Month: March 2026

Currently reading…

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I’ll admit that I have become obsessed with reading comics on the K Manga app on my e-reader. It’s run by Kodansha, one of the big manga publishers these days, and I’ve picked up on a handful of series that I’m really enjoying. It’s where I discovered the wonderfully written teen romance The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity, whose main characters Rintaro and Kaoruko have been showing up as pictures and gifs here over the last few months. [I’ve been enjoying that series so much I’ve been tempted to do a mini-series here about it.] Every night when I get into bed, I’ll turn on the app and catch up on a few titles.

The other night, I was thinking: y’know, I have this physical pile of books next to my bed that haven’t been picked up lately, I should probably do something about that as well instead of reading comics every night. But maybe this is part and parcel of my wanting to change up my creative outlets? Over the past several years I’d become super-picky about the novels I was picking up, and even then some of them haven’t been resonating with me as much as they used to. It’s not that they’re bad or that the latest trends aren’t speaking to me, it’s merely that I’m not feeling the spark of excitement like I used to. I’m not as voracious a reader as I was, at least not right now anyway.

So why not see this burst of interest in comics as a plus and not a minus? After all, that’s how I started reading more in the late 90s, isn’t it? During the HMV years when I suddenly decided that I would take those Wednesday drives to the comic book store every week, that sparked off a new love of reading that I hadn’t really had before. What started as a focus on just a few titles bloomed into several, which then expanded into different styles, different genres. And those, in turn, inspired my writing style and ideas.

And somewhere along the lines, I suddenly found myself interested in reading books again. It all felt fresh once more.

So perhaps it’s fine that I embrace this medium again for the time being. Reading comics like Fragrant Flower have reminded me that both inspiration and influence lie in interesting places, and it’s up to me to search for them when I need them. Perhaps now it’s time for me to learn not just the art of visual storytelling, but to learn how to see and understand things in new ways.

Good weather

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It’s been surprisingly warm and clear here in the Bay Area the last few weeks, so we’ve been taking advantage of that by ensuring that we get out for some walking when we can. I mean, given that we now live a block from Golden Gate Park, there’s really no excuse for us not to take a stroll along its greenery unless we’ve had an utterly exhausting work day.

To be honest, I’ve been thinking a lot about getting outside a lot more these days. It’s part of what I’ve posted about earlier — taking a little time off from writing to focus more on other creative outlets — and what better way to take an alternate look at things than to look at my surroundings? Take a few more pictures, appreciate the art and sound of nature, that sort of thing.

Rethink how I think, in other words.

Waking up early this week

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I don’t remember the last time I had to wake up before 4am, to be honest. Maybe that one time we were heading out of SFO on a 6am flight or something? I can do it if I have to, but no guarantees that I’ll be fully awake and coherent. Just letting you know ahead of time.

So why am I waking up at stupid:early AM this week? It’s because it’s my first week at the shop I’ve been transferred to, and right off the bat they’re going to train me on the newfangled bookkeeping software and hardware, and I have to be there at 4am. It’s a good thing I only live ten minutes away! And the other good thing is that after an eight-hour shift, this means I’m out by 12:30pm and have the rest of the day to do whatever. And you know how much I love days like that.

So this also means that I may not have the brainspace to get any blogging done this week, but we shall see.

Getting there

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I’ve still got a long way to go before Theadia is finished and let out into the wild, and right now the last thing on my mind is a deadline. I mean, I’d like to see it out at some point this year, but I’m not going to push it if it ain’t gonna move any faster. I’ve always pictured the writing process of this project as similar to the Bridgetown Trilogy, in that I’d keep up with it but I would never actually rush it at any point. It would get done when it got done.

There’s also the fact that I’m also purposely seeing this as…well, not a final project, but a last one before I put my writing aside for a little while. Which is kind of ironic, considering that I’d conceived it at one of the most stressful times of my life when I’d come to a crossroads and had no idea where I was going next, both personally and creatively. It began in desperation and ends in peace. In a way, that’s one of the themes of the book, which is why it’s taking so long: this is not a theme that’s easy to write, especially when one of the plot lines is the build-up to a possible galactic war. Everything has to unfold just right or it won’t work.

Does this come across as final? Maybe? I’m not really seeing it that way, to be honest. There’s definitely no finality in this decision of mine to step away from writing for a bit. If a story idea resonates with me enough, then sure, I’ll give it a go.

I merely want to see what other creative outlet resonates with me at this time in my life, is all.