April's challenges

En français
So the month of April is coming and it's going to be really really busy. I intend to participate to two contests that I will describe in this post and I also intend to continue writing my third novel "Demon and fairy".
So what are those new challenges I'm giving to myself and what are they all about ?
The first one is Script Frenzy and the second is the International L2 Reading Contest.

Script Frenzy

For Script Frenzy I will write 100 pages movie script. I already prepare my story, meaning by that I know the beginning in the end. It will be a love ghost story. We will find some of the characters present in "Demon Soul" and "Attic mirror" as some part of the story will be taking place in the usual house where the previous characters and the new one live.
I'm not planing on giving you the script in pieces. Script seems to be a lot different to write than a novel as they need a lot of formatting. I'm not really sure I will be able to cut it into scenes and to finish the story in just 100 pages. So I will probably write it all and edit it before giving you a chance to read it. How ever I will tell you how things are going regularly and if i managed to write my weekly 25 pages, something like that as well as little summary of the story.

International L2 Reading Contest

For the International L2 Reading Contest I will read as much pages in Japanese as possible. You can read in any foreign language as you want but as I'm currently living in Japan and learning Japanese, I think it's a great opportunity to improve. I don't think I will make it in the first 5 to win however as my knowledge of the Japanese writing system is not yet optimum. If everything goes as planed I should be able to finish Heisig RTK in 12 days, also I forgot all the kana I already learned and will need to go back to it. But I still can hope, I'm a polyphasic after all so it's at time like that that it can make things turn out to my advantage.

What do I intend to read ?

Harry Potter in Japanese

I have it as a printed book so that will help when I get tired for reading on screen. Also I'm way slower at reading on screen. Another advantage is that the Kanjis have furigana the first time they appear which will help me get through learning their pronunciation.

花ざかりの君たちへ (Hana Kimi)
Reading manga with a lot of picture is going to help me increasing the number of pages faster (I still need to read 10 pages of manga to have it counted as 1 page of normal text)
Also that will help me relax a little from page of text where I won't seem to be understanding anything at first.

あのときの王子くん
I will read the little prince as an audio book (audio books list). The text is written for children and then full of hiragana which worries me a little. But having the audio as well will help be go through it and learn the kanas more easily, or so I hope.


ジーキル博士とハイド氏の怪事件
I'm not too sure about that one I think I need a book with more kanji to be able to read by meaning more than by sound. It also comes from the same audio books list. So I think this one is going to be good for that, however I can still find something different in the list. Another good point about it is that I already read it in English so that will help a bit.

America : Walk in Chicago

En français

At the end of the conference, I went back to Chigaco for a week. I was staying with three different couch surfers.
I already hosted people with Sebastien but that was the first time for one of us to be hosted. I made my demands through his account as I don't have one myself.
I didn't do much on the day of going back, just tried to figure out where my first host was and we went to the restaurant with one of her friend.
The next day I took a walk in Chicago in the same area I went on my first night there and in the museum area. It was sunny and nice, that was a good change from Belfast.
Travel table of content

"Demon and fairy" part 1

I started to work on a new novel few days ago. It can be seen as the sequel of Demon Soul, except that Sahel and Brownie are not the main characters anymore. In the new ending of Demon Soul which is not publish here. Sahel is not the only one to fight at the school. The demons that we met in the school, Taram and Torin are present too with their family and especially Seti. At the very end when Sahel left to see Brownie, Seti as already left in an other direction. In this new novel we are following him.
All Novels Draft

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To part 2 New Challenge JulNoWriMo



 

Attic Mirror : Epilogue

I wanted to write a bit more for Attic Mirror. Something that would explain a bit the situation of David and show the future of our characters a little. That can also be seen as an opportunity for a sequel and a way to link an other novel I have in mind to this story, a bit more. I think that you have already noticed that Demon Soul and Attic Mirror are linked and so it will be for several novels I have in mind, planned or even started to write already. This mean much much more for you to read will come soon and a new challenge will start on the first of April. It will be of a different kind however, I'll let you the surprise for the moment.
Enjoy reading this little epilogue.
All Novels Draft

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America : Kalamazoo

En français
This is a post for my travel in America for a conference in Kalamazoo that took place in July 22 to 28 2009.
After the conference I spend a week more visiting Chicago. The first post for this chapter of the travel section can be find here. During the week-end of the conference I spend my time visiting Kalamazoo and going to the festival "the taste of Kalamazoo" where I tasted delicious Malaysian food. I also visited a free museum about America in the sixties and earlier, which had some science sections where kids were doing experiments and a section about Japan.

Yes in the museum I also took the catbus and met Totoro.

Travel table of content

"Attic Mirror", end

So last night I was at work on Attic Mirror again. The end seemed so close that I really wanted to write regularly to get to it as soon as possible. I didn't really imagine that I was that close to the end and that I was going to finish that night. I stayed at home on purpose to be away of internet to be able to work more on my writing and on my kanjis. I also find it easier not to oversleep on the 4am nap (I'm polyphasic again) when I'm concentrating on some writing or reading during the time before and that my computer is just ready to use.
So I did my kanjis first and then started to write. I wrote until 4.30am, went to bed and got up at 5am when I started to write again. At 6.30am, the novel was finished with 4959 words more.
I'll probably have to increase the size of some scenes in the book during the editting process but I'm pretty happy with the result so far.
I'll have to start working on a new writing project pretty soon because I already miss my characters.
All Novels Draft 

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Epilogue
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Peru : Last day in Peru

En français
For our last day in Peru, we decided to go to Pachacamac which is an archeological site in the south of Lima. We knew which buses we needed to take to go there. What we didn't know is that it's absolutely huge and that once again we were going to get kind of lost.
We took several buses to get there, hopefully the people in the bus were really helpful, telling us when to get down and which was the next buses to take.
We arrived a bit further than Pachacamac archeological site to go to a place where we were suppose to see horses first. But it was a Sunday and everything was closed. We continued to walk anyway and cross the panamerican road to go to the Pacific ocean. There were a lot of birds there and big waves.
Then we turned back to the archeological site and visited the temple of the sun. I was very lucky because I could enter for free with my expired student card.
  Travel table of content

"Attic Mirror", part 11

So last night I was on polyphasic sleep again. I got back to it for almost two weeks now I guess, maybe more, I don't remember really my notion of time is a bit confused at the moment. Anyway last night I started to write this new part of Attic Mirror and I really hope that you will enjoy it. I really want to finish before the end of the month because I will be starting a new challenge on the first of April, but I'll tell you all about it in due time. So you can be expecting to see a lot more coming during the week, except if I oversleep but I'll try not to.
For the moment I'll let you enjoy the novel.
All Novels Draft 

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Forward to part 12
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Peru : Back to Lima

En français
We went back to Lima the next day. It took us about a day to get there and we went to the same host again.
She had an other couch surfer at that time which was pretty cool.
The next day, we were trying to go somewhere (I don't remember where exactly) but we didn't managed to and ended up walking in the city center of Lima again and in a park. That was funny to see Christmas decorations in the middle of the summer.
In the evening we had a couch surfing party which was, my first couch surfing party. Too bad that my Spanish was really and still is really limited.

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Peru : Cuzco's archeological sites

En français 
We spend the next day sleeping, we just went out for dinner and walking was kind of painful. Funny how we always need an extremely sportive day during our holidays.
The next day we decided to go visit the different archeological sites around Cuzco. We took a bus tour for that, which is the only bus tour we had ever taken during our trip but that was still cool.
The tour started in the Inca Museum which is a colonial mansion build on the old Qorikancha Inca temple of the sun.
We then went to Sacsahuamán  the Temple of thunder which belong to UNESCO World Heritage. The guide explained us that the local theory of the construction of the temple is that the Inca moved stones from far away and where using some vegetation substance to shape the stones to have them fit perfectly. However those plants are nowhere to be found. The scientists think that the stone have never been move.
When the Spanish conquistadors arrived they thought that the temple was a fortress and decided to fight with their guns against the Inca's arrow. They obviously won and decided to show their power by forbidding to remove the corpses of the dead from where they had fallen. That's why the field is call as well, "the place where the condors are satisfied."
We then went to Pacaritambo on Tambotoco Hill, where a water for long life is always pouring. The legend says that there is a lake in the cave behind. 
We then went to Q'enco which is a sort of tomb where the Inca were proceeding to sacrifices.
 Travel table of content