I did a little more work on Battle School. I really need to spend some time further developing the cast and storyline. Something to do when I spend a little less of my time goofing off. Stay tuned.

I did a little more writing on Battle School. I really need to put the teaser up. That may happen later today. More to come. Stay tuned.

It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten any writing done, but hopefully I can start moving things forward again. There was a little progress made in the gap since the last update, but it wasn’t significant enough to merit any further note. For some reason I’ve had Battle School on the mind, so I’ve been expanding on the peripheral materials for it and did some writing on it as well. I don’t know if I’ll stick with it or play with another story. Stay tuned.

I did some work on a Cross Arc story that hasn’t yet debuted on the site, but I’ll be putting up a teaser for it soon. It’s actually an idea I’ve had for a long time but only recently decided to promote to preproduction. You may already know this, but Japanese school uniforms are based on military uniforms, Prussian Army uniforms for the boys and sailor’s uniforms for the girls. (It gets explicitly mentioned in Kill La Kill, for instance.) Knowing this and looking at how school life in Japan works, I thought about how much a Japanese high school reminded me of a military unit. The school could be a battalion, each grade a company, each class a platoon, each file of desks a squad. I then thought about what might happen if Japan was invaded. While Japan is currently looking to build its military muscle, the Jieitai wouldn’t last too long against, say, a full-scale invasion by the PLA. I considered how desperate Japan was in light of the prospective US invasion during WWII and imagined a last-ditch effort at national defense via universal conscription. It was one thing ’45 when militarism ruled the day, but how would it work now when most of the citizenry is staunchly pacifistic? Fertile ground, my friends. Fertile ground. Now, I could’ve made an alternative history/speculative piece to this effect, but I instead opted to take the concept and translate it to the Cross Arc, where I’m not quite as bogged down by real-world baggage. You’ll certainly see the similarities to the real-world basis for the scenario, but change of setting grants me a little more freedom. Maybe this’ll interest you and maybe it won’t, but I felt like sharing. I may play with this story some more, but I also need to give consideration to TTWC2. Stay tuned.

Again, I didn’t do any actual story writing, but I did some work in the peripheral materials, got all the provinces and unincorporated territories named in the map of Erdi (for the Celestial Kingdom series), and wrote several reviews. Maybe I’ll make up for lost time. Stay tuned,

On a whim, I decided to do a little writing on CeleKing3. I then went through reading over/editing/reworking/completing the prologue, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of both Rowland and Simona in TTWC3. I may continue to do the same for the chapters of TTWC3 I already have written before getting back to TTWC2 or I may mix a bit of the two. We’ll see.

I did some writing on CeleKing2 and am trying to get a rough map of the world drawn up. Speaking of cartography, I really need to make the time to redo the maps for the Tellus Arc stories. I’ve been going on about that for years, but I really need to just sit down and make the time for it. Drawing out by hand is rather painful, but maybe if I use the pen tool in Photoshop or whatever, I can just click out the control points and go from there. We’ll see. Stay tuned.

I was so wrapped up in my work that I didn’t even spare the time to post yesterday. I’ve been continuing my work on CeleKing1, to include a lot of work on the currency system. It’s loosely based on ancient Chinese currency and from there I devised pay charts relevant to the story. This probably doesn’t sound the least bit interesting to you, but these are the lengths I go to for verisimilitude in my stories.

There’s something else I’ve got in the works, but I’m not going to reveal it just yet. When I have a little more material, I’ll probably go forward. Stay tuned.

I finally managed to meet quota working on CeleKing1. I still want to make up for the past three days I came up short. It’s amazing how much characterization has developed in so little time. Honestly, I was still at the point where I didn’t have much more than what you see in the teaser I posted. However, it’s starting to come together now. I’ve done so much in the second and third books already almost entirely based on the compelling person of Yasuko Rodrigues, but now her father Batista is shaping up to be almost as compelling himself. Hopefully my attachment to these characters translates to you, the readers. Stay tuned.

I’m again under quota, this time working on CeleKing1. I know I can’t count it toward quota, but I was doing a fair bit of work in the peripheral materials fleshing the story out. The time seems to get away from me, but I’ve got to do what I can to maximize the hours in the day. Anyway, I’ll try to get back on even keel. Stay tuned.