Whatever I Feel Like Monday in forever.

How was your week? Any sunshine in your parts?