Come At Me, Bro!

Yesterday, I finished the read-through of my novel. All of the big plot issues have been fixed, but I still have a lot of work to do on it. Three to four scenes need to be added and I may need to rewrite one or two chapters to give them to other characters for balance. That said, I've already fully finished editing chapter one and I can't wait to get more time to work on it in the next few days. 

Part of the reason I'm so excited to work on it is because Kitsune-ken book 5 isn't coming together like I want it to yet. Truly, procrastination is an incredible tool. It is perfectly happy editing Fox's Facade or happily daydreaming about book 6 (which is essentially completely plotted at this point). Book 5 on the other hand is stuck at, "um, well it starts here and then maybe they go here, but I don't know why... I guess maybe they could go... um, well they need to end up over there, at any rate". Okay, I'm exaggerating slightly... I do have a full map and a reason they're heading there... I just don't have anything solid yet for that in-between part.  

I've considered other fixes (writing book 6 first, just editing this Nanowrimo, taking up drinking, etc) but I know those are all procrastination fixes and that won't help anybody. 

Instead, I'm going to have to do something I have only ever done once before; dive headfirst into the darkness in front of me, knowing only that my finish point is somewhere ahead. Much like a game of Don't Starve, I'll have nothing on me when I start the journey other than the desire to survive. I'll have to make my own tools and carve my path with the bits and pieces I find on the way. 

Fortunately, this isn't my first rodeo... Lord's Curse started with only a bit more than that. In the end, you all said that it might even be better than the first book. So, yeah, I know I can do this. 

Come at me, Nano. I'm ready.

Account Scare

Today I had a bit of a scare, which if nothing else fits the October narrative.

It started when a few of my friends sent me messages letting me know that on Instagram someone had sent them friend requests from an account that looked like mine. It hadn't been up long, but going to check out this other account wasn't a pleasant feeling. They'd taken pictures of my last five or posts on there and moved my account pic slightly, just to make it slightly different. 

After reporting the account as fake, I assumed that I would have to wait days or weeks before it would be dealt with. In this case, I was lucky and they got back to me within the hour. I'm assuming that having my friends who had alerted me also marking it as a fake account had some impact on that. Fortunately, they removed the account without any fuss. 

I'm assuming that the idea was more data collection than actually trying to steal my account. By friending a few of my followers again, they could gain access to more names, more accounts, as well as anyone else that just happened by. Which I suppose is better than them taking my account wholesale and trolling it away.

That actually has kinda happened to me. Six or seven years ago, when I was on Twitter a lot more than I am now, my account got hacked and actually stolen. I couldn't get into it and they'd changed all the accounts for resetting it. Contacting Twitter never garnered me a response and I had to simply count it as a loss. 

So today, this is a reminder. If you see your friends or your fav authors suddenly making a second account or posting oddly, send them a message and let them know, preferably somewhere other than on that account. I am certain that this would have been much worse for me if I hadn't acted quickly, which I wouldn't have if I hadn't been alerted.

The best way to keep each other safe is to watch each other's backs. 

Movie Review and a Personal Evaluation

This week I want to talk about Jiang Ziya. Or, at least, I want to start with it. If you haven't heard of it, I'm not surprised. Its a Chinese animated movie that came out recently and thus has a somewhat limited release. That said, this is the company that put out Ne Zha, back in 2019. While Ne Zha wasn't as good as The Legend of White Snake that was released later that year, Ne Zha was a fun movie. Sometimes the tone shifts were too frenetic for me and I wished they'd drop the fart jokes for a solid scene. That said, my husband loved those and wished the film would have stopped delving into seriousness as often as it did, so it really was a matter of taste, which part you enjoyed and which part you enjoyed less. 

Jiang Ziya doesn't suffer from that tone issue at all, I'm glad to say. Focusing on the story of the mythological general Jiang Ziya, the story is telling a simple tale that, as with everything ends up being a lot more complicated. To keep his place in heaven, Jiang Ziya is given the task of killing a fox demon. The demon fights back, even trapped as she is, and uses her abilities to show our titular hero that by killing her, an innocent will die as well. 

Thus begins an epic battle for the truth of the situation. 

I won't go further into the story, since the movie is new and spoilers are a thing. What I can say is that I quite enjoyed the story. I really liked that everything came down to one of my favorite tropes... the "from-a-certain point-of-view". The basis of this is the belief that everyone is the hero of their own story. The bad guy has his reasons, and so do the good guys, but the further you look into what these people have done, the more the issue muddies with all of the parties coming out as less than stellar morally-speaking. The animation was excessively good, unsurprising since as I said, this is the same company that did Ne Zha and I really enjoy the style. I suggest that if you haven't seen it yet, and don't mind watching movies with subtitles (or if you understand Mandarin), definitely keep an eye out for it. This is the second movie of a trilogy the company is making, so keep your eyes peeled for the third one. If you guys hear about it first, please be sure to let me know. I'll be waiting eagerly for it. 

My second topic is a bit of an apology. I've been quiet on my progress with my editing on Fox's Facade because I felt like I wasn't getting enough done on it for you guys. Today, I accepted that I had significantly underestimated the amount of work this story was going to need. So, while I'd prepared to write about 50% of the novel from scratch, I hadn't realized that trying to fit the two together would really mean rewriting closer to 80% of the novel. 

All that said, the story did need the change, and in the end, bringing you the best story is the name of the game. 

Having said all this, I will say that the editing shouldn't be significantly delayed, but it probably will take me longer than the two weeks I have left in October to finish it. Right now, I'll probably try to work on both during Nanowrimo, editing daily after my 1,667 words are finished. Or at least, that's the plan. As always, we'll see how the plan survives contact with the enemy. 

Fall has Officially Begun!

Artober has officially begun! 

I'm doing well so far. I've finished 6 pictures, as seen below. I am counting the sketch of Towa as well as my finished, since they were not only done on different days, but also both were inked. 

While the bottom three are original drawings of mine, the top three are based on character designs by Rumino Takehashi. I may draw them each in my style later on in the month. 

So what else am I up to? Well, my last couple of days were a write-off. My hubby and I seem to have caught a minor stomach flu. I am already writing again and trying to get book 3 finished. I'll just stop updating until I have something concrete to share here. Hopefully, it will be soon though. 

Aside from that, I haven't been up to much aside from reading. One of my favourite authors, Annette Marie is releasing two books this month, the last two in this specific Guild Codex series, though there are two other side series in the works as well. I made the overall bad decision to read the entire series again to move up to these last books. Now, I have another 3 books left to go before I can pick up the new books and its kinda killing me. No spoilers if you've read them yet! Not that I mind spoilers, but its just polite to wait a few weeks before you start dropping them. 

Oh, which reminds me. As part of my language studies, I have picked up a few children's books in Japanese. While I am making a lot of headway learning how to say, "my Asian studies class is on Thursday at 1 o'clock" I wanted to start learning more basic words. What better way to do that than with a book that you would read to children. Other than a few hitches (the language being used is all the casual form, not the polite form I'm more used to), it's been going well. I am currently translating しろくまくろくま which translates as "White Bear, Black Bear". It's a fun story if a bit creepy (as is the way with most children's stories, if you look at them) and I'm having fun going through it and writing down the vocabulary in an attempt to learn. 

What have you been getting up to? What are you reading?

Holmes Alone

First off, my basic review. This movie was a treat to watch and I sincerely hope we get more. A very decent 4 out of 5 stars and definitely worth your time. 

That said, here is your warning. Everything below this has spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled, go watch it and then come back. 

We're all good now? Good. 

First off, Holmes Alone is a joke on the character's name. Enola written backward is alone, which is her shtick. She does alone, has all her life (aside from her mother), and prefers it that way. Even Hot Guy(TM) doesn't break through that unbreakable wall until she realizes that he really does need her help. Which works for the character, since she's supposed to essentially be a Holmes character. As far as acting goes, everyone did a great job, especially the main actress, Millie Bobby Brown. I'm not certain that I can accept Henry Cavill as Sherlock though, even if he did a great job. He's a bit too... broad of shoulder for the role of Sherlock, in my opinion. Other than that physical bit, he played the role well and I wouldn't mind seeing him in the role again. 

The plot deals with important issues of the time period, in particular, women's rights, a subject near and dear to my feminist heart, which makes me love it more. Enola's mother has gone missing, leaving her in the care of her brothers, who haven't even returned for Christmas since Enola was very young. Now, they find that Mom has been taking the money that Sherlock and Mycroft have been sending back home and using it for nefarious things. Also, knowing that her daughter would never survive Mycroft's version of TLC, she left her quite a bit of money. Money which Enola uses to try to find her mother who doesn't want to be found. During her daring escape, she saves the life of a young lord on the run from his life. She finds out that Mom was involved with the militant arm of the suffragette movement, but has to put finding her on hold to save the young lord again. She succeeds but is captured and delivered in Mycroft's hands as a result. Her lord saves her from the "finishing school" Mycroft has her sent to, but she convinces him that they must confront the killer so he can take his place in the House of Lords for the upcoming vote on the rights of women. 

As far as the plot goes, this is actually a great little plot. It was intelligently carried out for the most part and kept me entertained, even if it was a little obvious as to where the plot was going. In this case, it wasn't a detriment to enjoying the show, which I really appreciated. 

However, there is always something that brings it down and in this movie, it was the fight scenes. In particular, if you are a small woman who has been taught to fight and you choose to fight someone, I can understand trying to punch and kick at first. Fighting well takes skill, and so long as there isn't a 100 lbs or more difference between fighters, I'll put my money on the skilled one all the time. However, if their opponent is also a fighter, with at least 50 lbs on that girl and the reach to match, you don't keep trying to fight with your fists. It was established in the opening that Enola was taught to use weapons from her mother. True, the bow and arrow were clearly favored, but I'm pretty sure they were fencing in at least one of those scenes. And yet, Enola never once even goes for a weapon, when she's fighting against an assassin trying to kill the lord. She continues to try to use a throw that she's never succeeded at using before. While I can understand that it was to give her a "stand up and cheer moment", this came off as scripted and irritating, especially when she ignores weapons around her like polearms and forged iron fence poles in favor of her fists. For me, it detracted from the intelligence of her character, which, when it's a Holmes-type character, is necessary to sympathize with them. 

That said, this movie is still 100% worth your time to watch. 

Have you seen Enola Holmes yet? Do you agree with my assessment here? Let me know in the comments. Also, would you like me to do a few more of these? I don't normally do movie reviews, but if this is something that would interest you guys, let me know.