Hello, I'm Alive

As I should be.

I quit my job. Yes, the job I've dreamed of having since graduation. Well, I had it and let go of it, which is totally fine. I've gathered a lot of experience and memories in a short span of time, so I really don't regret anything. I'm going to talk about this in detail in another post. The semester is over, but I remain buried in work--marking exams and final papers, computing grades. It's insane how laborious a teacher's job is. And yet, we get paid a measly sum for all our efforts. Teachers are fucking undervalued.

I haven't written in so long. Work has kept me busy and so has my relationship, although I've only seen my boyfriend once since I last wrote on this blog. This, too, will be saved for another entry.

In September, my short novel, Home, was published. It's in digital format, but a book is a book, so there we go. I'm a published author now, I guess. It's been a month since its release but everything still feels so surreal to me. See, I've always wanted to be published, but never actually believed it would happen. I guess this self-doubt will always shadow me, so let's leave it at that.

So, anyway, I present to you my first book, ladies and gents.

Photo taken by me. Cover designed by Adam David.

I want to talk about Home for a bit, while I'm in the mood.

Home was originally fan fiction. I wrote it when I was nineteen and obsessed with the Japanese band Alice Nine, particularly with the lead guitarist, Hiroto. At first, all I wrote was slash, being a fujoshi and all. And then I saw a few fans writing het, so I decided to give it a try. Home was my first non-slash fanfic. I had a decent number of readers then (on LiveJournal, if you're wondering), and Home got good responses, so I decided to write more. I never finished it though. That's the trouble with me. I'm always so excited to start something, but never quite finish anything. This applies not only to writing, but to other areas of my life as well.

So, there. That was how Home came about. I'm a little embarrassed when I'm reminded of how obsessed I was with Hiroto, but that was what made this book possible!

I always tell people that Home is just a simple story of two people falling in love and all that, but I guess that's its charm? I'm not sure. A few of my friends have bought and read it, so have a couple of my Japanese students in RareJob. One of them, Misako, wrote a review on her blog and posted it, too, on Amazon. I cried when I read what she wrote, because my biggest worry was that I may have inaccurately written about Japan and the Japanese.

That's it, I guess. I don't know how the sales are doing, but I'm not really worried about that. Haha. All that matters is that it was published. I'm a published writer (even if I'm still not comfortable calling myself one. And mind you, this isn't false humility).

I recently started running. Sort of. I have this app on my iPhone called Zombies, Run! which makes running super fun because it lets you imagine you're in a zombie apocalypse! I don't understand my own fascination for the undead. But, really, if you're into zombies as well, you must try this. It's fun and it does what it should. It keeps you running! Or walking, if you're like me. I can't run just yet. I have to alternately walk and run, otherwise I'd faint. Right now, I'm using the Zombies, Run! 5K Training app, hoping that by the time I finish all workouts, I'm all set to run using the main app.

I also started doing the 30 Day Shred. I hope I can finish it this time, since I quit after four or five days the last time. Being out of work gives me time to do all the things I haven't been able to do, like exercising and taking photos and drawing. Hopefully, I could do them all again. Of course, I have to get a job eventually, but, to be completely honest, I have no definite plans as of yet. Que sera, sera.