Spring is a Time for New Beginnings 1/1
Title: Spring is for New Beginnings
Series: Rise of the Guardians
Rating: PG
Pairings: Hinting toward Jack and Jamie, blossoming of Jack and Bunny
March 20th, the first day of spring. 4 days until Easter, 4 days to put on the finishing touches, the last little painted designs and to choose the perfect spot just under the picnic table where the brightly colored eggs could be found -
Or at least, that was the plan.
But this year, when Bunnymund came up from the Warren with all the preparations, he landed in the park which was decidedly more white then green. Grumbling he scanned the trees around him with narrowed eyes until he spotted the one he wanted. Stomping over, across the crunching snow, Bunny raised one of his large feet and hit it against the tree trunk as hard as he could, sending the vibration up the tree. Snow rained down from the branches along with a snow colored young man. Jack landed on the snow covered ground with a thump, glaring back at the large hare in front of him.
“What the heck was that for!?”
She’s writing guardian fics SHE’S WRITING GUARDIAN FICS!!!
Our Destiny Was Foreordained. X/1999
Photos: yetanotherrose
LBM 2013—-
Group shootings really are a pain in the ass. But all of them were so awesome and I had a great time nevertheless.
Fangirl heart satisfied. ♥oh my god i’m going to cry you’re all perfect human beings
GOOD LORD LOOK AT ALL THIS AMAZING
OMFG SOMEONE DID X/1999 COSPLAY!!! THEY HAVE EVERYONE JUST- *flails about*
I dislike hearing “That’s for children!”
I’m not talking about “oh, that is clearly a child’s shoe you’re an adult you can wear that that’s too small.”
but “Cartoons/figures/comics are for children grow up.”
Because
Who do you think designs, markets, and creates these things? Adults.
Followed closely by “that’s for boys” or “that’s for girls.” I was under the impression that it was for people.
Oh my god. Giant kitty toy for a giant kitty.
DAMN
It ran up a fucking wall.
I can stare at this all day.
Pffffft what the what Anime Detour?
They had an essay contest where they wanted people to talk about what Detour means to them, since this is their tenth year. I thought, “Oh hey let me write a thing, because I really love Detour,” I’ve been going since year one and all.
So I wrote a thing.
And then I won a thing.
Yeah my essay won Anime Detour’s contest.
Excuse me because I can’t quite comprehend how this writing thing suddenly continues to go well like I mean-
It’s going to be in the program books and maybe on the website, which I’m taking as exposure if I can get my writing blog mentioned on it. Perfect exposure to 5500 attendees, staff, guess, perfect exposure since, you know, need to get myself out there because of this whole book thing.
Hey there, karma, how are you? I guess since last year was such a mess of things you’ve decided to make this year better?
O.K. jerks I guess this is officially feels day. First Guardians and now Persona 4.
TONS OF SPOILERS O.K.!!!
All right, so as much crap as some people gave the anime for rushing things or having shotty animation at points, you have got to give it mad props for taking a blank slate of a character and making him, well… real. I will admit that, yes, the anime did rush social links and sometimes the animation wasn’t great. I mean, how do you do Naoki’s link in half of an episode? It’s Saki’s little brother, he needs more than half an episode! Or, you know, not even the entire team gets their social link covered, you never get to know that Kanji’s dad is dead, just… things like that. So yes, the anime has its problems.
But its moments like this that made me fall in love with it.
I mean, whether you want to call him Souji or Yu or not, the anime gave him a personality. I remember playing the game and running into parts where, god, I just wished he would scream or cry or something, you know? And I know it’s ultimately “you” playing, so the emotions are yours, but just… a cutscene, or… something would’ve been nice for some of those gut wrenching scenes.
This is what we needed the anime for. They did Yu beautifully. He starts out quiet and kinda bland, then he progresses into this character, an actual character. The whole theme of “bonds are the true power” really, really hits home in the anime, because you see him forming these bonds, and you see him just crumbling when those bonds shatter. Not just with the fact that the last episode gave him a shadow, but moments like this where he was like, “Everyone go home, it’ll be fine,” then he just broke down.
And can we take a minute to talk about Yosuke here?
No matter if you see the yaoi lenses or not, can we just talk about how great the anime nails their bond? In the game, it’s all about the social links, and how close you get to these characters. In this moment it’s like, “No, these characters are close to him, too.” It’s not, “you have to be there for everyone,” it’s, “everyone is really there for each other.” Like, how they took that whole, “you can hug Yosuke during his social link,” and flipped it! Yosuke goes back! And just… he’s there! And… just… bravo, anime, bravo! I mean, honestly, can we talk about how in the anime Yu would be completely dysfunctional without this boy? I swear after like, Yosuke’s shadow, Yosuke was always there. "Hey I got your back with Mitsuo,“ and, "Hey I’m here at the hospital,” and, “Here I am again during BOTH final boss battles, and even as the shadows take me hey at least I saved you.”
Just… the bonds aren’t one-sided! I’m not saying there were in the game, but in the anime when there’s parts like this it’s like, this is what a bond is. This is what friendship is. There’s this moment of, “It’s not just him who’s important to them since he’s always there, but they’re important to him, too. He needs them. Badly.” So when I watched him leave at the end of the year it wasn’t just me going ,“Oh god I love these guys no please,” it was, “Oh god no Yu don’t leave you need them too much!”
The editing dance
Hi guys! So, in case you were curious about how the whole publishing thing works (at least from what I’m experiencing right now) here’s a few thoughts I have about it. I’m going to do two sections, because I have both a book and a short story being edited.
1. Treat Me Kindly (Urban Supernatural book)
I’m going to assume all publishers are different, but the general idea is the same. The job of the editor is to strengthen your book, not to completely change it. They’ll mark grammar and things, of course, but they’ll also ask questions, point out inconsistencies, things like that.
First, there’s the “Author Form.” This goes through every possible thing you can think of regarding your book. What do you want the cover to look like? This question itself has several parts to it, as far as Damnation Books go. They ask what you want it to look like, who are the main characters so they have an idea of who the story is about. Location? Season? Characters’ physical appearances? Tone of the story? Theme? Tag line? Just… all things I really had to sit down and think about.
The rest of the form included things like: what do you want the back of it to say? Do you want an author pic on the inside? Write up a bio about yourself. Any dedications? Acknowledgements? All stuff I think you see in books, but you never think of what yours should say until the questions come up.
Then there’s the first round of editing (which is where I am right now). They have a certain format they want you to put the story in. This includes font, font size, how to do scene breaks, whether to spell out “Chapter 1” or not, trying to avoid “and” or “but” in the beginning of sentences, thoughts being in italics, just… pretty standard things, I think. I’m sending this off today to their senior editor, who then will send it back to me within 20 days with edits. Then, the two of us go back and forth until we reach a point that we’re satisfied with.
As far as actual editor’s comments… that’s what this next part is for.
2. Press “START” to Play (Gay Romance short story)
This is the gay romance short story I’m going to have in a Dreamspinner Press anthology in June. I just got the first edits back yesterday. The way they do it is very, very clean and precise. The first thing you should realize is that the edits are NOT meant to be discouraging, they are meant to be helpful. When you get your story back, be prepared to see a whole lot of red. It’s not going to be perfect. The thing to remember is that the entire reason why they’re putting so much work into editing isn’t because there’s something wrong with your work, but because they REALLY LIKE your work and they want to make it shine. They wouldn’t be editing it in the first place if you didn’t like it.
The editor I have for this short story is awesome. I’m not sure if all editors start the edits this way, but this person took the time to say good things about the story. Essentially, my editor for this loved the plot, the characters, the theme, just… actually they pretty much loved everything. Then, there was the note of, “Don’t be discouraged,” because it can hurt to see someone correcting so many things on something you worked hard on. But it’s there to help guide you into making the story better. My editor pointed out some really, really good points, like things I never thought about. This certainly doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything your editor says. The point is to have a conversation back and forth (key word: conversation, not argument).
And you know, when you’re writing, you’re not going to think of EVERYTHING the first time, no matter how many times you read it over. The way I usually write is this: I write something, I finish it, I reread it. Then, I have my partner read it. Then I reread it again after she makes comments and things. Then, I send it off to hopefully be published. As you can see, before it’s been sent to a potential publisher, it’s been read three times. Still, you’re not going to catch everything, and that’s fine, that’s what the editor is for.
I’ll write more about how this works as I go through the motions, but I’m at the first steps right now in two stories :)
This is my life right now besides getting ready for Anime Detour ^^
