Days of Exile: Chapter 37

Hmm, I thought it was Chapter 27 that I'm uploading. How quickly time flies! Wasn't it just a while back that I first released Days of Exile? I had this impression that I only started Days of Exile in July 2013. Nooo, Days of Exile has been ongoing for more than a year already! Anyway, here are my author's notes for this chapter. 

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Did you like the new "Previously on Days of Exile.." section? I snitched it from Marvel. I have been reading "The New Avengers" and "Superior Superman". The first page is dedicated to explaining the events happening in the previous issue, or the events happening between the previous issue to 'now'. 

Sidenote: It's just darn annoying that they can't maintain some sort of coherence. For people who are just reading "The New Avengers", how would I know what the heck happened in the other titles (they are all connected, the superheroes of Marvel)? 

It was because many events happen at the same time, that Marvel had to do a recap page for readers. And I thought it'll be cool if I could that for my readers. One, they do not need to reread the previous chapter to recall the details. Secondly... if they did not understand the previous chapter, the recap will do a better job at explaining. That's how I solve my problems whenever I read an issue in The New Avengers that I wasn't too sure about.

So, what do you think? Do you like it or not? Seriously, I don't hear much from you people anymore. I don't even know if I'm doing this right. Moving on...

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So I did a research on pronouncing Heidegger’s name. I’ve always pronounced it as “Hedge-dagger”, but goodness that’s simply adding too many phonetic sounds into the letter. So finally, I got it. It’s “Hai-dagger”, or is it “Hai-der-ger”? At least it’s not “hedge” anymore, is it?

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We've reached the thirteenth of January. Brace yourselves, people. This day is one of the most eventful days in the FF7 timeline. Dozen of things will happen on this day, in both the canon and my story. The day might span across five to six chapters, depending on how good I am at cutting down content. I’ll take note to only put in canon content that is necessary for the story, but then again most of you readers have not had the pleasure of experiencing FF7, so why the fuss?

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No one will know this, but the script simply has too many ellipses for my liking. I know we were supposed to pause and make Cloud look like he was trailing off and thinking with emotion. But it just made Cloud darn annoying, as if he wasn’t already. I’m still not happy that he made Zack Fair die. So I made modifications to the script... by removing the "..." as much as I could. It's now easier to read, at least for me.

Alright, that's all for this week, and a long one too! I hope everyone has been fine. Don't let life eat you up... because it is totally consuming me now *sigh*

Read and review!

Opps! Slight delay!

Folks, I apologise once again that my chapter is delayed. I haven't had the chance to proofread and check my chapter. I've been up to my nose with busy-ness for the last 7 days. I won't be free to look at my chapter till Wednesday, actually.

Dum, dum, dum!!!!

Most likely I'll get Chapter 35 up and running by Monday (GMT +8), but well, just in case I fail to keep my promise, the official chapter upload will be on Wednesday, 11 September.

In case you are wondering what I've been doing. It's simple - Work. But on top of that, I've been reading comics. Not manga though (I'm so behind schedule for that one too!), I've been reading American comics. So finally I've jumped onto the Marvel bandwagon and I'm reading The Superior Spiderman and The New Avengers. Remind me to talk about them someday, but it's highly unlikely that I will write a fanfic on it. Stan Lee and his team will laugh at me >_<

Letting go...

If you are wondering, "Oh. My. Gosh. Is she giving up on her fanfiction?" I'm sorry...

But you're WRONG!

I was referring to letting go of some of my old blogs when I was still a student. Because of circumstances of my job, I was advised to remove my blog posts in case my past comes and bites me. I wasn't some kind of delinquent, neither did I have a horrible past or anything of that sort. I just wanted to remove anything of my past online, just in case. Let's not talk about the amount of information stored for so long. I think a basic blog removal suffice.

I've been meaning to remove them for some time, but time was not on my side. Hey, I was working hard on "Days of Exile"! But today I had a little bit of time to do so, plus... certain circumstances have pushed me to do it as quickly as possible.

So I am in the middle of removing my blog, but first, I saved all my blog posts. Whoever said that I can't keep what I wrote? It was interesting to see how I wrote last time. I was more emotional and less... sophisticated with my words. It was a personal blog, after all.

As for this blog... I will obviously keep it. This is a semi-personal blog, I will just be more aware of my online conduct. As such is the mystery of my job. (A note to my friends in real life. Just do me a favour and not mention anything unnecessary.)

If you are wondering, "Days of  Exile" is coming along fine. I'm still struggling to build back the chapters, but it's slowly forming. I'm currently writing one of the biggest events before Meteorfall. In one single day, many many many things happened. I foresee it spanning five to six chapters actually. I will cut down, of course. Just wondering how much I can cut down, that's all.

Days of Exile: Chapter 31

Hoo boy, another short chapter (by my standards)

I admit, I kinda like giving short chapters. For such a situation where I need to deliver chapters faster than I can write, giving short chapters was a morale booster for me to see that I can keep up with the update schedule. And for once, I can write knowing that my readers are going to read the words slowly and carefully because of the smaller chapters. Until I get back my bank of chapters, I believe this is what Days of Exile will become - shorter chapters, finally.

Now, to the story.

The scenes of Tifa falling in the Lifestream and that scene where Tifa went zonkers are from the game itself. I just did a little modifications here and there. Honestly, the game never explained what happened to Tifa in that blank of dark space. There was only sounds of guns and stuff. So, I took things into my own hands and created the context myself. If there’s anyone who knows what happened there, do share your insights!

And of course, the scene with the presence of Aerith in the Lifestream is completely made up, but it was heavily modified from a sentence in the FF7 novellas: The Maiden Who Travels the Planet. So the idea is not original. Aerith was responsible in helping Tifa while they were in the Lifestream.

I admit, I am facing some mental block at how Meia will ever get herself out of Shinra's capture. I mean, when I first thought of the idea, I just went like "Oh, Meia will be captured, but then she'll get out eventually through *cough* and *cough* and then she will *cough*". Guess I didn't really plan this one through and through because it's a bit of a pain to link up everything together. 

That's kinda the thing I have here. If you want, I could tell you all the general events that will happen. My skeleton is more than done. It's the muscles, the flesh, the veins and arteries, the organs and all that anatomy that is lacking in my story. Thus, the stalemate.

Still, thank you, everyone, for sticking by me despite all these nonsense. I am not going to lie. I dread the day that I will announce to you guys that I will update irregularly. That day isn't too far off. If you are wondering why, it's really because worklife takes out a lot of my time than I would have thought. I know, a lousy excuse. Isn't that the reason why I'm still persevering till today, when I could've thrown the towel and ended it at "I Want To Be A Turk"? 

I have this choice right now. I could end at the end of FF7 events and go "They lived happily ever after". But this is NOT the ending I want. Nowhere near. I WANT to see the story in its full glory. So that I can think back and go "Yeah, the journey really sucked in the middle, but I am glad that I stuck through it, irregular or not." So, I shall henceforth continue to remain responsible... even if I have to be irresponsible in my writing schedule... (The paradox is making my head hurt.)

All I ask for, is some divine inspiration so that I can meat up the skeleton. Perhaps I should take a month break again to China. That might do wonders for my writing.

But of course, it won't happen. Like I said in my chapter before, things may not happen the way we want. That's life, sometimes.

New Word (7): Vestige

ves·tige  

/ˈvestij/

Noun A trace of something that is disappearing or no longer exists. The smallest amount (used to emphasize the absence of something): "without a vestige of sympathy".

Or in other words, remnants. I saw this in a text with the phrase "vestige of a Portugese fort".

Haven't been using the new words that I've learnt though. Words like divulse, ephemeral and insuperable... haven't found the opportunity to use them without something like some prude.

In other news, uploading of chapters are back to normal, so see you with a new chapter in two weeks' time!

Book Review (6): Throne of Glass

You might remember that I've mentioned this some time ago. I'm done with the book shortly after that post, but it took me a while to get the review out. But I've done it, and here it is :)



Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas

Story Sypnosis (in my own words): Celaena Sardothien, legendary assassin who suffered a year in captivity, was promised freedom upon some conditions. She was to participate in a series of competitions against other fighters and emerge champion. Failure to do so will mean sure death. Celaena obviously accepts, and soon found many twists in what seemed like an innocent tournament.

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Let me get this straight - I love this book!

I did take a long time to get past the first 4 chapters (though that wasn't the story's fault, but my own work priorities). But one fine Saturday, I sat down, I read, and I didn't stop till I was done on Sunday morning... Okay, so I cheated, I slept a bit before I finished it on Sunday morning, but that's not important.

Overall, this book has gotten me on my toes and I'm eagerly waiting for the sequel to be out this fall (Yes, there will be a sequel!!) Let's get started!

1. Setting
The author spent about five chapters setting the story, which is really nice and stable. Five chapters to set the stage. The world is a medieval-like realm with castles and towns. The era was in oppression; a man who conquered the main city and declared himself King. Magic was banned, its books were burned and its people killed.

Yup, that's the underlying theme there. Oppression.

2. Costumes
I love the costumes. Nothing more I can say. Okay, so this has absolutely nothing to do with writing, but I just love the costumes. The description was lovely, though not as graphic as Memoirs of a Geisha (did you see the way the author describes the kimono? Absolutely love it.)

3. Celaena as a protagonist
I mentioned before that Eona was an interesting character, but I meant it in a negative way more than positive. Now, Celaena Sardothien is, in my opinion, a wonderful character. She is arrogant, cunning and witty, but also nice to the people that she likes. She also knows that she is beautiful, and often tries to use it to her advantage.

There is just something so attractive about her. To outsiders, she's elusive and mysterious. No one knows what the greatest assassin might do next. However, when the author writes in the perspective of Celaena again, you'll be surprised to find how normal she actually is. Also, it's so interesting to see her think throughout the book the thousand and one ways to assassinate people around her, albeit done too frequently.

In a way, she is like Christian Grey. Same multifaceted personality, but different. Different in the fact that Christian Grey's multicoloured personality backfires on him because he became very flat. For Celaena, the different parts of her personality, however extreme they may be, they made sense given the circumstances of her background.

4. Love Triangles
Argh. I hate this. I've said it again and again, I am so sick of love triangles. It's quite typical - Girl falls in love with Boy A first, but then there's Boy B. Plus, you can tell that eventually where the love triangle would result.

For some reason, even though I dislike love triangles, I'm super darn bad at guessing the result. I always brace myself for a possible twist. Never happened.

5. Plot
I appreciate the fact that the story has a pretty straightforward plot. There were some underlying subplots and foreshadowing, but nothing confusing. I need to take notes from these focused authors!!

Being a first part of a series, the book took some time to lay out its setting. However, what stood out for me was that the main plot was introduced by the end of Chapter 2. It's pretty risky to just throw out the main plot so early. You might lose the flavour and most authors prefer to roll out the story little by little. Well, it worked for me. I immediately got to know what the story is going to be about and that determines whether I'm going to like it or not.

Another author who did that was Maria V. Snyder. The initial plot was out by the end of Chapter 1, of which at the end of it I thought, "Sounds cool, let's go!" Some stories that dragged a little too long for my liking was Fifty Shades of Grey (review here) and "The Fire Within" by Chris D. Lacey. Alright, I'm about to be stoned because I know many people loved it. I've only read the first book and so far, meh. I am not giving up on the series though. So I'll try again!

Maybe I'm just a superficial reader who can't wait for the plot to thicken. Hmph.

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Rating: Love It

I loved the book, I'm looking forward to the sequel. Need I say anymore?

Pictures taken from:
Book Cover

Disclaimer: Despite the official term, the above book review is not a wholesome and fully critical one. The book is merely reviewed and reflected on based on story writing skills and other literary elements.

My biggest apologies

Dear readers,

Most likely, I will be posting Chapter 29 next weekend instead. The chapter is done, to be honest. However, I did not feel secure about how the chapter was written. I need more time to work on it and be assured that it is my best (and that the horrible detailing will not bite me in the loophole-butt in the future).

My regular schedule will resume shortly after, which means:

Chapter 29 will be posted on 22 June 2013
Chapter 30 will be posted on 29 June 2013 (the immediate week after)

Thank you for your understanding. As I'm typing this, I'm wondering whether my readers would stop by this blog when they notice that this week's chapter is not up... If not, this post will be rendered useless *cries*