Eva Moe

  • Gone long | Ben

    Travelers always talk about returning home to find that everything’s the same. How odd, they say (I’ve said), that you can experience so much elsewhere and upon opening that front door back home, nothing’s changed except you and your perception.

    Sometimes you’re gone a long time, though, and too much happens. Part of being in the community is physical presence, and you can lose that. And sometimes, before you even return, you know that things are not the same at all.

    Ben

    I call and we catch up
    on video chat. Your friends
    got robbed and 4th of July
    was too loud to hear the
    bonfire, and my roommate
    doesn’t eat vegetables.
    When it’s time to talk
    about our friend, the reason
    I called. Both of us loosen
    our gaze somewhere past
    the phones. He was
    doing so well, too.

  • Sluggish writing day

    Ohayo everyone,

    I didn’t write anything for my book two days ago. Allow me to make excuses. I went on one date, got a text from my former crush (who I had done considerable work moving on from), and that was all enough for me to be in my head instead of in the pages.

    Former crush? Didn’t she say she’s 31? Yes I did! I’m a lovergirl. A crush for me is like a dandelion; useful and hard to get rid of. How pretty and yellow it looks, but pull it out by anything but the full root and it’s coming right back, perhaps with even more yellow buds across your lawn. [sidenote: I dislike lawns on principle. Wasting precious land with grass? You’re joking!]

    In any case, today’s mission is to hit the 15,000 word mark and put the first 8 scenes/chapters in order. That’s only about 500 words to write and a few mouse clicks. Psh! How easy! NONSENSE!

    I’m re-ordering the scenes first, and will likely get caught up adding transitions, hyper-fixate on three words, and become very confused about the timeline of my main character. Maybe with all this, I’ll hit the word goal naturally. Or perhaps get further away. We shall see!

  • Quick break from writing

    Oh the outline, the outline! How good it looks over in the pile of today’s dust. Yes it’s been so freeing just to write again and misplace the map. It’s easier to see the road as it is, cracking naturally, with buildings I never noticed but were always there. New things came up, and now I’m filling in potholes with velvet.

    As an aside, these targeted ads are working. A mechanical keyboard does sound important. How could anyone write a book without one? I love my Lenovo dearly. True love I promise! And yet the clickety clack of a mechanical keyboard allures me.

    Maybe I’ll add a moment where one of my characters is charmed by the sound something makes. Hmm… could be velvet.

  • To Be Boring

    I’m going with the natural flow of things and that just so happens to mean accidentally following Austin Kleon’s advice. “Be boring. It’s the only way to get work done.” And I’m in quite a situation to choose ‘boring’. I’m living in Japan. I’m single. I’m by the mountains. Friends live nearby. And yet, I’m writing on a wooden desk in a rickety chair that won’t stop squeaking no matter how much a Phillips head may try.

    I’m writing a book again. How many times have I told you this by now? I started writing this just over a year ago and haven’t delved into another novel. I’m committed to this one. In it for the long haul. I decided about a month ago on a whim that this story would be a 4 book series. I shared the first chapter with family and friends and few select students who damn near begged me for it, and now it’s time to hold up my end of the bargain and come through with the rest of it.

    Sure, I’ll be back in the US in two months with no plan, but I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it. Until then, I bid you adieu and wish you other writers luck in finishing your projects.

    Eva

  • cue

    Someone else heard this buzzing and called it a B flat.
    Someone else heard Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
    and I still did not come to you. I heard be the juice and
    chose apple. I heard a tuning fork and harmonized hum
    hum hum     god the sound of my voice was blue as sky.
    blue blue blue as sky. Someone else knew how to swim
    like a kite and still be tethered to the ground.
    Someone else was

    the ground and the quick callous on the finger from
    the string. A sharp line. Someone else was the wind
    twirling like a warm-up, an arpeggio clear as a flute.
    As a B flat, as a summoning, as a come to me, as an
    I told you my name, please hear it please hear it.
    Someone else heard this buzzing and knew it
    right away and knew
    what to do with it.

  • Parallel

    Playing the violin again
    I don’t know who I am with it
    Do I not seem like it
    Has it left me
    Are the two of us together
    Strange and
    Incompatible?

  • Kurama Watches Hiei [poem]

    Yu Yu Hakusho inspired poem. Fanfic poetry? What will end up on this blog next?

    Kurama Watches Hiei

    Something about it being April
    While my friend 
    So quietly stares at the ocean 
    Like it’s a library
    His back to me. 
    One hand shoots black fire into the sky
    It falls like newspaper 
    To torch the sea 
    Scorch his arm.
    I want to tell him come here 
    Let me rinse you forever.
    I hear him laugh at this, 
    or squish his eyebrows together.
    If you can squish your eyebrows together 
    What can you do with your ears?
    Hear what my arms want 
    with your whole body
    Your head
    Rest it on my flowerbed.

  • 3 book thoughts halfway through 3/3

    These are thoughts I have while reading books. Halfway through or in the beginning.

    • “Me Before You” by Jojo Moyes: There’s not a single likable character in this whole book, yet somehow I’m still reading.
    • “The Tradition” by Jericho Brown: Reading poetry is the only time I’m not afraid to die.
    • “Wind/Pinball” by Haruki Murakami: Now THIS is a f*ckin BOOK. Is it necessary to describe every single woman’s boobs though?

  • 2/23/21 + short story: time travel romance

    I’ve got like 30 pages of fanfiction and there’s no sex yet. I think I’m doing it wrong. Anyway I think ONLY of time travel. Do not bother me with other thoughts! I’m reading a lot of manga. So far only Yu Yu Hakusho and My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia but the latter is so popular in the digital library that I’m reading them completely out of order. Volume 8 was first, then 6, and 12 is now available. Please don’t spoil either of these stories!

    I started reading Haruki Murakami’s “Wind/Pinball” and halfway through I was like “that’s it, I know what I have to do” so I put the book down and have thought about picking it back up the past few days. How fascinating!

    There was a novel in the works about a school for psychics but I got stuck writing it because everyone knows what’s on the test and my MC was too powerful but so very boring. You ever write a book and can’t put a plot in because everyone’s too nice? Now I’m into time travel (meme: two astronauts in space, one gazes at the earth and asks “You’re into time travel?” and the other astronaut floats behind him with a gun to the guy’s head and says “always was”) & fanfic and don’t have energy for these psychics!

    first draft story about time travel romance – I’m trying to write more casually. Getting caught up in being literary makes my writing stiff.

    Since the aftermath of the disastrous party, Lilac couldn’t bring herself to go back to the coffee shop, because he might be there. He looked just like her former unrequited love. Well, just the outfit. Tell me, how does a woman so strong and charming end up chasing after the only men who are most difficult to break through?
    Expert Michele Tiery (her expertise is in being a best friend) speculates she’s after The Chase. She’s after the feeling of winning a difficult battle.
    Oh, there’s a handsome man who rarely smiles and won’t open up his heart? Well well well! Looks like a job for Lilac Valentine!
    Lilac Valentine loves playing games with these men. All she’s after is their pure spirit to leak through, to bubble up to the surface, creating a ripple effect in their lives. And then, like a sexy Nanny McPhee, she leaves. Why stay when the jig is up? Most of them end up being shitty anyway.
    A long time ago, however, there was one man who she chased. Caught. And couldn’t let go of.
    He was a skilled swordsman, a half human half bird who wore nothing but black and white. Making out was a little troubling, as he had a beak. But that was all right with her.
    In the end, Lilac realized the bird man pulled the very same trick on her as she had with so many others. But they fell in love together. They made tea, ate bugs (mostly him), watched television. Tried to build flat pack furniture. And then one day, she accidentally stepped into the future, leaving everyone she ever loved behind.
    The future was mostly glass, grass, and ass pottery barns. Not the store, actual barns for pottery.
    In this new time, how would Lilac Valentine utilize her skills at cat and mouse romance to force life itself to chase her? For lost time to catch up?
    She was out of ideas. How could she flirt with adventure? How could she tell jokes and make the mountains laugh? And most challenging of all. How would she learn to love life itself again?
    No love interested her. No man, no woman. No cuties.
    She wandered through her new city, her new time. What’s a girl to do when she’s thrust into the far future with no job, no friends, no family? [author’s note: lol burn notice]
    Lilac goes for a cup of coffee everyday and writes everything down. Spends her whole day catching up on the last few hundred years of music and culture. And everyday, there’s another regular she runs into. Waves hello most times.
    Today she didn’t wave hello. Just a head nod. Catching on that the interactions were getting less personal, he had to do something.
    “Hey,” he said. “What’s your name?”
    He wore only black and white. What’s this guy’s deal? What is he, some type of minimalist?
    “Lilac Valentine. I’m not from around here.”
    “I’m Leif. I’m not from around here either.”
    “Where are you from?”
    “I’m from the future. It’s weird living so far in the past. None of the music I like has been born yet. I guess you could call me an aspiring fan.”
    “Oh really? I’m from the past. Everyone I ever loved is dead. And the music I like was written so long ago, nobody remembers it.”
    “Wow, we’re really a match huh!” he said with a smile, rubbing the back of his neck, which was free from feathers. “Wanna sit at the same table for coffee tomorrow?”
    And so they agreed to meet the next morning. They talked about music, about culture, how much has changed, how weird it is to be the only two time travelers in the city, how the online groups for time travelers are never reliable because the longest ones only live for a hundred years or so.
    Life as an accidental time traveler is tricky. Everyone’s moving and going. You never know when someone’s going to stay or leave. Every day could be your last.

  • Scribble and fill digital art

    Ever since I had access to computers with Paint installed, I’ve made these little scribble and fill digital paintings. All you do is open whatever art app you have (this was in Procreate), pick a utensil, and scribble! Then fill the shapes with whatever colors you want.

    I thought my custom myspace backgrounds were hot honey.

    I love making them because it’s sort of mindless and I often get something that looks cool, even if the edges end up fuzzy and flawed. It’s a fun way to play with new color palettes, as well as learning the program you’re working with. I also do these on paper sometimes.

    color pencil on a sketchbook page

    I hope you’re finding ways to have fun during quarantine!
    Talk to you soon,
    Eva