Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki is possible the most epic manga tale I’ve read so far, with a story setting that spans multiple levels of heaven and hell as well as earth, and a complex interweaving of dozens of important characters whose pasts and motivations are pretty thoroughly explored. You might read on the back of the volumes that it’s about a brother and sister who fall in love with each other, and that does form the basis of the tale, but when they both die and are separated and must go literally through heaven and hell to find each other again, a lot of other stuff happens along the way.

I had an amazing Pandora Hearts dream last night. Since it was a dream, it only made a modicum of sense, but still, I enjoyed it immensely, especially since Xerxes Break appeared in it wearing a black dress and makeup. 

In the dream, Oz had touched a clock three years ago, and since then, everyone had been stuck looking like they had not aged since then. Break had trapped Echo in a shell, which also appeared to be a smart phone. Everyone thought he'd done it for nefarious purposes, but in fact, he was planning to use her to save the day. Once he released Echo from her trap, he encouraged her to dress in disguise and go to the town center and use some special conjuring powers she had to create a grandfather clock. Somehow, having a new clock in the town square would erase the time trouble that had ensued three years prior.

Anyhow, any dream that features Echo saving the world has got to be a good one. :)

It's been a while! I have to apologize if I haven't been responsive to your posts. See for months I was watching an extremely busy LJ comm that was filling up 95% of the bandwidth on my Friends page. Often I was so overwhelmed by it that I just didn't even go to LJ. So now that I've stopped watching that comm, I can visit my Friends page again, at least in theory.

Today I had to login to FFnet to moderate some comments (I didn't even know people could put comments on fics, or that I could moderate them, is this new?) and found a message someone sent me from last October! Gah, it reminded me that I have not written fiction in quite a while, since Heir to Rainsworth. I tell you, ever since a certain Pandora Hearts character died last year, the manga has become so darn serious, somehow, that I can't seem to rev up my usual level of crackery. That and I have been doing way too much volunteer work IRL to have much time for writing of any kind.

Although I recently was given a gift from the heavens…a few hours to myself to do absolutely nothing. And in that space of time a revelation came to me that should enable me to finally move forward on my second original fic novel. I had thought it finished, but was not getting the glowing satisfaction from reviewers that I wanted. Now I know everyone says "write for yourself" but I have higher ambitions than that. This thing is going to sparkle and sing when I get done with it. People will read it and seek a higher level of life satisfaction because of it! Ok, maybe not, but hey, I like to make up stuff, that's why I'm a fiction writer.

I recently read all twenty volumes of Angel Sanctuary and it was pretty great, but I don't feel like writing about it much. I'm currently rereading 07-Ghost and it is even better than I remembered. . I'm also reading a lot of Buddhist thought, John O'Donohue books, and listening to Joseph Campbell talks. All very good for this twisted, sad soul of mine.

Tag Game

Rule 1 - Post the rules
Rule 2 - Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then make 11 new ones.
Rule 3 - Tag up to 11 people and link them to your post.
Rule 4 - Let them know you’ve tagged them.

Many a day I come walking up to an intersection where I have to wait to cross. I look on one side of the street and think, "Maybe I'll go to that coffee shop." Then I look on the other side of the street, and think, "No, maybe I'll go to that coffee shop." I can't decide, so I let the Walk light decide for me; whichever light allows me to walk first will beckon me to one coffee shop or the other.

This is how I would like to structure the rest of my life. Making decisions based on the paths that open up to me first. It's a little like the thrill of infinite possibility, but it is everyday and forever. I can be much calmer and content living this way.