November Writing Challenge '26, day 1

 So, trying the whole "write 50,000 words in November" thing again.  Going it on my own, using the blog to keep track.

This time, I'm putting everything I write in one big file for convenience (and then copy-pasting into other files as needed if I write anything on pre-existing works)

Currently counting both planning text and the actual text as I start a new project that is a Dracula-style vampire in ancient China.

Current word count is 3910 (though only 1173 of those are the actual story)

We'll see how this new way of handling the challenge works out, I guess.

Reading Record 43

 I was gonna wait until tomorrow morning to post, but I am not quite tired enough to sleep yet, so...

Finished reading Dracula by Bram Stoker tonight.

Not a lot to say since I've read it three or four times before.  Though it might be fun to someday do as I've heard of others doing and reading it in "real time," which is to say reading each segment on the day it happens.  It would mean reading some bits out of order, but... 🤷🏻‍♀️

Anyway...

Um.

Half an hour to midnight.  I should be trying to sleep, not to write a blog post.  😅

Original language:  English

Reading Record 42

 So, I just finished rereading volume five of Mo Dao Zu Shi (English title Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, which completes the novel!  😁

Naturally, volume five (despite being the longest volume) is the fastest read, because the quite long incense burner bonus story is...uh...well...cursed.  I like the introductory materials for each section--especially the first part, where we get insight into the recurring dreams of the two leads--but as soon as the story gets to its intended 'subject matter' then I skip ahead because...*shudder*...

Anyway.

Hmm.

What else was I gonna say?

Dang.

I am distracted by my impending dentist appointment, I guess.

If I remember what else I wanted to say, I can always add it back in later.

Original language:  Chinese

Reading Record 41

 So, I just finished rereading volume four of Mo Dao Zu Shi (English title Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.

Ah, volume four.  Some of the best moments--the final and most exciting drunk Lan Wangji episode, especially--and all of the worst--namely, the tragic spiral that ends the flashbacks leading up to the death that started the novel.

But I have now gotten through it and can move on to the final confrontation, the happy ending, and the bonus stories...though of course some of the bonus stories are only half-reads, 'cause some of them contain some of the most cursed sex in all the fiction I've ever read.  😰  (Reminds me why I am so super-glad that MXTX opted not to include any sex scenes in Heaven Official's Blessing!)

Anyway, all that lies ahead in volume five, after which I will have a whiplash moment as I move on to reread Dracula.  😅  But you just gotta respect the classics around Halloween, right?

Original language:  Chinese

Reading Record 40

 Hmm...did my numbering go off at some point?  I could swear I already had 40 pass by earlier... 🤔

Oh well.  Anyway, I just finished rereading volume three of Mo Dao Zu Shi (English title Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.

This is really taking way too long, but then again I am constantly stopping to take two different sets of notes, so that's probably why...?

I'm trying to think...I feel like there was some thought that had occurred to me during this volume that I wanted to mention, only now I'm not sure what it was.

I mean, I know I realized suddenly that pretty much everyone (not just me, but everyone in charge of the various adaptations) gets the Jin Clan's uniforms wrong, but that wasn't it.  It was something that I was thinking yesterday or the day before about posting about, but now I don't remember what it was.  😭

Anyway, it's lunch time and I'm hungry, so post over.

Original language:  Chinese

Reading Record 39

 So, today I finished rereading volume two of Mo Dao Zu Shi (English title Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.

I now understand why I had forgotten about the massive, slammed-together chapters:  they only did that in the first volume, so the remaining volumes have more manageable chapter divisions for those who, like me, prefer to stop reading at the end of a chapter whenever possible.  (They must have gotten a lot of complaints after the first volume hit the market...)

Took far fewer notes on things I wanted to check if they were changed or fixed in the hardback.  Not sure if that means there actually were fewer problems or if it was just that I was more caught up in the story.  😅  (Some things were genuine errors, though, like one time it said "Xicheng" instead of "Xichen."  (Humorously, "Xicheng" is actually a ship name for that character.  It's a pretty popular ship, afaik, despite that the two characters have no really major interactions, and that Lan Xichen has two much more plausible, built-in potential love interests...though they both end up dead, so maybe that's why some people ship him with Jiang Cheng, despite that Jiang Cheng is the most deeply hetero character in the whole novel.  (Uh, possibly excluding Jin Guangshan.))

Anyway, not much to say since I've read it so many times before, lol!

Original language:  Chinese

Reading Record 38

 So, today I finished rereading volume one of Mo Dao Zu Shi (English title Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.

Took me a little longer to read than it should have, because I kept setting the book down to take notes.  Two kinds of notes, in fact:  some of them were general notes on details I might want to consult later for fanfic purposes, while the other was for a stranger purpose.  Specifically, I wanted to keep a list of things to check if they were fixed/changed in the fancy hardback release.  (So far, I haven't checked most of them, but I can at least confirm that the hardback's prologue fixed the error where it said "Burial Mound" instead of "Burial Mounds.")

One thing I'd forgotten since the last time I read this--surprising that I managed to forget it so fast since I last read it in January of last year!--was how artificially long the chapters are!  One of them was almost 100 pages long!  For some reason, the English editors decided to combine a bunch of the original online chapters, usually at least four, but that one chapter was made up of seven of them!

Another weird thing is that there are still things I was getting wrong in my MDZS fanfic, even though this is the fifth time I'm reading the book!

Maybe I just don't read as carefully as I used to?

Original language:  Chinese