About Me

I'm Phil! American living in Japan. Teacher. Ex-independent professional wrestler. Student of Japanese. Traveler. Article writer for Mythic Scribes. Also written four manga, novels, and various short stories and poems. For my fantasy-related blog, check out http://www.philipoverbyfantasy.blogspot.jp/.

Categories

Drill Bits: random thoughts, bloggy stuff
Japan Hammer: topics about Japan
Story Time: stories I felt like posting

Sunday, October 25, 2009

National Novel Writing Month and Last Months in Japan

This will be the official place for any info regarding my descent into madness that is National Novel Writing Month. I "won" last year, meaning I reached 50,000 words. The novel was kind of a Canterbury Tales of bloody fantasy, with lots of stuff going on. This year I'm trying for a little bit of everything. I'll post more once I officially begin, but I must say I'm excited for this year more than last year. Last year, I wracked my brain each day trying to muster up material. This year, there will be no lack of material because it's bursting from the seems. Lots of action. Lots of intrigue. Lots of people dying...sort of.

In other news, I'm winding down my last few months here in Japan. It's been a trying time, but I think I've grown from the experience. I'll be going on a whirlwind tour of sorts trying to visit different places before I go. So far I have planned going to Iwaki, which is a beach town about 2 hours away. Then at the beginning of November I'm heading off to historical Kyoto then later in that weak making a trip to Kamogawa, where they have Sea World. So should be a good last couple of months here.

Upon my return I'll be writing and doing little else. I'm not so much interested in "careers" anymore. I just want to do things I enjoy doing. I don't so much care about making money. As long as I have somewhere to live and some pocket change, I'll be good. We'll see what happens!

Friday, October 16, 2009

A New Frontier

Welcome to my new home on the web, I suppose. I'm a small-time writer/teacher/nomad that has been living in Japan this past year. I am primarily known for stuff I've done at The New Absurdist (the on-again, off-again strange/weird/random website for writing) and have recently been popping in and out of different forums, discussing writing and general strangeness.

I am a general fan of weird fiction primarily absurdist, bizarro, splatter, and anything that makes me laugh. My writing style changes often, but I have a restored love of fantasy fiction as well as a desire to study history a lot more than I have in the past. I used to be an independent wrestler in Mississippi for three years and I have lots of strange stories to tell on that front as well. I hope to use this blog for posting reviews of stuff I am reading, talk about what I'm writing, help promote authors I like, and talk about my experiences living in Japan.

I've recently been pushing to hopefully win the Bulwer-Lytton Award, which is an award that is received for the worst opening for a fake novel. I also plan to participate in National Novel Writing Month for the second year (I hit 50,000 last year!) and I will post my progress with that here as well.

So I hope to give reviews of books, random crap, stories about my journeys, and maybe dig up some old wrestling stories.

This will be THE blog for any information about me!

I also blog over at The Sphere sometimes, which is a good website for networking writers www.thesphere.ning.com

So stay tuned for some random crap from me!