Craig, Strange Visions and Scary In Boxes

These tomatoes are astonishingly good!

The photos have nothing to do with the text of the blog. Readers have expressed an interest in our Tuesday afternoon outings. 

 

Craig called on the Sunday after the shoot. Jon and I were making like vegetables in front of the TV. There were piles of equipment and costumes and props shoved into corners. It would take me a week to deal with those. His tone was that mix of amusement and excitement that often gives me a reason to worry. He wanted to know if Jon or I had been past Ballona Creek on Saturday. For the disaster film buffs among you, Bollona Creek is the handy conduit used to channel molten lava from Beverly Hills to the Pacific ocean in Volcano. We actually live near the creek and occasionally walked the bike path. However, we didn't typically cross the creek as we did when we lived in Playa del Rey. I knew better, but I asked why anyway.

The view of the bar from our favorite spot.

“I saw a 300 pound hairy, naked man frolicking in the creek,” he said. I could tell that he shuddered. “He was really hairy. If I'd been up north, I'd thought he was a bear. But he was happy.” Craig was most perplexed about why no one in the apartment buildings surrounding that part of the creek called the cops. He was even more perplexed when a library patron rushed into the building to have him call the cops on the hairy naked man who had traveled a mile since Craig last saw him. I was happy to report that neither Jon nor I had scene that vision. I was particularly relieved after having seen some really bad nakedness the week before at the Culver City Farmers Market. Let's just saw it involved a leathery bag lady, a loosely fitting sundress and a sudden, strong breeze. I guess she liked that free feeling in the summer time.

This is our spot in the hotel lobby bar.

It was good to hear from Craig, disturbing images notwithstanding. He's been a bit scarce this summer doing his Oliver Wendell Douglas thing growing corn and 'maters and peppers and such when he isn't being a librarian. I miss him, of course, but I am a bit vexed at him. I think he put something strange in my library file. Or maybe he just said he would and let my imagination take over. I swear the librarians at my branch have been looking at me strangely. Hmmm. I think he's being my nemesis again.

Inbox of the Damned

A view of our favorite libations.

I can't really complain about all that has been heaped upon my to do list. I volunteered for 80% or more of the pile. And I can't really say that the extra work has kept me from finishing my latest titles. I was having much more trouble with them last year when I was doing relatively little. I am making progress, but not as quickly as I would have liked. Meanwhile, the work I've been doing has a lot of benefits aside from monetary ones. I'm building a reputation as well as my brand with the manga and short stories. That will have a big impact on the books sometime next year, if all goes well. And the books are on track and fun again. I'm just a bit slower than I was a few years back. There is a work around to all that won't be ready for the West Hollywood Bookfair. I just have to slog my way though it before Monday. There will be no volunteering for something new until everything is uploaded or put to bed. I must be strict about this! I'll try not to be grumpy though.

Next week, look for a new page on Sybpress.com for the Hollywood Bookfair. There will be some great links to the authors of our titles, some info on our new titles, and lots of links to all sorts of indie fiction, poetry readings, etc. It will change frequently in the run up to the Bookfair, so check often!

Stay tuned!

Teaser Shoot Field Notes

Here is the full skinny on the teaser shoot. It's a lot of detail, but I think it will give a detailed account of how jammed packed last Saturday was.
http://demonspawntales.blogspot.com/2012/08/teaser-shoot-field-notes.html

Pastrami, Epiphanies and Actor Bonding on the Shoot

The big revelation came when I decided to buy the pastrami at the deli. I didn't buy a sandwich – just the sliced pastrami and the Swiss cheese. How is that a revelation? It's just deli meat, after all. There was a time and one that is not that long ago when I would have made the pastrami from a brisket. There are a few recipes for the home cook. I have the spices, and I had the time at the point I considered it. I realized that making the pastrami was a crazy thing to do for such a tiny shoot. The actor wouldn't be eating the sandwich. Actually, there was no guarantee that we would show the sandwich. As far as that shot went, there was nothing to be gained by having homemade pastrami. Further, there was far easier and far less expensive ways to feed the cast and crew. I had entertained the notion of serving the homemade pastrami along with some home roasted turkey breast for lunch. But beef prices are crazy right now and apparently, it's not turkey season at any of my markets.Forty dollars for lunch meat just seemed appalling to me. Resisting that impulse showed that I had gotten some sense into my head about pushing myself beyond all sense and reason. That was a very happy thing, because I still had a lot of hats to wear on Saturday. And I still had a cast and crew to feed. And a pastrami sandwich to make. Incidentally, the soup in the container is real and homemade, but only because I happened to have stock in the freezer and noodles in the pantry.

I managed not to work myself to a frazzle and get to the shoot exhausted. I was very tired, mind you. I don't sleep well before a shoot – even small ones. But I wasn't running on fumes. There was almost too much to do. We had a schedule that we had to keep to get the actors (whose time we were gifted) out of the house and onto their other appointments while getting all the shots on our list done. I'll go into the nuts and bolts of what we did and when we did it on the behind the scenes blog I write for this web series. You can visit there now and see some of the photos from the shoot HERE . Just go the the LINKS menu on the right. I'll post a link in an announcement here when that goes up. On this blog, I'll just cover what was going on in my head while all this mayhem unfolded. The primary hat I wore on the day of the shoot was sound technician. I had a mike and a mike stand and audio software (thanks, Bruce). But someone had to be on a headset making sure the dialog was actually recording. It's a pivotal job, but not physically difficult. However, that kept me from other tasks while shooting a take. In between takes, I was rushing around like a hummingbird to make sure actors who weren't in the current shots were in costume and getting their makeup done. After I made the sandwich, I had to keep checking to make sure none of said actors ate the sandwich. Jon brought a dozen gorgeous donuts from a shop very close to us in the Happy Corner strip mall. On a side note, those donuts are so incredibly light that we swear the unassuming owner had to have trained in Paris. Despite the donuts, actors do wander quite a bit and most eat a great deal.

Though I didn't have time for some things I would normally do – like take a photo of that magnificent sandwich or casual shots of the actors, I made sure that I could at least check on them as I jogged from room to room in the house we were using as a location. I'd hear a snippet that let me know that my Vampire and my Doctor were running their lines together. I also liked what I was hearing of their choices on how to read the lines. I could hear the chemistry between them. “Oh, good. They're bonding,” I thought on one pass through. On another pass, I heard them chatting with my FBI Agent. It was a ribald exchange that cause me to think, “Oh god, they're bonding!” It's a fine line with actors and bonding. The line between tight knit cast capturing lightning in a bottle to a set that's run amok is a very thin one. Jon and I are always outnumbered. I don't want to tell you what they found while pretending to research on that laptop. Sunshine Lliteras, or set dresser/makeup maven, asked me if I realized that all four of the actors were deeply twisted. I knew that two of them are, but the other two really surprised me. Sunshine thinks I am attracted to a certain vibe from the folks I work with. I must admit, even my crews tend to be on the wacky side. What's interesting about that is that the initial hires were all via e-mail. Maybe I can sense wackiness through email.

The shoot was a frenzy, but it was a fairly organized frenzy. While Jon and I shot one set of actors in one room, Sunshine did makeup and set dressed the other. When Jon and two of the actors helped put the living room back the way we found it, Sunshine and I set up the green screen and the table. Somewhere in the middle of all that, Sunshine and I quickly set the meal up to heat. I chose a favorite Ina Garten recipe, lemon chicken with garlic and herbs, basmati rice and a mixed baby greens salad. Instead of boneless chicken breasts, I used in bone in chicken parts from a picnic pack. I quickly picked some red onions and cucumbers to go on the salad. All we had to do was put the chicken and the sauce in a baking dish. The rice went into another one. I decided not to stop shooting to eat, because we were very close to finishing. Of course, I was starving having not eaten since 5:30 am – it was 1pm. I also managed to not go to the bathroom for all that time either. That happens with all of my shoots. I just don't find the time. We kept moving, because we had great momentum. The new fangled camera needed very little in the way of extra lighting, so there wasn't the fifteen to twenty minutes of tweaking (if we're lucky) between shots. Jon went from shot to shot with barely a break in between. We thought we would finish with the house put back together by 4:30 or 5pm. We were finished with the house put together and eating at 2:30. I was lounging on my sofa at 3:30. That was awesome. And it was so nice to see Jon working a shoot again. He looks intense and frenetic, but he was having a great time. He was jazzed the rest of the weekend.

There were some disappointments connected to the shoot, but they were minor. I didn't get the use the orchid I took great pains to buy at the Farmers Market. The green leaves faded into the green screen. I'm am so glad that I only spent ten dollars on that and not sixty dollars on that bonsai tree. Besides, I get to keep the very pretty thing which is supposed to last up to eight months. I wanted to have more than one shot of my vampire in period clothing, but that proved to be too complicated to get done in one day along with all the dialog shots. Ah well, that why the finished product is called a teaser. It's a hint of things to come. Jon says I'm vexed because I like seeing cute guys in pirate costumes. I think that is beside the point. We'll save those shots for another day.

Overall, I'm deeply pleased at how well that shoot went. I am paying for it physically though not as much as I thought I would. I need more than today to get some real rest or I will be in trouble. A couple of actors have called to fuss at me about doing too much on my own. There was talk of hiring me a minder, so I behave myself. I've got that covered in the actual shooting budget, believe me. I can't do five days like that in a row. However, it meant the world to me to be able to do it at all. I had some bad moments this past week. My yearly mammogram put a terrible fright in me that amounted to nothing mere than a Doc being careful due to my history. I must have looked plenty freaked out though, because I was told the results (all clear) before I left. The humidity has brought back sinus headaches like I haven't had since I last lived in Philly. Not fun. But overall, I am stoked at how well things went and what that says about the future.

There is more. There is Craig and the naked guy he thought was a bear, but that'll be for next time.

Stay tuned.

Julia, Nervous Tummies and Film Shoots

Long before there was a Food Network and Cooking Channel, there was Julia Child on PBS. I watched her as a child for pure entertainment. Her shows were often as funny as they were informative. She just tickled me. I really wanted to try to cook her recipes when I was a kid, but they were beyond my skills then. And Frankly, the ingredients were very difficult to find. I can remember trying to find shallots in my local grocery store as a teenager. The produce clerk looked at me like I was speaking Martian. In December of 2009, when I was recovering from my first surgery and prepping for the second, the film Julie and Julia  came out on DVD. The film was based in part on My Life in France http://amzn.com/0307277690 , a biography of Julia Child's life as she wrote her first cookbook. Jon bought me that book along with Julia's Kitchen Wisdom  along with the film. While the film was funny and sweet, the book was a revelation for me at a time when I really needed it. Julia showed me that anyone can change the course of her (or his) life at any time, so long as they have the determination to do so. Being new to a field is not an impediment. Being older is not an impediment. Not speaking the language is not an impediment. It was a joyful lesson that I really needed at that point in my life. I was in the 'what's next' stage of life. I still am, actually. But it's nice to have such a great example of the world being one's oyster. The cookbook as awesome as well. There were so many recipes that were updated from her first book as equipment changed. I've worked my way through a number of recipes that I'd never tried before or tried with less than stellar results. So far, every one that I tried has been a tasty success. And I'm still considering that cow's hoof!

Lists and Piles of Stuff

No, I'm not planning a trip at the moment though it looks like I am. As I've been detailing in my web series blog, Tales from Demon Under Glass http://demonspawntales.blogspot.com/ , we are gearing up to shoot a trailer for the web series. I had almost managed to completely bury our ironing board in the closet under all the stuff accumulating for the shoot on Saturday. Of course I needed the ironing board to complete some costumes. Yep, I have the ironing board and the fabric glue out. This is scary stuff! I confess that all the running around is making me have flash backs of everything that I hated about doing shoots. But then, that may be the fumes from the fabric glue. At any rate, everything seems to be running on schedule. We plan on shooting a photo shoot with the two leads, Garett Maggart and Owen Szabo tomorrow (Thursday). The trailer shoot is scheduled for Saturday. I have to build onto my piles from my ever growing lists between now and then. I'm hoping that if I can pull this off without ending up in bed all next week, I can pull off a mush longer shoot. I'm not sure how it will work out. Truth be told, the idea of canceling the entire shebang has run through my mind on several occasions just this afternoon. Hopefully, that passes.

I must be off to make costume pieces, edit the current manga and write a piece of fiction for the yaoi blog. I should have a number of crazy stories to tell text week.

Stay tuned.

Joyous News, Tiaras and Bubbly

For those not on any of my social networks or missed randomly meeting me on the street when I was dancing about, I will get the big news out of the way first. My latest round of diagnostic tests came back clean. I have graduated to only seeing my oncologist ever six months instead of every three and only getting tested once a year instead of every six months. I had no idea just how wound up I was about this until after I called Jon to tell him. My stomach ached and I started crying. I suppose it was relief hitting me as I realized that I won't be measuring my life in such small intervals anymore. I'll have three years in remission under my belt next year (Unofficially it's January. The last time I was hospitalized was January 2011. The Docs at UCLA told me I was completely clear of disease. Officially, it's March when the Docs at USC informed me). The odds are more in my favor the longer I'm in remission. I was feeling great when I went to check out with the nurses and get my next appointment. They looked a bit glum. I'd seen them send other patients in my position off with a lot more smiles. Then, I realized that my next appointment wasn't until after Christmas. I told them that there would still be Christmas cookies. That made them smile. I was too late to celebrate with a McDonald's sausage biscuit with egg. I decided that I needed to celebrate with at least a taste of how I would have liked to celebrate – a trip to France. I could not do that with a bus pass, so I bought the ingredients for a salad Niscoise, a baguette and a mid-range bottle of bubbly. That did the trick. There's something deeply satisfying about sopping up anchovy infused vinaigrette with a baguette. That was nice. Next time though, I'd like to include a view from an apartment in Monmartre. Though I still have to grapple with the new normal of my body, I am more than ready to get on with life.

Celebrations

Fortunately for me, there was an occasion to live it up the every next day (and why this blog is late). Good buddy and publishing partner, Marie, was having a birthday celebration. The day was jam packed with a shopping trip to the Fashion District  in Downtown LA. I was there to get sashes for some costumes. Marie was in search of a tiara to wear at her birthday party as you do. Of course, Marie found far more interesting shops down there than I ever had. We found the material for the sashes straight away. The search for tiaras had us going through all kinds of interesting boutiques. I bought a dress I wasn't planning on buying from Ethos Vintage Closet, a place that had clothing that looked like it came from the Belle Epoch era to the roaring twenties to the 1950s. It'll be an excellent resource for costumes, but that's for a different blog. The dress was beautifully, comfy and really nicely priced. I had to buy it, right? We found the tiaras in a shop that was having a 50% off sale on everything. Thus, I found myself with one as well. I've never had one this nice. I usually only have the cardboard New Year's Eve kind. Very exciting. Marie thinks we should wear them at the Culver Hotel when we next enjoy a post Farmers Market happy hour. We will be delighted to have an audience with any gallant soul who plies us with martinis and appetizers. Speaking of appetizers, I made two new ones for the party. One was a faux duck spring roll. The 'duck' was chicken thighs marinated with Peking duck spices. The other was white gazpacho soup made with cucumber, white grapes and leeks. They were fun to make and really tasty. As always, Marie's party was a delightful celebration with a really eclectic group of people. It was aptly suitable for the glorious hostess.

Today, I am resting from all these adventures with my feet propped up and a big glass of wine (I waited until 3pm) within easy reach. I have a lot of work to get back to beginning tomorrow. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has sent me prayers and good wishes and all of you who were understanding of my occasional freak outs. It means a lot to me and to Jon to have all of this support – even if it's an ear over the internet.

Updates

The web page for the Sybaritic Press West Hollywood Bookfair booth will launch by this time next week. The plan is to have an email list to join for updates, because we will be adding titles and participants to the list as each are confirmed. I have to put my nose to the grindstone and finish A Soldier's Destiny and Vincent Greven's Cookbook among other things. I believe it can be done in enough time to get hard copies by September 30^th even with all the other items on my overly laden plate. Here's hoping!

Stay tuned.

Angst and Joy and Summer in the City

I'm growing more cranky of late. Or maybe I'm less inclined to suffer idiots in silence. Something is causing me to be more testy in public than ever have been. Last week, I was nearly run over in an intersection near the library. I was in a designated cross walk and crossing with a green light. The driver of an expensive SUV decided that making a left turn before on coming traffic reached her was more important than my well being. That was terrifying. Thus, when I reached the next major intersection, I was a little angry. I grew furious when the driver who was correctly waiting for me to cross before making a right was being honked at and cursed at by the three cars behind him. I made sure to lean down to eye level as I gave each of them the finger and asked if they'd rather the man run me down in the street. The drivers correctly assumed that I was seconds from smashing my shopping cart over the hood of their vehicles and moved on without comment. I considered letting one of them hit me, but the cars were crappy and unlikely to get me much money in a lawsuit. A Lamborghini turned up a few minutes later. It was tempting. That car costs more than the budget for our first feature. It was probably rented though. There is a high end car rental spot near here. I couldn't take the risk.

Testing Time

Since February of 2010, I've made a monthly trip to the Oncology Clinic at LA County USC Hospital to get a B-12 shot. For some reason, the Docs won't allow me to do the shots myself. I even know a registered nurse who is willing to teach me how. Beats me. The upshot is that I have visited with the lovely group of nurses who work in that clinic many, many times. There are also reminders of how far I've come physically each time I visit. Some of the patients who were being treated at the same time I was turn up. Some look amazing. Others are clearly declining. Despite all of these reminders, I often forget that 'normal' life for me is measured in sixth month intervals. Granted, I get blood tests every couple of months to make sure that the various markers are normal. They have been normal each time I've had the test since being declared in remission. The last test was just a month or so ago when I went to see my primary care Doc there. Everything looks great. So, I shouldn't be worrying, right? HA! That's not in human nature. And on a more serious note, I am a member of a forum for people who have endured this particular cancer and their caregivers. It is a place of great inspiration and support. It can also be a stark reminder of how everything can go wrong. That's very difficult to push from a mind completely. So, the day after the CT scan, I'm exhausted. I have 90 plus pages of manga script to edit. I also won't get back the results of the test until Tuesday morning. That makes for a long weekend.

Brighter Notes

It's not all gloomy in my world. There is a lot going on that is exciting for my career and very satisfying creatively. And then, there are the intangibles. After all, it has been a beautiful summer. I have been beyond happy with the produce I'm finding at the Farmers Market. The array of heirloom tomatoes has been fantastic. I have never had sweeter nectarines and plums. I have found what the fresh food folks say is true. It is very easy to eat properly when the good food tastes good. It's great to have tomatoes with flavor. I've been looking for those since moving away from my beloved Jersey maters. Salads with those, some sweet onion and tender spinach only need a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar to be heavenly. No oil necessary! And the fruit is even better than most desserts. Eating these wonderful treats actually lifts my mood. I felt lucky to have two Farmers Markets in my neighborhood. Now, there is a third! There is a small one on the route I take to Marina del Rey that started just last week. I'll have a choice between Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. Also, the food trucks have returned to Culver City and Marina del Rey has them on a different night. The foodie in me is in a joyful place.

Updates

The new books are coming together nicely for the West Hollywood Bookfair. We'll have a page dedicated to the even up in the next week or so. We're also gearing up for appearances at two conventions in the fall. I'm writing a lot of pages to get ready for those in time. Updates on the web series will be posted on Saturday.

Stay tuned.

Provocative Questions, Saucy Answers and Updates

 BREAKING NEWS! Craig was in my local library today. That was surreal but lots of fun. Apparently, he did usually pull partons over the counter for a big hug while sounding like Elvis. 'Gimme some sugar.' That sort of thing. We also had an earthquake in our neighborhood. According to the maps on the news, we were almost on top of the epicenter. It was fast, but it did feel like the building had been picked up and dropped. Still, I went right back to sleep. We are such Californians.

Reader Questions

I get interesting questions all the time. The theme of the most recent ones have been 'You don't talk about x anymore. Are you still doing that?' I seldom completely abandon a practice or an idea. Usually, when I stop talking about something in the blog, it's because I've hit a dull patch with said activity. I mean, I don't know if my readers want to hear me wine about every time the bread doesn't come out right or how the macarons are mocking me after the many failed attempts. Yes, they are mocking me, especially the supermarket macarons. I am still learning Japanese. Some very kind friends have gifted me with the two major audio learning systems that I use along with the books. The audio has done wonders with my pronunciation. The manga has done wonders with my kanji reading. I'm recognizing more and more on my own. My favorite question from a reader about my learning Japanese was 'Am I tempted to say Anjin-san after I say Konnichi wa (good afternoon). I must admit that I really have to fight saying Konnichi wa, Anjin-san to that poor supermarket clerk at Mitsuwa market. He's just stopped being afraid of helping me. I think that is because he understands the words coming out of my mouth. Okay, folks, that's two pop culture references in one paragraph. No one knew who I was referring to in the blog covering the Green Eyed Monster a couple of weeks ago. The character was a homunculus called Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist. I don't know how you all didn't know that. :) Anjin-san was the name given to Richard Chamberlain's character by the Shogun in James Clavell's Shogun. The upshot is that I'm still studying and practicing and trying to to be irreverent to people who wouldn't get it..

Yoga is another matter. I still do the warm-up exercises, but I didn't take to practice as a whole. I was still dealing with pain issues when I started. Perhaps, due to that, I kept thinking that I was injuring myself even with the mildest of the movement. Tai Chi was suggested to me as an alternative by the clinician providing acupuncture. While looking into it, I discovered that very elderly people with all manner of aliments practice the martial art without hurting themselves. I've seen reports that indicate that Tai Chi can reverse a lot of conditions that cause pain. The I've just begun learning the routines, but I am feeling an impact from just the warm ups.

Dormant Books?

I think the single biggest surprise I've had during the months and months I've been home is that I still have to fight to find time to write fiction. Before I was discharged from the hospital, I was plotting stories and contemplating a very ambitious publishing schedule. Well, that was silly. Even if I set aside all the physical things profoundly slowing my output, there were the hours and hours of phone work to keep my insurance from becoming a mess and other bureaucratic craziness from overwhelming us. Those problems are not  as frequent, but now there are other obligations to my business partners or the people who give me freelance work. Promoting any independent project is a time devouring monster. Spending time with my own characters is very difficult for me to justify on any given day. Today, for instance, I have to finish this blog and move on to a trailer script that I need to get out in a few days.

All of the above is an explanation for why some books I'd hoped would be long out are still in various states of undress as it were. And then, there is a problem common to writers. Characters from one project will be speaking more clearly to me than those in another project. Even though I started one book long before the other, this can happen. It did happen with Ensnared. Lord Darius Galetea is the most arrogant character I have ever written. He is even more arrogant than Simon Molinar which he proved when he shouldered his way past A Soldier's Destiny for my attention. Granted, I was having trouble meshing Simon with my more established characters, Rik and Vincent. But Darius is one of those super hot bad boys that is impossible to ignore. He is still vying for another book. Not right now, milord. I've figured out what was going wrong with the narrative in this Soldier's book. And I have a hard deadline. That helps a lot, it seems. I'm getting a whole lot more fiction out since we decided to get a booth at the West Hollywood Bookfair. I also intend to finish the Vincent Greven Cookbook that I started years ago. I think my problem with writing a cookbook is that I never thought of myself as someone who had original recipes. That has changed markedly since I began that book. I've also been given a great deal of information from cookbook authors and food bloggers on how to attribute a recipe from another cook in my book. This book is a giveaway for people who have purchased my yaoi titles. I am thinking of writing a cookbook for myself, but that's still in the pondering stage.

There is one more project that's been gathering dust for a number of years. That was a script about at Dominant/submissive relationship between a powerful businessman and a woman he had known since she was a child. It's called The Proposal. I began writing it in response to a very bad film about such relationships. The film never found a distributor, so I won't mention the title. However, with all the stuff and nonsense over the idiotic 50 Shades of Gray, I feel that I must respond. My leading lady is as powerful as the Dominant in many ways in this book. I want to show that you can have as hot and kinky a read with a real exchange of power and true informed consent. Irritation and a deadline make for some swift but always thoughtful writing. It also helps that I had a full treatment and half a script. I hope it will be finished. The cut off is four to six weeks before the event to make sure we have print copies for the table. If not, I will provide free sample chapters in a booklet and online.

So the answer is that I have no dormant books. I am working on all of them more diligently. If all holds as it has, I should have most of them published by the end of September. Thanks for the questions. Keep them coming!

Personal Update

Next week, I'm scheduled to have tests to see if I am still in remission. Wednesday is the CT scan which means a long and not so pleasant day. Thus, it's not likely there will be a blog on Wednesday. I should be in full paranoid panic mode by Sunday. It may be sooner. Everything points to my being fine. Panicking is just a thing I do.

Stay tuned.

Big Plant, Cloaks, Daggers and Wild Manga

Jon called the tomato plant a triffid recently. While I'll concede that it does seem to loom over us, I don't think it's ready to walk out the door in a quest to take over the world. I have grown suspicious of the plant as it's only produced one smallish tomato. There have been several buds that haven't produced anything. I may have to rethink unleashing the bees in our apartment. Though I have had a suggestion involving a q-tip that doesn't sound too strange. I may give that a go first. I think the encouraging thing is that I haven't killed the plant or the supermarket thyme plant. That has been very productive and useful for a whole number of applications. I may get some more herbs for the window sill. While I am very proud of my foreboding tomato plant, I am really loving the heirloom tomatoes that are in season at the Culver Farmer's Market. Oh yes, I really do shop there before hitting that hotel bar for the martinis. All of the stalls have some lovely varieties that are wither sweet or tart. I have some really nice green ones that I plan to fry for lunch this very day. I am also loving that the produce I'm getting from there is staying fresh for a week or more. Makes me really wonder how old that stuff in the super markets is.

Cloak and Dagger

I know it seems like I am a bit of a blabbermouth with all the sharing or even over sharing of the intricate minutia on developing web series or the naughty things that have turned up on my Facebook page as I was searching for items to give away at the Bookfair or online. The fact is that on any given day, 90% of the mayhem in my life cannot go beyond a very small circle of people. It makes the blog quite challenging some time. I can't reveal what may be causing me consternation over my writing malaise as it may violate three or four confidences. Even the manga can be a challenge to blog about as I'm not allowed to be specific about the title until our work until the book is at a certain point in the pipeline. No matter how crazy the book is making me, I can only talk about it in the most vague terms possible. I mean, I can – and do – complain about research mystic Buddhist incantations, but I can't tell you why. Sorry about that. However, I am free to tell you about the second Manga I worked on for the Digital Manga Guild. You can read about the super crazy and super funny Wild Boyfriend and why it was too hot for Kindle to handle. Just click the following link: http://www.sybpressyaoi.com/2012/07/sakiras-white-hot-wild-boyfriend-is.html. It may seem silly to be so secretive. I'm not so full of myself to equate my blog with TMZ, but it is frightening how gossip can get around. You just don't know how someone is connected to someone else. Jon and I never discuss any of our scripts anywhere buy home or if we're on the street with no one about. I've been cautioned about who I talk to about certain projects when I was just home from surgery and completely housebound. It's taken that seriously. It's a drag, because I love to gossip. The leeway would also make explaining the various and sundry wackiness in my life a whole lot easier.

So, I've been housebound this week working on these many things I can't talk about. My plan is to clear my inbox of the most pressing of the tasks. This will leave me free from everything creatively save for the books and the manga. That sounds like I'm crazy. How are books – plural – easy. Well, I have them finished in my mind. I just need a stretch of time to type out what I'm seeing in my mind. I'm so certain that I will meet those deadlines that I have the covers in the works. I just have to clear the decks to have at it. At this writing, the decks are halfway cleared. I remain fairly focused despite all these cable channels and all the interweb enticements. I also think the work is getting done faster, because I haven't been inspired very much culinary-wise. I'm getting a lot of great produce and fruit. It doesn't need much in the way of cooking. I'm still annoyed from the baking mishap with the macarons, so I haven't been keen to bake. I'm sure the urge will return when I free up some time, or I get really hungry for something fun.

Updates

The ones I can share will be on the specialized blogs. I will post to those over the weekend.

Stay tuned.

On Writer Friendships and the Green Eyed Monster

Despite my recent rants over 50 Shadesof Gray  and the one over nasty and somewhat libelous reviews of my last yaoi title , I have accepted that being a writer comes with a significant amount of frustration. I get that the peaks are few and far between for most of us, and the valleys can be fathomless, depressing places. I have had a compulsion to write since I was a young child, and the writing gives me a great deal of personal satisfaction.

As a writer and as a filmmaker, I like to be generous with anything that I can offer. I am very much a Golden Rule kind of person. I look to other writers or filmmakers to give me advice or a reference or an inside tip. I have been gifted by such help at every stage of my career. The give and take of my ever growing circle of creative friends has help me with my craft and has introduced me to many influential people. All of this means that I have a lot of close friends who toil in the arts with the hopes of either making a living or living really large. They are all talented and generous souls whom I consider myself privileged to know.

It was Halloween and the Jackson were very popular.

That said, there is always a ying to the yang. I can't speak for my fellow writers, my confidence is not as absolute as it may appear. In many ways, my creative ego is fragile. There have been many occasions when I've read some work written by a friend that makes me truly believe that I am wasting my time with all these scribblings. There are other times when friends have won major awards or The feeling is fleeting, because the compulsion and the fundamental arrogance I have about my writing is all consuming. Oh, how can I be arrogant and have a fragile ego? Let's just say that that state of being is not just the domain of actors. What am I going on about, I sure you wonder. Well, one of my very close, writer friends, Tracey Wilson, suddenly moved to LA. She was hired to be on the writing staff of a new network show a few weeks ago. Several things went through my brain as I read that email. Things like 'How the hairy heck?' and 'WTF' and I think that ahooga car horn sound. Then, I shrugged figuring that she had one hell of a story about how that happened (and she did) and went about trying to find her a good sublet on short notice. I also found that I was very excited that Tracey and I would be in the same city. That hasn't happened in decades. I have missed her arid dry observations and deadly sense of humor. This is an awesome development for her and it'll be great to renew our friendship.

Big geek points for knowing who this is.

No one likes to admit being bitten by the green eyed monster, especially not where good friends are concerned. But I am trying to be honest as I can about the joys and pitfalls of being a writer. I was relieved – but not surprised – that I wasn't alone. A few of my friends have admitted to the occasional bite as well. To their credit, that hasn't derailed their creativity or their friendships. I have an extraordinary circle of creative friends that grows both bigger and closer each passing year. Thank goodness, because I think I get crazier with each passing year. I need all the help I can get.

Rise of the Sybaritic Press

Along with some new titles coming out this fall, we are pleased to announce the return of Sybaritic Press to the West Hollywood Book Fair in late September! We have a lot of new titles in fiction and non-fiction that we are very excited about, and a number of our talented authors will be doing readings and/or signings. There will be a lot of great giveaways. And you don't have to be in LA to get some of the giveaways. I will be running contests on this blog and the others so that all my readers have a shot at them. More details will follow until you are all really sick of hearing about it as the event gets closer.

There will be more updates on my other blogs, but I will post links here.

Stay tuned.

Anime Expo and My Vida Loca

I can't say that I lead a double life. I'd say that there are many facets to my life. For each facet, there are circles of friends and associates. Then, there is the facet of my family and friends from back east and down south. For the most part, the facets rarely intersect. There is the odd occasion that one group will start chatting on Facebook with another group while commenting on something I posted or commented on. That is intriguing and sometimes scary. On Tuesday, I was checking my email on my phone and noticed that my in-laws were commenting on something Gabriel posted. Since his posts can get, shall we say, provocative and profane, this was deeply puzzling and worrisome. Jon's exact reaction was ohcrapohcrapohcrap! As it turned out, Gabriel had posted photos from the birthday party on his Facebook page. I think anyone can look at my page as it is public, so you can check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3521712325953.2125064.1366419070&type=3 . Meanwhile, I really love this photo of me and Jon.

Photo courtesy of AX

At any rate, last weekend, a few facets of my life intersected. The fangirl, the writer, and the producer sides of my life converged at Anime Expo(AX), a huge convention that celebrates all things anime as well as manga and gaming. My primary mission was not to chase the cute and barely dressed cosplay boys. There are too many 'laws' about 'lewdness' and such. I was mainly there to meet the nice people I do freelance editing for at Digital Manga. Before Saturday, I only knew them via e-mail and the bi-weekly teleconference. The secondary mission was to visit my favorite webcomic authors who are behind the beautifully drawn and ever so naughty Teahouse Webcomic. I had another mission with Digital Manga. I was hoping to introduce Wendi Pini to someone in authority. We happened upon the President of the company. Of course, Ms. Pini introduced herself in Japanese. I thought about using my limited Japanese while introducing myself and telling him how much I enjoy working for DMG. But Japanese is a language with many types of speech from the very formal to the ultra casual. I couldn't remember in that instance if the greeting I was about to use was the appropriate level of formality. It could easily be a greeting that only yaoi characters would use. That would be a very rude thing to say to this friendly but clearly serious businessman. In the end, I greeted him in formal English. The encounter went very well, and he didn't even know about the big bag of cookies I brought to the booth. Hey, I know how to make an impression.

Gilder and Linneus

Cosplay and comic Linneus

After that, there were fangirl matters to attend to. This was not as easy as I thought it would be. The crowds were enormous, so it was difficult to browse the booths. There was always someone pressing you forward or backward. Unfortunately, it was never one of those shirtless young men in the tiny shorts pressing us. That would have been awesome. I did get to have a very nice visit at the Teahouse booth. I got a rose from the lovely Linneus in the flesh. Teahouse is a webcomic about a bordello filled with incredibly beautiful male and female employees. I discovered it while following yaoi related links. It's a naughty but very funny comic that has even inspired me to write the story The Companion for Full Metal Orgasm, a cyber sexpunk magazine out of Japan (Warning! This is some really racy stuff) . To thank them for their marvelous work, I brought them cookies. I walked away with a beautiful poster and an adorable key chain of my favorite character and inspiration, Gilder. I basically gushed at the ladies about how fabulous they were. I seldom get to be so silly. It was great fun.

In the midst of all of this and trying to find a Cthulhu plus toy, my friend Marie from my writing and retails world was hob nobbing with the legendary Wendy Pini and getting on rather well. It was neat to have two women I greatly admire hitting it off. One never knows if friends will mix well together. Believe me. I have the battle scars from the bad dinner parties to prove it. I now tend to entertain in small groups. But I digress.

Updates

This week, I'm handing in a pilot Jon and I have been working on for months. I want it out of my inbox before volume two of the latest manga series turns up. I also have some other projects that must be done before September. Many of the details on these projects are in my other blogs. In the yaoi blog, I'm talking about writing with music and the latest Soldier's title. You can find that here: http://sybpressyaoi.com. For updates on the web series go here: http://demonspawntales.blogspot.com/ .

Stay tuned!

Boules, Stripper Shoes and Mad Men

This past week has been a mixed bag of highs and lows. I find that I'm struggling with a bunch of things that are all messing with my motivation. Currently, my mobility has been severely curtailed by a twisted knee. On any given day my joints are a source of almost constant pain or stiffness. This is far worse. I can't even sit in a computer chair (I'm losing another week of editing videos I'm sure). I haven't been restricted to the sofa in nearly two years. Since one of the fears I wrestle with is the one that I won't be as active as I once was, this is a setback I really don't need. I'm supposed to be at Anime Expo this weekend, and I have a shoot next week. Arrgh! So, I called Craig. He is a licensed paramedic as well as my nemesis. Somehow, the discussion drifted to growing corn. That can be very funny apparently. At least, I found it hilarious. And the chat made me feel better for a while. Beyond that, there are ice packs and analgesics and the freakin' sofa for the next day or two.

I had some ups and downs with baking as well. I had quite the tussle with the old piping bag in making macarons. They tasted good, but there were not exactly ready for a patisserie. I called them rustic. Afterward, I was looking at some other recipes and concluded that the easy one I was using was a bit too easy. The steps would have made for a much prettier products. The next time I attempt them, I will use the more complex recipe. I even had problems with Madeleines, and I've made many a successful batch of those. I was just off last week, baking wise. But then I decided to try the bread experiment once again. I thought the dough looked much better than my first batch. And lookee there, I made a boule! It had a hollow thump and a crust that was crunchy when gently pressed. And it tasted as good as it looked! We ate half of the loaf with dinner. Well, Jon ate dinner. I mostly ate the bread and a couple of meatballs. It was good that the baking ended on an up note. It's never good for the main outlet for stress to become a source of frustration. I had other plans for cooking lots of seasonal veggies this week, but the knee has but the kibash on that. I'll only be standing in front of the stove long enough to heat things.

I'm not really complaining. All things considered, things aren't terrible. I'm not the same as I was before I fell ill, but at least I'm not ill. Of course, everything that goes wrong makes me paranoid about being ill again. No worries though. I've become well skilled at managing paranoia. I'll just send some panicked emails to my support system. They'll calm me down, because they have had similar experiences. Easy peasy. Yes, I have to go through this process each time. It's a thing with me. UPDATE! I have sent various panicked emails and phone calls since writing this paragraph. My knee is feeling only marginally better, but I feel much more relaxed about it all now.

In These Shoes...

...I don't think so. (My favorite song about high heels).  When I was hobbling around the mall on Monday, I must confess that I was really pleased to see some very lovely clothes for this season. There are some lines of clothes that have very attractive sundresses and skirts. Even the shorts remind me strongly of the fashion sense from the 1950s when women had figures and sexy didn't mean slutty. I think Mad Men http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Men is responsible for that (I've never seen the show myself. It reminds me too much of the Tate Advertising Agency on Bewitched, but with no magic or Samantha Stephens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Stephens ). This is a good thing. I usually find myself ranting angrily at fashion trends that either make no sense or don't look right on any female that isn't a toddler (I'm looking at you, empire waist dresses). And I still don't like pork pie hats. 

But amidst these lovely fashions is a big and perplexing irritant to me. Somehow, stripper's shoes have become high fashion. I'm even seeing serious female journalists wearing these five or six inch numbers. What's the harm, you might ask. They're just shoes after all. I give you my Hubs as Exhibit A. He is a thoroughly modern man who believes that women can do whatever jobs they set their minds to. His Momma raised him right. However, when he sees those shoes on a woman, his reaction every time is Hhheeeyyy now, what is she into? Or Why is she interviewing that general in FM shoes? Before you think I am speaking in hyperbole, consider the shoes to the right. I found those on a site called Upscale Stripper http://upscalestripper.com. I found a shoe with the same silhouette and heel height at the very respectable zappos.com. Check out this link:

http://www.zappos.com/mia-limited-edition-vixen-white-patent. I find it distressing that otherwise serious women are undermining their authority for the sake of fashion. In some ways, this trend is more distressing than the fad of having 'juicy' written on the seat of girl's and women's short shorts. Wake up ladies! If you won't consider your dignity, consider your health. Podiatrists are offering operations to to make walking in those shoes bearable. They are called 'toe jobs' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/plastic-surgery-foot-feet-high-heels_n_1454964.html .After all, they were only meant to be worn for the length of a song or while on one's back shooting scenes for porn. They weren't built for an 8 hour day in an office.

Updates

I'll post film and book updates in my other blogs this week. I'll make an announcement here when they are uploaded. One crazy thing though. My books have been really selling this month. I'm really happy, but have no idea why. I'm not even advertising. Maybe all of this blogging is paying off.

Stay tuned

On Tiny Gardens, Sterilizing and Socializing

I have a tiny tomato on my lonely tomato plant. (It's on the lower right). That was such a relief, because I was really concerned that I needed bees to pollinate the flowers. Unlike Jon, the notion of letting bees into the apartment just did not appeal to me. That sure did tickle my father though. He's quite the urban gardener. He got quite the chuckle out of that proposal. He explained that tomatoes are self pollinating somehow. They've been developed that way, because bees are so scarce anymore. I'm fairly pleased at how strong that plant is especially compared to the last time I tried to grow something. I may get a mini herb garden to keep it company. I know it sounds weird, but it just seems like the plant is lonely all by itself. UPDATE! It's been days since I started this blog. I now have a little thyme plant to keep the tomato plant company, and supply me with thyme. That's my favorite herb.

I've been having trouble keeping up with all the blogs I need to post over weekends. I'm considering moving this blog to mid-week when I don't have a bottleneck. I'll be having some really busy weekends in the next few weeks, so that may be prudent.

Craig as My Nemesis?

Jon thinks I am Craig's nemesis. I do drive him crazy, it seems, by putting him in my fiction (he's even made an appearance in my fanfiction) and writing about him in the blog. He's not really angry. He's just puzzled that anyone finds him interesting. I know a lot of people who are interesting in many strange ways, but I know few who are as interesting and consistently funny as Craig. He worries that people will be disappointed upon meeting him. Highly unlikely. I can count on one hand the people that can make me laugh as hard as he does no matter what my mood is or how badly I feel. Today, I was feeling really down (tired of being tired, really tired of all the pain). I swear that he senses this, because he always seems to call when I am at my mopiest. One call was to inform me that Ray Liotta was back in his orbit. I looked him up to see if he was between shoots or really stalking Craig. It seems to be the former. The call that really cracked me up today was his review of John Carter. It's not the worst review I've heard from Craig. That honor goes to Pathfinder. If Jon ever gets a notion to tune in on that film, I am to leap across the TV screen in slow motion screaming NOOOOOO to block the signal from the remote. I can't repeat the other things he said. The John Carter review was more colorful and far less angry. He likened it to his keen disappointment with Star Wars Episode 1 but with a herd of Jar Jar Binks . And he said the leads were pretty but ill suited for dialog beyond 'I love you, cardboard character (his words).' 'If I wrote one of those review blog things, I'd give it four F#$%K Nos and recommend people put their time to better use like auto-erotic asphyxiation.' See, he can't help being interesting. So, I accept being his nemesis. He's too much of a gentlemen to start a war with me. He'll just try to terrorize Jon.

Social Butterfly

Aside from the sojourns that Marie and I have taken to the Culver Hotel after shopping at the Culver City Farmer's Market, I had two other social engagements. That was a lot before I fell ill. Since then, it's unheard of. I think I held up fairly well. I even managed to put makeup on AND do my hair. Have I mentioned that some of the most helpful makeup tips I've found online has been from transvestites and transgenders? Who better to instruct on making skin look flawless? I still can't get behind false eyelashes. They just make me giggle.

At any rate, the first of the social engagements was an impromptu celebration of Gabriel Koerner's 30^th birthday. It happened that he really liked a place that was five minutes from our place, and it was very reasonably priced. Jon said that if I were to create a restaurant in my fiction, it would be exactly like Sara the Wine Bar http://www.sarathewinebar.com/ (Things are very glamorous in the video. Something like that was going on in a private room, but the main restaurant was really down to earth and homey). When I approached the entrance, there was a handsome, older gent dancing with an adorable, chubby cheeked baby who was grinning and laughing. Inside, there were two generations of extended family attentively waiting on customers. Though I was not a regular, I was welcomed and felt very comfortable alone waiting for Jon, Gabriel and his friends to show up. Of course, with Gabriel http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gabriel_Koerner involved, there is a Trek connection to the joint. Cirroq Lofton http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Cirroc_Lofton is best known as Jake Sisko from Deep Space 9. He married a talented chef from Tuscany. The result is a place with amazing, handcrafted food and a warm, friendly atmosphere that made me feel at home. Our first birthday party with Gabriel was when he was 15 and prone to swing from trees. When I first met him during my interview for Trekkies, I thought 'I seem to have found Jon's son.' Our relationship with him reminds me of family – highly entertaining at times. He's packed a lot of hard living in 15 years. I'm glad to see that he's mellowed though he remains quite the charming dinner companion. A fine time was had by all.

The second outing will have to wait for another day. I have more to cover, and my inbox is not emptying itself!

Jammin'

I suppose it was inevitable that all of this fresh produce would leave to making Jam. I think that was only part of my interest in the practice. Most of it came from the interest in making bread from scratch. It seemed silly to me to spend time allowing the dough to ferment slowly for enhanced flavor only to slather on some store bought jam that has sugar or high fructose corn syrup as a first ingredient. I'm also planning on making maracons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaron from scratch. Regular jam wouldn't do. And if I am considering Jam that in the ten buck range, I'd just as soon make my own. I'm not courageous enough to trust that my canning will hold up for months. I'm happy with smaller yields (2 jars per type) that will last in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Once I'm better at it, I'll give jars as gifts. The process isn't difficult, but it is exacting if one wants to avoid dangerous canned goods. I think the biggest challenge for me is that once you begin the sterilizing process, you have to be ready to fill the jars with the hot mixtures. As I've often said, our apartment is small, and the kitchen is miniscule. Making the various jams used every bit of available space and most of my pots and pans. Luckily, the recipes can be re-heated to boiling later on or even the next day (I just don't add the pectin until right before I'm ready to put everything in the jars). I can rest while Jon cleans up the kitchen. Love that Kitchen Aide! Then, I can start the sterile cleaning of the stove and the sink. I even did the floor. I think I was thinking of an operating room. The instructions were adamant about everything touching the jars and lids be extremely clean. It was a mite scary transferring the newly cleaned and rinsed glasses in the hot water pot with the transferring grabber gizmo. I had to make sure that water was filled to the top without falling over. But what was really terrifying was grabbing the sterilized jars, pouring out the hot water and gently setting it on a tray. My long time readers may recall, that I am quite a klutz at times. And I have had incidents with scalding water. Luckily, Everything went well this time. And the jams turned out nicely. The apricot isn't quite as good as the stuff I had in the south of France, but it was tasty with very little sugar. I'm hoping the process will get easier with each attempt.

Updates

I have a web series update on http://demonspawntales.blogspot.com/ . I have a very pointed yet literary rant on trolls who write bad reviews without reading the book here http://sybpressyaoi.com. There are no new book or film updates. I have a pile of stuff I'm slogging through in my inbox, but nothing I'm free to report.

Stay tuned.

Mini Blog on Blog Delay

There will be a delay of blog to late tonight or early tomorrow due to the obligations to write the other blogs supproting my various projects (books, manga and web series) and the sudden rise in social engagements. I've had two -- count 'em -- two this week! Though I am finally managing to get make-up on without leaving the apartment a shambles, I can't seem to juggle a social life with my work obligations. Wow, am I out of practice. I used to go to Atlantic City, dance all night, go back to Philly AND work a whole shift without breaking a sweat. But then, Disco was all the rage then. A bit of time has passed.  I will share the social engagements in the upcoming blog. One is wrought with geekiness of a Trek nature.

The other highlights will cover my lone tomato plant and unleashing bees in our apartment, jams and how they can destroy the order in a kitchen, Craig and how I became his nemesis and other hilarity and mayhem.

You can catch my other blogs at: http://www.sybpressromantica.com/ and http://demonspawntales.blogspot.com/. The Manga blog will also be up later. I share the link when it goes live.

As for the rest,

Stay Tuned!

Writing and Publishing -- The Perilous and Profane

Before I begin, I must warn my gentle readers in the strongest of terms that while this blog is about my current writing endeavors, the language and content are very, very naughty. It is very likely not everyone's cup of tea. There are unseemly things done with bud vases and other things too raucous for delicate sensibilities. I'm looking at you, Maw-in-law! Though a bit of that salty language is your son's. Onward then!

It has been very correctly pointed out to me that there is a great deal going on in my life as a writer and editor that is not reaching this blog. I blame the nature of social media branding. I have to have blogs that are aimed at particular audiences who read my work, so they can easily find it in searches. However, a lot has been going on lately, and since this began as a blog about my writing, it's only right that I bring everyone up to speed.

The Return of Sybaritic Press

Things have been fairly quiet on the publishing front save for works by Marie Lecrivain and me. That is changing in a very big way with our first anthology of creative non-fiction. It is called Alternate Lanes, a compilation of works about modes of transportation in Los Angeles that don't involve automobiles. From walking to cycling, buses and trains, the writers talk about their experiences warts and all in poems and essays and photographs. Mine humble contribution is called Crosstown Express. It details the wild dichotomy of riders and scenery on the two bus lines I take to the hospital a few times a month. I have not seen as many swings between affluence and poverty nor as many types of citizens since riding the route 23 trolly line in . That route has been documented by Urban studies researchers and sociologists. There is even a YouTube video that lovingly shows the line. Marie has a wonderful piece on the strange adventures and perils of walking in LA. Yes, people, there is quite a lot of walking in LA. We're getting some serious buzz about the book, and there isn't even a galley. We're also going to do book fairs once again this year though I'm not sure there will be any drunken parrots in the booth. It's a long story.

My Debut in a New E-Zine

Last week, I made my short story debut in a Full Metal Orgasm or FMO, a cyber sexpunk e-zine. The editor takes a deliberately provocative title to make sure there is no doubt that the content is unflinchingly adult in nature. That not only attracts the desired readership, it should warn away those who would be offended by the material. Being the contrary soul that I am, my contribution is not like the others. The Companion is about a dystopian society where someone can be arrested for stealing food and get a decades long sentence in a hell-hole of a prison or sold to a farmer on a colony as a full service slave (yes, service extends to the bedroom). It sounds like it should fit with the no holds barred, brutal sexuality of the rest of the amazing works in this collection. I certain started to write it that way. Somehow, it became this delicate, sensual character study with a very sweet ending. I was really pleased with it and knew it would find a home somewhere in my other works, but the editor very kindly bought the work anyway. It's become a point of controversy with the zine, but that's what I do. I hope my fans who are kind enough to buy it will read the rest. Despite protestations to the contrary, the rest of the stories are very smart and are often saying more that they seem. Reading the entire zine will be like taking an excursion into dark and fascinating places. It's well worth the trip.You can buy it from the website HERE or on Amazon for Kindle HERE.

The Perils of Localizing Yaoi Manga for DMG

I work as an Editor for the DigitalManga Guild(DMG). We work in teams called localizers (they make the material readable for a local audience). Each team consists of a translator, an editor and a letterer. My primary job as editor is to take the raw English translations into more colloquial English. The casual way people talk in the US. That sometimes means translating Japanese pop culture references into the US equivalent. I pass the edited script to the letterer who replaces the Japanese dialog with the new dialog. The whole team is responsible for QC on the finished pages. Finally, I also write the synopsis that will appear on the various websites where the manga will be sold. We're typically given 90 days to finish a 200 page book. We've finished two thus far. We're just finishing volume one of a four part series that we will be working on through the summer. The second one, Wild Boyfriend, just turned up on the company website (see photo above). This means it will be published soon. Working on the localizing team has been an education I really didn't expect. I wrote a blog about one aspect of it on our official site. DMG tweeted it to all of its followers.

Without further ado:

My localizing team mates and I were lulled by the sweet, funny romance of Again Tomorrow. While there were some epic sex scenes in every chapter of Nabako Kamo’s manga, there were a lot of other things going on as well. There were intrigues at the office or at various schools or, in one case, on a crowded subway. If there were eyes that were too young and tender for yaoi, it was easy to move to a benign location in Again Tomorrow. Curious little ones would likely find a panel with two salarymen working in a cubicle very dull and move on. Don’t get me wrong. Again Tomorrow is a white hot, sexy manga. However, the mangaka likes to build the tension or ratchet up the jeopardy for each of the couples before the pages and pages of heated coupling. Thus, the localizer who is also a parent has ‘safe’ pages on which to click when the children wander too close.

This is not the case with the current manga Heaven’s Blade is localizing. Sakira’s Wild Boyfriend covers many more couples who come together in a swift and explosive fashion. The safe pages are far fewer in number and really hard to click on when in a panic. I’m lucky as I only have the Hubs peering over my shoulder periodically. All I have to put up with are comments like:

‘You can’t tit f***k a guy!’
‘He put a bud vase with a flower in there!’
‘Who keeps that many sex toys at work?’ (That one gave me pause.)
‘He just happened to be carrying roofies to school.’
‘Sweat is NOT the same as lube!!’

The comments are a bit distracting, but  could never derail me. I have been thrown into fits of giggles – mainly at my Hubs’ consternation, but I always manage to find focus after a while. My team members, however, have a stickier problem. They have young ones with curious eyes. Fortunately, they are none too stealthy. My team mates have to use cat-like reflexes to switch to a different screen and avert disaster. Of course, the little darlings who never seem to pay attention to their parents before, notice when their parents move so abruptly. Thus, they hang around hoping for a glimpse of what was so interesting. To combat that strategy, my team mates have taken to doing their part of localizing when their little ones are fast asleep. They have been a lot punchier during Skype or email exchanges with this manga. I admire them for soldiering on with their fatigue fuzzy brains through their regular workloads while still churning out quality translations and lettering.

I don’t think any of us anticipated such perils when we signed up to be localizers. Still, it’s a fun gig, and the problems are amusing in their own way.

Again Tomorrow - Ashita Kara Mouichido © Nabako Kamo. All rights reserved. Original Japanese edition published in 2010 by Taiyoh Tosho Publishing Co., Ltd. It’s available for Kindle HERE, for Nook HERE and other formats HERE.

That's covers everything going on at the moment, book wise. There is a whole lot of film related stuff in the works that I'll cover another time.

Stay tuned.