slr2moons

I can't think of what to talk about today. Too brain dead, maybe? But to keep from missing a day, here's where I am in lettering manga:

Behind the Scenes (Urakata!!) by Bisco Hatori: in the middle of volume 7, the final volume.

Chainsaw Man by Fujimoto Tatsuki: I'll be lettering chapter 19 this weekend. (This one runs a chapter a week, rather than in volume chunks. IDK if a volume release will eventually follow, but I wouldn't mind. C: )

Natsume's Book of Friends (Natsume Yuujinchou) by Midorikawa Yuki: finished volume 23 about a month ago. Series still ongoing.

Requiem of the Rose King (Bara Ou no Souretsu) by Kanno Aya: finished volume 10 right after the new year. Series still ongoing.

Seraph of the End (Owari no Serafu) by Kagami, Yamamoto, and Furuya: I'll be starting volume 17 in a few weeks. Series ongoing for a bit longer; we're definitely in the endgame. I'll also be lettering chapter 78 in a few weeks. This one first appears in English in monthly chapters, then a volume release follows about a year later.

Skip Beat by Nakamura Yoshiki: I'll be starting volume 43 in a few weeks. Still ongoing, and I've lettered every single volume. This is by far my longest-running title. C:

New Title #N: I'll be starting this one in a few weeks, too. It's going to be a busy spring and summer!

Series I finished last year: After Hours by Nishio Yuhta, ended at volume 3. Bloody Mary by Samamiya Akaza, ended at volume 10. Build King by Shimabukuro Mitsutoshi, a oneshot chapter that appeared in Shonen Jump magazine. COMIQ by Takahashi Suzuki, a short seven-chapter series that also appeared in the magazine. Again, IDK if a volume release will happen, but it is the perfect length. C:

I stopped posting here and on FB both, when Spicer-kitty was gone. IDK. I just didn't feel like talking much. Life has been okay since then. This summer has yet to be a disaster like the previous three, though the ending is going to be a bit dicey thanks to work.

( Temporary kitty, flying back to TX for a wedding this weekend, work update for all my titles, and a developed tweak to my manga method. )

One page at a time. *deep breath in and out* And on that note, back to work for me.

I've really flaked on the posting more often, huh? Sorry to say I lost an LJ friend recently, but I gained a new one. C: Can't really complain! Thank you to everyone who has kept me on their reading/friends list, even though I don't talk much here these days. :P

Work-wise, things are...interesting. I finished Natsume 17's first draft a few days early. Now I'm waiting on corrections. Voice 7 is almost done, nicely on time. For Seraph, the mad dash of all those chapters in a row is finally over this Monday with chapter 21--OMGYAY--and now I have a week off before it's time to letter the first of the now-monthly chapters, with #22. (Seraph is monthly in Japan, so it's monthly here now that we've caught up on all the previously published-in-Japan chapters.)

Sounds like things are in pretty good shape, right? Welp, now let me tell you about Clay. Clay 25 is running behind. The constant Seraph chapters were a real drain on my time, and now I'm paying for it. This volume of Clay is due on June 2nd, and it's going to be interesting meeting that. Particularly since I'm trying to have a life and see IRL friends more than twice a month. ^^;;

I have made one big change with Clay: in all the previous volumes, hand-drawn "organic" sound effects were original to every page. With all my other titles--all the way back to Nana--I save FX and reuse them where I can. It's a big time-saver. I figured Clay was too varied to try that, but the opposite is true. I've always said Clay is like busywork. When it comes to creating the English FX and retouching the artwork, Clay rarely makes me stop and think. It's straight-forward, and I have it down to a science. (Granted, a slow science, but yeah.) And thus, I've begun saving my organic Clay FX for use on more than one page. It's already saved me some good time, even in the ~20 pages I've done so far.

The vast majority of readers won't notice the reusing. For one thing, I don't reuse an FX within 50 pages of a previous use. In fact, I doubt anyone but me would ever know I started this, if I hadn't said it here! Heh. When 25 is released, feel free to play "spot the duplicate FX" and ask me if you're right. ^^V

But when Clay 25 is done, I have to scramble to finish Seraph volume 3, which is when I add FX for the GN version. Fun times.

I'm still hoping this summer will be good for me, since the previous three sucked.

This weekend, I saw two IRL friends! On Saturday, knastymike and I went to a German restaurant. It was DELICIOUS! I must go back, even though it's a little pricey, and a drive! YUM. Then today, I drove to mab's house and we walked around her neighborhood and talked fandom, and house buying, and all sorts of fun stuff. ^^

A satisfying weekend, all around! And now, back to Clay 25. Wheeee!

*points up* That's me, right now. For the most part, each deadline since the disaster during the past summer is slightly easier to meet.

The past three weeks, I haven't been able to do anything outside of work but run errands and go to Book Club, and I really should have skipped that. Or at least bailed out when the 35-minute argument started over what we would be reading in future months. (Some days I just don't have the time and/or patience to sit through that fiasco.) I've missed a birthday party for a dear friend (so sorry, Sno!), and I will be missing a chili cookoff for another dear friend this Saturday (so sorry, Phil!), and it comes down to no fun for me until I'm done. With Natsume, at least.

( Info about specific titles, wistful desires for time to be creative. )

I should stop writing this blog post and get back to work. Natsume won't letter itself. Don't let me being busy stop you from commenting! I haven't heard from anyone in some time.

Went to my third Yuletide/Nano/scribing-for-any-reason write-in on Friday evening, where I saw the wonderful snottygirl, saladbats, and mab. There were only four of us, but it was still fun! We even ran into a past NaNo-er, and a small group of others who WERE NaNo-ing. ^^ As for me, I made some serious inroads on my own Yuletide fic, of which I am very proud. I wrote about 350 words, which is a lot for me in the space of 45 minutes of actual writing time. (The rest of the evening being spent chatting or researching stuff for my fic.)

Speaking of, I finally figured out how to work writing on my phone. I can't write to google docs since my phone isn't an iphone or an Android, I don't trust emails to not lose text half-way through me typing (it's happened), and Livejournal's posting page is ridiculously code-heavy nowadays...but Dreamwidth works great. :D I have my Yuletide WIP in a private post on my DW account, which I keep open in a tab on my phone's browser. I can be in the middle of writing something, pause long enough for my phone to go into power-saving mode, wake it up...and my words are all still there. Dreamwidth doesn't time out! OMGYAY! \O/ As long as I have a net connection, I can write on the go! And carry pen and paper with me, JIC I don't have the connection. Score!

The deadline is less than a month away. Today I worked on it during breakfast and dinner. I'm pleased with what I have so far, including catching two plotholes pertaining to aspects of canon I'd forgotten, annnnnd a really big realization that I needed to lighten the mood of the MC. Thankfully I caught all three problems before I was more than 500 words into the fic. :D

Speaking of wordcount, the Yuletide minimum is 1,000. This fic is going to end up much more than that. I'm about half-way through the first scene, and the fic's already 650 words long. It isn't just my inability to write shortfic, though. My recipient loves a particular trope, and for me to do it justice, first I have to establish certain facts before I go ripping them apart. (No, there's no non-con in this one, I swear! X|) My recipient did say in their letter that they loooove the sexy tiems, but with the plot I've chosen, that won't really work. Not without the trope of Healing Cock, which I refuse to write. I hope they'll be satisfied with manly snugglings. ^^

I had kind of intimidated myself about this year's fic. I mean, last year's Yuletide fic by me turned out GOOD. It's the most popular fic I have at AO3, and I genuinely like it. I even read it for fun every couple of months! I worry that this fic can't live up to the success of last year's. But my fanfic sempai Star-chan calmed me down. She told me to just do the best I can. I am a decent writer, after all, *I* wrote last year's fic! And all the other fics on my account, all of which are perfectly readable. I certainly have the potential to write another well-received fic! And besides, what's truly important is that my recipient likes it, and I'm doing my damnedest to do just that! (Even though there won't be any sexy tiems. Hopefully someone will give my recipient a sexy fic treat. Though maybe if I finish ahead of time (HAHAHAHAH!) I could write a 2nd fic for them and load it with the smut. I'd say there's a 5% chance...)

I've enjoyed typing on the fic today. Not only having a full-sized keyboard, but being in my home, where I can relax and not need to tune out the coffeeshop music and conversation all around me. I do love write-ins, but it's more for the creative companionship and ready opinions/help to be had, rather than actual words produced. Though writing sprints work well for me. Let's do more! C:

I keep forgetting that someone is writing a Yuletide fic for me, too. I suspect I know which one, based on a comment in the yuletide-coal community that fit one of my requests. It will be interesting to see if I'm right. ^^ Whether I am or not, best of luck and good wishes to my author, if they happen to see this post! I'm looking forward to reading your words on the 25th! :DDD

In work news, Clay 23 is in the can. Voice 4 awaiting corrections, Voice 5 lettering begun. Seraph chapter 6 in the can, GN 1 being FXed right now. Natsume 16 and Skip 33 are waiting for me to start. Wheeeee!!

A: A LOT.

Yesterday I took the day off running to repot my lilies. I should have done it last year, but never found the time until it was too late. I'm glad I did this year, because wow. What started as a single bulb in 2010 turned into a root mass 6 inches in diameter, and I'm not exaggerating! O.O

In the end, I used the new tall pot I bought, all of both long troughs, and the half-sized trough. Lily bulbs everywhere! I don't know where the all-white or the pink-tinged ones ended up. It will be interesting to find out, come June. ^^ The crop will likely be still bigger next year, unless plant disaster strikes. Anyone want dibs on some lily bulbs??

In work news, script for Clay 23 has arrived!! This volume has more talking than fighting, something which I am always happy to see in Clay. :D I finished Natsume 14's first pass, and now only await corrections. The BL title will be done in about a week. Oho, and come to find out it isn't a oneshot like I thought, there's a sequel! I'm signed on to letter that one, too, again with my beloved Clay Editor #3. :3

Also it's been two days, and I'm holding true to my promise to draw something for myself every day. Yay! Last night in particular was incredibly fun. I want to finish it and post it sometime, for you all to see. It's my OTP from one of my fave webcomics, the fun and surprisingly epic DMFA. Safe for work, unless someone objects to scantily clad characters of both sexes. *laughs*

And don't forget: if you want to remain on my friend's list and haven't spoken to me in a few months, leave a comment here or on this post before March 1st!! Hope to hear from you soon. ^^V

I finally have script for the rest of the BL book and Natsume 14, and after doing math, 13 pages total a day will let me finish both on time with a little buffer for safety. I finished a little early last night, and was on an adrenalin high. I couldn't fall asleep. In fact, the last time I remember looking at the clock before I did finally pass out for good, it was 4:30 AM.

Enter today. I am very tired. And because I didn't run the day before, I had to run today. I took it easy, and things would have been fine, only apparently I wasn't picking my feet up high enough. My left toe caught on a crack in the sidewalk, and down I went. BLAM! At a jog. It took a couple inches of grating on concrete for me to stop. *wince* This happened on the farthest reach of my run, without a shortcut back to my apartment. I had to hoof it, bleeding all the way. Ugh.

Nothing is broken, but I hurt. I lost skin on both my hands, particularly my right knuckles. It looks like I got into a fist fight and bloodied myself. :B I just took my second painkiller of the day.

The kicker? I've almost tripped on that same crack in the sidewalk several times in previous runs, only I've always managed to catch myself before hitting pavement. But being tired today (and jogging with my eyes closed... I was tired and the sun was bright, damn it) slowed my reflexes.

Ow. I bent up my sunglasses, too. I'm amazed I didn't break them, since they were the part of my head that hit the ground first. After that, was my right cheekbone. I'll have a bruise tomorrow. Ow.

I've been chipping away at work, because if I don't keep up I'll pay for it later. I'm over half-way, at least. Back to it!

Hope you all are doing fine. Feel free to drop me a comment/email/text to let me know how you're doing. ^^

...happiness is slr2moons in a bookstore. But today, happiness is a single serving of rice with my beef and zucchini stew, and two swallows of almond milk.

JOY. COMPLETE AND UTTER JOY. *blissful sigh*

Yes, my two weeks of no sugar-carbohydrates-lactose-caffeine is finally over. I have coffee brewing on the counter, and a delicious breakfast sitting pretty in my stomach. MMM. :9

Skip and Natsume are here. Skip has a strict but doable deadline, Natsume is due a few weeks later. With the fight-heavy volumes of Clay and Naruto already on my plate, life is interesting once again!

Now, to work. I want to channel this food-given high into some pink and orange level difficulty pages.

Ahhh...such rapture! *wanders off with stars in eyes*

I post so little these days. It's not that I've abandoned LJ for Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr like so many have--because I don't post at any of those places, either. I just don't feel the need to talk as much as I once did. I guess.

Kakashi-the-kitten is at the vet, being removed from the gene pool and tagged for tracking by Big Brother. I'm grateful for both, as he's been really rambunctious the past few weeks, and keeps attempting to escape through the front door whenever I come home. With no more testosterone in his system, he should calm done somewhat and stop running me and Spicer-kitty ragged. And if he ever DOES escape, then I'll have a much better chance of recovering him with that microchip under his skin.

Anyway, Natsume 12 and Skip 28 are both done, except for corrections. At the moment, I'm wrapping up Clay 20, then I'll be officially without work until Naruto 59 or Skip 29 arrives, whichever happens first. With all four titles caught up to the Japanese release, and me being backup for Naruto anyway, it's probably going to be feast or famine in regards to my workload. Famine like now, with only one title, feast like a few weeks ago, with all four at once. The upcoming months will be most interesting.

I find it ironic that the one holiday season I won't be visiting the hometown in TX is the one where I will barely have any work to interfere. Of course. Also just watch: since I won't have to worry about weather interfering with my flights, it WON'T freeze or snow or otherwise grow nasty this holiday season. Never fails!

( Fannish concerns, ala Big Bang art, Yuletide fic, and meeting fellow writers IRL OMG! Also shopping and reading. )

Look, I actually managed to write an update. Yay!