New Trials Chapter 69: The Betrayal

New Trials Chapter 69: The Betrayal is up at my website! Many apologies for the long delay.

I have mentioned in my chapter endnote that this chapter was the most difficult one to write to date. Those of you you have already read the chapter probably understand why it was so difficult to complete it. I'm almost scared to check my hotmail inbox (which sadly I haven't been able to check in months--I do not like the new layout). But on the brighter side, hopefully the next two chapters will be out quicker since Chapter 70 is 70% done and I've also worked on Chapter 71 already. 

I feel like I am always giving excuses on why it's taken so long to update a new chapter (which you guys know are the size of a moderate-length YA novel.) But you guys have been so understanding and supportive, which I am utterly grateful for, so I though I might give a brief run through of life.

This is my take two on this blog post-I was finished with a very long update on my life and my internet crashed on me literally as I typed in my last sentence which irritates me exceedingly. And I thought blogspot was supposed to save interim drafts?

So, as I may have mentioned before, I work in journalism which is a very time-consuming, exhausting profession which leaves me little time for hobby-writing. My poor fingers are exhausted at the end of the day. But anyhow, I was aiming to get this chapter up for Sakura's birthday but in March, I changed beats hence work got hectic. May, my Sony VAIO driver crashed, and I took the my laptop to the A/S center in my country. They told me I had to get the whole thing reformatted, and I told them, the whole reason I brought my laptop to pro technicians was so that they can fix it--I can reformat the computer myself at home if I want to. So, I had to say bye-bye to three-years worth of files and programs. Actually, I did manage to save most of my important files onto an external harddrive. But it was a pain to install programs all over again and I kept delaying the process of transferring files throughout the rest of the month. Needless to say, I am very sad that I have so few songs on my computer at the moment. I need good BGM to write. Also, I am not liking Microsoft Word 2010. 

Flashback to several months ago, I was asked by a close sister-like to be a bridesmaid for her June wedding. She's Korean, he's Chinese-American, and they had a beautiful garden wedding albeit chaotic. It was a very international wedding, and her other bridesmaids were coming from abroad, and I was busy running about interpreting for the guests. Funny story, it was so hot during the ceremony outside that I almost fainted from heatstroke. The interpreter just made the whole process very slow, and I hadn't eaten or drunk anything all day because it had been so hectic. I began to see white spots, and I kept telling myself I could not faint and ruin the wedding. I almost tripped as we made it back down aisle but thank goodness for the groomsman--I wouldn't have been able to walk in the straight line otherwise. Lesson of the day: eat and drink before big events. 

July was the busiest month ever because I was working on a feature series, people were gone for holidays so we had to write an extra article a day, and it was so hot my brain worked twice as slow. Sorry Syaoran, but it was a horrid month, and I'm glad it's over. 

The song the Tomoyo sings in Chapter 69 is "I Do" by Ilaria Graziano and composed by of course Yoko Kanno, a part of the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex OST. I was surprised to realize that there actually was a Yoko Kanno song that I didn't know, but recently I listened to an amazing cover of the song by Rasmus Faber (in his Platina Jazz ~Anime Standards Vol.4 album), which might even be better than the original version. It had been a long time since a song captivated me and low and behold, it was Yoko Kanno's song. 

Some notes on the recent chapter that are not too spoilery. First, I was scouring the CCS Movie 1 to figure out where Syaoran lived. The CCS crew went up the tram to Victoria's Peak and then the next scene panned to Syaoran's mansion. Victoria's Peak is one of the most expensive real estate neighborhoods in the world. Yes, Syao-chan has just been that humble all along. Second, I really didn't care much for Erika in Arc 1 but she's grown on me over the arcs. Jinyu also was a sideline character, but it was fun seeing what his personality was like for the first time. Thirdly, oh my goodness, is it really the 15th anniversary of CCS? I'm very excited about all the pretty new CCS artwork I've been catching glimpses of.