New Trials Nadeshiko Special update and Happy New Year 2023!!!

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Happy New Year 2023! Has it really been a year since I last updated this blog? I honestly have never really been glad that a year's over, but I guess 2022 has been once of those years. The first third of the year was about recovering from my own personal injury, a broken leg, then the second third was about overcoming a family illness, an even more difficult time, though things seem to have turned out all right. And the last third was a mixture of work stress, mainly dealing with bureaucracy, but also rediscovering some of the things I loved. Yes, it's the Y2K boom, and I love it. I love the turn-of-the-millenium fashion, hairstyles, shows being made about the era. I heard Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen is finally ending next year (I guess this year). I haven't really been keeping up since the anime ended, so I am very much looking forward to its end and finally a Season 2 in the anime. 

I know all of you guys are waiting for an actual New Trials main story update, but I posted a Nadeshiko special that's been sitting around for at least 10 years. It's not really the most uplifting story for the start of a new year, but when I rediscovered it, it made me sit down and reimmerse into Nadeshiko, which is why I decided to share it. I enjoy that CLAMP has been delving into Nadeshiko in the Clear Card-hen, because she really was an underexplored character in the original CCS story. Without further ado, "Angel of Death: A Nadeshiko Special" can be found at ff.net. I uploaded it as a separate story because I couldn't really figure out where to fit it in the New Trials chapters. I guess I would read it right after Chapter 70: Eye of the Dragon. 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14180025/1/New-Trials-of-Card-Captor-Sakura-Angel-of-Death-A-Nadeshiko-Special 

If you guys haven't already checked it out, please go listen to the new New Trials Audiobook narrated by the wonderfully talented Melanie Hardy (and podcast also with our Amethyst Beloved/Preya) over on YouTube @newtrialsthepodcastandaudi2890. They spent so much time planning this out and bringing it to life, and it's also one of my bucket lists seeing (hearing?) NT become an audiobook. Please do give them a like and a subscribe as well!

 

  

Also, I'd forgotten I had a cute Christmas outfit for Nendo-Sakura planned out months ago. I still love my Nendoroids very much. Thank you pandemic for letting me discover this strange adorable world of Obitsuroids. Except, Nendo-Syaoran is perpetually scowling at me (and Sakura). I know I update the blog less frequently, but I do post more often on Instagram! 

Once again, hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and wish all of you the best tidings for 2023!

Update: Chapter 73.5: The Hong Kong Encounter A Side Completed Version is up! Happy International New Trials Day 2018!

It doesn't seem like a very big update, but, New Trials Chapter 73.5: The Hong Kong Encounter -- A Side: A Birthday to Remember, the complete version is up on fanfiction.net! I added it into the previous version, so it might be confusing to find where you left off, so I recommend CTRL+F "July 13 evening" to get straight to the new part! 

When I was writing this special chapter, it was envisioned as a movie, were New Trials an anime, and I realized it's pretty long for a special, but that's becauymose, it's not really a side story per say, but envisioned as a feature film. I had been preparing more, including artwork, (and Chapter 73.5 Side B) but with work emergency situations, I didn't get as far as I intended. But I noticed on ff.net word count that New Trials is getting very close to the 2 million mark. I'm pretty sure it might pass it with the next chapter posts. It probably has passed the mark already, if you count the Kaitou Magician Origins and Legacy of the Five Force side stories. Not that length is what matters, but it will be a landmark, nonetheless, because our readers have read over 2 million words of this story! 

This one is in dedication to all the fans of New Trials and Card Captor Sakura, for celebrating the 19th year of this humble fanfiction. Happy International New Trials Day. And let's make next year, the 20th anniversary a big one! Thank your for sticking by this story for all these years and much love to you all! 

Music Spotlight:  

Akeboshi - "Haikyo no Sofa"

I feel like I haven't done a music spotlight in a long time. I've hit another one of those stumps where I've been trying to find fresh music to listen to when writing. I had to go back and dig out a lot of old music I loved as well. I've mentioned multiple times how much I love Akeboshi over the years and included "Akikaze no Uta" in the New Trials OST before. He is one of the rare artists that I own all the discography for. He's probably most famous for his Naruto endings, "Wind" and "Yellow Moon," the best songs in the franchise in my opinion. His songs has been on the NT playlist on repeat for numerous years, since the first album, because his music always puts me into a particular mood. I love both Naruto endings to pieces, but really, I love his whole albums to listen to--you know there are a lot of artists who only their singles are good, but I can listen to all of his discography on repeat over and over again without getting sick of it after all these years. I love the way he blends Japanese and English lyrics as well because he studied music in Liverpool, and I love the Celtic influence in his music as well. The best of "Haokyo no Sofa" is when he transitions seamlessly to Japanese lyrics.

If I had to choose, his first album, the eponymous "Akeboshi," will always remain my first album, but it's really hard to pick.  

Akeboshi - "Green Eyes"

This one may not be my favorite song by Akeboshi--simply because he has too many great songs, but I think the title is self-explanatory.

New Trials Chapter 73 Part 2 Updated on ff.net

Sorry, did I say in my last post Part 2 would take two weeks? I meant actually two months. At the end of Chapter 73, in my author's note, I do include a lengthy long-winding existential non-excuse. In other words, I have been working consecutive six-day weeks, sometimes seven days, this month for some reason, and I don't think my schedule is going to let up much through December, atop year-end obligations. I do love the time I do get to spend writing New Trials though, that hasn't changed in all 18 years of writing it, and I am eager to be working on new material (well, actually, when I got tired or revisions to Chapter 73, I was writing the special chapter.)

I don't I don't want to give away any spoilers, but those of you who have read Chapter 73 Part 1 may have to go back for a reread (probably necessary anyway because it's been so long since my last update) because I added back in a scene that I cut during my revision process initially to include as a flashback in Part 2. If you are too lazy to read the whole thing over again CRT+F "Wednesday," it's the scene between Tomoyo, Leiyun and Eriol that some of you were curious about and noticed was missing. I also updated a few typos pointed out by the hawk-eyed Amethyst Beloved, much thanks to her.

I planned to update this chapter for Halloween, since I think it's appropriate for Halloween, but at least you can use Thanksgiving break, those of you living in the United States. Nope, no holiday for me though.

Please check out New Trials Chapter 73: The Other Side of Midnight Part 2 over at fanfiction.net.

I can't get over how ugly my chapters looks on ff.net though. And I can't tell if that site is awfully slow, or if it's just my computer. Hopefully I get to actually update my website at wishluv.com. I'm actually a little bit scared to try to log in again.

Music spotlight:

Maaya Sakamoto's "Saigo no Kajitsu" is my favorite theme song from the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle franchise, and was the ED them to Tokyo Revelations. I'm so excited for a new Maaya song for the OP them of CCS Clear Card Arc (which I totally called), but I am a bit bummed it's not another Yoko Kanno collab.

New domain name: wishluv.com

 So, the big news is that I have now a new domain name wishluv.com--yes the day has finally come after over a dozen years or so at wishluv.revolutionhosting.net. Much thanks to Robert Arrowsmith of www.internetwebserves.net for the very smooth transition. Please remember to update your bookmarks! You will be directed to wishluv.com from my old address for the time being, I believe, but I'm not sure for how long.

I have been putting off a move for as long as possible, but it has become inevitable, especially because Robert is considering selling the revolutionhosting.net domain name. And I asked over at Yahoo Group and on this blog, and you guys agreed to stick with "wishluv" as the domain name, and I did. It's easier to type than "newtrialsofccs," for example. I know there must be some broken or outdated links here and there, so please do feel free to point them out to me, and I will eventually get around to fixing them. As you know, my main priority is New Trials and making sure all the chapter links are working.

And Chapter 70 and 71 have been updated on my website for the past couple days, as well, for those who prefer to read it on my website without the funky ff.net styling. Finally, I feel like I have completed Chapter 71. I've been happily writing Chapter 72.5 over the weekend, after finding closure to Chapter 71. Yes, why am I writing 72.5 before writing 72, I wonder. Are there any other writers who write backwards? I've been doing that over the past several chapters.

For a brief history of my website, or of the fanfiction New Trials of Card Captor Sakura, for some newer readers, I completed the first chapter in the fall of 1999, and over the next couple months submitted the first four chapters plus prelude up to some popular Card Captor Sakura fanfic websites of the day. Truthfully, I'm not sure what they were anymore, and doubt they are still online. In 2000, I grew impatient with simply submitting my chapters to fanfiction websites and wanted to have control over when and how I got to publish my chapters online. Back then, a website host called Geocities existed, and I made my first website ever at www.geocities.com/wishluv. If you ever want to know the origin story of how the username "wishluv" came about, it's because I tried a bunch of normal names at Geocities, and they were all taken up, and I finally stumbled on one that wasn't taken. And I was 13; I didn't know any better. I didn't think I would still be using it a decade and a half later. I got my website listed on anipike.com, the anime and manga catalog website of the day, and from there, New Trials grew.

Geocities, as you recall, was a pain, with limited bandwidth and ads. In 2003, Bilal from revolutionhosting.net offered me free hosting, and thus, wishluv.revolutionhosting.net was born. Till this day, I sort of wonder who Bilal is, if he ever read New Trials, how he found me in the first place. Yes, that is the sort of professional relationship we had. I made the transition from Geocities in August 2003, and it was a wise move because Geocities shut down completely in 2009; till then, I had been keeping my old address as a backup.

In 2010, to my dismay, revolutionhosting.net suddenly shut down, and I lost contact with Bilal. Till this day, he remains a mystery person to me, but I am always grateful to him for finding me and giving New Trials a home. And luckily, I was able to get in touch with Robert Arrowsmith who was originally a part of the revolutionhosting.net team, so he then continued to provide me free hosting and been very helpful in transferring all my files over to robswebsite.com, now http://internetwebservers.net/ with minimum hassle. And I've bugged him with a lot of emails over the past couple years, so I am very grateful.

And to keep amused till Chapter 72, go ahead and read a snippet of Amethyst Beloved's "The Forbidden Trials of Small Wolf & the Nefarious Thief of the Night up at fanfiction.net

P.S. I've FINALLY caught up with correspondence. I didn't realize how much I follow routine, but I really couldn't feel like I finished Chapter 71 until I had posted it up properly on my website. If you have emailed me in the past several months and have not received a response yet, please do shoot me another one at hopeluvpeace@hotmail.com. Sometimes Hotmail filters mail into the junk mail box. Emails always are the most personable, though SNS is more convenient. I love the feeling of being caught up. Before I rear off course again as I get lost into Chapter 72.

Music Spotlight:

Ikimono-Gakari's "Sakura"



An anthem to spring. I've been enjoying cherry blossom season, and also listened to the song quite frequently when writing Chapter 71: The Alliance of the Stars. Go check out the chapter on mywebsite if you haven't already!