Some Pictures from Germany!
Ink-Stained Scribe
On Writing
CHAPTERS 10 and 11 POSTED ON MARKMASTERS TRILOGY WEBSITE! GO HERE!
I want to talk about the migratory chapter fourteen for a moment. At first, it felt important for me to write Shiro's first success with Magic (and his first success with women) occuring around the same time as the attack on Arianna. The problem was, that bit tied immediately onto the tail end of chapter eleven, which meant that it would have only been about a day between Shiro's first shield and his first competant shield. That, in my concept of the way Marks and Magic work, just was't going to gell with the rest of the story. Besides, after that bit was over, I didn't have anything planned for Shiro until the huge shift I have planned between chapters 15 and 16. Three chapters of Bay and Arianna, two for which they are re-united, seemed like it could make the pace a bit sluggish since there's more intrigue than raw action.
It also didn't seem like a good idea to let Shiro's first success be buried in the mire of Arianna achieving her own success at the end of chapter 15. Thus, I decided to take the bulky chapter 12 and shift it to 13. Upon writing 12, I realized that I had left an important plot point out of my outline (it wasn't in line...) and decided to extend 12 into 13. That required another shift.
At this point, the front outline page of my writing notebook has a lot of colorful highlights and arrows and notes, which sometimes even confuse me. Anyway, for those who want to kind of see the lineup for chapters 10-15, here they are.
10 - Leiner's Tale (Bay and Fieluen head back to Rizellen, but receive an ill-omened message along the way...)
11 - Small Victories (Arianna struggles to discover the truth behind her attack, while Shiro gets his first lesson in steel and Magical Shields.)
12 - A Bitter Reward (Bay and Fieluen return to Rizellen, but it seems their news is not the only somber information the queen must receive...)
13 - Recovery (Arianna receives proposal gifts from her suitors, but she has already made her decision. When Bay arrives, their reunion is strangled by Seina's tightening noose.)
14 - A Good Man (Shiro and Alukale take a trip to Welden to resupply, but they never expected a fight on the roads...)
15 - ? (When Seina strikes, Arianna's very life is at risk...but it is not Arianna whose life is forfeited in the struggle. After the disaster, she returns to Rizellen with new fire, declaring her decision on the matter of her future husband to a court filled with shock...)
...then there is a time segue, where the next year will be told in short glimpses, and a few scenes of Shiro and...Ciele.
Okay, so it's a lot more dramatic in my head than it will likely be on paper, but I'm excited. After I finish 15, I have no idea how many chapters it will take to the end, but we're likely looking at about 13 crucial scenes...and who knows how many chapters I will accomplish that in. To give you an idea, the word document for Sun, which does not include the un-typed chapters 12 and 13 but does include 14...is 220 pages long. The entirety of Flight is 300 (though with the new scene I'm planning to add, may arrive at an easy-to-subtract 330ish). I'm estimating about 350-400 pages for Sun in total, before editing. I won't finish by the end of Summer, like I planned, but I think I may be able to finish by the end of the year if I keep going at the pace I have been recently.
I have a lot of plans.
Once I finish writing Sun, I'm going to add a scene to Flight in which Arianna sees her kingdom in its true state while she is with Tashda, and receives the shock that makes her truly begin to doubt her mother. I think that is crucial, and I think, now that I have shifted the direction of Arianna's journey, she needs to doubt what she has been brought up to believe. Not only defy tradition, but doubt the positive things as well. She needs this disillusionment in order to understand what is really wrong, and what really needs fixing about her country.
I've been developing two inextricable and interesting characters with this trilogy--one is Alukale, and one is a character who does not show up in name and form until the very end of the trilogy. His name is Verissande. Alukale's past is very sad, and I've been considering more and more lately the likelihood that I would write a prequel to the trilogy, mostly centered around him. It would not only show how the war between Centoren and then-Rizell (not yet joined by the other 17 states to make Rizellen) began, but also show how Alukale went from being the disaster-heir to being the hero of the Great War, and the tragedy of his existence beyond his true lifetime. Alukale's true love died when he was in his early 20s, and he lived for another five centuries out of obligation. I want to write this for him, to tell his story and why, to me, he is the greatest hero I've ever created.
The other character is Verissande. I want to talk about him, but if you do not want to know bits of the end of the Markmasters Trilogy, I don't want to spoil you...so I will be vague. Verissande is a character who will tell the story of the Marks--a story that not even Alukale or Bay know. Verissande is the young man who lives after the events of the Markmasters Trilogy, but discovers the forgotten history of those who walked Rizellen and Centoren long before Lenis or Alukale, before even King Norvad of Legend. Verissande is a bit like the Alukale of his time, and they are linked in a way that is very elemental to Verissande's journey.
Just like Ciele shows a different kind of existence in this world, I hope Verissande can show several more flavors. He is a traveler, rarely staying still, and I want to show some of the untapped wonders of the landscape with him.
I AM NOT MERCEDES LACKEY, I WILL STOP AFTER THAT.
Alukale is kind of my Vanyel, though. I guess.
Recent happenings and Future Plans
So, last weekend was really...unreal...in the sense that I have never had so many obligations squashed into a single two-day period and felt like quite the celebrity despite my own insecurities. It started out when I left work on Friday evening to attend my coworker and buddy, Aaron's, birthday party. This was held at his guest-house near work, and the partiers were mostly his french house-mates, their friends, and some Japanese/bilingual people I had never met. After the only other coworker to attend left, the only person I knew was Aaron. That was fine, however, because there was a relatively cute bilingual Japanese guy there that I talked to...after most everyone left, Aaron, Cute guy, and Cute guy's friend (henceforth known as sweet guy) went to Lex.
Well, none of them had been to Lex before, and I guess they were a bit surprised when I knew all the staff, got in for 1/3 price, got birthday-boy in free, and cute guy and sweet guy got in on a discount. It's pretty normal for those of us who generally go a lot, though I guess it made me seem a lot cooler than I was. Anyway, I had fun, because I spent most of the night dancing with my friends. After that, we went back to Aaron's and crashed. When I woke up, it was just Aaron and me. He made eggs for breakfast and then we headed our separate ways--he to his part-time job and me to teach a private student in Shibuya.
After my private lesson, I met up with Kuniko and we went shopping and to dinner. On our way home, Seita (the guy I went on a date with last time) called and asked me to meet him and his friends in Nishiazabujuban (try to say it, I dare you) and went to a club. Seita wanted to show off his foreign friend, and the fact that I can sing in Japanese...which was fun. I met a bunch of new people and made some new friends, so I was really excited. By the end of the night, I was, incedentally, also very drunk. Seita had already left (which pissed me off, but he mailed me later a bit worried, so I forgave him), and I ended up going home with one of his friends because Raven had a classmate staying the night.
I woke up around one on Sunday and thanked the guy who let me stay at his place. I went back home and just sort of lolled around the rest of the day in recovery from two nights worth of hangover.
Monday, I went to see PLAYZONE...and my seats were amazing. I had sixth row center, and everybody saw me (obviously, at that distance). I have never had so much fan-service.
It was awesome. Also, I understood the greater portion of what they were saying, unless they were talking super fast. This play has slightly (very slightly) more plot than Dream Boys. Well, maybe the plot is just a little less f---ed up.
Pictures from Tsukiji, Hamarikyuu, and the Water Bus
Kyoto Photo Dump
Yes, mom, better than the other kind of dump.
Don't even pretend you weren't thinking that...
Now that we've all had our childish moment to giggle at my choice of phrasing, I will go on with the story. Two weekends ago, I took the night bus to Kyoto to visit Dai, who is currently there on a little break from the big, noisy streets of Tokyo. For those who are trying to save money, I highly reccomend using the night bus--it's about half the price of the shinkansen (bullet train). For those who are hoping to travel in Kyoto well-rested, however, I reccomend spending the extra money for a short ride with comfortable seats and snack trolleys via shinkansen.
I arrived in Kyoto at precisely six in the morning, with exactly five minutes of cell-phone battery left. Luckily, I brought my portable charger and plugged in at the yet-unopened starbucks on the ground floor of the building at the base of Kyoto tower. I was not surprised when Dai mailed me to say he'd be late...after all, I was surprised he'd even volunteered to be up so early.
In any case, the first thing we did was go back to his dad's house for breakfast. I, armed with omiyage (souveniers) from Tokyo, was nervously anticipating the introduction to his father and nepharious obaa-chan (grandma), rehearsing the polite conjugations in my head, wondering whether to stick with the more comfortable "for strangers" form, or trot out my few awkward phrases of keego ("I am not worthy"-form). I worried about this as we entered his house and removed our shoes. I fidgeted when he told me to set the omiyage on the coffeetable and sit in the kitchen. I ate the (very sweet, in every sense) attempt at an American breakfast his father had prepared for us feeling like I had taken the rigid-backed night-bus seat along with me.
"Okay, let's go!"
"Huh?"
"My friend's here, let's get going."
I struggled to find something to say, and I guess Dai thought maybe I hadn't understood his Japanese because he translated. "Aa yu ready?" He paid special attention to pronounce the R on ready. "Okay, lez go!"
In the wake of Dai's endearing attempts at English, I couldn't do anything but follow. Dai's friend, a hyper, snaggle-toothed punk named Tsutomu, picked us up in a Western style Honda Eclipse (western, because it had the steering wheel on the left side, like God intended. Sorry Rach.). Then, at the last moment, Dai's dad came out of the house, having just dressed. I waved, He waved back, and we drove away.
So much for keego.
We went to McDonalds first and I grabbed a coffee while Tsutomu ate breakfast and Dai ate...another breakfast. The metabolism of a young Japanese male is ten to the twelfth power or so times that of the average non-Japanese female, and sometimes it's really annoying. I'm still trying to work off the weight I gained hanging out with them. After that, we went to my favorite place in Kyoto: Kiomizudera.
Dai, washing his hands in the water that runs down the mountain, for which Kiomizudera is famous. Maybe his soul has been purified, but there's no guarantee on how long it lasts. Likely it lasted until he drank out of the dipper...
Dai and Tsutomu were very unnerved by my desire to see the graveyard outside Kiomizudera. I have never visited a Japanese graveyard before, and this one was absolutely beautiful. There are thousands of family grave sites, and somehow, in the vastness of it all, each family knows how to find their own plot. There were an impressive number of flowers and recently-burned incense, even fruit or juice boxes left as offerings.
Dai told me an interesting story about one of his friends' fathers, who was not a very good guy on anyone's terms, and was so poor that he used to prowl the graveyard, stealing the offerings. I'm not sure what kind of kharma that brings, but I wouldn't want it.
From the walkway between Kiomizudera and the graveyard, there was a beautiful view of the city and Kyoto tower over the canopy. The weather was gorgeous that day, too--the mountains held back the clouds, so there was sunshine all day.
Coming down the stairs from the main temple--this is the gate, which is next to the gazebo that houses the giant bell my family and I watched the monks install last April.
The courtyard of Kiomizudera. At this point, Dai and Tsutomu were speaking in an older style of Japanese, pretending to be feudal lords.
"Ah, long past are the days when the boys of the kingdom would run around the courtyard, yelling and dallying with war-play," Dai said (er...with artistic liscence...)
"Quite so," Tsutomu grunted.
"Yes, now they brandish cell phones, much the same way the children used to brandish swords..."
"Er...yes. We are very old, My Lord. Times have changed over the past thousand or so years."
"I shall never allow this one place of history be destroyed! I am Lord..."
SUPA STAAAA!
You don't get pictures any better than that. Oh, wow, I had fun. After that, we went shopping and I bought souveniers for my parents and my coworkers...and I couldn't resist the fan that had the first Kyoto-ben (the Kyoto accent) I ever learned..."ほんまかいな!?" (honmakaina!? = Really!?) Most of the rest of the day was spent hanging out with Dai's friends, which was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, my camera died, so there are no more pictures, but the most important part is documented!
Stay on the alert for new pictures and report from my Tour of Tsukiji, Asakusa, and Ginza with Raven this past Sunday...and the new photoshoot I did this morning, taking advantage of the good sunlight in order to get some better shots for my agency to use.
Traditional Japanese Dancing
NOT Traditional Japanese Dancing
...and I don't even know what to say about this guy's hair...
Yoyogi Park!
Today is my first day off in six days, so I wanted to make the most of it. I decided to go to Yoyogi Park, which borders Shibuya, Harajuku, and, you guessed it, Yoyogi. I woke up, got ready, and the image on the right is what I ended up with.First I walked through Shibuya's shopping district, since it was on the way, and I went into one of my favorite stores, INGNI (which is pronounced "ingu" for some reason...) and found something I had been looking for for months now: a denim vest! Luckily, since it's Golden Week, there was a sale. This pleased my wallet and me, so we bought it.After that, it was onward to the park! But wait...
Before arriving at the park, I walk past NHK hall, which is where ザ少年倶楽部 (The Shounen Club) is filmed. For those who don't know, this is a variety show starring the junior members of my
favorite talent company, Johnny's. It involves a lot of good looking boys singing and dancing and playing games in very unfortunate costumes. Sometimes
I'm not sure if I watch it to sigh over hot guys with lots of talent, or to laugh hysterically at their failure to look cool whilst wearing costumes like this:
Silver, purple, and black with a leopard print scarf. Steven Tyler, eat your heart out.
Walking past was kind of nostalgic, because I was reminded of the times I walked past with other people. Corinna, Flynn, Dai, etc.
By the time I got there, however, there was a hug commotion and what looked like a festival. After some searching, I found a banner that read "Shibuya Park Road Flower Festival". Well, I love Japanese festival food, so that made me really happy.
To the left is an example of the flower arrangements they made for the festival. This was my favorite arrangement--cut roses with such a heavy perfume that it made me, oddly enough, want to take a bath! I thought this arrangement was a beautiful expression of art for art's sake. The people who did the arrangement were also selling tiny bouquets and, though I didn't buy one, I might have been tempted to had there been anyone else with me to give one to.
I couldn't find my favorite festival food, taiyaki, (which is basically a fish-shaped pancake-sandwich filled with sweet red-bean paste, custard, or chocolate), so I bought a chocolate-covered banana with sprinkles. I continued walking through the festival when suddenly drums, and loud yelling caught my attention from the back side of NHK hall. I could see a crowd of people, and over the crowd there was a huge (and I mean huge) blue flag, which rippled and dove as a man swung it.
There was a huge performance of Japanese traditional-style dance going on, and I was lucky enough to take some footage of it!
This was my favorite group.
I'm not entirely sure, but in every group, the dancers shouted, and often yelled "arigatou gozaimasu!" ("thank you"), so it must be a dance of thanks. I think it's a very spiritual and expressive form, and there was as much facial movement among the dancers as there was bodily movement. I was glad to be able to see it. There was something very old and almost elemental about it. Sharp, fast movment's that were like fire, low, wide reaches that reminded me of earth, smooth, graceful bends or waves of the hand that rippled like water, and spinning leaps into the air. I kind of wanted to try it myself, because the dancers themselves seemed transported, like they weren't even dancing, but feeling.
After that, I finally made it to Yoyogi park. There were lot's of people there, and tons of foreigners. I think I was the only person there who was by herself, so it was a little lonely, but I parked myself on the grass and read a book for a while. See, here I am!
Might I also say that badminton is rediculously popular in Japan? I'm not sure why, but everywhere I looked people were either playing badminton, catch, or frisbee.
I want to play games in the park. I will try to organize something with friends before too long.
Again, with the books...
So, I was thinking...
...which usually ends in another change to book one. I remember a time when I vowed not to touch it until I was done with book two...but that time is long past.
Those who follow may know that I recently added to chapter one. Well, it's too long. I realize this, so I decided that the latter half of chapter one will be combined with a new scene involving Bay to make chapter two. Will I keep this new scene? I don't know. At least the chapter split will probably stay.
Objectve: I need to show Rizellen as a place that has suffered from 500 years of war. I don't think I actually mentioned that in canon, I just keep mentioning the Great War. Well, Rizellen is torn up by that war, and the monarchy is turning her eyes outward rather than seeing to the problems of her people, and the noble class are not concerned. I added a small bit to the ballroom scene, but that won't be enough. I figured there are three ways to do this:
1. Add a scene with Bay before Shieran Laide (Shiro's town).
2. Expand Arianna and Tashda's journey to Shieran Laide, have her see her people.
3. Expand Arianna and Shiro's journey back to Rizellen (after Danaiei).
One, two, or all three? I'm not sure.
Job, Job, Job....
HOLY WORKFORCE, BATMAN!
Guess who might have a new job?
ME! Of course it was going to be me. If it wasn't me it would have been someone else whose job status would directly affect me, like my dad, or Obama.
Here's the deal: on Sunday evening, I'm meeting with someone (hopefully not someone creepy) in order to work out editing a translated manga in order to make the dialogue more natural. Basically, I'll be the translation editor and work to make the characters' English more appropriate for each character. I have my fingers crossed that this job pulls through because it sounds like a blast, and it also could give me more publishing credentials, especially if this is an organization and not just a private group. We'll see about the details later, but I'm hoping.
If it's tentacle porn, I'll have to decline.
Karaoke in Japan
For those who have never had the chance to experience Karaoke in Japan, here's a little taste! The blacklight is very interesting...but there wasn't any air conditioner in this one for some reason (there usually is), so we got really warm because we were all so energetic. Alas, we did not get Katie's rendition of "Cruella Deville", which was awesome.