Category: Novel
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Words Lost and Words Found (NaNoWriMo Update — Week Two)
Photo by ariadna I have been writing every day—not that this is terribly unusual of late—but this time with the pressure of not getting my word count in for NaNoWriMo on top of it. It’s a silly, self-imposed trial of words, but I think there’s some great value to it. Just having committed to doing it…
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To Recharge or Not to Recharge (NaNoWriMo Update – Week One)
Photo by Jordan McQueen I’ve been writing every day for a solid week on the sequel to my recently finished novel (as yet to be published, or officially announced) as part of NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month, if you’re not familiar. It’s been a lot of fun, but I’m also putting in a lot…
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NOVEL IS FINISHED!
photo by Dustin Lee Yes, you read that correctly. I have finished my novel, the very first one. Yesterday, around 9pm is when the last word was written. I had given myself a deadline of today, Oct. 31st and I brought it in a day early. A few days ago, it was looking bleak. I had…
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A Writing Machine
I’ve been MIA for a while, once again. This time, I went on my honeymoon, which was amazing. It was nearly a month long and an absolutely fantastic time. We went to the British Isles. And bonus points for you, if you know the difference between that and Great Britain and the U.K. To make…
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Progress Update 002 — Jumping Heads
So, yeah… I’m late this week. But I don’t suppose anyone is chomping at the bit to read my posts promptly on Tuesdays. If you are, I’m sorry. Things get derailed sometimes. Life takes its own course. But here we are. First off, I removed the “Progress Update” part of the title of last week’s…
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To Hum a Strain in the Face of Death
“A truly brave man is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the equanimity of his spirit. In the heat of battle he remains cool; in the midst of catastrophes he keeps level his mind. Earthquakes do not shake him, he laughs at storms. We admire him as truly great, who, in…
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Even a One-Inch Insect Has a Half-Inch Soul
I read a book on Japanese proverbs this past week to get some inspiration and more insight into Japanese culture for the novel I’m working on. It’s called Even Monkeys Fall From Trees, which is, of course, one of the proverbs. Many of them have easy parallels with Western proverbs, such as one favorite of mine,…
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Progress Update 001 – Yoshio and Friends
So… this is maybe a new feature of my blog. I decided I just needed to make a little progress update and get a feel for where I am and how things are going. I’ve received good feedback about my story, The Kanji Test, which was in last week’s post. My one follower comment so…
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The Kanji Test
The Kanji Test by Tristram Lowe The teacher handed Yoshio a two-page vocabulary test on the new kanji words they were learning. They were still fairly basic kanji as he was only 6 years old, and in grade two. He scanned the questions as the teacher moved on. He saw “door,” “summer,” “older brother,” “forest.” Cake.…
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New Story: The Kanji Test
I haven’t posted anything in two weeks. This bothers me, because I need to be consistent. I was derailed by doubt and frustration about how I’m going about my book and my blog and almost everything else in my life. I was distracted with arguments about Oxford commas and double spacing after sentences. Cats were vomiting, and peeing…
Tristram Lowe 