Celebrating freedom, #RP612fic style

For the first time, I celebrated Independence Day by participating in #RP612fic! At first, I thought it was going to be hard, but once I got my first tweet down, everything else fell into place like clockwork (thank you EK for giving me that much needed pep talk. =D).

You can go through my Twitter feed to see all of them (they've all been conveniently hashtagged with #RP612fic). Alternately, I've also compiled everything I've done from close to midnight until tonight through Storify, which you can view here.

I'm so happy that some of the stuff I posted got retweets from respected Twitter accounts (i.e. the halo-halo fic and that one bit about Quiapo Church - both of which have references to Avengers). It let out my inner fangirl, and it was understood. I was trying to make references to other fandoms, like Dragonball or RuroKen, but I couldn't churn out anything I'd want to publish. /sigh 

There will always be next year. I'm definitely going to be part of it again.

Some sites are starting to compile the microfics. I'll be posting below where some of the stuff I've tweeted were included (and I give also my humblest of floorbows to them):

• Katipunan Magazine (The Lasallian in me is delighted with this =D)

Bullets | Short story

My week thus far, in bullets:

• To Kill A Mockingbird must be a required reading during anyone's lifetime. If I chanced upon this book earlier in my life, I might have seriously considered becoming a lawyer. 
• In relation to this, I love Atticus Finch. /oldmanfangirlingnanaman
• If any of you reading this have a copy of the movie, can I borrow it?
• I'm still happy I didn't become a lawyer.
• I'm dealing with a lot of discontent right now. It comes and it goes, and I'd like to think it's all part of the dreaded quarter-life crisis. I'm particularly peeved with the following:
• The NBSB status. Most of the time it's not an issue, but when someone rubs it in, ye gads, it's like an itch that won't go away.
• Some of the things I'm doing now are seriously hampering my ability to do other stuff I want to do, i.e. rest, more sleeping and reading time, more bulakbol time, more me time (in a nutshell). These things may seem really trivial, but I need to do these things. 
• My utter lack of a social life. I can't count anymore the number of times I've been told that I need to get out more. One went as far as telling me that I have to get out because my complexion is more sickly than pale. 

Yeah. That's it. XD

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For those who have been encouraging me in my "author" journey, "thank you" cannot even begin to express my gratitude.  I've been asked by some people what kind of stories do I write, and I usually just smile at them most of the time. When I dared to answer it directly, I think one of my replies was "I write about death". The stare I got from one person was so...how do I even describe it? It was a stare that said, "Why in the world would you write about such a morbid topic?", or "I never thought a person like you would write about that!". 

Ever since the author class thing started, I've been doing a lot of thinking. I remember that one of the goals of setting up this blog was this:

Since college, there's this small itch to actually go public with some of the stuff I write or do, but I have this fear (which nags me till now) that people who know me in real life will not understand it, or it will be shot down as horrible/inconceivable. So, I want to find out for myself if those fears are grounded in truth. Hence, this blog was born.

I want to stay true to this goal - no matter how scary it is. Hence, I have decided to post a story I did two years ago, which is about death. /ye gads

If you know me in real life and you see this story, let me know what you think. As in, seriously. I'd really like to know. A little background follows after the jump.

Quit piddling and write that book

I AM ALAAAAIIIIVE.

Hello, people who read this blog. I am currently in Tagaytay for the author class' Writer's Retreat. As of 10PM, my brain has officially fallen asleep, which is why I've resorted to making a blog post.

My progress with the book I'm writing is going along well, which is FANfreakingTASTIC! As usual, I was fearing the worst. I get the butterflies and awkwardness of extreme proportions when people look at what I write, so for the boss to tell me that I write good and what I've written was good made me feel so relieved. I just need to add a few more details here and there, but I'm on the right track.

Now, what I really wish I was writing right now is a fiction piece. If I get to finish Unforgiven, I swear I will throw a party and invite everyone I know. That's a story that's been brewing since...I don't know exactly when, but I'm pretty sure it comes all the way back to grade school. So if that gets done, then ye gads, a celebration is definitely in order.

Sorry for such a crappy entry. Like what I said, my brain has fallen asleep. =/

Primera-Segunda-Primera | Short story

It has been three months since I bought the latest Murakami, and as of this writing I am in page 783 out of 925.

Usually, I breeze through reading a Murakami, especially when it came to my favorites (i.e. after dark, A Wild Sheep Chase, The Elephant Vanishes, etc.) 1Q84 is probably the only exception. I find myself skipping entire paragraphs, sometimes even pages. It was rare that the pace of the story was fast - it was like primera going to segunda, and back to primera again.

I think one of the reasons for this is the sheer length of the book. It's too long. I've read reviews that 1Q84 is the culmination of the themes and ploys Murakami often used in his stories, and I am inclined to agree, but the length of it is just waaaaaay too long for me. I recall that this was released in Japan in three parts. If this happened for the English release, then maybe it would overcome my primera-segunda-primera feeling.

I finally felt that the story break through the primera-segunda-primera monotony when Aomame met Leader and Tengo had that night with Fuka-Eri (am trying my best not to spoil), but when that was over, it went back to segunda, and, yeah - primera. I don't mind the emotional dynamic of the story, but once you go tercera, or cuarta, it's quite difficult to go back to primera after you have built the story up to such heights - unless you have a pretty darn good reason for doing it. In the other Murakami books I've read, once it reached a climax, it didn't go back to a relaxing pace - you're always wary that something else might come up. I don't get the same intensity thus far with this book (at page 783). Sure, there is a sense of discomfort, but not enough to induce page-turning. In other words, you can procrastinate. Nothing makes me more enthusiastic about a novel than the feeling that it must be finished with a sense of urgency.

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I've been working on something the past two days. It's kind of rough, but I'm satisfied with it for now. :-) Mabuti na yung may nasulat kesa sa wala. I think this is my first [finished] short story. YAAAAAY. (Ye gads if you saw how many unfinished stuff I have on the computer or on the notebook...le sigh)

I don't think it merits a warning, but if underage smoking would suffice, then...yeah. XD