How do you spell relief? 1st draft finished

I just finished the first draft of a 30K-word novella. It’s taken about eight months to finish this draft, even though this was a story near and dear to my heart. I kept getting stuck, mostly on how to get from where I was to the next section that had already written. I had put it aside and worked on other things, going back when the itch got too much for me.

Now it gets put on the back burner to simmer for a while. After the flavors have mixed and melded and the scents have wafted around a … more

Review: Summer Wars (anime)

I’ll probably have to class this as a near-future SciFi film, although the focus is on the importance of family.

Summer Wars (2009) tells the story of Kenji Koiso, a math prodigy and junior at Kuonji High School. He is invited to the country for four days by a senior, Natsuki Shinohara, to celebrate her great-grandmother’s 90th birthday.

It is not until he is introduced that he finds out he is supposed to be Natsuki’s fiancé. At first he is unwilling, but Natsuki convinces him it is only for four days. That first night, Kenji receives an email with an … more