Tag: wip

When Life Gives you Dead Leaves . . .

October 1, 2018 / Rissa Renae

Geesh. It’s been ages since my last blog post! Since my last check-in, our brutally-hot summer has changed into an unusually cold and rainy autumn. Granted autumn is my favourite season, but I can’t help but feel we’ve been cheated out of summer. Well, maybe it was just me who was cheated.

Autumn, how can I stay mad at you?

A bout of rather nasty warm-weather pneumonia at the end of June rewarded me with a fractured rib. That took away most of my summer activities: hiking, camping, and general out-and-about-ness. Three months later I’m still tender and unable to do much more than my weekly walk to the corner store for Doritos.

My Real Life Job in the oil & gas industry has become exciting. We acquired another company, went public, and are in the process of replacing everything in existence in our business. Lots of fun, lots of work, and lots of long hours.

Leaving not many hours for writing.

Then, as if I already didn’t have enough to do, we got a dog. Meet Mochi, our red sesame Shiba Inu. One look at her little face was enough to melt this stone heart and forget the fact that, not only did I have troubles finding time to write, I also had to find time to take care of her.

Having an 8-week old puppy in the house is a lot like having another child. We fuss over her when she’s awake, bend over backwards for potty training, then tip-toe around when she’s napping so we can have a few minutes of peace. So far my obsessive hovering abilities have kept her from chewing the house apart and using Boo’s cat post as a toilet. Perhaps one day my two fur babies will make friends, but for now the Boo is content to just glare at Mochi from a safe distance.

… always.

I mentioned my weekly walks before. It’s something I’m trying to stick with. No phone (other than to hatch Pokemon eggs, lol!), no music. Just me and my over-active imagination. The walks help to keep me moving and active, and they also give me a chance to think through my writing. On my walks, I’ve figured out character backstories, schemed-up plot twists, and found ways to link scenes together.

One thing I’ve realized is when life dumps dead leaves on you, you make a big-ass pile and hop in! I took my pneumonia as a chance to get to know my writing again. I took my fractured rib as a chance to find low-impact exercise that will keep my body moving. I took the hectic work life as a chance to refine my leadership and organizational skills. So far, I’m still in one piece and kicking this year’s butt.

Although I don’t see Real Life settling down any time soon, this is nothing I can’t handle. And with autumn bathing my countryside back yard in colour, I’m finding it easier to deal with the things life throws at me. My anxiety has been quiet for a few months. My last psychedelic head-trip (aka ocular migraine) was over six months ago. I’ve been watching my diet in hopes to keeps those attacks at bay.

In the world of writing, Book #4 in my Rose Cross Academy series is still truckin’ along. I have a few scenes to hammer out and link to the rest of the story line. The story is written, beginning to end, it just needs a little TLC. I’m almost done the cover too!

Book #4 cover … under construction!

With NaNoWriMo coming up, I already have my project for November in mind and I’m actually planning things out. Lately I’ve been reading fantasy novels, which are a deviation from young adult, paranormal, and horror novels. In reading fantasy, I’ve thought up my own novel and I’m going to use that for November. The story will follow a young girl who is the only non-magical member of her magical village. In my world, magic is the norm and not the exception, but to the ho-hum extent—lighting fires for cooking, growing seeds into plants, filling a glass of water. The great magic died out hundreds of years ago during a war that attempted to expunge the higher magics from the world. That great magic hides in books throughout the world, and she’s determined to find all these magic books.

So as I sit in my messy corner of the couch in which I have penned three novels and am working on about a billion more, I watch the first flakes of winter meander by my window. Really, I’m making it sound more ethereal than it actually is. In reality, I’m cold, I want a cup of coffee, and the smell of burning dust from the first furnace run of the season is making me sneeze.

Yes. Winter is coming.

And there’s a puppy chewing on my toes.

Whatcha lookin’ at?

Welp, nothing for it. Time to get back to writing. And I’ve gotta get this puppy to stop using me as a human chew toy.

WIP – YA Ghost Hunting Story

July 28, 2018 / Rissa Renae

I’m getting back into the swing of things! My pneumonia has officially been expunged, I’m slowly getting back my stamina, and I’m getting the urge to write again. Which means I can finally pick up my WIP series again.

The next in my list is another YA novel which may or may not become a series. I’ve been kicking around a couple of names but nothing’s stuck yet. This may be a strong contender for NaNoWriMo2018 if my fantasy WIP decides to take a back seat. November is still a long ways off and I do have to finalize Book #4 in my Rose Cross Academy series before then. Phew. The remainder of this year is gonna be a tight squeeze. But until then, on with the WIP!

Influence:

The biggest influence for this work was CLAMP’s X universe (which encompasses Tokyo Babylon, X/1999, Tsubasa Chronicles, Card Captor Sakura, and I’m sure there are others) And to a certain extent, another influence is my own Rose Cross Academy series about a high school that teaches it’s students to hunt demons. I like the mysticism in which CLAMP portrayed fighting ghosts and demons (and even the people) that were trying to destroy Tokyo, as well as the underlying connection between characters even when those two characters were busy trying to maim and/or kill each other. An undertone of sadness always festered in the relationships, be them romantic or familial, which made the story rich. That, and the characters fought with huge-ass mystical swords that were just plain awesome. I have a soft-spot for sword-wielders.

My own sword collection, bankai Zangetsu (Bleach), and Nenekirimaru (Nurarihyon no Mago).

Summary:

Post 9-11 New York City is becoming overrun with spirits of the dead and the unsettled. The more their numbers, the stronger they become. It’s up to a rag-tag group of high school delinquents to cleanse the city.

I centred the story around a fish-out-of-water Japanese exchange student and his uncle–his teacher/guardian, sent to NYC to deal with the supernatural threats bringing the city to its knees. Throughout the story, the MC (the name Subaru stuck and I can’t get rid of it) has to navigate school life in a foreign country while keeping his ‘side-job’ under wraps. But it turns out he’s not the only teenage exorcist in the city. Subaru and the other teenage exorcists do not become fast friends; in fact, neither can stand the other for more than a few minutes at a time until situations call for them to put their ‘teenage problems’ aside and work as a team.

I wanted to keep to the notion surrounding the burden of relationships, which CLAMP showcased in the X universe; how love for your family or another person can mask pain and sadness, and how those two elements can turn into one’s downfall. This work is darker than The Rose Cross Academy and targets an older crowd of teen-to-young-adult readers.

Excerpt:

“Paper!” Subaru thrust a black permanent marker before him as if the object had become a magic wand. “I need paper!”

“I’m soaked and I lost my backpack, ESL! I don’t have any goddamn paper!” Zach yelled back.

“Money! Do you have any money?”

Zach rooted through a pocket and came back with a crumpled one dollar bill. “What the hell are you gonna do with—”

Subaru swiped the bill and hunched over before scribbling down the length of the note.

“I’m sure that’s a federal offense, exchange student! Unless you’ve got holy water in that pen of yours–”

A roar cut him off and shook the streets, sending both boys diving to the wet pavement. In the darkness of the city, a deeper shade moved through the alley, large as a bear or perhaps larger.

Subaru scrambled to hands and knees and presented his one dollar bill as if the coiffed representation of George Washington had become a dangerous weapon. Scribbled down the President’s face were several kanji glistening against the wet paper.

“Distract it! I have an idea!”

“Distract it?” Zach’s mouth flopped open several times. “W-with what! My charming good looks!”

“I know you can call animals, I’ve seen you do it with the crows around school.” Subaru grabbed a handful of Zach’s shirt and pulled him to his feet. The other teen spun to face him, eyes wide, mouth agape, but Subaru held him back with a finger ordering him to be silent. “Worry about how I know later. Right now, we’re both going to die if we don’t do something!”

And now . . .

I’m hopping back into writing, which isn’t as easy as I thought it would be after my forced break. My day job is also crankin’ up the crazy-busy factor, so I’m having to do some tactile time management. But the best thing about being an Indie writer is I make my own rules and I follow my own timelines. I’m a rebel! But this rebel does have a cause.

Stay healthy everyone! The alternative sucks.

WIP – Japanese Ghost Story

June 13, 2018 / Rissa Renae

Ride paddies in the Chuubu countryside

My first post in my WIP Hell series will be my least developed story: a Japanese-style ghost story set in the countryside of the Chuubu (west-central) area of Japan. It’s unnamed as of yet.

Influence:

Graveyard (photo taken through a train window)

The idea for this story came from a family trip to Japan. We took a local train from Tokyo to the Edo-era town of Takayama, which is vastly different from taking the Shinkansen or other JR lines. We encountered a rain storm during the 3 hour train ride, and mixed with the endless rice paddies and family/community graveyards and shrines that dotted the countryside, it became a spooky ride.

That, and the endless Tokyo Ghoul posters plastered all over Tokyo already had my imagination running.

Summary:

I wanted stay true to the underlying theme of most Japanese horror stories wherein the ghost has a purpose and backstory, and they’re just not around to scare the pants off of you. After meeting the ghost in this novel, Takuya starts noticing there’s something ‘off’ about this tiny little farming village he can’t seem to escape. The more layers he pulls back, the more complicated the story becomes. Just when he thinks he’s figured out the identity of the ghost and what happened to her, someone or something throws a wrench into the mix and he’s back at square one. All he wants to do is sell the family business and move to Tokyo, but he can’t do so until he can get the ghost to bugger off.

Excerpt:

Takuya turned a corner in the village and the long road running between the patty fields called to him. Takuya took off at a run. He ran until his lungs hurt, until his legs burned. He stopped only when a sharp clap of thunder startled him.

In the distance, the blue streak of the Shinkansen passed by on a track without a sound.

Cold heavy raindrops hit his head and shoulders. They cut through his clothing and burned his skin.

He turned his face to the dark heavens and flinched as a raindrop hit him square between the eyes. “Seriously?” This crap about the Woman in the Rain was just an urban legend. Japan, he found, lived on superstitions and old wives tales.

He turned on a heel and stopped. A curtain of pouring rain had swallowed the village and cloaked the sharp-peaked roofs in grey. The air grew oddly still. Something in that nothingness rumbled and it took him several moments to realize the sound was millions of raindrops assaulting the asphalt road.

“Damn it.” He took a chest-heaving sigh and closed his eyes. Seconds later, the veil of water hit him like a cols slap. Within the same amount of time, he was drenched.

His feet had become heavy as he forced himself to trudge back to the village. Puddles had already formed on the old road and he didn’t bother avoiding them. With each step, his shoes made a slosh-slosh sound.

Another sound echoed his soggy footfalls. Not another person on the road. More like a shuffling, like someone dragging a heavy sack behind them.

He glanced over his shoulder but saw only grey rain and wet road.

He harrumphed and continued down the road. A warm bath and hot cup of tea would—

The dragging sound again. Closer this time. He frowned and turned but again saw nothing.

His steps quickened now, slosh-sloshing down the wet road in the direction of the closest house; old man Hayashi. It didn’t matter if the crotchety old man wouldn’t be happy to see him. His house meant sanctuary from—

The sound again. Right behind him. So loud he hunkered down. Takuya spun around in time to see a darker shade among the rain, like a dog-sized slug with short stubby legs. It skittered into the grey nothingness hidden by the rain.

A grumble oozed from the last location of the creature and his heart leapt into his throat. Rational thought left him and Tayuka broke into a run towards any safety he could find. Urban legend or no, something lurked there in the rain and he wanted nothing to do with it.

As he ran, something sloshed after him punctuated by a harsh dragging. As he ran, the sloshinggrew closer and closer. Right on his heels.

Will I publish it?

Likely not. Right now the story is a collection of half a dozen scenes, mostly the scary scenes I thought up during the train ride, or in the downtimes in our ryokan. Of all my “Hey, this is a good idea” stories, its my most developed, but no where near being publishable. It’s a fun story to pick up when I need a chill to tickle my spine.

WIP Hell

June 5, 2018 / Rissa Renae

If I’m a horder, I’m a work in progress (WIP) horder. I write a lot. Like . . . a LOT. I’m always coming up with ideas in my head, wherever and whenever. I’d say 70% of what I write will never see the light of day, and I’m fine with that. I have three published books under my belt already!

Usually those one-off’s are a couple scenes or an overall thought of “Hey, this would make a great story.” Over the years, I’ve acquired more than a few “Hey, this would make a great story” ‘s, and I’m getting to the point where I think it would be a waste if I didn’t get to share parts of them with the world.

For the month of June, I’ve given myself a challenge, the nature of which I have divulged on my Medium blog. Long-story-short (Ha! See what I did there?), I’m going to be posting to each of my social media streams at least once a week. Today is Blog Day.

Movie poster for Tokyo Ghoul, starring Masataka Kubota

This month, I will give some light to my many WIP’s here on my blog. I have Japanese-style ghost stories to science fiction, and gaming to high fantasy. I’ve taken my writing cues from gentle train rides through the countryside to watching my son play video games, and from a blockbuster movie about robots defending earth from monsters to the latest popular HBO series. A popular anime inspired one WIP, and a 20-year-old CLAMP manga inspired another. Heck, a creepy a picture of a carousel horse inspired a steampunk WIP!

Alrighty, so get ready for WIP Hell; I’ll post a brief summary of my WIP and an excerpt. There are a few I’m working diligently towards turning into full fledged novels, and a few that are just fun stories I write without a care as to their form or structure. Some will be polished, some will be word vomit edited for reading consumption. With each work, I’ll explain it’s backstory and inspiration(s) and how far along I’ve come in the process of writing. And of course, pictures galore, since I’m a very visual person.

Come on! You know I couldn’t resist adding a picture of my Boo!

June will be interesting. Let’s see where this takes me!