Ninth Suture

Hello everyone. I wanted to let you know that I’m going to be going out of the country from July 31st to August 9th. I won’t be able to write or update Akumu Love Panic! or Eikasia during this time, so I hope you are okay waiting until I return. If you haven’t already, why not read ALP! or if you’ve only been reading ALP!, why not check out Eikasia? In the past, I offered some recommendations for books that you guys might find interesting to read if the wait is too much. Right now, I only have one (you can search my posts for past recommendations) but it’s a pretty good one.

I haven’t finished reading it yet, but I soon will. It isn’t a terribly long book, but you could easily spend a few days with it if you paced yourself. It’s called Underdogs, by Geonn Cannon. It’s a paranormal romance with lesbian protagonists, and it even has shapeshifters! It’s a fun read, and it has surprised me more than once in its execution. You can check it out and get a sample of it (if you have a Kindle or the Kindle app) at Amazon: http://amzn.com/B007UHQY10 At 6.99 for the Kindle version, it’s pretty fairly priced.

So just as a reminder, I won’t be back until the 9th of August. I’ll be posting up one more chapter for ALP! before my flight Tuesday, and then I’ll continue after I get back. Till then, take care!

For my American readers…HAPPY 4th OF JULY! I burned myself with a firework. What have YOU done in celebration of your country? Well who cares! Here’s a fun Captain America image my best friend showed me:

My goofiness aside, I really ought to get more consistent with these journal entries. I suppose I just don’t want to sound like a broken record. But today I actually have some things to go on about.

The return of Eikasia really feels…well…real. There had been a few updates in the past, but they were bursts of inspiration in a sea of nothing. The bonus updates have been a great help in keeping me connected with the story, and it’s true that I still have four to finish, but I think it’s infinitely more important that I’ve returned to writing the main story. The entire reason I started the bonus updates was because I had run out of juice for writing, after all. But in case you were wondering, the next bonus update (The Cats Have Claws) is at about around 6k words. The Abaddonic, if you guys remember that Tobias bonus update I never finished, is still hovering at around 3k words. Personally, I think it’s better that these stories were started at least. That way, if I felt so compelled later, it’d be much easier to finish them (and much more likely that I would, ha ha.)

This new return to writing has come due to a boost in my general mood. In my video podcasts, I’ve mentioned my problems with depression-anxiety disorder, and some of the challenges that I’ve faced as a newly wed in a new area away from home. After settling into the rhythm of work and school, getting over certain financial hurdles, and getting both medical, emotional, and psychological help, I’m starting to feel a lot better. The “bad” days are becoming less frequent, and I’m finally starting to feel comfortable with my new surroundings. This led me to getting back into the things I absolutely love, among them, anime and manga. If you’ve somehow been living under a rock, anime is simply Japanese animation, and manga are Japanese illustrated works (like graphic novels or comics). Mostly, I revisited some of my favorite niche genres: shoujo-ai and horror. If you’re wondering what shoujo-ai is, it literally translates to “girl’s love.” Just some of the shows I watched were Strawberry Panic!, Aoi Hana, Sasameki Koto, and Maria-sama ga Miteru. What do all of these shows have in common? Lesbian love and school girls!

Aoi Hana is too pretty for words.

If a hot chick were doing THIS to me, I sure wouldn't be "panicking" that's for sure...

Which brings me to what I really wanted to talk about. While these shows, with their angst and young love helped me reconnect with what really gave Eikasia its soul–Elmiryn and Nyx’s romantic connection–it also led to a sudden and intense desire to write my own “anime/manga-inspired” high school based story. Thus, Akumu Love Panic! was born. Clearly, it’s a play off of Strawberry Panic!, but it’s not without some meaning. Akumu, in Japanese, means “nightmare.” You see, while I was watching all of the above, I was also watching a certain infamous show called Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, roughly translated to “When They Cry” in English. It’s a horror-mystery show based off of a popular visual novel in Japan. The show does an excellent job of taking ordinary kids and tossing them into otherwise horrific situations, using their tranquil and happy lives as perfect foils for the violence and madness that beset them. The shows excellent storytelling and use of atmosphere really got me excited to do something of a similar nature.

"When They Cry" is fun for the whole family!

It led me to explore more “alternative” Japanese works, and I ended up rewatching certain gems of extreme Asian cinema (Suicide Club, Battle Royale, Noriko’s Dinner Table, Audition, and Ichi the Killer). The rabbit hole went pretty deep, and I ended up touching on some pretty hardcore material. I didn’t actually watch Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood, Niku Daruma (aka Psycho: The Snuff Reels, aka Tumbling Doll of Flesh), or Girl Hell 1999…(for all my morbid curiosity, Japanese exploitation is waaay too much for me to sit through) but rather, I read and watched a bunch of reviews about them, which gave some succinct summaries, and also pulled up a few film stills (about all I can take–some of this stuff is really hardcore). I found it adequate enough to start forming ideas for antagonists and to get ideas for the sort of menace I wanted to have present in ALP!. If you’re curious to learn more, SculptingFragments of YouTube is an excellent guide into the world of extreme cinema, though he doesn’t just review Asian cinema.

Battle Royale is currently available on Netflix, for those curious

In the midst of all this, I also checked out the unusual sub-genre of manga called ero guro.

Ero guro probably sounds like “erotic gore” which is the primary reason so many Westerners misunderstand the genre. It isn’t about eroticising gore and violence. Ero guro is about decadence, deviancy, eroticism, and the bizarre. Some stories may not even have blood or violence. The artistic movement started back in the 1920′s and 30′s in Japan, and though it was suppressed during WWII, in the post-war years it has influenced Japanese art and culture in various ways. Some of my favorite ero guro works are by Shintaro Kago. Of what I’ve read, I feel Abstraction is his best short story by far, but I also enjoyed Holy Night and Harakiri for their dark humor and sharp social commentary. You can visit this site to read some of his works–beware! Some of his manga shorts are NSFW, never mind the rather graphic ads.

In summary, the archetypes and fetishes encountered in school romance stories, coupled with the arresting atmosphere of Asian horror, and the unusual but poignant exploration of the human condition by ero guro, led me to the creation of Akumu Love Panic!. That is why last week’s update was so short. I just got so into writing ALP! and sort of lost track. For that I apologize.

When I started writing Akumu Love Panic!, I was drawing mostly on my knowledge of Japanese culture as seen through anime and Asian cinema. Not that I didn’t do a little reading to complement that, but I felt that, for the opening on ideal Japanese school life, painstaking realism wasn’t really necessary. My intention with ALP! is to satirize the “cute and innocent” stereotypes often encountered in school animes, especially shoujo romances. This runs as the undercurrent to the otherwise dark nature of the series, which explores the bizarre and erotic whilst struggling to survive the evil. As I see it, the major theme is simply about coping with things–how one copes with serious depression, alien surroundings, the pressures of school life, a health disorder, a magical curse, a difficult family tradition, and a poor relationship with a parent, among other things. The story’s genre (ignoring my frustration with genres) can be understood as Horror and Romance, meaning that this shall be another girl-girl romp. But if my sources of inspiration haven’t been enough of an indication for you, this story will be nothing like Eikasia. I know that Eikasia can get graphic in its own ways, but Akumu Love Panic! is meant to push the limits of erotic fetishism and graphic horror. If you’ve never read Tales of MU, then I’ve already lost my best example of the “fetishism” I’m talking about (and you can even argue that ToMU has some isolated examples of the graphic horror I intend as well.)

I think ALP! is coming about easier for me to write than Susie Swordfish (my other writing project, which has so far been left in my “to-write” box) because it deals more directly with the issues I’d like to write about that isn’t already covered by Eikasia. I’ve set a tentative update schedule for every Monday, but I’m not sure how that will work. Last week, I was somehow able to come up with something for both Eikasia and ALP! and still finish schoolwork, but then again I only had 8 hours of work scheduled. This week I have 14 hours of work scheduled and its a new school week. Worst comes to worse, I think it’d be nice if I could always make an effort to update at least one story a week. I’m not sure what you guys think of ALP!. Perhaps it feels rushed, and I suppose in some ways it is. Just like with Eikasia, however, I intend to improve it as time goes on. Have you guys seen the first draft of Eikasia’s Chapter One before? I mean, the VERY FIRST DRAFT, from my old Blogspot site? It’s horrendous. I’m astounded people even kept reading beyond that point.

And in unrelated news, we have a new black kitty. His name is Garo, or Gar-Gar for short. Swoon over his cuteness. SWOON.

And above is the excellent logo he designed for me, which I hope to implement once Eikasia is back in full swing. I wanted the story’s return to be a sort of evolution.  That means finishing my edits from fluffyseme.com and placing them on the main website. Creating a new ad campaign to bring readers back to the story. And (if I can somehow pull this off) opening up a CafePress store with merchandise from commissioned artwork and the new logo.

Another video blog for you all, detailing what’s going on with me and what my thoughts are on the story so far.  Plus, a personal appeal.

Ah, and it’s my birthday!  Do me a favor and give Eikasia a review/rating?  Donations are swell too!

To rate/review Eikasia, go to: Web Fiction Guide – http://t.co/oEUpa40e OR Muse’s Success – http://t.co/cSxquL4W

To donate click here.

Here’s this week’s vlog:

To add to what I said in the video–

It was fully my intention upon writing 29.1 to have a much more physically intimate scene between Elmiryn and Nyx, but after starting 29.2, I realized that not only would that be implausible (because of Elmiryn’s immaterial state) but the timing was just plain bad.  I really didn’t think it felt natural, as much sexual magnetism as there was.  I thought it much more interesting to focus on Elmiryn’s growing inner turmoil over her changing state, and showing how her feelings towards Nyx have become increasingly complex as a result.  I’m going to try and get a head start on resuming the story.

The real problem with my story outline is that it only focuses on major plot points.  Sometimes, I have big spaces in between those where I assume I’ll have enough plot fodder to churn through before I hit onto the next major event.  This time around, I lacked the inspiration needed to forge ahead.  It won’t be the same this next week, I promise!

I posted this yesterday on YouTube as part of a new vlog series I’m trying to do.  I seem to have trouble finding the energy to type up blog posts, so I’m giving this a shot as I’m pretty content to run my mouth, even when exhausted.  There’s a few other videos on Eikasia’s YouTube page if you haven’t already checked it out.  From now on, I’ll be cross-posting vlog entries here, just to make them more available.

Gonna finish 28.3, then post.  Hopefully within the hour!

I’ll give you guys a quick summary of what went down this summer for me:

1.  Got married to the awesomest person on the planet.

2.  Did a road trip honeymoon through the American South that was equally awesome.  (Vegas, San Antonio, New Orleans?  Oh yeah baby!)

3.  Moved into new home.

4.  Started online classes for Full Sail University’s Creative Writing BFA program.

5.  Started a new part time job.

So that’s what’s been going on with me (and in some cases, is still going on with me.)

I talk a bit about Eikasia this week and what happened last week in this new vlog I did. I’m considering doing 1-2 minute vlogs every week. Lemme know what you guys think!

A Line-Storm Song
By Robert Frost

The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift,
The road is forlorn all day,
Where a myriad snowy quartz stones lift,
And the hoof-prints vanish away.
The roadside flowers, too wet for the bee,
Expend their bloom in vain.
Come over the hills and far with me,
And be my love in the rain.

The birds have less to say for themselves
In the wood-world’s torn despair
Than now these numberless years the elves,
Although they are no less there:
All song of the woods is crushed like some
Wild, easily shattered rose.
Come, be my love in the wet woods; come,
Where the boughs rain when it blows.

There is the gale to urge behind
And bruit our singing down,
And the shallow waters aflutter with wind
From which to gather your gown.
What matter if we go clear to the west,
And come not through dry-shod?
For wilding brooch shall wet your breast
The rain-fresh goldenrod.

Oh, never this whelming east wind swells
But it seems like the sea’s return
To the ancient lands where it left the shells
Before the age of the fern;
And it seems like the time when after doubt
Our love came back amain.
Oh, come forth into the storm and rout
And be my love in the rain.

A nice poem, perhaps not related to this post, but certainly related to the romantic feelings I’ve been experiencing as of late.  I thought it appropriate to share given Quincy’s mention of Frost in my weirdest update yet.

The days are growing stranger here, dear readers, as my life comes ever closer to that monumental change.  I think I may have mentioned it before, though I can’t recall if I ever said it before on this site (and I’m too lazy to look) but I’m getting married in June.  Immediately following that marriage is a two week honeymoon and the process of transitioning into my new surroundings.

If your first thoughts weren’t, “Aww, how sweet!” or “How romantic!” or “Good for her!” Than you likely thought:

“Oh shit, another hiatus…”

And you’re right!  You win!  (but thanks to the well wishers of course)

Yes, friends.  Eikasia will be entering into a hiatus.  The tricky part for me is…how long, exactly?  And is there something I can do in the meantime?  I’ve had the idea of having guest writers.  Someone suggested an art contest, which sounded fun.  And then there was the default option of leaving the site static until I return.  The issue with posting up “guest content” is that I wouldn’t be able to update whilst on my honeymoon (unless it were something easy to post, like the art), so no matter what, there’d be at least two weeks of nada.  As far as I know, WordPress doesn’t have an automated posting feature.  If I’m wrong, then I’ll shit skittles and rainbows.

SOOOO…well, I did just say it’d be the easiest thing. Why not just start an art contest?  Sure yes.  Here, I’ll make it all official:

MONTOYA IS STARTING THE EIKASIA ART CONTEST NAO!!!

The rules: Actually, you could pretty much send me whatever your demented hearts desire so long as it’s Eikasia related, not anti-LGBT in nature, and not featuring something extreme like rape with knives.  Keep in mind too that I’d like to post stuff that’s somewhat work safe, so they also can’t be pornographic.

Where to send the shtuff: illise (at) eighthcirclestudios.com with the subject, “Eikasia Art Contest”.

The Winners: There will be 4 winners total.  All will be featured on the site once a week following the end date (starting with fourth place, then moving up) and will have their own blurb and link posted (if they want that.)

Runner Up Prizes: Fourth place winner receives a Hakeem wallpaper.  Third place winner receives the wallpaper and special artwork featuring Nyx.  2nd place winner receives the wallpaper, the Nyx art, special artwork of Lacertli, and some of my original story notes for Part 1: Tributaries.

The Grand Prize: First place winner receives an autographed sketchcard from me featuring an Eikasia character of your choice, the premium content I’ve been saving up (which contains 7 incredible pieces of guest artwork from professional artists, not to mention thousands of words worth of story notes, deleted scenes, and future scenes–one of which being an NC-17 idea featuring a certain pair of ladies…) as well as a $10 Amazon gift card.  Not only that, but the winner’s artwork and website link will likely be posted in a prominent place on the main page (aka the New Readers page) and their website will have a permanent place on the Links page.

Contest Timeframe: You have until June 14th to send me your artwork!  Send as much as you’d like if you’re feeling so inspired, but anything after that date can’t be accepted!

If you didn’t win: Don’t worry!  I’ll be posting the honorable mentions here on Ninth Suture, and ALL entries shall be making their way into the Eikasia Facebook gallery for others to see and enjoy!

And that’s all!  Currently, the tentative start date for the hiatus is the first of June, but I’ll have hopefully worked up some Intermissions or finished a bonus update or two by then, so you won’t be completely left with nothing before I start posting the art winners.

Well…I’m looking forward to hearing from you all!

Take care!

So I’ve been touching up the Eikasia website here and there in the hopes of making it less of a headache, but more than that, to bring the focus onto the writing, and less on my pet projects and histrionics.  Current changes include:

1. The removal of the drop-down menus.
2. The removal of certain site directory badges and links.
3. Placing email subscription and twitter updates in a more prominent spot.
4. Made the “Get Up To Speed” category less obnoxious.
5. Adding an anchor link to the table of contents in the sidebar.
6. A more succinct author’s note on the “New Readers” page.
7. And the removal of the navigation tips (rendered obsolete with the removal of the drop-down menus)
8. New vote banner to replace the plain and ugly one I had
9. Reintroducing the meta login.

I was hoping to tweak the CSS so that the color for the sidebar was separate from the posts, which would leave me free to change one without the other getting screwed.  My intention was to make the sidebar text softer to keep the primary focus on the story–thus hopefully making it less of a distraction for you beloved readers.  I’ve also been hoping to find a new way of working with Ninth Suture, a blog which was meant to be a lot more.  Right now, it’s confusing to navigate, and the older posts didn’t transfer over well from my blogger site.  I might end up finding a new theme for it, but it could just be a matter of fixing up tags and categories, so we’ll see.  An archive couldn’t hurt, either.

When I think about SEO (search engine optimization) I wince, because I know I’m not doing all that I can to increase my visibility on the web.  Upon first acquiring my domain, my only thought was in making my site function–not broadcasting it to the world.  As the website reaches its final stages of maturity, that has started to change, and I’m finding I have quite a bit of work to do in that regard.  Someday I’ll finally get into those web design and web administration classes I’ve been meaning to take.  Someday!

But aside from simplification, SEO, and muting my silly whimsies, another thing I’ve been trying to do was increase reader participation.  I’d like to hear from my readers.   I wanna know what you guys think, and I’d like you guys to see that you aren’t the only ones into Eikasia.  That was why I reintroduced the meta login–so that you can start making profiles on the website.  I’ve been tooling around with recent comments and top commentator widgets.  But the real doozy is that I’ve decided to start a new forum. For ages I held off, thinking that an empty forum cannot be any more unattractive to visitors.  Only how the hell else is a forum supposed to start?

To dangle the proverbial carrot in front of everyone’s faces, I decided I’d make a separate bonus point pool for the forum site.  100 points to the goal, a common effort, same as the original point pool, but think about it:  new forum, means lots of new users.  You think I’m not going to award you for signing up?  Here’s the breakdown so far:

• Every new registered user earns +10 points
• Every new forum topic earns +5 points
• Every new reply earns +3 points

I’m new to forum management, so the forum will be pretty simple and straightforward.  I decided to go with SMF instead of phpBB.  There’ll be an Eikasia board, where I’ll make a new topic for every update, and you can post anything else story-related.  There’ll also be a general chat, as it seems obligatory.  If activity increases, or a lot interest is generated for a particular topic, I could make another one.  The above conditions may change, and I may even raise or lower the point cap depending on how things go.  But y’know, if you look at the point pool and the ways to earn points on the forum, you’ll see how quick this could net you guys another bonus update. (Not that I’m not swamped already!)  When the forum is available, I’ll announce it.

Oh hey, enough about boring administrative crap.  Now to discuss the more recent events of Eikasia (that being Chapter 22).

To my chagrin, I caught a continuity error. (not on the scale of the Graziano goof–which I still need to edit–but stupid all the same) The problem was with Nyx’s power, and whether or not Tristi could see her after she entered the Somnium.  My initial ruling?  No, Tristi could not see nor interact with Nyx.  What I ended up doing?  Tristi could not only see Nyx, but interact with her as well!  Doh!!  So I went back and changed that little detail.  I believe that is still okay, as I never went into detail about whether or not Argos could see Nyx in the Somnium–and no offense to the dear fellow, but he’s just a dog. 

The other thing I noticed only after doing it, was in the way I handled Elmiryn’s foray into the weird and wonderful world of La-La-Land.  Namely, her out of body experience at the dwarven settlement, and her ‘travels’ during that period.  I realized, to my horror, that it felt a great deal like telling and not showing–that damn mantra that haunts us writers in our sleep.  Show don’t fucking tell.  Ah god.  Well, I felt like putting myself through a wall, to be true.  But as I thought about it, I realized how this could become an exception.  I could, of course, lessen the offense by inserting some actual snippets of Elmiryn’s experience, but I think I’m going to leave her talk with Quincy alone.  The reason I feel I can kinda sorta get away with doing a little more “telling” then usual is to keep the air of mystery about Elmiryn’s true experience.  An attentive reader wouldn’t need Quincy to point out the issues in Elmiryn’s account, and I’d like to toy around with this more as their adventures in this strange Other World progresses.  If that truly seems like a failure, my slow but steady edits shall eventually correct this.

Speaking of edits, I’m currently going to start on Chapter 14.  Chapters 1-13 (including any bonus updates in between) are in their second draft!

And since we’re on the topic of progress, I’ve started the next bonus update, The Abaddonic.  Last poll, I had to play tiebreaker, one of the choices readers picked was this Tobias side story:

A vast and powerful evil has begun to spread across the Santian Kingdom, giving rise to a plague of ghouls and poltergeists. Three braves are the first to answer the call for help. How Earth, Wind, and Flame met.

Look forward to it soon!  Next, Eikasia 23.1 is at some 600 words.  I’ve gotta say, the ending to the last chapter got me pretty stoked. 

Till next time!

EDIT: I’m announcing it!    The forum is now online and available. I’m still tweaking it here and there, but the site is functional and ready for you guys to use.  That said, the Forum Point Pool has started!

It’s okay to laugh. Really.

You can blame this for me being behind on Eikasia this week. I think I have 1500 words for 19.5…? But I don’t have work or school tomorrow so I’m dedicating it to writing!!

BTW, check out the link page on Eikasia. I added new links!

Later everyone!