This is your brain. This is your brain in a heat wave. Any questions?

The good: Almost finished the first draft of Gay Tibetan Martial Artists; should be able to finish it today.

The bad: Forgot to move my car, got $50 street-cleaning ticket.

The ugly: Still hot.

This is your brain. This is your brain in a heat wave. Any questions?

The good: Almost finished the first draft of Gay Tibetan Martial Artists; should be able to finish it today.

The bad: Forgot to move my car, got $50 street-cleaning ticket.

The ugly: Still hot.

Things I learned or have been reminded of while writing my lastest manga

1. I suck at titles, which is why I still have nothing to call it other than "Gay Tibetan Martial Artists."

2. The research that gives me the biggest headache will be the research that I end up not including. (Medieval naming conventions for Hindu royalty in Kerala-- I ended up just using a given name.) I was also unable to include anything about the very interesting matrilineal system of inheritance used by some castes, nor the names of any of the weapons.

3. Despite careful counting and the necessity of knowing which pages face each other, I am still capable of writing "page 20" twice, thereby throwing off the entire thing.

4. That scene in In the Line of Fire where Clint Eastwood and Renee Russo take off their weapons before having sex made a big impression on me.

5. Marital and martial arts present very similar problems in writing, namely, what body part is interacting with what other body part, and how the characters physically get from one set of interactions to the next. They are both essentially exercises in theatrical blocking.

ETA: In manga or other visual media, I should say. It's perfectly possible to write a sex scene in prose in which no parts are ever named. I imagine this would be more difficult but still possible in a sparring scene.

6. All my major characters always end up with very unhappy childhoods, very unusual and isolating childhoods, or something awful happens to them before they turn twenty. Or all of the above.

7. Every manga should have a chicken.

Things I learned or have been reminded of while writing my lastest manga

1. I suck at titles, which is why I still have nothing to call it other than "Gay Tibetan Martial Artists."

2. The research that gives me the biggest headache will be the research that I end up not including. (Medieval naming conventions for Hindu royalty in Kerala-- I ended up just using a given name.) I was also unable to include anything about the very interesting matrilineal system of inheritance used by some castes, nor the names of any of the weapons.

3. Despite careful counting and the necessity of knowing which pages face each other, I am still capable of writing "page 20" twice, thereby throwing off the entire thing.

4. That scene in In the Line of Fire where Clint Eastwood and Renee Russo take off their weapons before having sex made a big impression on me.

5. Marital and martial arts present very similar problems in writing, namely, what body part is interacting with what other body part, and how the characters physically get from one set of interactions to the next. They are both essentially exercises in theatrical blocking.

ETA: In manga or other visual media, I should say. It's perfectly possible to write a sex scene in prose in which no parts are ever named. I imagine this would be more difficult but still possible in a sparring scene.

6. All my major characters always end up with very unhappy childhoods, very unusual and isolating childhoods, or something awful happens to them before they turn twenty. Or all of the above.

7. Every manga should have a chicken.