Thanksgiving Time Capsule

I was looking through some posts from Thanksgivings past to see what I had written and make sure I wasn't going to repeat myself and I thought it was pretty cool that a few of them reminded me about stuff that was happening at the time, like last year when I was really into this song. So I figured this year I'd just make little notes about what's currently going on so that when I read this post in future years I'll be like, "Oh hey yeah, that was a thing."

The Seattle Seahawks are currently 6-4 and tied for first place in the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers. The Denver Broncos, who owe the Seahawks their 1st and 2nd round draft choices in next year's draft courtesy of this trade, are 3-7. Will these trends continue? I don't know, that's not the point of this post. And also, I don't want to jinx anything.

I've not only finished the first draft of Volume Seven, I've also just completed a read-through in which I incorporated all the revisions I wanted to make. Now I think I'll let it sit, untouched and un-looked at, for at least 3 weeks or so before I do another read-through.

I just finished Season 2 of Warrior Nun and Part 2 of Inside Job, both on Netflix. Hurry and make more.

The Spring Suite of Four-D is in the can and awaiting mixing.

Anxiously waiting to see how the Mariners are going to address their offseason needs. Maybe Benintendi or Yoshida for left field, Wong or Torres for second base, and Senga for the rotation? I don't know why, but I have a funny feeling I'll be reading this post in the future and seeing that my ideas were completely different from what actually took place.

Anime currently watching: Spy x Family, My Hero Academia (so good), Demon Slayer (newer stuff finally out on Hulu), Romantic Killer

Lunch rotation is largely the same as in March, except the green tea has been replaced by hibiscus tea, the tuna is now the flavored type (Thai chili or lemon pepper), and for some reason Fred Meyer has been out of the 32 oz. bag of precut broccoli florets for some time now so I've had to make do with the "vegetable medley" option. How hard can it be to cut and wash enough broccoli to fill those bags? Then again, I guess I could do it myself, but I'm too lazy, and for whatever reason it tastes better when they do it.

I have a first draft of a novella adapted from the screenplay for Try Again Tomorrow (fka Jinx), the baseball-adjacent rom-com starring April Hayashi and Lydia Sanchez, which I tried working on last week but just felt stuck for whatever reason. Maybe I'll go back to it now that I'm letting Volume Seven simmer for a while. Or maybe not.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!

Neko Nihiki (Two Cats) Cat-us Update

Doing just fine, thanks.

Album Four Status Update

In the last Album Four Status Update post from July of last year, I said "We're trying to push the timeline so that we can get the album - along with, hopefully, the accompanying novelette and card game - out by May/June 2022."

Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha hahaha!

Obviously, that didn't happen.

What did happen was we ("we" meaning my band, Second Player Score) got sidetracked with "The Fear" (cover art below, Spotify link here) and Beer & Ramen, and also of course I was quite occupied with Volumes Six and Seven of the Joel Suzuki series.

But I'm glad to say that today and tomorrow we are back in the studio, finally laying down tracks for the Spring Suite of Four-D. The songs are titled "Fourth Quarter Comeback," "Divide and Conquer," "Battle Royale," and "Everything's Fine."

As for the novelette and card game, I don't think the former is going to happen any time soon (I finally settled on what I believe is the story outline, but at this point I think I want to save the project for later), but the card game is back on and is in process. Will we get it and the Summer Suite done in time for a Summer '23 release? Stay tuned!

Volume Seven Status Update

IT IS DONE.

The first draft, anyway.

It's clocking in at 90,000 words (360 pages), right on target with my outline and tied with Volume Six as the longest installment in the Joel Suzuki series. Which makes sense, given that it's the final volume in the main seven-book story arc and is sort of the second half of a duology made up of the previous book and this one.

It's hard to believe that just four months ago, I was less than halfway done at 42,000 words. Despite my being busy with a lot of other projects (including the launch of the aforementioned Volume Six), the manuscript really started to gain momentum once I got into the third act, and there were times when I just couldn't stop writing - in fact, I broke my record for daily word count many times over.

As I neared the end, it was a strange feeling to be writing the scenes that had been in my head in some form or another for the last ten years or so. Even though I didn't quite know exactly how I was going to get there, I always had a pretty clear vision for what the climactic moments were going to be. It was like I was reaching the conclusion of my own epic journey right alongside Joel.

Anyway, as with all previous first drafts, I'm going to let this one sit and cool off for a while before returning to it for edits and revisions (I already know there are some parts that need fixing up). The odd thing is that this time, I don't have a subsequent volume to work on in the meantime (well, I sort of do, but not really), so I guess I'll just have to turn my attention to other parts of the SPS-Verse, including the recording of the Spring Suite for Four-D, which will take place next week.

Until then!