2025 Writing Log, Part 28
Jul. 19th, 2025 07:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynling- I posted the fourth chapter of What Dreams May Come, a (vaguely) Bloodborne-themed Zelda/Ganon story, on AO3 (here).
- And apparently I wasn’t finished writing crackfic for Deltarune. I posted another (non-pornographic) story about Tenna and Spamton on AO3 (here). Nothing about their relationship is good or wholesome, but I wanted to give them some closure… sort of.
- “The Wisdom of the Waiting Princess,” a meta essay I wrote about how the backstory of Zelda in the original 1986 game complicates the “damsel in distress” trope, is now on AO3 (here). I had the honor of writing this for the Silent Princess charity zine, which still has a digital version available (here) if you’re interested.
- I promoted the essay on Tumblr (here), and I’m really grateful to the people who reblogged it. Zine writers generally don’t get much love, so it feels incredible to have this sort of support. I’m also grateful to Hollarity for working with me to create a design of Zelda as she might have looked during the unseen “adventure” portion of her story.
- Because she really liked the idea (and because she is an amazing person), Holly also created a drawing of the OG Zelda in her pink princess dress! I posted this illustration on Tumblr (here). The artist hasn’t updated her Tumblr recently, but it’s (here) if you want to scroll through some lovely video game fan art featuring Pokémon, Final Fantasy, and Bowser + Peach being nerds.
- “The Softer Side of Dark Souls Fandom,” my essay about a major shift in internet culture, was published on Sidequest (here). Everybody loves Bloodborne and Elden Ring now; but, ten years ago, FromSoft fans were a fairly isolated group, not to mention some of the worst people on the internet. At about 1.5k words, this piece is far shorter than it should be, but I still had a fun time writing about how FromSoft fandom has become much more welcoming and inclusive over the past decade.
- The second edition of Terrible People, a collection of six dark fantasy stories, is now in print! I posted some photos on the Etsy listing (here), and I put a free digital version up on Itch.io (here). I’m really proud of this one, and I’m grateful to King of Red Dragons for creating a fantastic cover illustration. He didn’t have to go that hard, but he did, and it’s amazing. If you’re curious, he posted the full cover illustration spread on Bluesky (here).
- I started formatting my next short fiction zine, Green Dreams: Tales of Botanical Fantasy. Aside from one story that I haven’t finished writing yet, everything is more or less ready to go!
- I made an illustration for the story I haven’t finished writing, “The Girl on the Other Side,” and I posted it on Tumblr (here). I actually planned to commission a specific artist to create this, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to communicate what a “zine” is. She said her book illustration rate starts at €800, which is totally fair, but… yeah. 😅 So it’s a poor substitute, but I decided just to do the illustration myself.
- I’m afraid someone might misinterpret what I’m saying, so to be clear: every artist I commission deserves at least €800 for their work, but I just don’t have that sort of money. Still, I think it’s important and worthwhile to commission artists and make collaborative zines even if you don’t have the budget of a professional publisher.
- I also created a study for an illustration for the zine’s closing story, which is about a cat who takes shelter in an abandoned greenhouse during an apocalypse and comfortably cohabitates with the mysterious creatures that emerge after all the humans have left. My sketch of two daikon radish creatures is on Tumblr (here).
- I put the final touches on my presentation paper and slideshow for the annual MLA conference in Toronto next January. This is way in advance, obviously, but it’s good to get it taken care of.
-This week’s post on my Japanese book review blog (here) is about Yoko Ogawa’s 1994 book 薬指の標本, which brings together two magical realist novellas that feel spiritually akin to her speculative novel The Memory Police. I’m forever at a loss to explain why I’m so fascinated by the texture of Ogawa’s writing, but I tried to give it another shot in this review.
For various reasons I don’t want to get into, I had a really tough week. It’s good to have art and writing and creative friends to work with, because otherwise I would go completely insane.
- And apparently I wasn’t finished writing crackfic for Deltarune. I posted another (non-pornographic) story about Tenna and Spamton on AO3 (here). Nothing about their relationship is good or wholesome, but I wanted to give them some closure… sort of.
- “The Wisdom of the Waiting Princess,” a meta essay I wrote about how the backstory of Zelda in the original 1986 game complicates the “damsel in distress” trope, is now on AO3 (here). I had the honor of writing this for the Silent Princess charity zine, which still has a digital version available (here) if you’re interested.
- I promoted the essay on Tumblr (here), and I’m really grateful to the people who reblogged it. Zine writers generally don’t get much love, so it feels incredible to have this sort of support. I’m also grateful to Hollarity for working with me to create a design of Zelda as she might have looked during the unseen “adventure” portion of her story.
- Because she really liked the idea (and because she is an amazing person), Holly also created a drawing of the OG Zelda in her pink princess dress! I posted this illustration on Tumblr (here). The artist hasn’t updated her Tumblr recently, but it’s (here) if you want to scroll through some lovely video game fan art featuring Pokémon, Final Fantasy, and Bowser + Peach being nerds.
- “The Softer Side of Dark Souls Fandom,” my essay about a major shift in internet culture, was published on Sidequest (here). Everybody loves Bloodborne and Elden Ring now; but, ten years ago, FromSoft fans were a fairly isolated group, not to mention some of the worst people on the internet. At about 1.5k words, this piece is far shorter than it should be, but I still had a fun time writing about how FromSoft fandom has become much more welcoming and inclusive over the past decade.
- The second edition of Terrible People, a collection of six dark fantasy stories, is now in print! I posted some photos on the Etsy listing (here), and I put a free digital version up on Itch.io (here). I’m really proud of this one, and I’m grateful to King of Red Dragons for creating a fantastic cover illustration. He didn’t have to go that hard, but he did, and it’s amazing. If you’re curious, he posted the full cover illustration spread on Bluesky (here).
- I started formatting my next short fiction zine, Green Dreams: Tales of Botanical Fantasy. Aside from one story that I haven’t finished writing yet, everything is more or less ready to go!
- I made an illustration for the story I haven’t finished writing, “The Girl on the Other Side,” and I posted it on Tumblr (here). I actually planned to commission a specific artist to create this, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to communicate what a “zine” is. She said her book illustration rate starts at €800, which is totally fair, but… yeah. 😅 So it’s a poor substitute, but I decided just to do the illustration myself.
- I’m afraid someone might misinterpret what I’m saying, so to be clear: every artist I commission deserves at least €800 for their work, but I just don’t have that sort of money. Still, I think it’s important and worthwhile to commission artists and make collaborative zines even if you don’t have the budget of a professional publisher.
- I also created a study for an illustration for the zine’s closing story, which is about a cat who takes shelter in an abandoned greenhouse during an apocalypse and comfortably cohabitates with the mysterious creatures that emerge after all the humans have left. My sketch of two daikon radish creatures is on Tumblr (here).
- I put the final touches on my presentation paper and slideshow for the annual MLA conference in Toronto next January. This is way in advance, obviously, but it’s good to get it taken care of.
-This week’s post on my Japanese book review blog (here) is about Yoko Ogawa’s 1994 book 薬指の標本, which brings together two magical realist novellas that feel spiritually akin to her speculative novel The Memory Police. I’m forever at a loss to explain why I’m so fascinated by the texture of Ogawa’s writing, but I tried to give it another shot in this review.
For various reasons I don’t want to get into, I had a really tough week. It’s good to have art and writing and creative friends to work with, because otherwise I would go completely insane.
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Date: 2025-07-21 06:22 pm (UTC)