Boyfriend of Steel

This year gives us a new resolution to finish the project that was started in 2007 when I first started writing the story that was to become Blue Rose. Despite setbacks the effort is beginning to payoff and now at the beginning of 2012 we are progressing to complete the project at the end of the year.

As of today (2012.1.1) the first of three sections of Story #3 is being written. The rough draft of Section A will be complete probably around the end of January, and a final draft by March. Unlike the last two stories, this one will publish early in serial format, so I can build up readership as I work on the next two sections.

I expect to complete the second part by late spring, and the third part by fall, with an expectation that the entire Story #3 will be completely published by December 2012.  This is the last of the three stories I am writing for Evangelion, and afterwars I will shift the focus to original fiction.

I expect to post on the blog more frequently this year, with updates on the writing project as well as on Evangelion itself, and if time permits (which it probably won't) I'll try to work on additional content, which may be analysis of Evangelion or other personal observations.

Please stay tuned: the best is yet to come.

A new year has given us new info from Studio Khara on the upcoming Evangelion films.

* The third Rebuild of EVA film will be entitled You Can (Not) Redo.  The announced release date is Fall 2012 (no actual date set). There is absolutely no other info about the new film other than the two teasers they've released since 2.0 has come out.

* The fourth and final Rebuld of EVA film (as of now still untitled) is announced for 2013. Original plans for this film was for it be released concurrently with 3.0, but with different release dates that now seems unlikely.

We EVA fans are, of course, kept waiting anxiously for the third film after the amazing 2.0. It's going to be a long year.

The re-edited version of Blue Rose 2 is now posted. About 15% of the total content was cut out, mostly involving the more military stuff in the story and also a subplot involving Tokyo-2 that's not really relevant. The core of the story, including all of the sequences with all of the pilots, is intact.

I'll probably re-post the story on FFN and other other boards sometime next year as I begin work on #3. I'm actually considering stitching all three together into one major story, which would require reworking #1 again, but I'll probably not do it. In any case enjoy

After several months on a self-imposed hiatus, the Blue Rose project is back on-line again. My main critic Haru gave me a detailed run-down on what worked and what didn't for Blue Rose 2 and some edits will be in order to the story. Those edits should be posted to this site and to FFN by the end of the month). 

The majority of the changes will excise the more "military" aspects of the story, reducing sections that probably are more suitable for something written by Dale Brown than for an Evangelion FanFic.  The core of the story was well received, however, and remains intact. She especially liked the action sequences so that was encouraging.

Following the re-editing of BR2 I will revisit the outline of BR3 and cut down the scope a bit. Haru gave me several ideas on how to focus the story better and we'll take that approach to the finale. I expect that BR3 will be at least as long as BR2 and I won't see a completion until the end of 2012 (with a target completion date of Dec 20,2012, so at least if the world ends I'll have my story done :D)

Due to increasing demans from work and also from a desire to spend more time with my family, I am going on a hiatus from writing EVA fan fiction at this moment.

Originally there were plans on a third story for Blue Rose. However, response from story #2 was muted: while it got a fair amount of traffic on FFN, there were no actual reviews posted which to me indicates a lack of impact. I need to determine what went wrong here.

In any case this is a critical time for my family and at this moment I'll put the FanFics to rest for now. Hopefully I can pick it up again if conditions change, but probably not until at least after this Summer.

If you do stumble along this website, please give these stories a good try. They represent a major effort on my part to increase the quality of the available FanFiction for Evangelion. If you are looking for one or two very good stories that are true to the characters and themes in EVA, and something that doesn't look like every other time-twisting, romance-slashing, Mary Sue bizzare crossover fanfict you bump into on the web,you've at least come to the right place. Please enjoy!

Sacrifices of the Heart is not completely uploaded to this site, along with accompaning graphics. While I expect to try and get more commission art in the next few months, the story itself is set.

Also, the final chapter posts on FFN today, and will post at Darkscribes and EvaMade by the end of the month.

I'm very happy it's done, and have started progress already on the third and final story.

Funimation is putting out EVA 2.22 in selected theatres starting tomorrow. If you want to see EVA in it's wide screen glory, now's your chance!

The BD and DVD releases will be available in April. I bought the Hong Kong BD release when it was available last May, so I proudly own my copy.

If you haven't seen the second rebuild film yet and if you're not too far away from one of the theatres you should definately go. The release will be subbed with original Japanese audio (my preferred format) so you'll hear the original voice cast. This is an EVA like none other so go check it out!

Today is the day I sign off on Blue Rose #2. While there may still be some tweaks for grammar, etc. I have finalized the draft and created a final version of the story. As I did with the first story, there was a name change at the last minute: Sacrifices of the Heart. I did this largely as there was another EVA fanfic entitled Redemption that I didn't want to conflict with. As it is I'm happy with the new title.

Starting this week I will roll out the story chapter by chapter here, as well as on fanfiction.net, darkscribes.com, and evamade.net. It's at about 26 chapters, so it will take the rest of 2010 to publish the story on the various sites.

I've also started on #3, and I am moving ahead at a fairly brisk clip.  #3 is the largest of the stories, and will probably budget at about 175,000 words, which makes it epic, if I don't cut down a bit. Unlike #1 and #2, story #3 is intended to be read in a serial form, due to its length, so I will slowly release the story throughout all of 2011.

I took my time polishing this one: it was actually completed in rough form in early June, but I gave it beta readers and then started to work on the tweaks around August.  The story itself is set within End of Evangelion, which presented a significant challenge while writing to try to capture EoEs epic feel while at the same time spining my own story and then setting up the next one.

Story #3 is, in fact, the story that I've wanted to write since I started on Blue Rose. For those looking for a true sequel to EVA that is satisfying and helpful in filling in the gaps left for us in the original show, while at the same time going in a new, fresh direction, this is the one. Hopefully I can satisfy expectations (incluidng my own) with the new story.

Today is my birthday and it was supposed to be the day Blue Rose #2 rolled out. However Haru is still working on edits and it's twice as long as Blue Rose #1, so this is still taking a while. I'll be happy if I can get it out there by September.

Got some good response when story #1 was re-edited and reposted on FFN, and hopefully that will progress to a good response on story #2. I will roll the story out in stages, chapter by chapter, on FFN and Darkscribes, as well as on this site.

Also have more fan art on the way, probably two more pics, within the month.

I've done a rewrite of Chapter 1, mostly to smooth it out. Chapter 1 was the very first thing I wrote for the story, and the original version reflected me at my earlier skill level. I was never really happy with it and felt it needed some serious tweaking, especially after seeing some readers drop off the story at FFN.  As a result of the changes I think it flows better, and the character's actions make a bit more sense.  Anyway, it's up on the site and I'll start modifying the story whereever else its posted.

A couple of other notes, one is that there could be some more commission art for the story coming this Fall. Will post when that's more complete. The other is that the final beta read of Story #2 is finally in progress so we could see this online in September. Later than I planned but that's fine.