Welcome back to the blog! We are officially in the hotter months of the year which means it's time for as much summertime fun as possible before the rainy season comes again. But before you head off to the beach or go on a picnic, make sure to read our updates and recommendation below. Have fun!
Ann Updates
At the moment, I'm revising the third half of our Fantasy Romance novel. The original ending seems okay, but I think it could be more satisfying with a bit of tweaking. Not sure yet when that tweaking will happen, though, because some complicated editing requests came in last week. And since they'll require almost all of my attention, I can only devote one hour a day to focus on the manuscript. Such is the life of a freelancer, I guess.
On the bright side, I managed to submit a story for our writing group's monthly Write-A-Thon. It's a short piece (<500 words), but it was fun to write. If you'd like to read it even though it's not Romance-centric, you can check it out at Booksie.
Click the cover image above to proceed to the short story.
As for the Fairy Tale retellings, they'll be coming out on the same site this May. I'll try to add links to their downloadable versions in our June newsletter. So if you haven't signed up yet, make sure to add your email address to our Ann's Newsletter mailing list. Lastly, as promised, here's a pic of our adorable kittens from when they were newly born:
They're doing well so far, and they're very rambunctious when they're not asleep. The two orange ones are male and the the tortoise-shell one is female, as expected. Not sure if I'll give more updates about them in the future since I'm always busy, but we'll see.
Ann Recommends
We're adding another anime recommendation to our monthly entries, and that's because this one has a great storyline and story beats. I came into this series blind but was moved by its themes in the end. At first, I thought that Irina: the Vampire Cosmonaut was just another run-of-the-mill, half-Fantasy, half-Mecha series with fanservice. I'm glad to say that it's actually more serious and romantic than I gave it credit for. This light novel turned anime adaptation by Keisuke Makino illustrates the importance of achieving one's dreams and having the right attitude + right relationships to reach it.
Courtesy of MyAnimeList. I do not own the rights to this image. It was added as supplementary material for information and critique purposes.
It centers around the circumstances of lieutenant Lev Leps and vampire Irina Luminesk as they face the prejudice and discrimination that permeates their cosmonaut training environment. Without going into too much detail, I'll say that the chemistry between them was solid enough to make any viewer root for their relationship, whatever it may come to. It makes use of metaphorical interactions in a way that transcends traditional romantic gestures such as chocolates and flowers.
If you have the time, I insist that you give this show a try.
Once again, we've come to the end of our blog post. Thank you so much for sticking with me through this long dry spell of novels. Slowing down has been a big adjustment, but it's been very helpful with improving my writing techniques. Thank you for always checking in. I hope to see you at next month's updates.