Just to make sure people who don’t check Twitter and the other sites where I drip-feed information can stay at least somewhat up-to-date, here’s some progress on what I’ve been working on since August:
Continue reading “February 2022 Progress Update”A Few Old Shireishi Sketches
I was refreshing my memory about some plot points in Shireishi to prepare for some other projects in the works when I recalled having a number of sketches of scenes and characters from that story. See, originally Shireishi was planned as a comic, so almost every major character had a design. Even after it was turned into a novel/short story series, each story was planned to have its own cover and some were planned to have insert art as well. Since I still have some of the sketches, I figured I’d share some of the more interesting ones that were nearly complete.
(Some potential spoilers for Shireishi below.)
Continue reading “A Few Old Shireishi Sketches”“Weather the Storm” Lyrics [Flowering Nightshade]
When Flowering Nightshade’s version 7 released a little over a month ago, the side story “Storm on Your Peace” closes on the first performance of the eponymous band’s debut song, which is mentioned as being named “Weather the Storm”. While the lyrics aren’t mentioned in the script, they were actually written during the process of developing the story. So, for those interested in what was being sung, I’ve decided to post the lyrics to “Weather the Storm”.
Note: I’m not fluent in Japanese, so the lyrics are entirely in English. For now, I’ll probably leave it up to the imagination whether this is the actual song being sung or a “translation” of the Japanese lyrics being sung.
Warning: The song’s lyrics and the notes about their meaning contain spoilers for the Flowering Nightshade story “Storm on Your Peace”.
Continue reading ““Weather the Storm” Lyrics [Flowering Nightshade]”April 2021 Progress Update
It’s been a little while since I posted a status update on my projects, so here’s a quick rundown on some of the things I’ve been working on over the past few months:
Continue reading “April 2021 Progress Update”CPD2: The Dragon Mask – Story Summary
Since I was reminded of the Corpse Party D2 series recently, I figured it might be interesting to post a summary of the game that was never finished: The Dragon Mask. While a part of me hopes that I can properly finish it one day, it’s been years since I’ve worked on it seriously. To that end, I decided to write up a little summary of the main story beats so that those who followed the series can see what the game might have looked like. I also ended up writing a set of notes about the game to explain some of the details that don’t come across in a summary, so hopefully those are interesting as well.
Continue reading “CPD2: The Dragon Mask – Story Summary”The Red-Haired Maiden Released!
The Red-Haired Maiden is now available for purchase on Amazon Kindle! The book can be found here.
The island of Kigenishi is a land divided. Daimyo warlords feud over the civilized lands, while those in the frontier northern lands keep an eye out for foreign invaders.
In one corner of this divided world, a girl with deep red hair was found and raised at a remote wayshrine. As she grew into adulthood, Mizuyo became known not only for her unusual hair, but also her beautiful face and alluring voice.
When it is discovered that Mizuyo’s songs can summon forth divine magic, the resulting conflict sends her on a journey beyond her comfortable life at the shrine. Mizuyo and her friends find themselves beyond the bounds of the society they knew, and must adapt quickly to life on the run…
The Red-Haired Maiden is a fantasy and coming-of-age novel consisting of a series of short stories. It takes place in a world loosely based on the Sengoku Era and Asian folklore. The story focuses on Mizuyo, a young woman whose life is upended by the endless conflict of her homeland, as she tries to find her place in the world.
I hope people enjoy the book!
Recent History of Kigenishi
With The Red-Haired Maiden going into its final revision checks, I figured I should make at least one more blog post setting up information for the book. However, I realized that a lot of what I was going to write could potentially be spoilers for the book, so I wasn’t sure where to go next for a post. I ended up deciding on following the theme of introducing the setting by going into a bit more detail about some of the history, at least in broad strokes.
Note: While a good deal of the information in this post is implied in the background of the book, some of the details are not entirely set in stone. As such, some of the specifics may be subject to change in the future.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the most recent historical eras in Kigenishi, in relation to The Red-Haired Maiden:
Continue reading “Recent History of Kigenishi”Two Development Teasers
While my primary focus for major projects to release this year is on finalizing The Red-Haired Maiden and getting back to working on Kiku and Orino’s routes for Flowering Nightshade, there have been some other projects that I’ve been planning and/or prototyping. Their releases are still a ways off compared to the former two, but I figured it might be okay to reveal the titles and basic premises of these stories to see what people think of them.
Continue reading “Two Development Teasers”Welcome to Kigenishi
With the announcement of The Red-Haired Maiden, I thought it could be interesting to write one or more posts about the setting and characters of the story. I think the best way to start would be to introduce the setting: Kigenishi [起源石].
Kigenishi is a fantasy setting loosely based on Sengoku Japan. It is a large island that is home to many small nations, most of them controlled by a daimyo warlord. In the era when The Red-Haired Maiden takes place, most of these nations are almost constantly at war with one another. Because of this, most of Kigenishi is known as the “contested lands” except for settlements on the edge of the northern wilderness. In addition to these mortal concerns, there are numerous spirits and semi-mortal yokai that live in Kigenishi, some of them revered as deities.
Some of the details could probably be a whole post to themselves, so for now I’ll start with some of the basics:
Continue reading “Welcome to Kigenishi”The Red-Haired Maiden Reveal
I feel like it may be time to announce a book that has been in development for a while: The Red-Haired Maiden. This story is not set in the Nightshade universe, but is instead set in the world of Kigenishi. Here’s the current draft of the “back cover” description:
The island of Kigenishi is a land divided. Daimyo warlords feud over the civilized lands, while those in the frontier northern lands keep an eye out for foreign invaders.
In one corner of this divided world, a girl with deep red hair was found and raised in a remote wayshrine. As she grew into adulthood, Mizuyo became known for her beautiful face and singing voice.
When it is discovered that Mizuyo’s voice can summon forth divine magic, the resulting conflict sends her on a journey beyond her comfortable life at the shrine. Mizuyo and her friends find themselves beyond the bounds of the society they knew, and must adapt quickly to life on the run…
The Red-Haired Maiden is a fantasy e-book with elements of adventure and Bildungsroman (coming-of-age story). It is set in Kigenishi, a fantasy world that is loosely based on the Sengoku Era of Japan and elements of Japanese mythology. The book focuses on Mizuyo and her friends in a series of short stories, each story being an arc in the overall narrative of Mizuyo finding her place in the world.
There’s been a lot of work put into the setting, beyond what is directly seen in the stories, so I hope that this detail shows in the final book. It’s possible that a second book about Mizuyo could be written, or perhaps stories about other characters from Kigenishi. Because this background information can be a big part of the overall feel of the setting, I’m also considering writing a few blog posts about Kigenishi and the development of The Red-Haired Maiden. These posts introducing the setting will probably come out before the release of the book, to prepare for the release. (Although some may be held back if they would contain spoilers.)
I’ve really liked working on this story, and I believe it’s the first original fantasy story that I’ve finished. I hope others will enjoy the story too, when it comes out. There isn’t a set release window yet, but my ideal release schedule would be sometime before the end of the year; we’ll have to see how the revision cycle goes before I come up with a date. At any rate, I hope people look forward to it!
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