2025 Writing Log, Part Eighteen
May. 3rd, 2025 07:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynling- I finished my Legend of Zelda x Gawain & the Green Knight crossover story, A Green and Gentle Twilight. Fucking finally!! The last chapter is a bit rough, but there’s still time to edit.
- I began writing an original murder mystery short story about a wealthy widow and her two black cats. It’s called “Angus and Peaches Get Away with Murder.” I’m writing from the perspective of the cats, and I’m really enjoying myself.
- My story for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
phoenixdown_ex has now been revealed! I wrote wholesome old man yaoi about Cid and Vayne from Final Fantasy XII, and you can read it (here). I’ve wanted to write a story like this for years, and it’s an amazing stroke of opportunity that I had the chance to gift it to someone on the same bizarre wavelength.
- I had a lot of fun with this exchange. I read every story that was posted to the collection (here), but of course I especially enjoyed the Final Fantasy VI story I received as a gift (here). It’s exactly the sort of “gentle human drama in a postapocalyptic world” catnip I go wild for. I really won the lottery with this one.
- I posted “Currents,” a short story about Ruto and Link from Ocarina of Time, on AO3 (here). This is the third piece in “Time Flows Like a River,” a series of dramatic monologues about bittersweet relationships.
- By some lucky miracle, I was accepted into Enchantment, a magic-themed Zelda/Link zine, and I was assigned to write about Spirit Tracks (my beloved). If you’re not familiar with Spirit Tracks, it’s the 2009 Nintendo DS game in which Zelda accompanies Link as a disembodied ghost. One of the many things I love about this weird little game is how lowkey unhinged Zelda is at all times, and I’m having a great time writing in her voice.
- I also love my doofus son Link, and I posted a screenshot study of Wind Waker on Tumblr (here). Wind Waker has fantastic character design, but it’s surprisingly difficult to replicate its simple cartoon style.
- While I was rolling around in Legend of Zelda vibes, I commissioned Bridgeoffaust, who draws amazing art of retro games, to make me an Ocarina of Time illustration. He finished the piece the day after I sent the commission request and posted it on Bluesky (here). What a legend.
- I got the physical copy of my newest short fiction zine, Strange Tales and Modern Legends, back from the printer. It looks marvelous, if I do say so myself. I posted a listing for the zine on Etsy (here), and the free digital version is on Itch.io (here). I have a feeling that, due to a certain type of American cultural solipsism (ie, you can only talk about “different” cultures if someone is being oppressed), this zine isn’t going to attract attention or interest. Still, it’s good, and I’m proud of my work here. I’m happy this zine exists.
- My next original zine project is going to be a reprint of Terrible People, a collection of gothic short fiction. I commissioned two of my favorite dark fantasy artists, who work together under the name Artwins, to create an illustration of a fallen knight in the style of an illuminated manuscript. I love everything that these two gentlemen create, and this illustration is no exception. You can check out the piece on Tumblr (here).
- I finished and edited a nonfiction essay titled “Tifa Lockhart vs. Medical Debt: How Final Fantasy VII Confronts Capitalism” and sent it to my editor at Sidequest. I couldn’t find any essays talking about the FFVII prequel novel, Traces of Two Pasts, so I wrote one myself. Also I love Tifa, I just love her so much.
- My recent essay on Sidequest, “Crow Country Is a Game About Climate Change,” was featured on Critical Distance (here). It’s always an honor, and I’m extremely grateful. I hope this is an opportunity for more people to read about this amazing little game.
- This week’s post on my book review blog (here) is about the first volume in a fictional Sapporo travelogue recently published by one of my favorite manga artists, Ryōko Nagara. I use the manga as an excuse to talk a little about the analog nostalgia boom in Japan, which I suggest is not unrelated to anti-capitalist sentiments. The artist lives in Berlin, which has a chill and ambient anti-capitalist culture, and you can see that same type of gentle green philosophy shine through Nagara’s story about a burnt-out twentysomething who moves to a laid-back regional city to recover from depression and anxiety. I’d love to live in Berlin or Sapporo myself, but alas. The cold would kill me.
This week I wrapped up the spring semester, and I managed to get all of my students through my classes in one piece. It took some work, but everyone showed up, turned everything in, and got an “A.” The grades are in the system, and I’m done. Thank fucking goodness. I am so goddamn exhausted. Touching grass is not enough anymore. I need to disappear into the woods.
- I began writing an original murder mystery short story about a wealthy widow and her two black cats. It’s called “Angus and Peaches Get Away with Murder.” I’m writing from the perspective of the cats, and I’m really enjoying myself.
- My story for
phoenixdown_ex has now been revealed! I wrote wholesome old man yaoi about Cid and Vayne from Final Fantasy XII, and you can read it (here). I’ve wanted to write a story like this for years, and it’s an amazing stroke of opportunity that I had the chance to gift it to someone on the same bizarre wavelength.- I had a lot of fun with this exchange. I read every story that was posted to the collection (here), but of course I especially enjoyed the Final Fantasy VI story I received as a gift (here). It’s exactly the sort of “gentle human drama in a postapocalyptic world” catnip I go wild for. I really won the lottery with this one.
- I posted “Currents,” a short story about Ruto and Link from Ocarina of Time, on AO3 (here). This is the third piece in “Time Flows Like a River,” a series of dramatic monologues about bittersweet relationships.
- By some lucky miracle, I was accepted into Enchantment, a magic-themed Zelda/Link zine, and I was assigned to write about Spirit Tracks (my beloved). If you’re not familiar with Spirit Tracks, it’s the 2009 Nintendo DS game in which Zelda accompanies Link as a disembodied ghost. One of the many things I love about this weird little game is how lowkey unhinged Zelda is at all times, and I’m having a great time writing in her voice.
- I also love my doofus son Link, and I posted a screenshot study of Wind Waker on Tumblr (here). Wind Waker has fantastic character design, but it’s surprisingly difficult to replicate its simple cartoon style.
- While I was rolling around in Legend of Zelda vibes, I commissioned Bridgeoffaust, who draws amazing art of retro games, to make me an Ocarina of Time illustration. He finished the piece the day after I sent the commission request and posted it on Bluesky (here). What a legend.
- I got the physical copy of my newest short fiction zine, Strange Tales and Modern Legends, back from the printer. It looks marvelous, if I do say so myself. I posted a listing for the zine on Etsy (here), and the free digital version is on Itch.io (here). I have a feeling that, due to a certain type of American cultural solipsism (ie, you can only talk about “different” cultures if someone is being oppressed), this zine isn’t going to attract attention or interest. Still, it’s good, and I’m proud of my work here. I’m happy this zine exists.
- My next original zine project is going to be a reprint of Terrible People, a collection of gothic short fiction. I commissioned two of my favorite dark fantasy artists, who work together under the name Artwins, to create an illustration of a fallen knight in the style of an illuminated manuscript. I love everything that these two gentlemen create, and this illustration is no exception. You can check out the piece on Tumblr (here).
- I finished and edited a nonfiction essay titled “Tifa Lockhart vs. Medical Debt: How Final Fantasy VII Confronts Capitalism” and sent it to my editor at Sidequest. I couldn’t find any essays talking about the FFVII prequel novel, Traces of Two Pasts, so I wrote one myself. Also I love Tifa, I just love her so much.
- My recent essay on Sidequest, “Crow Country Is a Game About Climate Change,” was featured on Critical Distance (here). It’s always an honor, and I’m extremely grateful. I hope this is an opportunity for more people to read about this amazing little game.
- This week’s post on my book review blog (here) is about the first volume in a fictional Sapporo travelogue recently published by one of my favorite manga artists, Ryōko Nagara. I use the manga as an excuse to talk a little about the analog nostalgia boom in Japan, which I suggest is not unrelated to anti-capitalist sentiments. The artist lives in Berlin, which has a chill and ambient anti-capitalist culture, and you can see that same type of gentle green philosophy shine through Nagara’s story about a burnt-out twentysomething who moves to a laid-back regional city to recover from depression and anxiety. I’d love to live in Berlin or Sapporo myself, but alas. The cold would kill me.
This week I wrapped up the spring semester, and I managed to get all of my students through my classes in one piece. It took some work, but everyone showed up, turned everything in, and got an “A.” The grades are in the system, and I’m done. Thank fucking goodness. I am so goddamn exhausted. Touching grass is not enough anymore. I need to disappear into the woods.
