I'm trying very hard to finish the script for Twolle and I's manga thing, which is why Clarity VI is going slower than it could be, though I would say I'm about half done. I kind of wish I'd finished it LAST month, or even the month before and then given it to Twollebug, because it would make a good Halloween story, I think.

I don't know if we'll be able to submit it to the Tokyopop competition (::hears sighs of relief from those not wishing to compete with Twolle's mad fabulous art::), but I would like to--unfortunately, I'm very stupid when it comes to how much dialogue and action can be fit onto a page (one of the many reasons why Karma Slave sucks :), so I have no clue how close I am to the 25 page limitation. I guess I'll have to work with Twolle to truncate it if it's too long. It, too, is about half done, which means it would ideally be about 12 pages long so far, but I suspect it's probably more. Oh well. There's stuff I can cut out and edit if I have to.

::sings:: Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Tengu....! Happy Birthday to you!

I promise I'll get the Squall figure mailed this weekend...or at least packaged. n_n;;

None of the four people taking Taekwondo at Rhodes showed up last Tuesday (including me obviously), so when Lynn and I went in today I eventually noticed an array of weapons laid out on top of the mats. He had sais, tonfa, kama, an oar, bo, nunchaku, and another weapon whose name I can't remember but it looked very cool. X3 Of course, the first thing I did was pick up a sai and say, 'Hey, Raphael used this', and proceeded to point to the nunchaku and say 'Michelangelo', and then the bo and say 'Donatello.' He didn't have a katana, though (fairly sure that was Leonardo's weapon :B). I r dork.

I only just recently realized that Witch Hunter Robin is made by the same folks that made Cowboy Bebop (Sunrise Inc), and when I rewatch the show now, I can really tell. Just marks of style in terms of storytelling and such.

This is, of course, a very good thing. I'm not in love with CB like I am WHR, but I think it's definitely one of the best out there, and besides which, one that ought to be appealing even to people who aren't typically fans of the genre.

The use of English also seems to be another mark of Sunrise, and also the incorporation of international themes in general--characters with histories, nationalities and references to places outside of Japan. I also like very much that when writing in English, they often use the font 'Burton's Nightmare', which is the same font used in the title graphic of this blog. :) (obviously, it's based on the title font of Nightmare Before Christmas...)

I read a bit in Neil Gaiman's blog today about a reader asking him if he feared becoming a 'celebrity author'--someone who is known more for their appearance and personality than their work. Obviously, I am dust in the wind compared with the likes of an internationally known and acclaimed writer like Neil Gaiman, but that's always been my biggest fear with keeping this blog.

Not that I'll become a 'celebrity author', understand (most of y'all probably don't even remember what I look like, given that I post photos of myself very rarely and do not archive them where anyone can see) but that people will come here for me instead of my work. It really, severely irritates me to know that I've probably lost readers of my stories purely because I, in my infintesimal flaws, have done something to personally irritate or offend them.

I suppose it sounds bad, as that seems like I'd rather have readers than friends. But that's another reason why it irritates me, since I consider all of my readers my friends on some degree. So I naturally assume that the minute I piss somebody off, they'll stop reading me altogether, which bothers me.

Besides which, I want to be known because I can tell enjoyable stories. Note that I did not say groundbreaking masterpieces. I said, stories that people can enjoy. Being totally frank, I really do think that if nothing else, I write an entertaining story. I like to tell myself that there's layers beneath the entertainment, but all of that is just pretentious speculation on my part.

I worry also about people who perhaps, for some insane reason, say they read my work simply because of that ill perceived notion of popularity I was talking about earlier. I have no idea why anyone would do this, but it seems like it's happened. While the fact that something is popular has never deterred me from liking it, I've never liked anything purely because it was popular. Actually I tend to like things that are really unpopular. -_-

Anyway, it's just frettings like this that make me wonder if I should discontinue this whole online journaling thing... though I know in my heart that I like it too much to quit. But that doesn't end the fretting.

Witch Hunter Robin continues to be AWESOME. But now I have to do my homework... I want episode 16... ._.

New Karma today, and there will be new Karma on Wednesday also. However, I promise you that my coloring has not suddenly started to suck much worse than it originally did, it is just that my scanner is not cooperating... additionally, something seems to be wrong with Malfactor's screen; pictures look all distorted. He's really going senile. -_- So anyway, it's just that I can't get the settings right, and it's harder to tell because of the color distortion Malfactor is experiencing.