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Pope Evaristus

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"Ah, I love being a writer!"
- Shizuku Tsukishima, Whisper of the Heart

registered at: Jul 12, 2022

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Apr 18, 2024

To:Kirb

Gonna be experimenting with multiple POVs for this one. I get my Japanese from google translate, so take it with a grain of salt, but Hiroi-kai is indeed supposed to be for "wide party" - aka, Big Tent

Urugano!

Chapter:2

Apr 18, 2024

To:Steward McOy

Glad you picked up on the Reds line - there's some stuff going on out of sight in Shikishima at the moment.

Sumiko is probably the closest to Lucille in terms of themes and struggles, but replace modern life not being like "anime" with "Imperial Germany". Both of them look past the flaws of their dream worlds - Sumiko's dream world being far, far more flawed of course, something she's gonna have to learn, hopefully not the hard way.

Urugano!

Chapter:4

Apr 18, 2024

To:Steward McOy

I think to make a history CGDCT work, it would have to be less about the history and more about the characters (a la K-On Season 2, the undisputed GOAT). Wacky hijinks in a museum, wacky hijinks dressing up in historical costumes, maybe set it in Kyoto for the history too. At least one of the characters being a fujo is a must. Now that I'm thinking about it, if I have time for a little side project this summer...

I'm experimenting with multiple POVs here, which'll be nice since as you said, we can explore different perspectives on themes that'll continue to pop up.

Urugano!

Chapter:3

Apr 18, 2024

To:Kirb

Welcome to the wonderful world of Shikishima!

Urugano!

Chapter:1

Apr 16, 2024

To:Steward McOy

You nailed all the big ones. To give you a peek behind the scenes - I usually spend very little time on names, especially Japanese ones (hence things like Shun Shunsuke from Vibrancy). I more or less hit the button in a random name generator until I find one that fits the character I have in mind.

Kano Kyoko for instance - I named her that because having characters named Ryoko/Kyoko with similar last names made me laugh more than it should've. You're right about Goto being a government-sounding name because I pulled it from some Wikipedia list of Japanese cabinet ministers.

To name the other ones because I enjoy sharing things like this:
- Yamashiro Yuki: Yamashiro is also a pre-WW2 battleship (in fact, the last battleship to fight another battleship). Yuki was named for the Haruhi character
- Turner is named for a character in William Gibson's Count Zero
- Naruto is named after a niche shonen anime, wouldn't have expected you to get it so no worries
- The floating city idea came from Bioshock Infinite (though it's seaborne here rather than airborne)

Urugano!

Chapter:2

Apr 15, 2024

To:Steward McOy

As always thanks for reading and commenting! It's been like 5 months since I last posted so glad to see you're still reading.

Regarding Shikishima's feasibility - there's a lot going on behind the scenes in the city that'll be revealed as the story goes on. As for the GL goggles, I'm glad the scene had the intended effect.

Sanada is nothing but honest to a fault. And, all things considered, she's probably the most normal character that will appear, which should let you know how this story is gonna go.

Urugano!

Chapter:1

Dec 11, 2023

To:Steward McOy

Lucille? A dramatic and unreliable narrator? Never!

The genesis for this chapter came from a recent replay of Far Cry 5 (3's my favorite, but 5's pretty good too). Lucille's worldview is limited, and the unknown is scary, especially in tough times plagued with a feeling of paranoia. Did she really stumble upon some sort of Charles Manson cult or was this just the average rural house in my college days? She's facing something unfamiliar and defaults to being scared, which isn't the best, but is also human. But the fact that's she growing beyond her limited worldview, little by little, growing pains and all, is the direction I'd like to take her character in.

I can't imagine doing California north to south. But at least you're not surrounded by Masshole drivers.

Also - thanks for your support on this. Gonna be focusing on the J Novel contest so I won't be posting for a while (hope you can still sense the autumn feeling in a chapter posted in February!). Though, I do want to write one more chapter before putting these characters on ice for a few months.

So again, thanks for always reading and commenting!

Just East of Eden

Chapter:24

Nov 29, 2023

To:K-J-Whitten

Thank you so much! I've reread Catcher in the Rye a few times and it definitely influences my writing (not enough "goddamn's" and "phonies" though). First few chapters set the scene and the wholesome romance gets sprinkled in along the way

Vibrancy x Vibrancy

Chapter:1

Nov 29, 2023

To:Steward McOy

Thanks for reading! Great analysis, though there's one more layer - Jess Blue, the in-universe kind of fictional stand-in for the MC.

This chapter does take place in-universe, because I'm sure that if there are Lucille's wanting to live in Japan, then there are Saki's wanting to live in America. And we finally have an anime in common - I'm a big fan of Gunsmith Cats. But on the whole, I agree with Saki as well - I find myself watching a lot less anime nowadays. Still love the medium, but the whole magic of cracking open a new anime is starting to lose its appeal. Comes and goes, of course.

And the timing of this chapter is deliberate - this one is about Saki's view of America. The next one is about Lucille's.

Just East of Eden

Chapter:23

Nov 27, 2023

To:Steward McOy

Glad to see your husband joining the church of Pope Evaristus 😂

You're right about fishing, it hadn't been mentioned before. Long ago, the original idea for this story would be a single narrative, but I decided it would be less pressure and easier to go for loosely-connected vignettes (which it simultaneously is and isn't). I think one of the consequences is not fully fleshing out the side characters - in a tighter story, we would've learned more about Regina in chapter 3 or 4, rather than twenty-five or so chapters in.

But after the regular craziness of Lucille's POV, it's nice to write from the perspective of someone more laidback.

Just East of Eden

Chapter:22

Nov 19, 2023

To:Steward McOy

Thanks for reading and commenting! The climax of this little arc was the chapter before this, so I wrote this chapter as a lighter epilogue to things. I always struggle with how to utilize pop culture in my writing, but for something like this, it's nice to explore the deeper meaning behind things rather than simple name drops (which I have definitely done).

Whisper of the Heart's importance to me can't be understated. Without it, there's no Web Novel Club, there's no Just East of Eden, and I might not have even picked up writing again. There's something about it that just really draws me in. One of my goals in writing is to recapture the magic I feel when watching it.

And I appreciate your concern and care. I'm doing good. I would've liked to have written more chapters for this by now, but I recently found about the J Novel contest. Goal is to catch up on this by New Year's, which I think is doable. Just need 10 days of free time for this, but life finds a way of keeping you busy (a good kind of busy, fortunately). And the toughest part about Just East of Eden is coming up with 52 different ideas for chapters - there are weeks where I go without any, and then sometimes I come up 3 or 4 in a single day. But we'll get there.

Just East of Eden

Chapter:21

Nov 16, 2023

To:Armonia

Thank you so much! Writing about their journey through the prefecture was a whole lot of fun. The Vanilla scene was based on a real life experience so I'm glad others are sharing the pain with me now

Vibrancy x Vibrancy

Chapter:5

Nov 09, 2023

To:Steward McOy

I did some self-reflection for these chapters and the smoking/drug use was a pattern that stuck out to me. On a technical level, it does serve the purpose of breaking up dialogue and stopping it from being a bunch of talking heads in a blank space. On a thematic level, I usually try to make the most emotionally-negative characters the smokers (Masako, Lucille). On the flip side, sometimes it's me just wanting to replicate how cool Cowboy Bebop makes it look. I feel like Shun straddles the line between the two. And fun fact, Masako smoking was originally just a reference to a gag in His and Her Circumstances before I decided to connect it to the larger theme.

And good point about Lucille's problems following her no matter where she ends up. That's one of the themes in Letter From Yokohama. If she had money, I could see the Japanese fantasy version of herself becoming a chain-smoking gacha whale.

Destiny Marine is more of a Royalroad thing, perhaps when the contest is over I'll post the rest of it here. Boundary Scramble was written for a Royalroad contest as well, and certainly fits in with *my* Eva fandom.

Writing is a good hobby for someone like Lucille who needs something constructive to ground her. For the first time since the story started in April, she might have finally gotten past the starting line. Only time will tell. As for the pandemic - I still remember the first days of the lockdown like it was yesterday.

And as always, thanks for reading and commenting!

Just East of Eden

Chapter:20

Nov 06, 2023

To:Steward McOy

That's an absolutely fantastic idea. Won't lie, I had very few plans for Fran, but considering I still have seven more months of writing this...won't steal your idea, because it's a good one and I never would've thought of it, but Fran might find herself making more appearances in the future

Just East of Eden

Chapter:19

Nov 06, 2023

To:Steward McOy

Thanks for reading and commenting! If you think Part 1 is meta, just wait until Part 2. And to preface this - writing has been immensely positive for me and I'm glad you've felt the same.

Regarding the separation between myself and Lucille - these two chapters were inspired by two things. First was the manga Opus by Satoshi Kon (before he made movies). It's about a mangaka being sucked into his own work. And second is the novel The Things They Carried. I haven't read it since high school but it made a huge impression me. It's presented as the "memoir" of a Vietnam vet and I distinctly remember a chapter where he visits Vietnam after the war with his young daughter. The chapter is written in such vivid, vivid detail and even describes things like his daughter's interactions with the locals. And then, when I finished and read about the book online, I found out that he didn't even have a daughter.

Those two things were the genesis for these chapters (well, there's one more, but it'll be revealed later). Some parts are real, some parts are fake, some parts are just references to pieces of media I wanted to include. That honestly goes for all of my writing. As to which parts are which, I'll leave it ambiguous, but for peace of mind, I will say that the vast majority of Lucille's problems fall into categories two and three.

I have to admit - me myself felt immensely clever renaming East Eden to Nod.

Don't know what it is, but I just can't get into fantasy as a genre. I guess I really mean high fantasy, because I'm not opposed to fantastical elements in general, but I'm into more grounded genres.

Lucille definitely has a few neutrons misfiring at this point.

And one more thing - I appreciate you being sensitive in your comment. It's very thoughtful. Anything I post is fair game to discuss. If something was too sensitive or private for me, I wouldn't post it.

And one more more thing - the expected feels trip was likely Fran and Lucille, right? I don't think I could do a story like that justice. I'm not at all familiar with the GL genre. Not that a relationship has to be based on GL, but considering this is a weeaboo writing site...

Just East of Eden

Chapter:19

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