How does a month simultaneously fly and crawl past? It feels like forever since I’ve last posted, but also: in the blink of an eye, I find myself smack in the (almost) middle of February.

First things first! I’m still using the weekly planner I was talking about in my last post, and I’ve still been writing almost every day (hurray for small achievements! 💃). Managed to finish Part 7, Scene 2 last week, then got stuck on the next scene until yesterday, when I finally figured out how I want to proceed with the scene. (Was originally torn between several options for how things could go.) Now let’s see if I can finish the scene next week.

Other than writing, my new shirts also came in near the end of January. Remember that “Creatures in Kyoto” sticker I designed in December – the one depicting three of my Creatures (Rapihi the mythical dragon, Brûlée the hoppy toucan, and Mudda the anxious Clodsire) and was inspired by my trip to Kyoto? My partner said he wanted it on a shirt, so I did up a quick alternate design sent both in for printing.

Pictured: the alternate design. Not sure why I don’t have a photo of the normal design.

(And yes, that’s Mudda in the picture! I love how soft and huggable he is, and my partner and I have given him a strangely anxious personality – inspired by the fact that, when we were in Japan, we saw a post on social media about the exact same Clodsire plushie being abandoned outside a convenience store. That, combined with the fact that we had to stuff the creature into our suitcase where he stayed for hours alone and in the dark, helped with his “character development”. Now, Mudda has become a clingy creature who doesn’t like to be left alone and enjoys being wrapped in a nice comfy blanket so he feels safe.)

It’s also been Lunar New Year season, so I’ve been eating… a lot. (I’m celebrating the Chinese version, which lasts 15 days, so I’m still eating.)

Yum. It’s been a lovely time of celebrations and meet-ups with family. My weighing scale isn’t happy, though – I’ve been trying to lose some weight before my business trip (because the last time I saw those people was 2 years and about 12kg ago and I want to get back in shape before I have to see them again) and all this food isn’t helping. I have, however, stuck to my (western) New Year’s resolution of working out more every week, so that’s one thing that’s going for me.

Right before the festivities, I also managed to get my hands on a hardcover edition of Rebecca Yarros’s newly-released book, Onyx Storm – the third book in the Empyrean series! I didn’t preorder it beforehand, and it seemed to be sold out everywhere by the time I got around to it, so I thought it might be ages before I could get a copy. I checked a few local bookstores as well, and only ever saw it listed as “sold out”. On a whim, I decided to email one of the bigger bookstores to ask if/when it might be in stock, and it turned out their “sold out” label was a complete lie, because they replied saying they’d reserve a copy for me and I could go down to pick it up immediately.

…And so I did! It came with a cool little patch.

I finished the book in record time once I got around to starting it (12 hours, to be exact) and now I need the next book asap. 😭 The curse of following a series as it’s being written and released… Oh well. Without getting into spoilers, I predicted some plot points, but didn’t see the final bit coming. Probably should have, though. Can’t wait to see where it goes!

And with that one book, I’ve matched the number of books I read all of last year. 😂 In my defence, I read a lot of visual novels last year, which fulfilled my reading quota was the main reason my TBR pile grew into a mini tower. I have at least twelve books I want to finish this year sitting on my shelves (all books I got from my Illumicrate book boxes, because otherwise I tend to read eBooks), so that shall be my reading challenge for this year.

(On the left: books I’ve finished. Middle and right: books I’m planning to finish… hopefully, soon.)

I have a plan to balance the visual novels I’m eyeing with these books this year, so I don’t end up only doing one or the other. I’m going to alternate between the two – I finished two visual novels early this year, then got around to reading Onyx Storm, and now I’m back on another visual novel. Once I finish this, I’ll pick a book to read before I go back to yet another visual novel. This means a lot of reading through various mediums – can’t complain about that!

Oh, I’ve also joined StoryGraph, so… feel free to add me on there if you want. I’ve also been quietly trying out some other new social media platforms – still seeing how that goes. I do like having my own little corner in some spaces of the Internet where I can yell into the void about my writing and creative plans. I’m still on Instagram the most, but it’s nice to explore new platforms once in a while.

Finally, something else I’ve been working on (very slowly but surely) is the revamp of this website. This is going to take a while, since I’m still not quite sure what I want to put on here. But I’ve made some changes to the landing page, so – check it out! because why not?