I'm back in Japan. The flight was long but relatively painless (thanks to JAL's incredibly dedicated and uber-friendly agents and cabin attendants!), and Hero Material and I arrived home a little after 10:00 p.m. yesterday.

Hero Material's secretary had come by before our arrival and turned on the air conditioner. :wub: We were grateful since it was ridiculously hot and humid. She also left our hamsters in our living room. So we got to greet our little critters. Yay!

But bad thing is…my cell phone is more or less useless now. Well, I get my calls and stuff — I think — but for whatever reason, its memory went bad, and I lost my contact list. That means I can't call anyone because I don't know their number. Argh! (Hero Material tells me that back before they had cell phones people actually used to remember their friends' phone numbers, but I don't believe it.)

This morning I got woken up by a sound car blasting some candidate's names over and over again: “Vote for me! Don't forget my name XYZ! Vote for me! Don't forget my name XYZ!” Believe it or not, creating ungodly amount of noise pollution from 8:00 a.m. on Saturday (and every other day of the week) is how they conduct political campaigns in Japan.

Now I know I'm truly back.

Since August 16, I've written over sixty pages. That's a good thing. Today was hard particularly because I was tired — sleep-deprived from cat allergy, traveling, packing, etc. — and the part I was working on felt wrong and I had to stop to think it over. The blocked scene is entirely from the hero's POV, but I'm still not getting any sense of his voice or character yet. Another thing is that I'm waffling between 1st person present POV and 3nd person past POV. I'm hoping to figure it out before I finish this draft.

I'm leaving the States tomorrow, bright and early, and I plan to work on the project on my flight to Japan. Can't wait to see everyone in Japan again, including my hamsters! :)

The man is incredible.

I'm planning to do fast draft for my WIP 1st draft. Basically this is how it works for those of you who've never done fast draft before.

You write 20 manuscript pages* a day for 14 days. That's it. That's your fast draft. (For the math-impaired, you'll end up with a 280 page manuscript, which is about 70k, assuming that each page has 250 words.)

I'm going to start on August 15 and giving myself an extra day since I'm flying to Asia during that time. Anyone interested?

If so, comment here or tweet me @nadialee. I'm going to post my progress, etc. using #writegoal and #fastdraft.

* I use Courier 12 double-spaced, 25 lines per page.

Confidence is the weirdest thing ever. When I was in my early twenties, I was a size 4 but could never wear a bikini because I was too embarrassed at how “huge” I looked. (Because I was not a size 2…I know, I know…misguided youth!) I'm bigger now, but got myself a bikini anyway in a color I like. Figured life is too short to worry about a little bulge here and there so long as my bloodwork looks good (and it does; the doc joked that maybe I should eat more junk food or something). Besides, if anyone mocks the way I look in my new bikini, I can always feature him/her as a villain and/or a weasel in one of my stories.

Interestingly, not giving a damn about what other people think gives me more confidence and a sense of liberation. I'm not sure why I wasted so much of my youth worrying about fitting in. Guess it was just part of the growing up process.

On the writing front, I started the first draft of my new WIP. Much to May's surprise, I'm pantsing this draft. I've never really pantsed. Everything I've written had a clear outline, but I figured why not? Maybe I'll do better this way. I'll never know unless I try.

Oh BTW — Amazon is selling Altec Lansing UHP336 earphones for less than $40 which I think is a great price. I love the clarity and the beautiful sound. I can hear everything, every little base note, the cellos, etc. (I'm a very aural person, and I love listening to music when I write, etc.) The only bad thing is that it highlighted how inadequate iPods are for playing music. The earphone is very sensitive so it picks up every hiss, etc. from your audio unit (should you have a crappy one), and iPods produce the worst static and hiss. (Naturally, you won't notice anything if you use the meh “earbuds” that come with your iPods.) What a disappointment. iPod Touch was the worst even if the wifi off. So if I want to listen to music on it, I'm stuck with earbuds.

P.S. I googled the problem, thinking that maybe it was just my earphones, but actually a lot of audiophiles have noticed the same issue. *sigh*

I'm still in the States (hence the very sporadic Twitter updates and blog posts).

Since my last post, I went to NYC and met Agent. She was delightful, witty and absolutely wonderful, just as I imagined. :) I enjoyed our time together, and the meeting got me even more pumped up about my next project.

The next day, Hero Material and I hit MoMA. I know many people love modern art, but I decided it's not for me after the visit. I still don't get it, and I don't think I ever will.

After our MoMA tour, we went to MA to see Hero Material's extended family. They're lovely people, and their farm house was really cool. (I've never been at an American farm before.) They raise Black Angus, totally organic and grass-fed, and the cows looked so content, ambling around their emerald green fields. While in MA, I also got to meet Bethany, a member of my former crit group. I told her that next year's RWA is in NYC, so she should go if she finishes her ms by June. NY is so close to where she is. (I'd love to go to RWA next year — if I can — as well…)

Right now I'm in NH, surrounded by tall trees that love to dance with the wind. I've never been up in northern New England before, and I love the natural surroundings and cool summer. And of course, there's the oddity of my being the minority again. ;)

Hero Material and I are heading back to Virginia early next week for dinner with friends and so on. And I'm still not done with shopping.

How's everyone's summer? :)