Tag Archives: Original Work: I Summoned a Demon Who Made Me Sign a Contract (meta)

WIP Wednesday #7

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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 #3

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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