Not Enough Love: Yu Wo

So after a long time of not posting... I decide to start posting again.

Errr... I'm not Kakashi, so simply put. It's me, being lazy.

Anyways, so I'm starting a Not Enough Love section, where I (almost?) weekly put up a recommendation on stories that just don't get enough love.

Legalities are definitely going to get a way in this as I will recommend things that may not have been licensed to be bought in North America, so as soon as I know where or how to get said product, I'll update the posts.

First up is my favourite Taiwanese author, Yu Wo ( 御我 ). She writes light novels (in the Western side of the world, we call them novellas) with a strong focus on fantasy and sci-fi.

I first encountered 1/2 Prince or 1/2 王子 when I was surfing through the net for interesting (non-licensed) manga to read. I mean, look at the gorgeous art!

image from goodreads.com

It is the year 2100 A.D. With the arrival of the game 'Second Life', the realism level in virtual reality games have finally reached 99%.  Feng Lan, our female protagonist, has gotten into an argument with her twin brother over whether or not female gamers can be strong without using their female "attributes". Due to the high realism levels, gender switching is banned, however Feng Lan became the first and only transvestite in the game because she is the first player into the game.

Hilarity ensues as Feng Lan (under the username Prince) suffers from rabid wolves fangirls, crazy suitors friends, family issues (her brother didn't recognize her in the game and sees her as a rival hot guy out to charm ladies), and gender confusion. So much gender confusion.

An important note: This story was written in 2009, during a time which homosexuality is still considered a taboo in Taiwan. Therefore, please try to understand that jokes on sexual orientation is meant to be light-hearted.

You can read the stories for free here. The author has given permission for her work to be translated and placed on the site.

A new Year and new books!

Nanowrimo, New Years and Christmas has come and gone, but I still remain! Mwuhahaha. Ok, I'm fine now.

Now that the busy holiday season is over, I have more time to write. So my dear readers (who I think are non-existent so far...), I'm back with a resolution to keep up with this blog while writing more of my stories every day. I have found a calendar* and I have decided that I would put up a sticker for every day I worked on my story.

Your Audience

I find the questions ‘why you write’ and ‘who is your audience’ is two similar questions, but mean something completely different.

As a Reader, Criteria in Choosing Books at the Store/Library

I'm the kind of person who goes shopping with a specific list and picks up random things on the way to checkout counter. This applies to my reading habits as well. Usually, I go to the library to pick up five or six books... and walk out with more than a dozen. But for every book I decide to take out, I leave a few more on the shelf. They have drawn my interest, but overall, I decided not to read them.

But why?

Happy Heat-Haze Day!

Even though the appointed time has already passed, please watch out for incoming traffic and heavy falling objects.

For those who don't know, or aren't familiar with Japanese songwriters, Jin (Kagerou Days series) and mothyP (Servant of Evil series) are perhaps two of the most brilliant storytellers using pictures, music and lyrics ever. I mean, ever.

What had happened?

Life happened, the product of being a lax writer. I'm writing at 2:47 in the morning because I realized how long it had been since I last wrote.

Since I last wrote, many things happened:
- I got older.
- I'm almost done school. A whole semester flew past in the span of me uttering 'what happened?'
- Moved everything back home from my university (4 hours away) in the span of one car ride. Was very squished and forgot to return some books to my friend.
- Missed AnimeNorth due to a lack of funds. Sadly, I will miss AnimeNorth next year as well due to BEA being on the same weekend.
- Found a day job - in a restaurant. Now have even more respect for people working in the food industry, especially waiters and waitresses in the buffet style restaurants.
- Working on version 2.5 of Cyndia
- Transferred most of my stash of 'memory souvenirs' into a scrapbook... at least until my glue ran out. (Will write more on this later)
- Started looking for Canadian author's conferences and expos... so far, I found a whole bunch in Vancouver.
- Learned how to clean a frozen yoghurt machine.

The last one happened yesterday. It was interesting, watching the machine go 'hum.... glub, glub, glub' before and after you take out parts of the machine to clean it.

Staying positive

As a NanoWrimo, I sometimes see posts where my forum friends stress themselves out over Thanksgiving in America. When that I see that happening, I am thankful that Canadian thanksgiving was last month. (Then I feel bad for that, since it would be like seeing someone fall off a cliff, then I drop a boulder after them.)