Author Journey (May 20, 2024)
I’ve discovered a new hobby, which is quite exciting. It doesn’t take up too much time and it’s allowed me to do something I’ve been planning on doing for a long time. Will it help my writing? I don’t think it’ll hurt…
Author Journey (May 20, 2024)
Favourite Moment!
I’m going to start with a quick story about how I had my anime reawakening in 2012. I’d been out of touch with anime for a little while since I had moved from England to New Zealand and was heavily invested in watching movies. Not anime movies. Just regular movies. Anyhow, I stumbled upon a clip of an anime show on YouTube. Back then, some episodes were loaded onto YouTube and often cut into parts because they were too long otherwise. It was a challenge to find all the episodes and/or parts. Anyhow, that show was Highschool of the Dead and I loved it. I instantly bought the first two volumes of the manga. Then, I bought the Blu-ray for the season and the OVA. Finally, I found the two hardback, colour editions that pulled together all seven volumes. As such, I never bought volumes three to seven.
Three years later, I moved to Canada and was able to get access to anime far easier with the streaming services that weren’t as readily available down under. It was also easier to buy manga. I could order from Amazon.com in New Zealand, but it took a while for stuff to come and the exchange rate wasn’t kind. Anyhow, I started to look for those missing five volumes of Highschool of the Dead. I found that I could buy two of them – volumes three and seven, but the other three were out of print and now incredibly hard to find without spending a ton of money on them. Towards the end of 2023, I actually bought all seven volumes in Japanese just so that I could have them all.
Recently, I’ve started scanning online seller’s markets such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace. My first purchase was the first eight volumes of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? Then, I got seven volumes of Gigant and after reading the first one, I quickly ordered the remaining volumes from Amazon. That series is so insanely good. And then it happened. I was scanning eBay and found someone who was selling volumes one to five of Highschool of the Dead, so I bought them. Then, I managed to find someone selling volume six. Since seven is still available in most places, I bought that one new. I just have to wait for them to arrive, but I finally did it and I didn’t have to spend a stupid amount of money.
Writing!
I didn’t have as much time this week, and it wasn’t because I was browsing used anime and manga ads. I ended up losing a whole day at the garage waiting for them to service my car. Then, I had a power outage that took an entire day to be fixed. And finally, since today is a public holiday in Canada, there was no school on Friday as it was a teacher training day. Anyhow, I’m continuing to make notes on my characters as and when I can. The goal is to get them as fleshed out as possible so that they write the book for me. If you’ve written anything before, you’ll understand.
Anime!
I continued to watch ‘Tis Time for “Torture”, Princess which I am still enjoying, but it’s not on the same level as some of the other shows I’ve watched recently. As well as that, I’ve been keeping up with my three seasonal shows.
Catching up on my To-Watch List
Winter 2024
Spring 2024
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation
- KonoSuba: God’s blessing on this wonderful world!
Manga!
It was another bumper week for manga and that was all because of Gigant. While I was waiting for my car to be fixed, I was on Facebook marketplace which is where I saw that someone was selling volumes one to five and seven to eight of Gigant. It was a series I’d been planning on looking into at some point and the price was good. I managed to pick them up on the way home. They were all in perfect condition too. Manga readers seem to take good care of their books. Anyhow, I ended up reading five volumes and one more of Gleipnir.
| Tasks | Goal | Completed |
|---|---|---|
| Anime Watched | 6 Episodes | 7 Episodes |
| Manga Read | 3 Books | 6 Books |
| Posts Scheduled | 10 Posts | 11 Posts |
| Words Written | 5,000 | 0 words |
| Artwork Completed | 1 Piece | 0 Sketches |
Aspirations for the week!
As you may have already worked, today is a public holiday in Canada so no work and no school. I’m hoping to read a little more of Gigant, but that may have to wait until the evening. I’m not expecting too many distractions this week which means there will be loads. So, I’m just going to keep on grabbing every minute I can get. Since I know I’m not going to have much time to do anything in July, I’ve got eight weeks to keep up with everything during that time and to prepare for July. There’s lots to do, but I’m not feeling too overwhelmed about it just yet.
I did a big cleanup of my to-watch and completed lists, which allowed me to add a load more shows to my MAL account. I’ve got a lot of shows that I watched an episode or two and then moved on. Now, that I’ve got those added, I’ll try to swing back around and finish those off. It’s rare for me to truly drop a show. Anyhow, lots to do. Thanks for reading.
I loathe taking my car in to get serviced. I had to take my car in to get an oil change, brake fluid flush, and a new battery this weekend. I’ve never heard of Gigant, but it sounds mighty interesting! I still have to pick up Highschool of the Dead. So much manga to read!
I find the most frustrating thing is that they could say anything and I’d have no idea if it was reasonable or not! That and the waiting!
There’s too much manga. I tried to stop buying any more until I’d read what I have but that’s proving too hard. Maybe I just need to read quicker.
I don’t have a car but I do have a bicycle that’s in bad shape right now since one of the parts broke. I need to replace that soon when I have time.
Hopefully fixing it won’t be too much of a pain.
There’s nothing more frustrating than to wait for the car service to completely finish. It’s better to be safe than sorry, but it’ll be great saving time if some mechanics can lessen the time.
Anyway I had my anime reawakening back in 2014 (a nice tenth anniversary). I don’t know what got me into Mekakucity Actors, but I remember that series being the first anime I search to watch. However, it’s Noragami & Gekkan Shoujo (which I’m still hoping for another season renewal) that made me stay watching this medium type. The rest is history though there’s an enough amount of badly-written anime adaptations or series that I’m unable to like it due to my personal beliefs, especially if it’s insulting my feminist beliefs.
I find the fact that they never get the estimate of the time even close. They say an hour to an hour and a half… three hours later…
Happy ten year anime reawakening! Given how much I watch now, it’s hard to imagine there was a time when I wasn’t watching much at all. Can’t see that happening again. I’m in it for life now!
“The goal is to get them as fleshed out as possible so that they write the book for me. If you’ve written anything before, you’ll understand.”
That is the greatest feeling in the world! Worth every second of investment in building the characters ahead of time.
Are we crazy, having fully formed personalities running around inside our heads? But what a way to pay the bills if we can make a living out of it!