Lucifer

The Best Weird Compliments

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this bright and beautiful day? Things are finally slowing down here, doctor appointment-wise, though Dad does keep bringing home more of them. At least the newest one is a month away. All of my doctors seem to be retiring. It makes me feel old, but that’s okay. Just means I get to meet people like Dr. Lucifer. Her name is actually Lussier, but the guy who left the message telling me she was my doctor didn’t enunciate and my ears heard what they wanted to, so she will forever be Dr. Lucifer. And since there’s a chance she could read this, I totally mean it in a Tom Ellis way, not a Mark Pellegrino (Supernatural) way. Anyway, I’m rambling and off topic. I’ve recently been thinking about weird compliments I’ve received. I even posted about it in a Facebook group in order to socialize a bit. But I thought I’d share a few of the ones I’ve received for you to laugh (or cringe) at.

1. So, I was hanging out with a friend and some of his friends when he stops mid-sentence, stares me in the eye, and says “I never noticed before, but your eyes are like blue crystal. I want to cut them out and hang them on my wall.” And, as you know, I appreciate all of the creepy things in life, so this was basically the best compliment ever. It inspired one of my serial killer stories (“Lying Eyes”). Who doesn’t love friendly serial killer-esque compliments from friends? To be fair, it came from the guy who also once told me that he keeps forgetting I’m creepy too after he apologized for some other weird remark. Creepy friends are fun.

2. Another time, I was texting a long-distance friend when I got bored and asked if he had any single friends. He told me that all of his friends were either married or assholes and he wouldn’t give me to an asshole. I still don’t know if that was weirdly sweet or just super unhelpful. I’m going with sweet just because it’s him, but I’m still single so it also wasn’t helpful at all.

3. During grad school, one of my fellow pop ficcers sent me the best feedback ever. He told me that my story had the potential for EVA-level mindfucks. Being the Neon Genesis Evangelion lover that I am, I admit I squeed. I squeed hard. I can only aspire to EVA-level mindfuckery, but to think someone had that much faith in me was super sweet.

I can probably think of other weird compliments, but this post is feeling a bit awkward. I’m not used to nice things. What are some of the weird things that have been said to you? Were you creeped out or did you think it was sweet? As always, feel free to share your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!

Top 5 Anime Sorted By Favorite Characters

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing now that we’ve entered the second month of the year? I’m doing okay. In one of those hurry up and wait situations, so that’s always fun. But otherwise, things are normal here. Except, I somehow ended up with books to review every week this month after today. I don’t know how it happened, but it makes my blogging life so much easier. Don’t worry. I’d never be able to keep up with a book a week, so that’s not going to happen. I’ll be reverting back to having no clue what to ramble about come March. But today, I’m taking a topic idea from my friend Jenae. She wanted me to list some of my favorite anime/manga by hottest character. I’m just going to call them favorite characters though, because many are under age and if people realize that, I don’t need them thinking I’m creepy. So, here are my top 5 anime (in no particular order) by favorite characters.

1. Angel Sanctuary (Kira Sakuya, Lucifer, Rosiel). So, it’s hard to pick just one character, especially when you love angsty and/or psycho males. This series is chockfull of them. And I know it’s more of a manga, but they did release a three episode OVA, so it counts as anime too. What with the corrupt angels, incestuous love story, and cross-dressing demons, it’s definitely not for everyone, but I love it. It’s one of my favorite end-of-the-world stories.

2. Yuri on Ice (Victor, Yurio). This anime is adorable and fluffy and I’d give it all the cuddles if it were a plushie. Victor is a flaky idiot who seems to do things on a whim. Yurio’s random violent outbursts are hilarious. Plus the animation is lovely. Who doesn’t want to watch something about the lives of figure skaters? It’s just a super fun show with lots of lovable characters. Judge me all you want.

3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Ed, Winry, Hawkeye). Don’t get me wrong, either version of FMA is great and worth watching. I just prefer Brotherhood because it follows the manga and I feel like that’s a better story line. But I adore both the original and the remake. Ed’s hilarious and Winry and Hawkeye are a couple of my favorite female characters in general. If you haven’t watched either version, pick one and watch it! Then watch the other one.

4. Sailor Moon (Saturn, Prince Demande). Unless you’re new to stalking me, this one should be no surprise. It was my introduction to anime, so it will always be a favorite. Saturn is my girl because she’s sickly, but can destroy worlds. And Prince Demande was one of my first favorite psychopaths. Actually, this shows explains a lot about my weirdness. It’s the best.

5. Attack on Titan (Levi, Mikasa). I struggled choosing between this one and a few others, but decided I should include something that’s still on. It’s a bit confusing and I will probably rewatch it all once this season is over just to put together anything I miss/don’t understand. But it’s gory fun and we all know how much I like that. As far as the characters go, I think we’ve established that I have a type. We’ll see if this one stays on the list when it’s over, but I’m enjoying it for now. Also, I’m watching the dub with Dad, so no spoilers from anyone watching the sub or reading the manga.

There you have it. Some of my favorite anime sorted by favorite characters. You can blame Jen for this post. What are some of your favorite anime and which characters do you love? As always, feel free to share your thoughts or comments here or on my social media pages!

Revision Prep: The Initial Read-Through

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy!  I recently started the initial read-through of LR (code name for novel attempt 2, draft 1) in preparation for beginning the editing process.  Yes, I know I should’ve done that a couple of months ago, but I didn’t.  So, here we are.  This is the part of revision where I haven’t looked at the story in a while (about six months for this one), so I’m reading it mostly in reader mode.  I have to remind myself that this is not the time for my inner editor to nag at every little thing, it’s time to just enjoy the story and see how it goes.  However, there are things I keep on the look out for in the back of my mind while I’m reading.  That’s what I want to ramble about today: the five things I look for during this read-through.

Slide2
The sooner I acknowledge it’s shitty, the easier it is to tune out my inner editor until I need her.

1. Gut reactions.  What makes me laugh?  What makes me want to cry?  What do I glance over?  I’m looking to see what parts of the story elicit emotional reactions and which parts are blah.  I want to keep the former (if possible) and tweak or get rid of the latter.  Also, I want to know if I still enjoy the story as much as I did when I wrote it.  I’m only like six chapters into LR as a reader, but I’m actually super surprised at how much I love it.  Yeah, it’s a shitty first draft, but the characters and story still really amuse me.  It makes me think I’m doing something wrong, because I feel like I’m supposed to hate it at this point.

2. Continuity errors.  Have I randomly changed someone’s name?  Did I move an entire building somewhere else halfway through?  Was someone right handed and suddenly they’re left handed?  Stupid things like that.  Some are glaringly obvious while others will only be noticed by a really close reading.  I already know my main character randomly goes from fourteen to seventeen (because fourteen was too creepily young for this particular story).  One of my “bad guys” changes her race halfway through because I originally couldn’t decide what group of shifters she belonged to, but then decided on one that was completely different from how I imagined her in the beginning.  And of course there are a bunch of little things as well.

plot-holes-plot-holes-everywhere
I feel like I’ve used this before, but it’s appropriate.

3. Plot holes.  Have I left any threads undone?  Did I randomly start something in the middle with no lead up to it?  Is what the character’s doing feasible in the world I created?  Is it something they actually would do?  These are definitely things I have to make notes about so I can fix them or change them or remove them entirely.  There’s this thing with a fox in the first chapter of LR and by chapter two, it’s been completely forgotten.  I have no idea where that was going, but if I don’t figure it out by the end of this read-through, I either need to cut it or make something up.  These are important changes for me to consider as I read.

4. Useless characters.  Do I have any characters who are just there to do one thing and then they disappear?  Can someone more pertinent to the story do the thing?  Could that character become someone important?  I know most books have at least a couple of superfluous characters, but I like to weed them out if I can.  In LR, there’s the principal’s secretary whose sole job seems to be giving my main character his late slips for class.  I’m debating whether or not to combine her with another character or just giving her a bigger role in the next book.  Then again, I might keep her as she is because that’s life.  Someone has to pass out the tardy slips.

Lucifer1
Went looking for typo demon pictures and got distracted by manga demons.  It’s Lucifer from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary.

5. Blatant typos and grammatical errors.  These aren’t things I actually look for in this read-through, but if they pop out at me, I either make a note or fix them.  I try to save this stuff for later read-throughs, though.

What about you?  Do you have anything you look for when you’re getting reacquainted with stories you want to revise?  Feel free to share your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!