Hey, lookit here!

I write like Anne Rice, huh? I can deal with that. No matter that I haven’t actually read anything since Interview With a  Vampire……7….8….9 years ago? I still enjoyed it. Maybe I should pick it up and try out the rest of the Vampire Chronicles again. Not sure why I never got around to reading them.

Now, if the quiz had said I wrote like Stephanie Meyer………

<_<

>_>

There would be blood.

Fun quiz for writers. ^_^ Thanks to @slushpilehell for the link.

So, anyway, since it’s been about forever and a day since the last time I posted, I figured it was about time I picked up again. Today, just a bit about my life these past several months, just because. The short version:

1. Finished NaNoWriMo (Can’t remember if I posted anything about that on Muse’s Block. Whatever). I got a little over 50,000 words written in Past Returns. I’ve got an idea where that one is going, but I’m not quite sure how to get it there yet. Only time will tell (and possibly this year’s NaNoWriMo. Hopefully, I can get another 50,000 words into that. Wonder why I can’t do that all the time? Oh yeah, all this stuff).

2. Went to Japan. I have been wanting to do this for years. Japan is awesome, and I want to go back. But, when I can speak the language a lot better. I’m working on that bit.

3. Learning Japanese. So, shortly before I went to Japan, a friend recommended JapanesePod101 to me to learn. Funny enough, I didn’t decide to kickstart my Japanese learning until after I got back from Japan. Go figure. I decided to start from the beginning, and I’m currently somewhere in 2006. Need to pick that up again. Also, I started using James Heisig’s Remembering the Kana and Remembering the Kanji Books to learn the reading. So far, I’ve learned fboth the kana sets, and I’ve been using an iPhone app to review them from time to time so I don’t forget. I started on Remembering the Kanji, but I haven’t gotten very far yet. Need to pick that up again, too. I’ve got a few other resources to work with – just need to get moving again.

4. And then there was work. I spent a lot of time earlier this year after I came back from Japan catching up with stuff at work. I will not talk about work much here, but between jetlag>insomnia>being-unable-to-stick-to a regular sleep schedule, and having a regular 8-to-5 job at The Office, a toll was took, and took and took. I’m still paying it. I’ve taken some steps to help out with that. They’ve helped somewhat.

5. I have been living in this place for almost4 years now. It needs a name. I think I’ll call it the Disaster Zone. For today, at least (my parents would probably agree with that). Anyway, the Disaster Zone had white walls. All over the place, white white white white white. It is no longer white. Well, at least the downstairs isn’t. It’s a light sage green and a light, cloudy blue. The blue wasn’t supposed to be cloudy, but I’ve decided that it works. ^_^ So it is.

6. And then there was June. Circling back to November, Createspace, wonderful Createspace made an offer to the winners that we couldn’t refuse. One proof, one free proof copy of our novel. The catch? We had to use the code by June 30th. There was a little confusion on the date, but the deadline was June 30th. So, June became a mad rush of uneasy procrastination resulting in a marathon editing session of Divinity the weekend before, and spending a couple of days focuses on the cover art. I barely made it in time. The results can be seen here. Pretty, isn’t it? It’s just a rough draft, n a cover of my making, but it makes me happy. The fact that I can hold a book in my two hands, feel and smell the paper as I turn the pages, and realize I created it……….. it’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. I’m not going to order any more copies of it. Not right now. There needs to be some improving done before more of these get into circulation. But damn. What an incentive to get it there.

7. I’m playing D&D again. It’s an online group, about once a week (And no, I’m not talking about DDO. I have an account, and it’s fun, but I can never keep up with playing MMOs for long periods of time. I get too addicted, and I have too much other stuff to do. On the other hand, I’m also thinking of joining Fantasy Earth Zero. I mean seriously, a free MMO by Square Enix? I have Greg Dean to thank for cluing me in to that one). Anyway, I’m playing a character I created for an older campaign. I didn’t really get much of a chance to exercise her talents in that campaign as I had to move soon after we started, but the game so far has been a blast. I’m working on creating yet another character, but I’ll talk about him later. Hopefully, after I get a portrait drawn of him.

So, there’s pretty much the first half of my year for you. I’m slowly starting to get back into the critiquing groove. I’d been so focused on writing and editing my own work , that I hadn’t gotten much of a chance to look at others’ and it’s good to be catching up with all the stuff on the internets. I feel like I’ve been missing out on so much, but there never really seemed to be a good time to catch up.

As for Muse’s Block….. I said it would continue, and it will. I know I’m stuck in the storyline I started last October. I think I need to redraw the next strip. I’m hoping that I’ll have time to work on that again soon. Part of doing that comic, however, is aimed at filling in and fighting off the times I have writer’s block, and I really haven’t had that lately, in one way or another. I’ve been focusing on getting a lot of other projects done instead. So, it’ll be back. I don’t know when, but it will, and there’ll be Facebook and Twitter posts when it does, just like any other post.

I’m going to make an effort to update these blogs more often, but we’ll see how I do.

On another note, does this blog look like it’s written in size 8 font to anyone else? It’s supposed to be 12 – that’s what the code says, anyway, and that’s what I set it at. I don’t get it.

Anyway.

Ja ne!

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It took a little while, but http://www.musesblock.com now works and redirects properly to the comic! So now, for those of you who want an easier URL to remember to get to the comic can just type in or save http://www.musesblock.com instead!

Updated NaNocount:

11,009 / 35,000 (61,493 +) (31.5%)

Need to get started for tonight, don’t I?

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Comic and blog are up – Muse’s Block has now officially launched! Now all I need is a proper template.

Enjoy!

Also, NaNocount:

2,541 / 35,000 (61 +) (7.3%)

Well, since I’m just trying to finish Divinity, and I’m guesstimating about 35,000 to do it, my daily quota is 1,166 words per day. But my daily goal is 2,000. For the past two days I’ve met my daily quota, but not my daily goal. Here’s hoping I can step it up a notch.

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Ok, well, I’ve successfully moved the blog to the front page. Now I have the issue of trying to bring my front page back to my front page. It never ceases, does it?

On the bright side, once it’s back, I now have another working link that goes somewhere other than the construction site! Muse’s Block is now functional! The first comic and post will go up on Monday, and will be weekly thereafter until I decide otherwise. I need to start making more strips….

I also need to learn how to make wordpress themes, so I can get the look I want on the blogs. They may be functional, but they’re not pretty enough for me yet. (Ok, this one’s pretty, but that’s because I’m using someone else’s theme, not my own stuff.

Wish me luck! (I think I’m going to need it…)

Oh, in other news, I’m planning to do NaNoWriMo this year. That should (hopefully) get Divinity to a finished draft so I can start the editing process. The downside is, Zokutou’s extended meter doesn’t work at the moment, if you use the unfinished/finished (my goal this year is to finish the draft). So here’s my starting meter:

0 / 35 (61 +) (0.0%)

The 35,000 is a guess for how many more words I’ll need to write to make it complete. Actually, I think it’ll take less than that, but I also feel the need to add some more scenes into the older chapters. I think I’ll worry about finishing the draft out first before adding in the rest of those scenes.

All for now!

EDIT: Progress!!! Blog and index are on the same page, the Muse’s Block Links actually go to the comic (or where it will be on Monday), and sIFR works! Well, mostly it does. It still won’t replace the top heading with the Caeldera font for some reason. Will have to look into that. The other issue is that now WordPress is following my old page’s CSS. Which would be great except that the text in that white area does not need to be a light bluish-purple. I was quite happy when it was black. So, next steps: figure out where in the CSS I have to override so it will be black, and figure out why sIFR isn’t using Caeldera to replace the top title like it’s doing for everything else. More later…

EDIT2: Thanks to my wonderful cousin, the errors have been fixed, so everything’s working now! You know, aside from the stuff that needs to be built…

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