Reborn City: Halfway on the Edits

Posted: October 11, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I just finished editing chapter twelve of Reborn City, officially putting me halfway through the editing process before I hand it off to someone to look at. Most of the chapters have already had three or four drafts, but as I look over each and every chapter, I see pieces that could be polished a little, where the phrasing is a little awkward or where something doesn’t make sense. It’s been something fixing these over, but I’ve been able to make some improvements and I’m seeing the story I started in high school slowly becoming better and better.

Speaking of which, Reborn City was written from my sophomore year to my senior year of high school (I took long breaks as necessary for school work, short story projects, a summer in Israel, and sometimes when I was just too exhausted to write and just wanted to enjoy someone else’s work for a change). I can still see some of my writing style from when I was in high school in the words I wrote then, and it’s pretty different from my current voice. I guess you can attribute that to the fact that I’ve gotten some life experience, so of course my voice changed a bit.

But anyway, I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. I’m still not sure when Reborn City will be available for download as an e-book yet,  but I hope it’ll be by mid-March by next year, if I can get these edits done quickly and I can get my publishing press set up without too much trouble.

I’ll let you guys know when chapters 13-23 and the epilogue are edited. Stay tuned for more!

Critiquing In My Creative Writing Class

Posted: October 10, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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“God, I love what you’ve written. I do have some thoughts though…first off, can we maybe have less commandments? Twenty-seven’s a little much to remember and recite!”

For the first half of my creative writing class this semester, we’ve been going over some of the fundamentals of writing fiction, including plot, dialogue, and characters, among other things. We’ve also been told to each write a shorty story between 8 and 20 pages, or 2,000 and 5,000 words, and while I certainly had trouble writing my story, mostly because it’s literary, I’ve been enjoying reading and critiquing the stories of my classmates.

We’ve actually only read 4 stories so far, but they’ve all been interesting in their own way. There was a story about the rivalry between two princes, a vignette about a day in the life of a soldier, a crime story, and even one involving a virtual reality game. And later today we’re recieving a new story, so I’m wondering what that’s going to be about.

After we read the story, we have to type up a critique in the form of a letter and hand it in to both our teacher and the writer of the story in question. We also give our impressions orally to the writer during class, allowing them to absorb some more feedback before they start editing their story. Although I like getting critiqued myself (because I want to know what problems my stories have and what I can do to fix them), it’s another story entirely to critique someone else’s work (pun intended). I like the feeling of helping someone improve a story they wrote, especially if the story is good. And it’s different from when I look over my own work, because I’m not looking at my classmates’ work with a biased eye.

I’ll be turning in my own story for critiquing in early November, a few days before my science-fiction short story “Ripple” is set to hit the web. Between now and then, I’ll go over my story and do a few edits before I turn it in, because I like to give my short stories an edit or two before I turn them in for critiquing by anyone. But for now, I’ll just sit back, get my homework done, and critique other people’s work.

What about you? Have you ever been critiqued or critiqued someone else’s work? How does it feel when you do?

President Obama At Ohio State

Posted: October 9, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership
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Isn’t that the most winning smile? Too bad I didn’t take it with my own camera.

Unfortunately, I have no photos. Well, I do, but they were taken from a great distance with a camera that’s better suited for close-range shots. So all I have are some grainy images that are a little shaky. So, instead of showing you those, I decided to go with a stock photo from Google Images (above).

Okay, so President Obama’s speech at OSU. I’m assuming you wanted to know the details, since you’re reading this post. Well, I got into line around 1, which extended around Thompson Library, across the street to Lazenby Hall, around the corner from that, and heading back to whatever’s beyond that. I entered line around the driveway for delivery trucks into Lazenby. There I saw a few friends whom I allowed to cut in line, and the usual pro-life protesters who always look like they just got back from a hunting party or tailgating. Around 2 the line started moving, and I bought a decorative press pass from a vendor.

When we got to the Oval, where the speech would take place, we were halfway between Orton Hall, where Obama would be speaking, and University Hall, which was where everybody was entering and getting their bags checked. In short, I was in the middle of the crowd, which is why I got bad photos. In addition, everybody kept moving around, so at times I was getting squished by people saying “Excuse me” and shoving me and everyone else around them. Plus the weather decided to be like early September, so I’m a little sunburned.

But besides that, everything was great. First Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus came on and gave a little warm-up speech. Then we had the Pledge of Alliegance and the National Anthem. Some students, including one I knew from volunteering, made some speeches on how Obama’s policies were helping them get the education they needed. Senators John Glenn and Sherrod Brown also made speeches, which I thought were very good, though I thought Senator Brown said something that might come back to haunt him later: “If you’re here at this rally, it shows you are more knowledgeable about politics than your friends or family.” That’s paraphrased for brevity’s sake, but you can see why some might have a problem with that statement.

And then will.i.am, one of the Black Eyed Peas. showed up and started DJ-ing for the whole crowd, using his songs and others. It was an awesome time, awesome enough that we forgave him for DJ-ing from a small blue tent where no one from the audience could see him. After that, President Obama came out!

He stood up there, told us how important Ohio was, and how because of the auto bailout, 1 in 8 Ohio jobs were now automotive-related jobs. He also spoke about other policies of his that had benefited the American people, backed up his sayings with statistics, used examples from people he’d met on the campaign trail, and compared his plan for the future with Mitt Romney’s plan. He also brought up Big Bird, which got plenty of laughs from the audience (I swear, Governor Romney is never going to live that down).

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I may have stood for several hours, which brought up back pain, but I feel inspired and I’m so glad I voted about a week before the rally. And I bet a lot of other people felt inspired too, because after the rally there were buses that could take you to vote early, which many people got on (of course, they may have gotten on just because will.i.am was supposed to be DJ-ing there too, but I’m an optimist).

So that’s my day. And if you’re American and registered to vote, I urge you to do so, no matter who you’re supporting this election (though you know who I hope will win the election). Your vote counts, despite what you may think about voting in masses, and when you make your voice heard, you get the right to complain whenever something happens in Washington you don’t like.

Happy 30 days or so till Election Day, everybody.

President Obama’s Coming to OSU

Posted: October 9, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership
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Did you know the name Barack means “lightning” in Hebrew? So that means the President is “Lightning Obama”. Why do people say his name would be “Baruch” if he were Jewish?

Yes, President Barack Obama is coming to OSU today. This will be his third time visiting Ohio State in the past couple of months, so I’m super-excited that he’s coming this time. Why, you ask? Because this time I’ll actually going to be able to see and hear him speak! The first time I was working, so no way I could go; the second time I didn’t even know he was on campus, which I blame on lack of advertising; but the third time, it’s less than a month from election day and will.i.am’s supposed to open the darn thing, and no one’s sure if he’s giving a speech or a free concert. You bet I found out about it and that I got a ticket!

I don’t know what my readers’ political beliefs are or if you guys even like Obama, but I’ll tell everyone about it after the rally. They’re allowing cameras, so you bet I’ll be taking photos up the wazoo!

Hope to have good news later. Talk to you soon.

My Favorite Fantasy Stories

Posted: October 8, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, Review, Scary Stuff
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Anyone else wondering if Mickey Mouse is hiding behind a corner?

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of of books based on Celtic and Arthurian mythology. Knights, faeries, dragons, magic and wizards. I’ve been on a bit of a fantasy binge. So I’d thought I’d devote a post to some of my favorites…not including Harry Potter. Or Tolkein. Or Lewis. Or Game of Thrones. Why none of those, you may ask? Mostly because everybody’s read them and I don’t want to just tell people what everyone know. That, and I’ve only read two of the four mentioned.

So here’s my fantasy favorites, all for your enjoyment:

THE AGE OF MISRULE by Mark Chadbourn

Honestly one of the most interesting fantasy stories I’ve ever read, weaving together both Arthurian and Celtic myths with New Age philosophy and beliefs. In modern-day Britain, strange things start happening. Dragon in the sky…electricity failing mysteriously…technology going haywire…stepping out at night becoming an extreme sport. What’s happening is the ancient gods, demons, and magical creatures of days past are returning to our world, and the only thing standing in the way of humanity being bulldozed by this change is the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, five ordinary humans who’ve been gifted with the Pendragon Spirit, a power given to them by Existence itself to help humanity weather the coming change. Together the Brothers and Sisters must learn to work together and help humanity adapt, especially when the demonic Fomorii are working to bring their master Balor back to life and wage war on the god-like Tuatha Da Danaan.

I really enjoyed this trilogy, not only because it’s unique and Mark Chadbourn knows how to write a compelling plot and characters, but because even though the world is full of supernatural dangers, I’d want to live there. Heck, I’d want ot be a Brother of Dragons, helping to bring the change to humanity. After all, it’s a simpler life, one where if you’re not working on the land, you’re learning to be in harmony with nature and the spirits around you. And you get to learn magic, which is pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

EARL AND THE FAIRY by Mizue Tani

A series of light novels, the story follows a woman named Lydia Carlton, who is one of the last few fairy doctors around (fairy doctors being people who mediate between humans and fairies). Unfortunately for her, humans in 19th century are not too predisposed to seeing or believing in fairies, so Lydia’s kind of an odd duck to other people. That is, until she meets Edgar Ashenbert, a cunning, manipulative, and mysterious nobleman who enlists Lydia’s help in reclaiming his heritage, which includes a sword that belonged to the Blue Knight Earl, a warrior who had holdings in the realm of the fairies and Edgar’s ancestor. Torn between falling in love with Edgar and hating him for using her in his schemes, Lydia becomes embroiled with supernatural events that seem to gravitate around her and Edgar, sometimes endangering both their lives.

The series is quite popular in Japan, with 29 volumes out already, and a manga and anime series based on the books out as well. Unfortunately, only the manga is available in the US, and only the first 3 volumes as of last month. Still, it is worth a read, especially if you’re looking to get into manga and need an opinion on a good one.

 

 

 

MERLIN

A TV miniseries starring Sam Neill and Miranda Richardson, Merlin chronicles the life of Merlin in his battle against the supernatural Queen Mab. The story starts several years before King Arthur, beginning with Merlin’s birth, his magic training, his animosity with Mab, the rise and fall of Arthur and Camelot, and the final defeat of Mab and the death of magic. I saw this when I was younger, and I always thought it was an amazing story, though now that I think about it I’m not sure how pissing off Merlin and doing everything you can to hurt him is supposed to save your kingdom…oh wait, now I see what Mordred’s purpose was! I really need to rewatch that series now.

The special effects aren’t Avatar or Inception-grade, but the story is compelling and even if the effects aren’t top-notch, they do look believable for their day. Sam Neill is great as a pensive, all-knowing Merlin with anger issues, while Miranda Richardson is the ultimate femme fatale, a hoarse-voiced queen of magic with spells galore and a thousand and one tricks up her sleeve. You’ll love it if you watch it.

 

 

FAIRY CUBE by Kaori Yuki

Kaori Yuki has a reputation for powerful stories with Gothic and supernatural elements. Here she upholds her reputation with Fairy Cube, a story about a boy named Ian who sees spirits and fairies and is haunted by a spirit named Tokage. When Ian is killed by his father in a drunken rage, Tokage possesses Ian’s body and starts romancing Ian’s childhood friend Rin. Determined to get his body back, Ian teams up with a fiery fairy named Ainsel and a mysterious shopkeeper named Kaito in order to get his body back and save his friend. At the same time, Ian starts to become aware of a company called Gotoh that has ties to the spirit world and has sinister plans for the human world (I always knew corporations were up to no good).

Exciting and with Kaori Yuki’s awesome art and storytelling, Fairy Cube is an exciting read for all those interested in dark fantasy in general. I certainly enjoyed it.

 

That’s all I have right now. If I think of any other stories I’d want to put up here, I’ll let you know. If you have any suggestions, if you’ve read any of these works and want to give your review of them, or if you think I’m crazy because I haven’t read Tolkein or Game of Thrones, let me know.

Publishable Shorts vs. Learning Shorts

Posted: October 8, 2012 in Reflections, Uncategorized, Writing
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Last night I was thinking of some of the short stories I’ve written over the years that I never got around to giving a second edit. I wondered why I’d never gotten to editing them. And then it hit me: those stories, good or bad, were meant to be teaching stories. To be more exact, they were stories that were meant to teach me something new about writing. I was writing these short stories as learning experiences and hadn’t realized it up until this point, but now that I do, it makes sense why I wrote them in the first place.

I remember this one story I wrote late in my senior year of high school, that was meant to be like a probing psychological examination of two men traveling through space. Of course I failed miserably, but I learned a couple of things writing it, including that you need a lot more than two dudes talking about their feelings in a space ship to make a good story. Back in late winter-early spring, I wrote a short story about a guy who found a letter and then started eating fiction books (not sure if that one can’t be published, but it’s still very weird). I think that one was a lesson on magical realism and showing versus telling and how to draw out a story.

And remember the succubus and doll stories from this summer? Yeah, those were on why you shouldn’t go overboard on the plots of stories and forget the character development, because let’s face it, those stories were so focused on the plot the stories worked against themselves.

So now what am I going to do when it comes to writing short stories? Well, I think I won’t expect every story I write has to be published. Instead, I’ll see where a story can take me and if it can be published, that’s great. I’ll also try new methods of coming up with short stories, some of which I picked up from other people who’ve used these methods to come up with short stories. I’ll let you know if they come of anything, but before I do any of that, I need to finish editing Reborn City.

Until next time (which might be sooner than we both think).

QR Codes: How Can It Affect Your Business?

Posted: October 7, 2012 in Living and Life
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Just warning you now, if you scan this, it’ll send you to the Wikipedia homepage.

 

As you all know, I’ve decided to go into self-publishing. And one of the hard facts of self-publishing is, you have to do most–if not all–of your own advertising. So I’ve been thinking a lot about how best to go about advertising Reborn City once it comes out, putting ideas on my checklist for the self-publishing process under “Advertising.” One idea for getting the word out was to put an ad in Entertainment Weekly or People Magazine, because they have ads for that sort of stuff in the back of the magazine, among the reviews for the latest movies, TV shows, music, and books.

I was reading my Entertainment Weekly yesterday when I saw one of those ads, and near the bottom of the ad, there was a large QR Code box that had a caption underneath: “Scan to read an excerpt.” My first thought was, I should do that. My second thought was, Wait, I don’t even know what these things are called! What should I do? Luckily I was able to find out they’re called QR codes (I usually just call them the scan-crossword-puzzle-with-a-smarphone-thing, and only in my head), but they got me thinking.

First off, how does one go about getting a QR code? Is there a company that specializes in making them? Or can you just go to a government agency and obtain one through them? Or how about just asking your programming-savvy next door neighbor to design one for you?

Secondly, how many people actually scan those things, and how often do they scan them? My phone isn’t a smartphone, so I don’t do any scanning. I also have no idea on the statistics, but I have to assume that at least a good amount of people will scan a QR Code with their phone if they see one on an advertisement that catches their eye. But even if they scan a code, will they end up buying the product? How many do?

I’ve aready done a little research on this, but I haven’t found much to answer my questions. So I’d like to ask you, fellow bloggers and faithful readers. Do you scan QR codes? Do you actually use them if you self-publish? How often do you scan QR Codes, and when you do scan them, how often do you end up buying the advertised products? Let me know, please.

Review: Daniel Craig on Saturday Night Live

Posted: October 7, 2012 in Review
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Well, here it is, folks. My final review of an episode of SNL for a while. And I’m sorry I’m getting it out later than I usually do, but them’s the breaks.

Alright, starting with Mr. Craig himself. As the current James Bond and a professional at killing people on screen while making women real and fictional swoon, we’ve been expecting a lot from this episode, and from Mr. Craig, who has not really done comedy up till this point. Sad to say, I was a little disappointed. I mean, he was great in the opening monologue…until they did that “In Memoriam” thing. And then it was just full of disappointments to me. Craig seems very expressionless, and although his New Jersey accent is convincing, he just doesn’t deliver the lines with the zing you expect from hosts on SNL. In fact, the cast members seem to overshadow him. Overshadow 007! Speaking of which, I was hoping he would do a whole skit on Bond, but all we got was a joke ad, with Craig in it only a quarter of the time. What’s up with that?

The rest of the cast was phenomenal as usual. Jay Pharaoh did a good impression of Obama that was both funny and painful to watch for me. Aidy Bryant finally had more than a single line in an episode, and was hilarious as a crazy woman, so I hope I get to see her full range in later episodes. It was cool to see Chris Parnell come back as Lehrer during the cold open, and Bobby Moynihan is great as a kitten-obsessed dude that, while we sympathize with him, we also want to punch him. Oh, and Fred Armisen, I don’t know how you feel about getting in drag, but you always kill me when you are!

The skits themselves were so-so. The psychic woman skit was a laugh, with everyone tearing up. I enjoyed Weekend Update especially, with Kate McKinnon as a weird Italian artist, and–oh, Big Bird was there! How did they get him on the show? I don’t know how, but kudos to the producers for that! And he was funny as welll as appropriate, which with Big Bird I guess is required.

No comments on the musical guest Muse, since I’m more of a pop/rap/screaming metal kind of guy, but they did alright I guess. And was that Michelle Obama in the cold open, or was that footage from a debate? Someone tell me.

Overall, I give it a 3,8 out of 5. Look forward to my next reviews, when I go to see movies like Taken 2, Alex Cross, and Skyfall, where Daniel Craig shines in the mode he’s best at: serious.

Ohio State’s Homecoming Weekend 2012

Posted: October 6, 2012 in Living and Life, Uncategorized
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It’s Homecoming! O-H!

Last night started OSU’s homecoming weekend, which is always a blast on our campus. There’s a huge parade that goes right by my dorm, and I had one of the best spots along the parade route. Why was it one of the best spots? Simple; not only did I see our university’s president, Dr. E. Gordon Gee, up close when he passed by in a shiny red Corvette, I got to shake his hand when I called out to him and he noticed me! Me! Out of all the cheering people, he noticed me and shook my hand! I did wash my hand later, but I was pretty reluctant.

This was my second time meeting and getting to talk with President Gee, the first time happening last year when he visited my dorm during an event (photo to the right). And speaking of events at my dorm, the Illibuck trophy, a turtle-shaped trophy that is brought out during Ohio State-Illinois games and is held by whoever won the previous year’s game (pictured below), made a guest appearance at my dorm during an event involving quesadillas and a Mario Kart tournament.

The Illibuck trophy may not seem like much to those who aren’t crazy fans of Ohio State, but to major fans who know what it is, it’s a big deal.

I got to take a photo with the Illibuck, and let me tell you, it’s pretty cool. That’s a piece of Ohio State football memorabilia and it’s right in my hands. I really enjoyed seeing it and holding it in my hands (once again, see below).

Me with the Illibuck, with the past 5 OSU-Illinois games and the scores on it’s back. Don’t I look happy?

Right now I’m watching the homecoming game, after which I’ll tune in to Saturday Night Live. During commercial breaks I’ll work on the final edits of Reborn City. In the meantime, before I do any more work on RC, I’d like to congratulate my relatives in Michigan on their football team getting a victory over a Purdue. Although I like Purdue slightly better than I like Michigan, I admit your victory was pretty impressive, with a difference of 27 points.

All for now. Bye.

The Snake Outline Reborn

Posted: October 4, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Creepy, right? It looks like it might come off the drawing.

Did anyone else see the joke in that title? Anyone? Bueller?

Alright, you guys are more concerned about what this latest post is about. I’ll tell you: I finished redoing the outline of Snake, with new scenes and even a few new characters. I may have increased the parts of the story to eight (including the prologue and epilogue), but the chapter count is down to a little over a hundred, and let me tell you, I like this new version!

For one thing, everything’s much more exciting now. For one thing, the climax of the story is much more exciting, bringing the Snake, his allies, the mafia family the Snake is hunting, and the police and FBI together in one big fight! And at the end, the Snake confronts the boss of the mafia family he’s been up against this whole time! It’s like The Dark Knight meets the end of Daredevil in some respects, at least in my opinion, but I still think it’ll be exciting to read and visualize in your head.

I also did some work on the characters, their actions and their motivations, and believe me, it was worth it. In the first outline, some of the things the characters did might’ve made you go, “huh? What the heck just happened? Why’d they do that? I wouldn’t do that if I were in that situation.” So I tried to make things more believable. I realize that I need to place less emphasis on plot and more on what drives the characters, so I’l have to work on that from now on.

So now that the new outline is done, what next? Well as much as it pains me, I will be taking a break from writing Snake to finally get to work on publishing Reborn City. It’s something I’m looking forward to, and when you guys read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Just be patient on the sequel, because I’ll have to finish Snake first and I don’t like doing two projects at once that way.

All for now, stick around for updates on both Snake, Reborn City, and anything else I feel like posting about (including a review of Daniel Craig on SNL, which will probably be my last SNL review for a little while). Post on you later!

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