there it is, plain as daylight.

The weekend can’t possibly come too soon. I’m exhausted in every way, and my creativity is seriously waning.

In better news, my subscription to Shonen Jump has finally kicked in, though they started me with the January issue, so I need to fill in December on my own. (I hear that Paul has picked it up for me this very evening, yay!) Also, I have become mesmerized by Shaenon Garrity’s Overlooked Manga Festival, which includes many series I have been planning to look into anyway, like Please Save My Earth and Sugar Sugar Rune, as well as a delightful write-up of Banana Fish, which I have already started and *love*. The thing you really must look at, though, is her recent entry about Moon Child, which is one of the funniest things I have seen lately. Wow. There is something sublime about that special kind of crack.

Also, I got some really helpful feedback on the most recent summary of the beginning of my graphic novel from the friend whose name I stole for the main character. It was really great to hear what she had to say, and it also left me feeling very positive about the whole thing. I have less than a month to reach my December 23rd goal, and I need all the encouragement I can get right now.

This weekend, we’re hoping to get our Christmas tree, which is honestly one of my favorite moments of the year. For an atheist, I’m bizarrely attached to Christmas. I think the Christmas story is one of the first pieces of fiction that I fell in love with, which may be an offensive concept to some, but I’m fairly certain that my feelings about fiction are not terribly different from many people’s feelings about God, so please understand the gravity of that statement. I very truly, deeply love Christmas, and all the sights, smells, sounds, and feelings that go along with it. My fascination with Christmas trees has been much mocked by my loved ones, and for good reason. Once I’ve decorated one, I have difficulty taking my eyes off of it. Expect photographs in a few days.

Now I shall attempt some script work, and try not to fall asleep.

The past few days have been a mix of wonder and difficulty. On one hand, I came from the long weekend having accomplished more on my graphic novel than I had in weeks, which felt really good. On the other, I’ve been thrown back into the daily grind, and it is not sitting well at all. I’ve never been good at balancing my creative life with my gainful employment, at least not since they stopped being the same thing, and I suppose that problem is simply more pronounced coming out of a long, creative weekend. Someday perhaps I’ll be able to manage this balance (or perhaps the two things will be one again), but that day is probably pretty far off.

To distract myself, I will talk about anime. Surprised? As predicted, we did finish the entire series of the Mushishi anime, and I have also now read the first volume of the manga.

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Wednesday evening, while flipping through advertising materials that came with our Fullmetal Alchemist DVDs, Paul’s eye was caught by an anime series called Mushishi. He read about it a bit, and pointed it out to me too. We both thought it looked interesting, so he downloaded a couple of fan-subbed episodes, and we decided that if we liked those, we’d buy the DVDs. Those discs are now on their way to our house, but considering that we’ve now watched through episode 11 of the fansubs, it’s likely we’ll have finished the entire series before they even arrive. I’ll talk a bit about the first 11 episodes now.

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It’s been a long week in just two days, and I’m very happy to have only one day left of work. We’ve been busy hiring performers from the auditions I talked about recently, and revving up for the new season. Meanwhile, Paul is sick as a dog, which makes the upcoming long weekend even more of a relief.

We’re still watching the Bleach anime, and have reached the portion of the series that is made up of 48 episodes of filler, created while they waited for new manga material from Tite Kubo. Continue Reading »

I’ve been very quiet on the internet lately, which is rare for me, but my life is a whirlwind of work, writing, reading, & viewing. The work has been stressful, and the writing has been slow, so it’s best if I focus here on the fun parts of that: reading & viewing. Mostly reading.

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I am officially half-way through my southern casting tour. Flew in to Nashville yesterday, where I met up with our production assistant, Cecilia, and her friend Adam, who is assisting us while we’re here. Since we were arriving in town at rush hour, we decided to grab dinner before the drive to Atlanta, which was lovely, but of course meant that we didn’t get to Atlanta until after midnight. We held auditions there this morning, and drove back to Nashville this afternoon. At this point, I am extremely confused about what time zone I’m in.

I had some much-needed downtime this evening, so I can be fresh for a new batch of auditioners tomorrow morning. We’ll see more people tomorrow than we did today, and then there are plans to see a play at Chaffin’s Barn (Cecilia’s old stomping-grounds) in the evening.

Saturday, I’ll be here on my own until it is time to go to the airport, and so the question remains: Where the hell do I buy manga in Nashville? Advice welcome.

I’ll be very happy to return to husband, dog, and cat on Saturday night. ‘Til then, hope you’re all well.