I’ll admit it. I only wrote a couple paragraphs on Simona’s Chapter 4 of TTWC3. Normally that wouldn’t be enough to warrant a post, but I did spend an inordinate amount of time putting together the family tree of the Redgrave royal family for Tzipi’s Garden. That warrants mention, I believe. It was somewhat nightmarish to craft because there are basically six noble families that intermarry generation after generation. I know it’s fairly plausible given a historical view of the aristocracy, but that’s a lot of dang incest. -_- Because I strayed from the beaten path in the latter half of the week, I think I’ll stick with TTWC3 and try to round out Simona’s section. Stay tuned.

I managed to finish up Simona’s Chapter 3 of TTWC3 and make a little headway on her Chapter 4, then I made a surprise turn and did some writing on Chapter 23 of Tzipi’s Garden. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” you say. “Did you somehow magically write the past 22 chapters when no one was looking?” No. In fact, beyond the first couple chapters I still don’t have much of anything set for the plot. So why Chapter 23? Well, Chapter 23 happens to feature the event that inspired the entire book, so that explains why it was sticking in my mind and I wanted to flesh it out on the page a little more. Anyway, TTWC3 is supposed to be my focus for this week, so I’ll try to stay on task. Stay tuned.

I’ll come right out and admit it. I blew my free time on Labor Day playing FEif instead of doing any writing. I may have written something like a sentence or two at best. However, I made up for it yesterday by moving on ahead with Simona’s Chapter 3 in TTWC3. Another day and I should have it finished. It may be too ambitious to try to finish her section by the end of this week, but I’ll make that a goal. With the resumption of EM and the launch of JJ coming up next month, I should probably focus on them when I’m not working on TTWC3, but I may wander around a bit. We’ll see. Stay tuned.

I made some good progress on Simona’s Chapter 3 of TTWC3, but in the process of doing so, I strayed off to fill in more of the backstory of the royal families of Notos and Zephyr (which actually does have some relevance to the chapter in question). Needless to say, it’s a lot easier working on the family tree of the Notian royal family, which only lasted eight generations, to that of Zephyr, which easily tops forty (and even with all the additional work I’ve just done, I’m only about halfway there). It’s kinda funny how these stories start to develop as I do this genealogical work. Let’s say it starts with a list of kings. Then I start filling in the rest of the immediate family and start branching out a bit. As I add the people, their stories begin to emerge. Love and loss, tragedy and triumph… It’s pretty cool stuff, truth be told.

I have yet to determine if I’ll stick with TTWC3 a while longer yet or if I’ll switch over to EM. Part of me wants to do the former or even spend some time with JJ, but I really need to be at least four chapters into EM before its serialization resumes next month. Stay tuned.

I made a little progress on Simona’s Chapter 3 of TTWC3, but something funny happened. I’ve looked into it a few times, but I wanted to look again into the kinds of city gates you’d actually find in the 6th Century (the rough equivalent in Earth time to when the Trident War Chronicles take place), but by Googling “gate”, I instead got results for the anime series GATE: Jieitai Kanochi nite Kaku Tatakaeri. I followed up on it, was intrigued by the premise, then proceeded to marathon all seven eps currently available. It’s really good stuff. It’s not the first to pit the modern military against a more primitive enemy, but that doesn’t hurt it any. Actually, I have my own story that fits into the basic subgenre, The End of Times, which is intended as the final novel in the Tellus Arc. Without spoiling too much for a story that’s years away from entering full development, I will say that the Jieitai runs a much more successful campaign.

I also started watching Overlord, which I’m enjoying as well. I’m noticing a disturbing trend, though. You’re seeing more and more of these series about listless Japanese young people being transported into these alternate worlds and almost immediately refusing to return. Alternate world stories are nothing new, but even if the character develops these new powers, finds love, etc., the goal is always to get back. The fact that the real world is being rejected so definitively in more recent stories of this type points to an unsettling malaise. I can understand it, of course. I certainly know both the general circumstances of the world and in Japan particularly that makes this trend appealing, but I find it a sad commentary on the state of the world all the same.

I wrapped up Rowland’s epilogue and with it, his section. Now I can move on to Simona and resume that. Stay tuned.

I finished up Rowland’s Chapter 5 and did some writing on his epilogue. It’ll be nice to have one section done. If I can get a couple more down, I’ll have a good head start once TTWC2 ends. Stay tuned.

I think I may finally be losing some steam in my FE14 playing, which is a good thing for my writing. I did manage to make a little progress in TTWC3, pretty well wrapping up Rowland’s Chapter 4 and adding a bit to his Chapter 5. I’ve been telling myself for a while that I would get back in the habit of meeting quota and I may finally be moving forward in that regard. Stay tuned.

After another day of falling off the wagon as it were, I managed to make some progress on Rowland’s Chapter 4 of TTWC3. Now I’ll be setting it to the side for a bit while I move over to the Cross Arc and work on JJ and EM a bit. I should probably just choose one, but I haven’t decided yet. Stay tuned.

I missed a day because I got wrapped up in the peripheral materials, but I more than made up for it by wrapping up Rowland’s Chapter 3 and making some decent headway into his Chapter 4 as well. Now that I’ve gotten my copy of Fire Emblem if, I may have difficulty keeping up the same level of progress, but I’ll try to make a point to at least meet quota. Another couple days working in TTWC3 and I’ll move on. Stay tuned.