Tag Archives: Original Work: Blood of Destinies Rewritten

WIP Wednesday #7

Posted on by
Reply

Time to Read:

10–15 minutes

I skipped the whole winter, but hey, here I am!

To be honest, I get sick so easily that even as I’m writing this, I’ve still got a runny nose, a cough, a sore throat, a headache, and bone-deep exhaustion. It’s hardly any different from back when I wrote my goals for the year over 3 months ago. So if I sound a bit loopy, it’s because I still haven’t fully recovered. I think I’m getting there though.

Before I start for real, though, let me just suggest you donate. More about that in the Behind the Scenes section.

WIPs

Last month, I got a comment here on the site. I replied back then, but I want to take a moment to reflect on it. It’s not to stir the pot or start drama. I essentially wrote the below at the time as well, but more focused on the post itself that got the comment. This, I suppose, is a bit more general.

First of all, I like people commenting. I enjoy discussion. I think people disagreeing with me or having different interpretations of what I consume is fun! Getting my interpretation challenged isn’t a bad thing. I very much welcome it, especially if it helps generate a dialogue. This also applies to criticism, as long as it’s constructive. Fiction — and reviews of it — will never benefit from echo chambers. It’s instead unhealthy and critical thinking withers quickly when there’s no discussion of viewpoints.

Besides, I don’t expect anyone to like the exact same things as I do, nor do I believe my opinion is superior. It’s in fact very likely people don’t like some parts that I do, or they might like the same type of content I do, but only partially. Maybe we like the same type of otome games, but have wildly different opinions on what light-novels featuring otome games are good, or we like different types of romanceable men, but enjoy the same types of plotlines. All this should be common sense, but common sense is only limitedly common, so I guess I have to say this part out loud (as I have certainly done before, but it’s been a while).

However, when a comment’s message boils down to, “I don’t like this review, because other people dislike this genre” while sort of putting the blame on me by telling me to, “do better”, it’s not constructive nor does it open a discussion. It’s not productive and doesn’t even engage with the content I actually create. It’s just finger-wagging. If I wanted that, I’d go ask my aunt about religion.

I decided to reply to it at the time, because I am, as I have always been, open about the fact that I am a human being. This is really stating the obvious, but… Here we are. I have human emotions and hence, regardless of what others may claim, I have biases. Everyone does.

Truth is, that means I cater to a certain group of people — those who enjoy the same things wholly or partially — while offering a singular opinion based on my interpretation of the content I review.

I have more than once been open about the fact that, when it comes to romance, I prefer there being at least one male or masc-identifying character in the dynamic. This is why my preferences will always lean toward heteroromantic media, Boys Love and MLM. Thus, this is also the target audience I have.

This isn’t a place primarily for people interested in all queer media, nor for people only interested in queer media. That’s not my lane.

Do I hate Girls Love, baihe or WLW because I like BL more? No. That’s like telling me I hate tofu because I can’t stand peanuts. Sure, they’re both legumes but I can still dislike peanuts because I can’t stand the smell, and like soy-based products. And honestly, I can’t handle all soy-based products because they make me feel ill — that’s on my body, not the soy beans or the way they’ve been processed. Likewise, I’m not going to pretend I like GL the same way I like BL or just as much. And I don’t even like all BL equally. I lean dark and gritty, or swing entirely in the opposite direction and go for romcom, and even then it’s as a subplot. I’m not a romance person; that’s just how I’m wired.

So saying that “this is GL, so don’t read it if you’re uncomfortable with that” isn’t “disdain”. It’s a courtesy. Especially if my blurb or the cover is ambiguous. People aren’t going to read the tags a lot of the time. If they did, I wouldn’t even need to write the title of what I was reviewing! Just, you know, read the tags! But that’s just an inconvenience for everyone. In the end, I’m not gatekeeping, just making things clear.

Let’s be real for a moment: not everyone is comfortable with every sort of pairing. Comfort zones are a thing in the content we consume, and this absolutely applies to GL, BL, het, kink, poly, or whatever else you may like. And that’s okay. Not being comfortable consuming certain content is not the same as being uncomfortable with it in real life. You shouldn’t conflate the two, because it would be really weird if someone immersed themself in another person’s love life in real life, the same way they can immerse themself in a character and their love life. Like, it would be incredibly creepy to do the former — the latter is healthy normal behaviour.

So, if the argument is “if you like BL, you have to like GL” or anything along those lines, then the argument can just as well be “if you like sweet romance, you must like dark romance” or “if you like human romance, you got to like monster erotica” but they’re all nonsense arguments. People can like their eggs scrambled, boiled, sunny-side up, every way, or not at all. And that… is all fine and perfectly valid.

As I see it, this shows an issue that’s further widespread, though. It’s a combination of not thinking critically, of dehumanising content creators, a steady nosedive in media literacy, people not acknowledging their own biases, feeling a need to hate on people with differing opinions, and people trying to either create drama or not knowing how criticism should be made. I can’t increase media literacy, but I think it should be obvious enough that I don’t expect people to think the same way I do. I literally acknowledge that people like The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System in my reviews of the books, and say in my review of the fourth one that I understand why people like it, but I still hate it passionately.

Anyway, this was just a really long build-up to say I’ve been working on a new Q&A page. I already planned on making a new one — the current version is nearly a decade old. It was just bumped up to a high-priority spot on my to-do list. I hope to publish it soon. I still want to check through the old one for any reusable questions, but the new format will be more compact and reader-friendly — like my Terminology page, with toggle sections for each Q&A.

Now, how do I smoothly move on to my other sort of work… eh… I don’t think there’s a smooth way to move to the next item on my list. So I won’t even try.

Aside from the Q&A, I’ve also been writing. I have three things I’ve worked on recently.

One is another Blood of Destinies Rewritten author fic. It’s set in the canon setting, but is, naturally, not canon. I have also read through two of my canon divergent ones and want to post them soon. I haven’t worked on The Amnesia Tonic though. Oops? I guess the tonic is fermenting.

The next one to bring up is I Summoned a Demon, who Made Me Sign a Contract, which is my omegaverse one. I have been editing chapter 1, trying to trim it down a bit. I’m almost done, at the time of writing and may have moved onto chapter 2 by the time this posts.

I have also worked on more chapters for it and have worked on what I realised will be a second arc. I realised recently that what I had written was really mostly arc 1. Should have been sort of obvious to me, but apparently not??

And finally.

Remember I would only write one omegaverse story? Ah, well… about that. I started writing a werewolf one set in the same setting as above, just a wholly different part of that world. I’m currently posting it on AO3. Tear My Heart Gently is just a lot of hurt. Total emotional carnage. I mean, it’ll get better, but it’s definitely one of those where it only gets worse before it can get better. I’m enjoying destroying Yuriy’s life.

I have also created a few other things since October: I have an idea for a third one in the above setting and it’s dark, I have written on a somewhat silly little story involving a buff flower shop keeper and a demon, and of course I’ve also written the flash fic the refrigerator.

WIP Quote

“How primitive,” I commented, looking at the spells, interrupting Jasper, who had gone off on some tangent about calligraphy used in “medieval” times.

“…”

Jasper stared at me for a long time, allowing me to gaze back at him.

He really had many features akin to elves, but his violet eyes weren’t. Where they came from, I had no idea — he said his mother had green eyes, but presuming it was from his father’s side was silly. If direct lineage mattered so much, I wouldn’t have black hair.

“Calligraphy isn’t primitive,” Jasper eventually said.

“Cheap little stone, I meant these incantations. Never speak any of them ever. With how your spell circle work looked, you would kill someone and yourself in the process of heating a cup of tea.”

“There were spells in here for heating tea??”

“No. Obviously not.”

Jasper gave me a helpless look before he asked, “Okay, so why do you call these primitive?”

I got my phone out and opened my app with stored spell circles. I lifted one out and let it hang vertically in the air.

“This is a commercial spell. Anyone can use it as is.”

“Your world sells spells?”

“What exactly is the difference between selling a spell book and a spell circle for everyone to use?” I fired back.

“Fair.” Jasper looked at the spell spinning in the air. “So what does this do?”

“Heat water,” I said simply. “‘Tis very useful and stands on its own. Once activated, it will only do a limited amount of heat while it also has a large margin of error, so even if someone copies it slightly off-centre it will not kill anyone. Though with your specific type of lopsided circles, I daresay ‘tis still a death trap.”

“Ah… You mean I’d set the house on fire.” Jasper nodded.

From chapter “Orion 12” of I Summoned a Demon, Who Made Me Sign a Contract

Behind the Scenes

It’s that time of year. You know the one — annual site bills coming up. They aren’t due to the same month, but I pay both in May, usually. One is for the domain, the other is for WordPress’ Starter plan. I remember when that was called a Personal plan, but they added a new tier and called that Personal. I feel like I honestly lost some features, but I don’t quite remember. Lovely. Not.

I talked about it last year with my husband, agonising about the fact that I need some of the features on the next tier, or at least that I can pay for individually, but I wasn’t sure then if I could cover the expenses for the domain and the plan back then, and I don’t know now either. I rely on the money kind people donate to keep the site ad free and for the domain — and, honestly, to have any newly released review material too.

So, if you have a spare couple of Euro, I’d be eternally thankful if you donate them through PayPal or Ko-fi.

You can give a comment if you want to see more of something, and I’ll try to prioritise that. It can be what you might want to see me review, or it can be wanting to see more of my creative writing or encourage me to post my art portfolio already (that’s long overdue, I know). I don’t take requests, but I do take recommendations.

This applies to anyone, not just donors. You can tag me on Twitter or Bluesky to ask if I plan on reading/watching/playing a title or recommend I do. If you have a service you want me to review, feel free to let me know about that as well!

Other than agony over the upcoming site bills, I am also agonising over the World Anvil one. It’s also this summer. April through August is probably just deep financial anxiety and agony for me every year.

Additionally, me and my husband are looking for a place to move to. We’ve done this for a while now, and the plan was really to move this year, but his university messed with him so he can’t graduate this spring. Next year, fingers crossed.

And when this post goes up, it’s Easter Break, so I’m not entirely free, but hey, I’m trying to get things done anyway.

Currently…

Reading

  • Thriller Tour Group (JJWXC)
  • Kai-hen Wizards (VIZ Manga)
  • Dawning Vol. 2
  • Case File Compendium Vol. 1
  • Case File Compendium (JJWXC)
  • The Husky and His White Cat Shizun Vol. 1
  • Remnants of Filth Vol. 1
  • Case Files of Jeweler Richard Vol. 1
  • Hello, I am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion Vol. 1
  • Magi (VIZ Manga)
  • My Special One (VIZ Manga)
  • Komi Can’t Communicate (VIZ Manga)
  • Heaven Official’s Blessing Vol. 1 (Re-read)
  • Golden Terrace Vol. 2 (Re-read)
  • A lot of fan translations
  • No webcomics

Watching

  • Ouran High School Host Club
  • Tiger and Bunny
  • Dead Boy Detectives
  • Ojamajo Doremi
  • Wonderful Precure!

Playing

  • The Sims 4
  • Tales of Zestiria
  • Persona 5
  • DRAMAtical Murder
  • Boyfriend Dungeon

Recently dropped

 N/A

Recently finished

  • Dawning Vol. 1

WIP Wednesday #6

Posted on by
Reply

Time to Read:

6–10 minutes

WIPs

Recently I’ve been posting The Amnesia Tonic, but I had to put that a little to the side for a while. I’ve gotten back to a little bit, but I’ve had to focus on other matters, which has resulted in the posting being temporarily halted. I hope to get the sixth chapter up before the end of the month. I also need to rewrite some chapter to combine them, and shorten the story slightly and remove some details. I might go back and do the same for older chapter too, but I’m not entire sure if I will. I don’t want it to be too long, after all. I might put 25k to 30k words as the roof, although I wanted to be around 15k.

I have also written on Blood of Destinies Rewritten and a scene with U’il-šanad being the age of 15, near the New Year celebrations. I wanted to worldbuild some instruments and because I couldn’t draw any at the time when I wanted to, I wrote instead. For context, The New Year is according to the Fubaž the first full moon after the March equinox. I haven’t decided if the story is a side story or a story part of the flashbacks in the main story yet. I’m leaning toward the former.

Related to this, I’ve been working on conlanging for the language the speak in Zuladiar at the time of Blood of Destinies Rewritten. I’ve been working on the vocabulary some, as well as developing the syntax, mophology, and phonology. I have made decisions about how morphemes are used as well. A feature in my document that I’m making is actually including things like etymology. An example of this is the word ažerlü, which is the name of the First Blood Prince and U’il’-šanad’s eldest brother, which developed from morphemes that make the meaning of the word literally translate to “limbed sky fish”. That’s what they see a dragon as, a limbed sky fish. I thought things like this would be a lot of fun. I’ll likely, eventually, make the document public, in a distant future. Or “Soon” ™.

In terms of my Mahou Shoujo Guide, I’ve worked on transferring data from my old spreadsheets to my Notion-based database. It’s taking a lot of time, especially since I have nearly 10 years of updating to do as well, and so I need to add entires that have appeared since I last worked on the research project in 2015, which is quite a lot of new entries. I’d be more than happy to hear if there are any magical girl titles (Japanese or otherwise) that have appeared ins 2015 that you’d like to mention. But god, I’ll need to catch up to a whole decade in my research. The genre can very well have changed massived in this time.

I posted the review of Da Feng Gua Guo’s Peach Blossom Debt yesterday! Finally! I needed to rewrite a lot of it because I had only read half of the book when i wrote the review originally. then I read the rest, and needed to change some things.

In the time I kept procrastinating that review, I finished priest’s Guardian Vol. 2 and that post will be available tomorrow. I didn’t write in the review, but I think it’s already a given that I will be reading the final book of Guardian. I mean, I read all of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, and Guardian is easier to digest. I don’t want to throw the volumes of Guardian on the ground, stomp on the  and set them on fire after all.

But on the topic of priest novels, I’m stoked about Silent Reading being licensed. I’m curious about who the translator will be. I’m slowly developing preference of danmei translators, so some are more exciting than other. Well, I’ll see who it is, eventually.

WIP Quote

The prince raised his sleeve to chuckle behind it. “I only know a few notes. It is nothing to pride myself upon.”

Çetžak knew better than to try to say otherwise, so he played along, saying, “Even these handful of notes are enough to make the most beautiful performance for any one person’s eyes and ears.”

The prince smiles behind his sleeve. “You flatter me, Züčan; I am not that good-looking.”

“If Your Highness says so,” Çetžak replied conscientiously, even though he was inclined to disagree. He then changed subjects, given the price another once-over. “Are you not cold?”

Before the prince had even responded the guard removed his own wool cloak and stood up. He had to bow in front of U’il-šanad to properly fasten it around the prince’s shoulders.

“Do not catch a cold, Your Highness. Your servants will be held accountable for the offense if it is a severe illness.”

From Blood of Destinies Rewritten

Behind the Scenes

Recently, the kids went back to school and naturally… I got sick. However, my doctor updated my medical leave during these past few weeks, so for a few more months I can be sick a lot without too many worries, I hope. I’ve also applied for disability benefits. I expect just about nothing coming out of that, but it’s worth trying anyway, especially as my husband and I have plans on moving together as soon as physically and financially possible, and the benefits would help the household a little bit.

On a more pleasant note, it’s what I call chocolate season! That means autumn is here. I might drink hot chocolate all-year-round, but autumn and winter seem to be the best seasons for it. In fact, I would say that it’s more akin to winter being around the corner where I live. As soon as we go into October, it’s like everyone changes wardrobes from warmer season to colder season overnight. It’s always interesting to see. This year September was unusually warm, but October hasn’t been very warm. Just very rainy. And rain, of course, fits perfectly together with chocolate! Does anyone else have a specific winter half of the year kind of drink?

Something I’ve been trying to do is post daily on Twitter. The idea is to post on my art account, my author account or my blog’s account at least once. It’s been going so-so, but I’m doing my best. Some habits take extra effort and time to get into. I hope to expand it to posting more on Instagram in the future as well.

Books arriving from group order: Rosmei order through Happibess at Twitter, comment on Nan Chan vol 1 (fav novel) and How to Survive as a Villain vol 1( reviewed manhua twice already), and Do You Love Me vol 1 (new) if I have the book, otherwise share about waiting and Happibess experience.

Finally and most importantly! Earlier this year I made an order of some books from Rosmei. As they’re based in Singapore and have a license to distribute in Singapore, I needed to be part of a group order or use this one Polish store. The Polish store didn’t feel like a viable option, while the group order manager that Rosmei would ship to has a lot of positive feedback on Twitter, so naturally I picked Happibess! It was really pleasant, not gonna lie. I pre-ordered How to Survive as a Villain Vol. 1 because I’ve reviewed the manhua not once but twice and it makes sense to review at least the first volume of the original novel, Nan Chan Vol. 1 as it’s one of my favourite novels, and, as a wild card, Don’t You Like Me Vol. 1.

While I was still waiting for my order, I also took the opportunity to buy a café set that Happibess put up for sale, and had it waiting until my books could be shipped. They arrived last week, and there was so much stuff with the bonuses and everything!

I took the above picture for Twitter, which I also used on Instagram. To take it, I had to steal the bedside lamp because I don’t have great light at my workspace in the evening, but you can see everything I fit into my workspace. By the time this post is up (it’s the Sunday before at the time of writing), I’ve probably already started writing on my Nan Chan review, regardless of whether I finished it yet. I haven’t decided which of the others to read after Nan Chan, so if you have a preference, let me know!

Currently…

Reading

  • Nan Chan Vol. 1
  • Case File Compendium Vol. 1
  • Case File Compendium (JJWXC)
  • The Husky and His White Cat Shizun Vol. 1
  • Remnants of Filth Vol. 1
  • Case Files of Jeweler Richard Vol. 1
  • Hello, I am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion Vol. 1
  • Magi (VIZ Manga)
  • My Special One (VIZ Manga)
  • Komi Can’t Communicate (VIZ Manga)
  • Heaven Official’s Blessing Vol. 1 (Re-read)
  • Golden Terrace Vol. 2 (Re-read)
  • A lot of fan translations
  • No webcomics

Watching

  • Ouran High School Host Club
  • Tiger and Bunny
  • Dead Boy Detectives
  • Ojamajo Doremi
  • Wonderful Precure!

Playing

  • Tales of Zestiria
  • Persona 5
  • DRAMAtical Murder
  • Boyfriend Dungeon

Recently dropped

 N/A

Recently finished

  • Peach Blossom Debt
  • Guardian Vol. 2

WIP Wednesday #5

Posted on by
Reply

Time to Read:

4–6 minutes

WIPs

What can I say about August? Well, I sure didn’t play DRAMAtical Murder and I didn’t finish Peach Blossom Debt, but at least I have started a draft for the latter!

In terms of writing, I have mostly worked on… Well, I think that might be quite obvious, as I’ve started serialising the author’s fic The Amnesia Tonic. I haven’t worked on much else in the past two weeks.

I have, however, expanded on the medical worldbuilding of Zuladiar while writing The Amnesia Tonic and it’s frankly been pretty interesting. Trying to create a medical practice that fits the place, culture and time isn’t the easiest but it’s honestly quite fun and at times disturbing to look into ancient medical practices.

I then have to mix in actual magic into this, which gives it a bit of a different flavour, but I try to keep it pretty down to earth since the magical alternate timeline I have for The Universe doesn’t include miraculous healing… for the most part. I can’t just shove the idea to the side, since there are miracles that are claimed to have happened, so I’m leaving room open for actually writing about such miracles.

I have also worked on an article for the Wiki about materials used in Zuladiar and for what, further considered how their cities are constructed (as in literal construction) and other such matters.

Something I’ve done a lot is look at Instagram of people doing art. Seems a little odd, perhaps, but it gives me motivation to work on art. I have worked on a self-portrait among other things, but I still need to finish it. I’ll do it Soon (TM). I like looking at the reels with watercolour and linework. I also follow a few artists who use alcohol markers. These are some of my favourite tools I used when I still primarily worked with traditional tools. It’s also what I primarily want to imitate when I work digitally. Maybe not so much linework, but markers and watercolours.

Finally, since I caught up on Nomads and Empires in the past few weeks, so I went on to listen to The History of China. It’s rather interesting, though it also is relatively unimportant to my writing. I just thought I’d mention that, since even if only indirectly, Chinese history does affect the stories I’ve set on the Eurasian Steppe.

WIP Quote

“Captain,” a man’s voice near Çetžak spoke up. There was a pause before the man repeated, “Captain?” The man coughed quietly and called out again. “Captain Züčan?”

With a jolt, Çetžak realised, he was the one addressed, and he turned to see Židad, still looking older than he remembered the man had been last time he saw him, standing a respectful distance away from him. He held his hand behind his back and looked at the scene, scanning the environment with his eyes.

“Yes, Židad, what is it?” He paused. “No, is it ‘Lieutenant’ now?”

“You still call me by name at this age, Captain,” Židad helpfully explained. “That has never changed, even after you left the Ažamür Cavalry at sixteen.”

Çetžak was left stunned by the revelation he had left the Cavalry when he was sixteen. He vaguely recalled his šüssad had mentioned that Çetžak might be transferred to a different military unit to improve his skill and rise in ranks, but he hadn’t got the sense that he was supposed to leave the Cavalry altogether, and that it was at a somewhat older age.

He opened his mouth, then closed it, at a loss for words.

From “The Amnesia Tonic” Chapter 5

Behind the Scenes

This past month has essentially plagued me and my partner with preparations for the kids going back to school. It’s just been quite a lot.

I did have a birthday, though, and Mini and my partner came over to spend time with me, and that was it for the celebration. I did get to talk to my godmothers as they called from Finland and it’s honestly one of the few things I look forward to when my birthday comes around since I don’t have that many people who speak Finnish around me.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve got so much on my mind and too many balls to juggle, but I’ve noticed that I’m bad at getting anything done unless I explicitly write it down into a list and check each thing off. As soon as I stop, I get really bad at accomplishing anything because I focus on everything thrown at me instead or just get overwhelmed.

So I’ve been writing down the tasks that need to be done in my thought journal. Even if I don’t constantly look at it, that really allows me to focus on the important matters for the day. It also helps with my mental health, which in turn makes things easier to deal with in general.

Except for my cat. She’s such a pain because she’s loud and sounds like a wailing baby. Someone give me a cat that isn’t possessed by the ghost of a crying infant. *sob*

Currently…

Reading

  • Peach Blossom Debt
  • Case File Compendium vol 1
  • Case File Compendium (JJWXC)
  • The Husky and His White Cat Shizun vol 1
  • Remnants of Filth vol 1
  • Case Files of Jeweler Richard vol 1
  • Hello, I am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion vol 1
  • Magi (VIZ Manga)
  • My Special One (VIZ Manga)
  • Komi Can’t Communicate (VIZ Manga)
  • Heaven Official’s Blessing vol 1 (Re-read)
  • Golden Terrace vol 2 (Re-read)
  • A lot of fan translations
  • No webcomics

Watching

  • Ouran High School Host Club
  • Tiger and Bunny
  • Dead Boy Detectives
  • Ojamajo Doremi

Playing

  • Tales of Zestiria
  • Persona 5
  • DRAMAtical Murder
  • Boyfriend Dungeon

Recently dropped

 N/A

Recently finished

N/A

WIP Wednesday #4

Posted on by
Reply

Time to Read:

3–5 minutes


I’ve seem to be able to somehow manage this things with WIP updates. Now I’ll just need more reviews too…

WIPs

ln the month of July, I ended up doing less than I had planned. I did finish writing an article for my Wiki for the world of Blood of Destinies Rewritten. I am still working on some related articles to that.

But I’d say I’ve been more researching this time around that I’ve done writing. In particular, I’ve listened to the Nomads and Empires Podcast, which is about the history of the Eurasian Steppe. It’s been really interesting and cover a lot of my own background research that I’ve done for BoDR, but it’s nice to get some things I’ve missed, as most of my BoDR research falls into the two or three centuries leading up to the 11th century, since it’s only been a brief dive into the earlier history to be able to work with the alternate history timeline. The podcast isn’t frequently updated, so it’s obviously not exactly my source material, but it does offer me some insight into material I could look into later as well, if I’d like. It also does work quite well for me to listen to for my future work on Amarasha, since that one is set before BoDR and still on the Steppe.

I did ask on this blog’s Twitter account what to focus on in August and the result was DRAMAtical Murder, so, at the time I’m writing this post (on the first), I’ll try to finish Peach Blossom Debt in the next few days. If I’m lucky, by the time this actually posts, I’ve at the very least written the review even if it’s still not up.

WIP Quote

Nükiž is primarily known as the Deity of the Sun, and was according to the creation myth the first deity hatched from the primordial bird Žuktük’s eggs, creating the sun to shine light and warmth in the void.

Nükiž’s domain, other than the sun, is primarily that of knowledge and wisdom of various forms, and is the patron deity of anyone from scholars and writers to diviners and oracles, but is also a deity of unity and community.

Many of the Fubaž consider Nükiž essential and will worship and bring offerings to the deity a few times a year. They also consider a name given by Nükiž as more accurate a guide, so for the Sun Year of a child’s life, they will usually seek out a temple of Nükiž and the diviners there. Nükiž’s main temple is found in the Imperial Capital in the centra-western region, where the Holy Fire burns.

From the “Fubaž Deities” Page

Behind the Scenes

There’s not much to say. My birthday is on the ninth, and in less than two weeks the kids are going back to school. That means I’ll see my man more often again, which is going to be nice. It also mean there’s a lot of focus on preparing Mini for starting grade 1 and for him to get used to things. We’re lucky to have an understanding teacher, who offered to meet with us and Mini the week before school, so, you know, lots of stuff going on.

In addition to that I’ve struggled with IBS at the end of July and I sprained my left ring finger and wrist, while my right wrist suffered subluxations, as well. Makes writing a bit difficult and I can’t wroke on art for a few days, but I think that by the end of this week, i should be pretty good for getting back to things properly.

For my birthday, it’s all about Final Fantasy XIV which my man wants me to play, and which I’m kind of dying to return to. I look forward to playing it again once i got a sub, and I’m really happy my hubby enjoys at least one game of one of my favourite game series.

Currently…

Reading

  • Peach Blossom Debt
  • Remnants of Filth vol 1
  • Case Files of Jeweler Richard vol 1
  • Case File Compendium vol 1
  • Case File Compendium (JJWXC)
  • The Husky and His White Cat Shizun vol 1
  • Hello, I am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion vol 1
  • Magi (VIZ Manga)
  • My Special One (VIZ Manga)
  • Komi Can’t Communicate (VIZ Manga)
  • Heaven Official’s Blessing vol 1 (Re-read)
  • Golden Terrace vol 2 (Re-read)
  • A lot of fan translations
  • No webcomics

Watching

  • Ouran High School Host Club
  • Tiger and Bunny
  • Dead Boy Detectives
  • Ojamajo Doremi

Playing

  • Tales of Zestiria
  • Persona 5
  • DRAMAtical Murder
  • Boyfriend Dungeon

Recently dropped

 N/A

Recently finished

N/A

WIP Wednesday #3

Posted on by
Reply

Time to Read:

10–16 minutes


It’s been a while since I last posted here, but at least I can share this post to show I’m alive, in case you don’t follow me on Twitter. Though, to be honest I haven’t really been on Twitter much either.

I was supposed to post this before June, but it’s been sitting in my drafts since end of May. It already covered so much, I decided to just update it even more to cover all of June as well.

WIPs

Since last time, I’ve been working on a few different projects. One of them is *checks notes* one with the project “code” Secret Project #8. As with any of my “secret” projects, it’s something I talk about from time to time. The thing with these projects is that I just kind of mention working on it and small details, but don’t give any context. Or very little context. Now, I guess I’ll be giving some information, though.

It’s also known as Epic WIP #2, which I know isn’t a fully unfamiliar title my and Erika’s Discord server.

Originally, I was planning on integrating it into something else, like having it as a side story in When the World Falls, I’ll be Safe from the Wrath of God, but I opted for making it its own story. I call it epic, because much like my Epic WIP #1, WWFSFG, it involves a lot of travel and is going to be long. Also much like WWFSFG, it is in its very own world, and doesn’t happen in my fantastical alternate history universe, where my stories predominantly do happen, including the ones you might not think are in that universe.

It’s written with the gameplay system of a video game with bosses in mind, I’ll admit. I have written out the entire story in a draft which I’m currently expanding a bit, but when I start writing it “ for real”, meaning in more detail, I’ll likely make a lot of decision and fill in many gaps using dice, a deck of playing cards and a deck of tarot cards. I guess it’s a bit like a structured solo-RPG and the story written is the journal of it.

I suppose that, in case anyone would like to read that as I work on it and read my very rough early stage writing that can have both too many and too few details, I could post it as I finished writing through each chapter.

But speaking of not happening in the main world I’ve built, I’ve also worked on the WIP with the incredibly descriptive title I Summoned a Demon, Who Made Me Sign a Contract. I don’t have a abbreviation for this. ISaDWMMSaC is very long too and isn’t as easy to type as WWFSFG. I just call it a mix of things, like “Demon WIP” and “Summoning WIP” or “that WIP” and “Jasper and Orion”.

This WIP is half a guilty pleasure to work on (no, it’s not really one), because it’s likely the only omegaverse title I’ll write. I’ve already mentioned at least on Tumblr that I’m in my omegaverse era. And I’m obviously not thinking of the “sexy” straight, western stuff. I honestly find it quite fascinating, the more I read anything set in omegaverses. Putting aside the fact that the alpha-omega theory in wolves is absolute bs that has been admitted to be wrong and the original researcher even spent time afterward just to prove his own observations to be wrong, the way ABO dynamics can say a lot about our own society and people’s views of society are incredibly interesting aspects.

With this in mind, it’s no surprise that I would introduce a cultural clash in Demon WIP with the summoning thing, is it? People dealing with differences in culture is a running theme in my stories, I think. Not always, but often, even if the culture might be on a small scale. Culture, see, is something that can be both within a group of people, and a large population, and cultural clash is an excellent possibility to make a character think and grow. Answard in WWFSFG comes across this a lot. He also literally travels across the world he’s in, so he’s bound to come across many new schools of thoughts, ways of life, religious believs, social structues and so on. Culture is a literal theme in that story, together with loneliness and trauma.

In any case, I’ve been working on Demon WIP, especially at the end of May. I’m slowly crawling out of a really depressed state after having spent months upon months getting sick and then having had to deal with Mini’s school. I love that one, because Jasper, the protagonist, has a lot of chaotic energy. It’s a multi-POV story where all chapters except the prologue and epilogue are written in first person and Jasper’s POV is a lot of fun because of his internal commentary and thoughts. Orion’s POV is much calmer and more collected and he tries to rationalise everything, so it can even be a bit jarring. Their POVs are also written in vastly different ways because they’re very different individuals with different linguistic quirks and backgrounds.

Don’t think it’s all fluff and fun. It’s supposed to be comedic, but would it really be my work if I didn’t make them suffer a bit, both in their backstories and their current life? Well, perhaps play with language and finding your place in the world makes it more my story than the suffering, who knows?

Aside from Demon WIP and Epic WIP #2, though, I’ve also worked on Blood of Destinies Rewritten a little, but a large part of the first two thirds of June actually went to writing a 6 page essay to Mini’s school, and after that I suffered slight burn out, I think. However, in the last past 2 weeks I’ve also worked a little on Beyond the Horizon and the next part of the story, and as July began I also took upon myself to work on a piece of anon fanfic, which I will say absolutely nothing about because it’s anon for a reason. I have other fanfic I’ll likely get to as well… eventually. When I do, I might link to those, maybe.

I do think that sums up most of my WIP work.

WIP Quote

But isn’t your twenty-first birthday just the best day to give demon summoning a try?

Others go out drinking, so who can blame me? This is probably safer for my health.

A summoning circle needed a considerable amount of space, I figured, so I started to move desks out of the way. I was doing this very much on the fly, so I would just use the whiteboard markers.

This way, I could also try if demon summoning could be done with minimal tools, or if I would need more of them.

I must have run on adrenaline, because I kept moving desks as if I lifted regularly, but I hadn’t even been able to run up a few steps.

A quarter to nine I had my space. I calculated that it gave me about an hour to draw out the summoning circle. I took out the book, opening the page on what I had picked and looked at the circle.

It shouldn’t too complex, but I had to do it on a larger scale, free-hand, and on the floor.

Great.

—from I Summoned a Demon, Who Made Me Sign a Contract

Behind the Scenes

On the life side of things, I have ordered all the colours for Mini’s blanket and they have been approved by him. I hadn’t worked on it for a while, but picked it up again in June, I think. Now we got 125 out of 300 squares done, with a border that will make me able to attach them to each other on 33 of them. I’m waiting for the enxt time Mini will be here so he can decide on which colour I’ll work on next. So far we got yellow, light green, navy, cerise, and red, with the borders being white.

I admit I really look forward to seeing how he’ll use his 300 squares, as he can decide the placement of them, as long as the blanket is 15 x 20 squares.

Additionally, school is obviously over for the term, which means it’s summer vacation and I suppose I’m actually busier again. I hope to get a review or two up before the end of this season, but I’m quite slow due to my current mental health situation and needing to heal and balance everything. Having something to do and having a goal with it, like posting a review does help, though. I just need to push myself a bit more. And I don’t mean that as pushing myself past my limits, but pushing myself out of inertia.

I do have a series of posts I’m working on. Because of CORONA EX, I wanted to make a post about AI in translation, and Cas sent me a link to an article that related to AI in writing, which made me want to expand the topic. And yet I’m currently working on an AI generated images post and when it’s fine to use it and when it’s not. Controversial, I know, but I think it’s important to recognise tools for what they are, and that just because not everyone needs a crutch to move about, that doesn’t mean we should get rid of all crutches in the world. Well, that summed up my future post quite well. All of them, probably. And ironically, it’s Disability Pride Month too, so that crutch analogy was just… yeah.

Anyway, up until summer vacation I usually spent my mornings drinking chocolate and tea and eating something while my partner worked on his schoolwork. We could have long discussion on (generative) AI when it came up. We still can when we happen to be in the same room and don’t need to stare at our ADHD son. I guess that’s what should be expected when one is an artist/writer and the other is a programmer who plans on going into AI and machine learning once finished with his degree. We just in general talk about it, not just generative AI, though, so my insight is somewhat different than if all you think of is like generative AI and something from films or the like.

We also talked about other things, like how the kids did at school, how it’ll go after the summer, how to support them better, how we’re feeling, and stuff like that. You know, basic communication between spouses with children.

These talks were basically my inspiration and motivation for the afternoon. He also kind of made sure I actually got a nap in the middle of the day. So my day was basically divided in “chill time” before nap time and “do stuff” after it.

Now that’s much more difficult, because I don’t have that same routine, but I’m trying to make sure to somewhat divide it similarly, and, in particular, I’ve been working on trying to actually sleep at night. Sleeping is especially difficult for me in summer because the sun never fully sets, but at the very least I had a good night’s sleep last night. So, win!

As an aside, A month and a half ago I ordered a bunch of books, but the tracking never got it scanned. After 11 days (on May 21), I contacted the place I order my books at, and they sent my order again for free a few days later. Some things needed to be backordered, because they weren’t in stock, so they sent it all in four packages. Ironically three of those were sent on the same day and the fourth one the morning after. You can find which books I got on my Instagram, where I usually post when I get new books.

I also have got my Roubao Tarot package, which was a fan merchandise project with a tarot deck, fanfic book, and additionally also a bookmark. It was originally in Sweden in January, but I got sick, so it got sent back. I contacted the people who had worked on it and asked, with literally no expectations, if they would send it again if it returned. They would, if it returned. Not the if. It did return, and I paid the shipping for it to be sent once more after it being essentially lost after like 4 months. So that was a thing too.

I haven’t done much else, and now it’s already July. I wanted to make a master list of all the LGBTQ+ works I had reviewed for June because of Pride Month, but that didn’t happen, and now it’s July, which I already mentioned is Disability Pride Month. That doesn’t really constitute much of a master list at this time, because I don’t have that much to offer in terms of suggestions on what to read, but I’ll still take this moment to randomly plug Golden Terrace, because Fu Shen is such a badass disabled general.

I’ll try to get soem reviews up. First ought to be Peach Blossom Debt, I think, but I might end up taking some other book up as my main read, because I’ve been reading PBD on and off since March. It’s not bad, I’m just bad at reading it. I’m leaning toward just reading Case File Compendium 1 and Guardian 2. But for a while my focus will be Final Fantasy XI. Yes, XI, not XIV. I can’t afford XIV at the moment, and it’s been at least 15 years since I played XI, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to start over since I lost my access to my original account and I needed to get the ultimate edition f I wanted to pay all of it later anyway. I will probably give you my thoughts on FFXI after I’ve played the trial.

That’s it for this post, I suppose. I’d like to hear what you’ve been up to through April, May and June, so share a comment below if anything interesting happened in your life during these months.

Currently…

Reading

  • Peach Blossom Debt
  • Remnants of Filth vol 1
  • Case Files of Jeweler Richard vol 1
  • Case File Compendium vol 1
  • Case File Compendium (JJWXC)
  • The Husky and His White Cat Shizun vol 1
  • Hello, I am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion vol 1
  • Magi (VIZ Manga)
  • Komi Can’t Communicate (VIZ Manga)
  • Heaven Official’s Blessing vol 1 (Re-read)
  • Golden Terrace vol 2 (Re-read)
  • A lot of fan translations
  • No webcomics

Watching

  • Ouran High School Host Club
  • Tiger and Bunny
  • Dead Boy Detectives
  • Ojamajo Doremi

Playing

  • Tales of Zestiria
  • Persona 5
  • DRAMAtical Murder
  • Boyfriend Dungeon

Recently dropped

 N/A

Recently finished

N/A

[BoDR] Celebrating the Solstice

Posted on by
Reply

Time to Read:

1–2 minutes

Hello! I’m actually on holiday. I haven’t shared that, but now you know anyway. The reason is that I fractured my rib again, so I need time to heal.

That said, I wanted to share something so I took the time to write this very, very lengthy worldbuilding post.

I took a lot of time.

Too much a lot of time.

So much so I’m posting this late.

Anyway. *clears throat to go into storyteller mode*

Let’s turn back time; let’s step a thousand years into the past and jump to a different timeline in our history.

When we do this, we end up in Zualu Diar, a large empire in Central Asia. Affected by cultures around them as well as their own original beliefs and traditions, we find them celebrate the June Solstice. To them, it’s a summer celebration, and a celebration related to the Deity of the Sun, Nükiž.

Now, the people in Zuladiar are many and a wide array of people, so traditions are various and I can’t include them all, but I wanted to share some different things about how they celebrate the June Solstice — or “to burn darkness”, Naral Židad, as they call the celebration.

With that, I’ll just dive right into the world of my novel Blood of Destinies Rewritten and their celebration now!

Continue reading →