At 7000 words and growing, TE10 simply had to be split in two chapters, regardless of how determined I had been to keep the novella at 10 chapters in order to match アリス九號.’s GRACE album. Instead, the 11 chapters represent the fact that GRACE was released in November, as well as reminding me of the lives I went to that same month, experiencing the whole album (most especially Grace and 界) for myself in person. A truly unforgettable experience that influenced the ending of the novella. I got so much inspiration from seeing and hearing the band rock out live, and most especially from seeing Saga play so soulfully and then relax and have a damn good time during classic, high-energy songs.
I’m so glad I went.
In other words: TE10 has now been released, and TE11’s release will follow in the next week or two!
I added some music into this 10th chapter as well, but I’m no songwriter, so it’s very rudimentary; I was just trying to improvise things during the recording and editing out the bits that sounded too rough afterward. Scout was an immense help during the editing process before bed last night: he provided ambient cuteness and kept my pillow warm while I sat at my dressing table and worked!
This project has really tested the limits of my writing abilities and I wanted to give up several times so I’m glad I saw it through. Regardless of what the reception is, writing this helped me process a lot of things that were in my subconscious — that were stuck there — and for that alone, it’s been worth it.
Though I hope that others who come across the novella will be moved by it too, in their own way.
The new chapter 10, which I chose to name Birth of a Language, makes reference to my 2018 poem Mitosis, expounds on a 2017 short story I wrote under a different penname, and fills in some background for the novel I’m working on. The new chapter 11, retaining its original name In/Out Ad Infinitum, is where everything… ends? begins? returns?
Hmm.
You choose.