Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you very much for signing up! I'm looking forward to seeing our match (or what you've selected to write, if you end up choosing one of my other requests), and am delighted to receive whatever you send my way. To see the sorts of things that I scribble in my spare time, my main fic journal is bookofgramarye with alternate archiving at AO3. Previous Yuletide letters are here (2023, which contains links back through letters to 2007) for reference, but I hope that this one gives you enough to work with for this year's requests.

What I like best: Backstory/pre-canon fic, missing or expanded scenes from canon, alternate perspectives on a scene, immediate post-battle/post-conflict settings (including physical and emotional hurt/comfort), postcanon wrap-up. I do tend to prefer gen-fic unless otherwise specified in a prompt. As far as character themes go, I love developing friendships and awkward characters exploring their own conflicted feelings (e.g., "maybe I don't dislike you as much as I thought I did," "maybe you're kinder/more vulnerable/more competent than I thought you were," "maybe I'm not as awesome/unlikeable as I thought I was"), and the like.

Things I'm not fond of: Character-bashing (especially for shipping purposes), pair-the-spares, downer/unhopeful endings (unless otherwise specified in the prompts), mundane/nonpowered AUs. [EDIT FOR CLARITY: Unless canon-divergent AUs are specified as a prompt, I prefer canon-timeline fics.] I'd also appreciate the use of the AO3 Archive Warnings if the story happens to contain one or more of the major ones, and I like having content notes for distressing situations or themes (primarily for on-screen character death or graphic physical and sexual violence, and discussions of suicide or sexual assault).

And here are the prompts --

( Suzume no Tojimari )

( Magica Record )

( Saki )

( Zombieland Saga )

One of the vague things I wanted to try to do this year was to restart writing Tuesday Book Reviews, which if you click through on the link will reveal that I haven't written and posted one in...yes, embarrassingly, more than an actual decade. This is not from lack of reading, but because working as a full-time editor frequently makes me not want to spend more time writing about books than is absolutely necessary. But I did have a chance to type up a review for this one.

When I was in Japan last year and earlier this year, I watched a lot of police procedurals. My reasoning behind this, apart from the fact that I've always enjoyed a good mystery novel, is that police procedurals follow an established story structure: there is a crime, a victim and a perpetrator, and an investigation, so the actual plot is not difficult to follow, and I could focus on comprehending the language. I even purchased a few crime novels at local used bookstores. So when I returned and saw that my local library had a translated edition of one of the Japanese police procedurals I'd bought, I figured I would get the jump on it in English first.

( 'Initial Read - Prefecture D: Four Novellas' by Hideo Yokoyama )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you very much for signing up! I'm looking forward to seeing our match (or what you've selected to write, if you end up choosing one of my other requests), and am delighted to receive whatever you send my way. To see the sorts of things that I scribble in my spare time, my main fic journal is bookofgramarye with alternate archiving at AO3. Previous Yuletide letters are here (2022, which contains links back through letters to 2007) for reference, but I hope that this one gives you enough to work with for this year's requests.

What I like best: Backstory/pre-canon fic, missing or expanded scenes from canon, alternate perspectives on a scene, immediate post-battle/post-conflict settings (including physical and emotional hurt/comfort), postcanon wrap-up. I do tend to prefer gen-fic unless otherwise specified in a prompt. As far as character themes go, I love developing friendships and awkward characters exploring their own conflicted feelings (e.g., "maybe I don't dislike you as much as I thought I did," "maybe you're kinder/more vulnerable/more competent than I thought you were," "maybe I'm not as awesome/unlikeable as I thought I was"), and the like.

Things I'm not fond of: Character-bashing (especially for shipping purposes), pair-the-spares, downer/unhopeful endings (unless otherwise specified in the prompts), mundane/nonpowered AUs. [EDIT FOR CLARITY: Unless canon-divergent AUs are specified as a prompt, I prefer canon-timeline fics.] I'd also appreciate the use of the AO3 Archive Warnings if the story happens to contain one or more of the major ones, and I like having content notes for distressing situations or themes (primarily for on-screen character death or graphic physical and sexual violence, and discussions of suicide or sexual assault).

Now for the prompts!

( Mouretsu Pirates )

( Teppachi! )

( Kara no Kyoukai )

( Suzume no Tojimari )

It's nearing the end of New Year's Day here in Tokyo, so I think at this point I can wish just about everyone a Happy New Year - あけましておめでとう!

I do have an update post half-written, but like so many things in the past few years it got derailed by a brief but unpleasant bout of COVID that hit me immediately after Christmas, and from which I am thankfully about 90% recovered. Just in time to get back to work on Wednesday, naturally. But I'll aim to have that update finished soon.

Dear Yuletide Writer,

First of all, thank you for signing up! (I'm terribly sorry that it took me so long to unlock my letter -- it's been a crazy few weeks at work.) I'm looking forward to seeing what we've been matched on (or what you've selected to write, if you end up choosing one of my other requests), and am very happy to receive whatever you send my way. To see the sorts of things that I scribble in my spare time, my main fic journal is bookofgramarye with alternate archiving at AO3. Previous Yuletide letters are here (2021, which contains links back through letters to 2007) for reference, but I hope that this one gives you enough to go on for this year's requests.

What I like best: Backstory/pre-canon fic, missing or expanded scenes from canon, alternate perspectives on a scene, immediate post-battle/post-conflict settings (including physical and emotional hurt/comfort), postcanon wrap-up. I do tend to prefer gen-fic unless otherwise specified in a prompt. As far as character themes go, I love developing friendships and awkward characters exploring their own conflicted feelings (e.g., "maybe I don't dislike you as much as I thought I did," "maybe you're kinder/more vulnerable/more competent than I thought you were," "maybe I'm not as awesome/unlikeable as I thought I was"), and the like.

Things I'm not fond of: Character-bashing (especially for shipping purposes), pair-the-spares, downer/unhopeful endings (unless otherwise specified in the prompts), mundane/nonpowered AUs. [EDIT FOR CLARITY: Unless canon-divergent AUs are specified as a prompt, I prefer canon-timeline fics.] I'd also appreciate the use of the AO3 Archive Warnings if the story happens to contain one or more of the major ones, and I like having content notes for distressing situations or themes (primarily for on-screen character death or graphic physical and sexual violence, and discussions of suicide or sexual assault).

Now for the prompts!

( Magica Record )

( Kara no Kyoukai )

( Yuru Camp )

( Teppachi! )

So, my recent terrible health saga aside, I have some actually exciting news.

Back in late 2020, in the midst of a sorta-different-sorta-similar sociopolitical hellscape, I applied and interviewed for a government fellowship that would let me work in Japan for a year, in placements with Japanese government agencies related to my day job. It was my third time applying, my first time successfully in the interview round, and I secured a place as one of 10 fellowship recipients.

Tomorrow, I will have my official entry visa.
Next week, I will finish cramming a bunch of winter clothes into a bunch of boxes so they can leave my place to cross the ocean ahead of me.
In the last week of June, I will pack my own suitcases to take with me on the plane.
On July 1, I leave for Japan until June 2023.

(For a few nasty weeks in mid-February, I didn't think this would even be possible.)

Everything is simultaneously happening all at once and taking approximately forever to get moving.

More updates to follow as the day of departure approaches, but for now, the clock is ticking.

This Yuletide was the year of Toshokan Sensou/Library Wars for me, apparently, because I both wrote and received in it.

I received His Last Mission from Elsceetaria, a sweet (and spoiler-full, being set at the end of the series) piece in which the retired library director Inamine Kazuichi reflects on his subordinates' careers before they all embark on their dangerous mission to protect a threatened author. I'm especially fond of Inamine as a character, and I was delighted to receive a story from his POV.

In turn, I wrote Print on Demand for Griddlebone, which was all about teaching young and impressionable minds to learn from past lessons in thwarting government censorship. Basically an excuse for me to write about samizdat literature, in the guise of librarians helping middle school girls figure out another venue for self-publishing when their novel-writing website gets blocked by the Media Improvement Committee. It's the longest fic I've written in quite some time, which possibly bodes well for dusting off other long-languishing stories? We'll see.

At any rate, a quick post-reveals update. I hope to have an actual life update posted soon.

Dear Yuletide Writer,

First of all, thank you for signing up! I'm looking forward to seeing what we've been matched on (or what you've selected to write, if you end up choosing one of my other requests), and am very happy to receive whatever you send my way. To see the sorts of things that I scribble in my spare time, my main fic journal is bookofgramarye with alternate archiving at AO3. Previous Yuletide letters are here (2020, which contains links back through letters to 2007) for reference, but I hope that this one gives you enough to go on for this year's requests.

What I like best: Backstory/pre-canon fic, missing or expanded scenes from canon, alternate perspectives on a scene, immediate post-battle/post-conflict settings (including physical and emotional hurt/comfort), postcanon wrap-up. I do tend to prefer gen-fic unless otherwise specified in a prompt. As far as character themes go, I love developing friendships and awkward characters exploring their own conflicted feelings (e.g., "maybe I don't dislike you as much as I thought I did," "maybe you're kinder/more vulnerable/more competent than I thought you were," "maybe I'm not as awesome/unlikeable as I thought I was"), and the like.

Things I'm not fond of: Character-bashing (especially for shipping purposes), pair-the-spares, downer/unhopeful endings (unless otherwise specified in the prompts), mundane/nonpowered AUs. [EDIT FOR CLARITY: Unless canon-divergent AUs are specified as a prompt, I prefer canon-timeline fics.] I'd also appreciate the use of the AO3 Archive Warnings if the story happens to contain one or more of the major ones, and I like having content notes for distressing situations or themes (primarily for on-screen character death or graphic physical and sexual violence, and discussions of suicide or sexual assault).

Now for the prompts!

( Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story )

( Kara no Kyoukai )

( Yuru Camp )

( My Next Life as a Villainess )

( Toshokan Sensou )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

First of all, thank you for signing up! I'm looking forward to seeing what we've been matched on (or what you've selected to write, if you end up choosing one of my other requests), and am very happy to receive whatever you send my way. To see the sorts of things that I scribble in my spare time, my main fic journal is bookofgramarye with alternate archiving at AO3. Previous Yuletide letters are here (2019, which contains links back through letters to 2007) for reference, but I hope that this one gives you enough to go on for this year's requests.

What I like best: Backstory/pre-canon fic, missing or expanded scenes from canon, alternate perspectives on a scene, immediate post-battle/post-conflict settings (including physical and emotional hurt/comfort), postcanon wrap-up. I do tend to prefer gen-fic unless otherwise specified in a prompt. As far as character themes go, I love developing friendships and awkward characters exploring their own conflicted feelings (e.g., "maybe I don't dislike you as much as I thought I did," "maybe you're kinder/more vulnerable/more competent than I thought you were," "maybe I'm not as awesome/unlikeable as I thought I was"), and the like.

Things I'm not fond of: Character-bashing (especially for shipping purposes), pair-the-spares, downer/unhopeful endings, mundane/nonpowered AUs. [EDIT FOR CLARITY: Unless canon-divergent AUs are specified as a prompt, I prefer canon-timeline fics.] I'd also appreciate the use of the AO3 Archive Warnings if the story happens to contain one or more of the major ones, and I like having content notes for distressing situations or themes (primarily for on-screen character death or graphic physical and sexual violence, and discussions of suicide or sexual assault). 

And now for the actual prompts:

( Inspector O )

( Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Magia Record )

( My Next Life as a Villainess (novels) )

( Princess Mononoke )

( Ascendance of a Bookworm )

Many thanks again for your contribution to this year's Yuletide!

I've been using Goodreads for a while now to keep track of my manga and light novel collection, and as I was doing a long-overdue update for it this evening I was pleased to find that with my recent manga purchases I've passed a nice round number: 400 volumes.* This includes not only Japanese-language manga and light novels, but also some of the related spin-off printed materials for various series, like artbooks and comic anthologies. (It doesn't, however, include translated volumes such as my English editions of Master Keaton or my Japanese editions of Harry Potter -- it's easier to keep those separated out.)

Thinking back, I started collecting manga in the summer of 2000, when I spent all of my holiday and birthday money, plus some of what I'd made teaching occasional piano lessons, to purchase the complete 18-volume original print run of the Sailormoon manga from the now sadly defunct Sasuga Bookstore in Boston. Since then, my collection habits have evolved from occasional purchases gleaned from the manga tables at anime conventions, to volumes acquired secondhand and haphazardly from various online and retail sources, to planned trips to New York's Kinokuniya Books, to regular preorders from CDJapan and Amazon.co.jp, to the occasional purchase in Japan proper. Along the way, I dropped and sold off a few series that didn't hold my interest -- the oenophile manga Kami no Shizuku (The Drops of God) comes to mind, since its esoteric subject matter (finding and tasting the world's twelve greatest wines! while dealing with deep-seated family drama!) couldn't save its bloated, meandering plot. For the most part, though, I've kept hold of just about everything that's interested me, with magical girl fantasy and savage political satire happily sitting next to action-adventure and slice-of-life series.

I don't have my ideal storage situation for my collection, since in a dream world I'd like to have a sliding bookshelf like this one where I wouldn't have to double-stack the manga (because the shelves would double-stack for me) and everything would fit neatly and be on display. But that's a goal for sometime soon...because I fully intend to keep collecting manga for another 20 years at least.


* The final total with this update brought me to 413 volumes, oof.

Hello, dear Parallels author! (Many apologies for my delayed unlocking of this letter -- life unfortunately got in my way when it was half-finished.) Looking forward to another year of Parallels. Even though some of my prompts might be a little detailed, I'm mainly looking for more fic for these series in general rather than any specific type of story.

What I like best: Backstory/pre-canon fic, 'missing scenes', character studies, alternate perspectives on a scene, fics that show a nice bit of historical research if required. Gen-fic, by and large -- I particularly enjoy reading about character relationships that don't necessarily have to do with romantic relationships.

Things I'm not fond of: Character-bashing, PWP, issue-fic, stories where the 'ship drives the plot. Also, I'd appreciate the use of the AO3 Archive Warnings if the story happens to contain one or more of the major ones (since one or two of these canons have a fair amount of actual violence).

( Natsume Yuujincho )

( Toaru Kagaku no Railgun )

( My Next Life as a Villainess )

( Madoka Magica: Magia Record )

( Cells at Work! )

( Summer Wars )

A fic idea has been gnawing at me, and I need to jot it down here to take some of the pressure off my brain.

In a recent discussion with a friend about Disney movies, The Princess and the Frog came up, and we were pondering the timeframe of the movie in relation to World War I. It's indicated that Tiana's father James was killed in the war, considering both the photograph she keeps of him in uniform and the Distinguished Service Cross, presumably awarded posthumously, that's draped over it (as seen in this screencap). Based on what my day job has taught me, this would put him in either the 92d or 93d Infantry Divisions (the segregated U.S. Army divisions with wartime combat service), with the likelihood of having seen combat in France either with the American Expeditionary Forces or as part of a French unit. And my mind, turning in fanfic directions, started to sketch out an epistolary fic based on the letters that he would have sent home during training and deployment, in service in France, and concluding with the telegram announcing his death, his commendation letter for his posthumous DSC, and possibly a final letter from someone who served with him, giving more details of his death. (If nothing else, I can only imagine that a young soldier who grew up in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century and was posted to France might have something to say about French cooking in his letters home!)

All that said, epistolary fic isn't a particular strength of mine, so I'd probably have to come up with a better framework than just the letters. But in my usual tradition of scraping the serial numbers off my pet research projects and turning them into fanfic, this one might be worth putting in the effort.

Hat tip to silveraspen for sharing this BBC Travel Gallery article: How a storm revealed a Welsh kingdom.

Key quote:

In late April 2019, Storm Hannah battered Britain with wind gusts that reached more than 80m ph, causing power cuts and travel disruptions across Wales. As the storm lashed the shores of Borth and Ynyslas, peat-covered tree remains that had been buried under the saltwater and sand for thousands of years re-surfaced. Some linked these ancient stumps to the forest of mythical Cantre'r Gwaelod.

Naturally, I have bookmarked this for fic-writing purposes when everything is marginally less terrible, because certain aspects of the Eirias Triad have just become very interesting in context.

For those who are looking for free ebooks to read at this time, an obligatory promotion of three sites that have quite a lot of reading material:

Project Gutenberg (US copyright)
Faded Page (Canadian copyright)
Project Gutenberg Australia (Australian copyright)

Interestingly, Faded Page will give you Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons and a slew of Dorothy L. Sayers, and Australian Gutenberg will give you Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (in txt/HTML format only at the moment) and various other epub books. Copyright laws are different all over, so what's restricted in the States at the moment isn't necessary restricted elsewhere.

And if you're looking for things to do that aren't endless fear-scrolling on the Internet, Distributed Proofreaders is a simple, low-key way to help clean up and prepare new books for Project Gutenberg. Each page goes through multiple rounds of checking, and you can do as much or as little as you like. The last time I worked on it, LaTeX coders/editors in particular were wanted for books that had more complicated layouts than a simple text editor could provide.

EDIT: foxinthestars also mentions Librivox, which has volunteer-produced free audiobooks from public domain texts!

I haven't done a personal life roundup in a while, so I'm hauling out a meme format from a few years back.

Major life changes? Same old same old?

Still editing books, on the work front. I didn't get the Japan fellowship I was aiming for this past year, sadly, so I've been filling in my professional development with some additional work training. I just finished one course in town (two weeks on national security) and the other will be out of town (almost a month on leadership development/personnel management skills, ugh), which means that I'll have to put off further Japanese classes until at least the middle of the year. I'm in a weird position with language classes, where I'd probably get more out of independent study and reading/listening practice, but feel like I need the structure of classes to ensure that I actually devote time to it. Will have to see how I feel closer to the summer as my schedule clears up.

A small promotion earlier this year boosted my salary, and I've also made a fair amount in freelance editing, which is a nice cushion in case of future furloughs and will help me buy the condo I'm living in. Which is where I'm stalling out: I have an appraisal on the place, and the price is in line with what I've expected, but the actual act of mortgage shopping and getting a real estate lawyer feel like insurmountable obstacles. Plus the simple fact of having to hand over a sizable chunk of my hoard of cash for the down payment is going to be like amputating part of a hand. It'll have to be done, but I'm still trying to figure out where to begin carving up the proverbial elephant for personal consumption.

In nonwork life, I've been trying to get out of the house more to stave off the ever-present threat of situational depression. I've got a local mahjong group that meets almost weekly, which is nice, though I do wish there were more women in it. For exercise, I've been running on the treadmill and lifting weights at the fitness center close to my office, and for the better part of the past half-year I've been taking figure skating lessons. (Crossovers are my current stumbling block, but I'm determined to get them sooner rather than later.) A few months ago, I started going to yoga sessions at a studio that opened down the street from my condo, and it's been a good thing for stress relief and balance training.

( Fannish stuff behind the cut. )

I believe in Europe, and always will.

UK friends, I'll be an advocate for Rejoin in any way I can.

Having one of those weeks where wanderlust-inspired travel thoughts start swirling in my mind. Jotting down three ideas here for future reference.

1. Italy-Switzerland: In my ongoing quest to take roundabout public transit through beautiful countryside, I have the idea of riding the Swiss PostBus 631, the Palm Express, from Lugano to St. Moritz, spending the night there, and then hopping on Rhaetian Railways and riding down to Tirano. Part of a general desire to see more of Graubünden/Grischun in general, possibly incorporating some extensive hikes in the areas that I saw when I took the Bernina Express a few years ago.

Japan: Two onsen ryokan named Lamp no Yado (ランプの宿, or lamp inn) that have caught my eye --
2a. Yoshigawara Onsen, Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture. I absolutely love the fact that this place is right on the water, because listening to the icy waves crashing while soaking in a hot bath is a glorious experience. My plan for this place is to take a bike tour of the peninsula at some point, perhaps recreating this suggested tour through my own reservations, and spend at least a day or two at this ryokan.
2b. Aoni Onsen, Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. From the description of this onsen ryokan, it's about as close to the middle of nowhere as it's possible to get in rural Aomori, considering that getting there requires trains, buses, and the ryokan's own shuttle. Unlike the lamp house above, this place still holds to the tradition of not having electric lighting and being illuminated entirely with kerosene lamps. Could definitely spend a day or two here as well.

As mentioned in my last post, I was hit with a cold right on Boxing Day, knocking me out of several days' worth of enjoying my time at home visiting my folks. I'm recovered by this point, just in time to go back to work, and words cannot describe my resentment about this.

Words can describe, however, my happiness over my Yuletide story: Spirits to enforce, art to enchant, a Lord El Melloi II Case Files fic that perfectly fit my request for the complicated quasi-sibling relationship between Waver and Reines. It's the kind of layer-upon-layer story that this particular series needs, with the right balance of showing and telling and a pacing that matches the anime, and it makes me want to go back and rewatch the series again to revel in the overall atmosphere.

In turn, I wrote both a fic and a last-minute treat for the same recipient in the same anthropomorphic fandom: the Microsoft Office Danshi. Basically, imagine the various programs of the Microsoft Office suite as young men, and there you go. The characters are only illustrations, so the story involves my own characterizations, but it's not much of a stretch to write Microsoft Word as a lazy procrastinator who keeps crashing, Microsoft Excel as his long-suffering deskmate who just wants to finish updating this last sheet, and Microsoft Outlook as an inveterate gossip who will tell everyone about that time you hit Reply All when you shouldn't have. And I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't disagree with me casting Microsoft PowerPoint as an aggressively cheerful "bro"-type -- something of a louder, cruder version of Jean-Jacques "JJ" Leroy from Yuri!!! on Ice. (It enabled me to make not one but two dick jokes involving desktop publishing software functions, so there's that.) At any rate, the fics are Late Afternoon in the Office Suite (the main story) and Late Afternoon at SeaTac Coffee (the coffee shop AU ficlet that wouldn't leave my head until I wrote it down late on Christmas Day evening).

I've updated the fics themselves on bookofgramarye to keep my backup archive up to date, but as I'm fast-crashing myself, replies to comments and the proper 2019 update will have to be sorted out starting tomorrow.

End of year roundup will come as soon as I'm more recovered from the pestilence that slammed into me on Boxing Day. *sigh*

A slew of autumn holidays meant that this past week, I had two makeup Japanese evening classes as well as my regular one, bam bam bam on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. That, plus the JLPT this past Sunday, meant that my language-learning circuits were pretty well fried by the middle of the week. And talking with a couple of fellow students after the last class, we all commisserated over the fact and sadly agreed that we're all at the point where we're running up against the latest wall in new language acquisition.

It didn't help for my own self-esteem that one of the students in the class had just come back from living in Japan for three years on the JET Programme, so her fluency was leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of us. In between internal frothing fits of private envy, I felt a little bad for her, because our collective class level was probably too low for her skill level; she really would have been better off with some one-on-one work and supplemental reading. But it does confirm for me that I really, really need to be doing more reading as well, with newspaper articles and short essays and similar things, and sitting down with a dictionary and a grammar book to work through them on a regular basis. As well as more listening, so I can get a better ear for speech patterns and the subtle grammar differences...beyond just being able to recognise them, but not comprehend them fast enough to fit the pieces together. In class, in my haste to respond to questions, I kept catching myself doing the thing that I hate, where I create an English sentence and then run it through an internal translation to render it into Japanese, rather than starting in Japanese from the outset. (I should be doing the equivalent of seeing a cat, and thinking "ah, neko," rather than thinking "ah, a cat, which is neko".)

None of this is a new part of language learning, but I suspect I'm more than a bit burned out on it at the moment. I suppose I'll give myself a week or so to recover, and then try to figure out a game plan for language study starting in January. I've got too much in the way of work committments to take evening classes or join the local conversation Meetups until well into May of this year, so independent study will have to be the way to go.