Weekly Writing Check-In: Still Know Nothing About Nanowrimo

Real quick post this week as I've got...things to do. Like writing! and playing Sims 3.

• Sent off Book 2 of Ren'Ai Rensai to editing and am about 1/3 of the way through with the first draft of Book 3. I'm hoping to do the cover/title/blurb reveal of Book 2, alongside a tentative release date, on November 1st. (If you've bought "DAISUKI." and read through to the end, then you already know the title and the short, short blurb! Lucky you!)
• Still have no idea what I want to do for Nanowrimo. Usually I work on a CROSS// story but I don't think I'll have time this year. Odds are I'll do odds and ends for Ren'Ai Rensai, but dear god, what to put in the novel field? I'm half tempted to put in CROSS//Revenge again anyway just because I want to keep the dream alive.
• IT'S GETTIN' COLD. I'm only sharing that because my room is always one of two heating extremes, which means I'm going from melting in my chair/bed to having hands too cold to type. Just like Japan!

Woo!

BOOK REVIEW: The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Since I was a child, I have loved unicorns.

And since I was a child, every unicorn I see or dream of will be compared to this one.

I, like many others, came to Peter S. Beagle, and specifically, his magnum opus "The Last Unicorn" because of the animated movie that captivated me when I was very young. The story is about a simple unicorn who one day realizes she is the "the last" in the entire world. This takes her on a quest to find her fellow unicorns, which leads her ultimately to King Haggard's castle, believed to be the keeper of all the world's unicorns - minus one, of course. Along the way she meets Schmendrick the Magician and the middle-aged, embittered woman Molly Grue. Before they reach the castle, however, the unicorn is attacked by the "Red Bull", and Schmendrick is forced to turn her into a human girl for her own protection. This girl is then named "Lady Amalthea", and the rest of the novel revolves around their infiltration of King Hagrid's castle and the awful secret he keeps. When some of your fondest childhood TV memories include watching a bumbling magician change a dazzling unicorn into a beautiful young woman named Lady Amalthea in order to save her from the menacing beast known only as "The Red Bull," you're gonna go read the book.

Because the movie is so ingrained into me, however, I cannot help but compare the two mediums. They usually say the book is always better, but is it true? Of course, many things were cut from the book to make the classic movie, such as the entire "curse" of King Haggard's castle and the town attached to it. But for the most part, the movie is beautifully faithful to the book, all the way down to the butterfly's rhymes.

Beagle has a very approachable writing style that both tells a tale while never giving out too much information. He is a master of the omniscient POV, both common for the time period of the late 60s/early 70s, and a personal favorite of mine. While technically the Unicorn is the main character of the novel, Beagle also follows the minds of most of the other characters, and employs a level of sarcastic humor that only he could pull off. The setting is also completely baffling, considering it comes off as very medieval monarchy, but includes pistols and magazine subscriptions. All I can figure is that he leaves the setting completely ambiguous because the existence of unicorns, themselves, are ambiguous at best.

Even when compared to the movie, "The Last Unicorn" remains one of my favorite novels of all time. The characters are real and sympathetic, all the way down to the evil King Haggard who bases his entire life in the search for something to live for. The Unicorn touches everyone's life in some subtle way, not least of all Prince Lir who falls in love with her human incarnation. Some may call the ending bittersweet, but I find it beautiful and perfect - the book is triumphant, hopeful, but still very, very real. Not everyone gets their happiest ending, but everyone gets what they've been looking for.

My bias perhaps clouds my judgment. But even if you've never seen the movie (what in the world are you waiting for?) you should still read this fantasy classic. It's a short read, especially for the time period, and is full of artistic imagery and off-the-wall humor. Oh, and unicorns. Droves of them.

And I love me some unicorns.

View all my reviews

Obligatory Birthday Post

Source: Pink Cake Box

The thing about being a night owl (I go to sleep around 5am) is that you always see midnight go by. Which can mean awkwardly welcoming in your birthday. This year, for my 25th birthday, I did absolutely nothing but the usual: reading, exercising, TV, and of course, writing! My mother baked me a cake that looks nowhere near as cool as the one in the pic (but it was orange!) but was delicious all the same. Especially with a scoop of Dairy Queen soft serve. Oh, God, my blood sugar. So worth it.

It's kinda weird to think that my life is probably more than a quarter of the way over now. And yet 25 doesn't seem to be a milestone birthday...although I can rent a car now! (Darn, if only I had a license.) Of course, as an adult I have to sit here and think about what a waste of space I am at 25 in my wandering, confused generation of recent grads in a nosediving economy. Hey! No job! Hey! No relationship! But before I feel compelled to go get drunk on my birthday to say that at least something happened like puking in the bath tub I reminded myself of all the life dreams I've accomplished so far, even if at the time they didn't feel like much. Short off you know, the apocalypse, or getting kicked out of my house, or what have you, things can only go up from here and I look forward to what the next 25 years of my life brings!

I don't really have a choice, I mean.

Romance Trading Cards: Now Here's Some Irony For My Life

Now imagine they all have boobs, and we're done here!

I never thought I'd see the day when I'm looking at trading card pixels on my screen again. During the late 90s, when Magic and Pokemon were all the rage, I was right there being told by my mother that no, I couldn't have them, because they summon REAL DEMONS. Or something. My mother likes to re-spout things she heard back in the 50s. Anyway, later on around 2002 or so, I started an online website in which members would get pixelized trading cards and could swap them with each other. It was a big hit for many years, until I "retired" from the scene because dear god, it was a nightmare.

But that's another post!

Recently I've come upon these things known as "Romance Trading Cards." I found them via the Kindle Boards discussion about them and couldn't help but think...what? These are a thing? And people go crazy for them? Whaaaa? I mean, whatever floats your boat, but personally I can't stand having little card sized paper things around. Takes me back a little too far to the late 90s.

But if this is something "going on" right now, I'm wondering...should I jump on it? Get some Ren'Ai Rensai ~trading cards~ (man, every time I type that, the 14yo inside me wants to die of embarrassment) and give them away for funzies? (Would any of my readers even want those?) I have plans for bookmarks to come out around Christmas, but should I get some of these, too?*

How about all of you other romance writers out there? Do YOU do trading cards of your characters? How has it been? Do your readers gobble them up? Are you like me and don't understand the appeal but HEY MAN WHATEVER WORKS?

Please share with me your experiences on romance oriented trading cards! Or any other small productions like this that you do for your novel. :)

*I do kinda wanna point out an observation - all the ones I've seen so far are for heterosexual romances, although I know M/M will never die. But if there's one thing I've learned writing lesbian fiction, it's that lesbian fiction fans tend to be a lot quieter, and thus I'm not sure this would be a good venture for me to pursue right now.

Weekly Writing Check-In: The Coming of Nanowrimo, and My Lethargy

NaNoWriMo is upon us. In fact, it's about half a month away. Normally at this time of year I'm jumping around all excited like, but this year I'm just not feeling it. Maybe it's because I already write ~50k a month so the "need" for nano is gone. Maybe it's because I'm just BUSY, man. I've got another book AND a short story coming out in November! And you want me to whatta? If it was Camp, I'd probably just forget it, but it's like, real Nano. Lawd.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for Nano. I should be working on just anything from Ren'Ai Rensai, but traditionally I've always worked on CROSS//. I just don't know if I have time this year. I'll probably end up doing a hodge podge of things and just hope it adds up to 50k.

At least my region seems to be a little active, with hopes of a meet up. Thus far though I'm the only "author" author there, and they're asking me about what I publish. Uh. Hmmmm. ;) (You may vaguely remember me being the ML of my area, except for last year when I lived in Japan. Well, it's not happening this year. Simply because I missed the sign up which happened in JULY for some odd reason. And I never received any notice about it. Yay!)

As for my other writing ventures, Book 2 of Ren'Ai Rensai goes off to editing this week, and I'm chugging along on the first drafts of many other things, including Book 3 and a couple short stories coming out by the end of the year. Phew. I'm a busy woman!

What's up with everyone out there in Blogger land? Gonna do Nanowrimo?

NTL COMING OUT DAY Ebook Sales! (Daisuki is $1.50 for one week only at Smashwords!)

Really excited today to bring attention to something great! In honor of National Coming Out Day (today) a bunch of authors (including me!) are giving away their queer-themed works for FIFTY PERCENT OFF for the next week ONLY! Now, this was a bit last minute, so there's not much up yet today, but you can bet the list is going to grow!

So that said, you can now purchase "DAISUKI." off Smashwords for only $1.50! Head to the master list to grab your promo code and check out some other great works! (Please note that many of the words are adult in nature.)

Reminder about the LOVE, DIFFERENTLY BLOG HOP!

Maybe you might remember a month ago when I first posted about the LOVE, DIFFERENT BLOG HOP happening this November, focusing on writing romantic pairings of various sexes/genders. Well, I'm still as excited about it as ever, only...the only people signed up are the people running it! I like to think we've got a pretty cool idea here, and I although we don't have much money our prizes come straight from our time and want to help others, so...SIGN UP! :P haha. Or at least, gives us a boost? Tweet us? Facebook us? Help us get this thing out there! It's October 10th and we need lots more people to make this competition fun!

Basically, guys, don't make me have to cancel my first blog hop ever. Please? Oh god the Blogger shame.