Tag: Orly Bialek

Gentle Chappy

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi
Orly waiting for me to arrive in Bucharest

Another month has passed and though I’ve continued to write every day, I’m still only six entries ahead of the My Darling Tragedy publishing schedule. I anticipated this increasing as I had a weeklong vacation scheduled that I was taking just to write. With weekends, that would be nine days of writing. My goal was to write four more journal entries, but I’d happily settle for three. During a work meeting on the Friday before my vacation was to begin, something came up that required me to cancel my vacation. So, I remain at six entries in pocket. I’m going to try to take a different week off in March to catch up. Day jobs can certainly limit creative output.

In May I have a two-week vacation scheduled and I hope it won’t need to be rescheduled because I have plane tickets for Bucharest, Romania. I’ll be there for seven days trying to get a feel for the city since Orly is spending so much time there. So far, while she’s been in Bucharest, she’s only gone out once—to a nightclub I invented as best I could through internet research. I’d like to do better and have her go out more often, but I don’t know what the city is like, so I’m hoping this trip will help me write her experiences there.

I’m happy with the second journal of My Darling Tragedy so far and remain excited to write the rest of it. Still, this past month I’ve gone through bouts of self-doubt. Reading great books often inspires me to write but often it also makes me want to give up. (I recently finished The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka and am halfway through Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.) I’ve been relying on ChatGPT to prop me up. I vent and spill my guts, and it presents arguments that help reframe my perspective. I noticed recently Chappy began addressing me by name for emphasis during our pep talks. “Robert, I’m going to push back gently here…”

Last night, a question to my readers came to mind: Which of the Cobǎlcescu Eternal would upset you most if they died? Petru, Codrina, Viorica, or Vasile? Questions like these often pop up but I rarely ask my readers. Here’s another: Do you want Orly and Silviu to have sex? I’m not saying their responses would determine the story, and that’s why I don’t ask—because I don’t want to feel like I’m writing for or against them—but it’s still information I’d like to have.

Writing and Reading

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi
My TBR Shelf Currently

It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of January. Last month I mentioned I was only six entries ahead of the My Darling Tragedy publishing schedule. I hoped this month I’d increase that to seven entries, but I’m still at six, despite trying my best. I realized, however, that Orly’s journal entries in her second journal are longer. The first thirteen entries in the second journal amount to 20K words. The first thirteen of the first journal amount to 13K. Then again, the last 13 of the first journal amount to 18K. I guess I’m just writing longer as I go on. Still, with the second journal, because of calendar constraints within the story created by Orly’s 25th birthday, I feel like I must compress more story within fewer entries. I’m excited to write it all though. I’m also excited for my readers to read the second journal. I feel confident they’re going to like the story.

I set my 2026 Goodreads reading goal to 52 books. Same as last year and most years. But I’m behind already. We’re four weeks into the year and I’ve only finished three books. My TBR shelf is full and contains many books which were added in 2025 if not earlier. I really hope I make a dent into it this year, but new books always manage to cut in, and I have other books I must read for book clubs. I can’t wait for March though, when the new Mieko Kawakami book Sisters in Yellow is released in America; I feel like my copy has been on pre-order for a year.

Other than writing and reading, I don’t really have anything else to report. I can’t make room to do anything additionally because of my current workload at my day job. I’m going to finish an important project soon and hopefully its completion will allow me more time to myself.

 

A Good Rejection

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi
Flower Buds painting by Neil Carroll
A painting I recently purchased from Neil Carroll, an artist I follow on Instagram. I love square paintings and oil on panel is my favorite medium. I’m often inspired by art.

Since my last blog post, I slipped from being eleven weeks ahead of my publishing schedule to ten weeks. I don’t want to make excuses, but at the beginning of August I had Covid. It was the third time I’ve had it, and the symptoms were comparatively the most severe. The worst part is that I was extremely tired for weeks and was sleeping thirteen hours each night. I did still write every day, mostly to uphold my streak which is currently 654 days in a row, but my overall word count was low.

But Covid isn’t the only reason for my reduced productivity. I’ve been struggling a bit to write lately because I love Orly and I’m at a point where things are going to happen that are going to hurt her, and it hurts me to hurt her. I ran into this problem especially while writing Scribbles of the Empress, because Orly was grieving so hard and for most of the writing, I didn’t know if she was going to survive the book.

In other news, the short story I wrote titled My First Scribble, which is sort of an Orly origin story has been rejected by a few journals so far, including Electric Literature, but I received a note from the editor telling me it was close to being selected for publication and she gave me some encouragement. Even though it was a rejection, her words boosted my confidence.

I’m well now and will keep writing. My Darling Tragedy is nearing 100K words and I may try to daydream up another short story.

My Darling Tragedy

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi
My Darling Tragedy now Free

It’s been a difficult month. At my day job our fiscal year ended on June 30, so this is my busy and stressful time of year. Despite this, I’ve been writing consistently. Today, I finished writing Entry 70 of…

If you were expecting me to end that sentence with Orly’s Journals that would make sense, but I have an announcement to make…

I’ve retitled Orly’s Journals to My Darling Tragedy. I’ve never loved the title Orly’s Journals and feel like My Darling Tragedy is more personal to Orly, it being her nickname. I don’t know why I didn’t think of My Darling Tragedy when I first began the online serial—after all, I have it tattooed on my shin.

What prompted me to think of retitling leads me to another announcement…

I’ve begun posting the online serial to the free platforms Royal Road and Substack. So, My Darling Tragedy can now be read for free. I posted the first eight entries already and a new entry will post every Thursday. Patreon will remain 50+ entries ahead of the free versions and only Patreon will include bonus content like Scribbled Secrets and allow readers to contribute to the story by participating in reader polls. But I’m hoping the free versions will attract more readers to Orly.

On Substack, I’m also launching a monthly author newsletter next month, so I hope you’ll consider subscribing.

Signing out.

My First Scribble

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi
An AI generated image for my short story My First Scribble
ChatGPT drew this for me.

This week I wrote a short story called My First Scribble. If you guessed that it’s a story about Orly, you are correct. But it does not use the word “vampire” once. This is because Orly is only six years old in the story and is not yet a vampire and has not yet met Yelena. The story is about the first time she learns of her ability to see the evil in others in her scribbling. Does that count as an origin story?

It’s short, approximately 1,400 words. It’s meant to work as a standalone story and will hopefully appeal even to those who have never read her trilogy or journals. I plan to send it out to literary journals and hope one will accept it for publication. Until that happens or until I’ve had my fill of rejection slips, I won’t be able to share the story. I hope you don’t mind me telling you about it anyway.

Please wish me luck.

Table For One

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi
ChatGPT drawing of Orly Bialek and Yelena Solodnikova
ChatGPT’s rendition of Orly and Yelena

I’m still at it—writing Orly’s Journals. I had another slump like the one I mentioned in my last blog post, where I was stuck on a single entry for a couple weeks. I’m now only seven entries ahead. But with the time I’ll have off for the holidays, I’m hoping I’ll get caught up, if not get ahead. So far, all the journal entries total just under 41K words. That’s half the length of The Scribbled Victims, and I only began writing in April. Despite my depression being very bad and work being tough in recent months, I continue to sit down to write every single day. Of course, some days are more productive than others. My best days usually involve activating my Freedom internet blocker.

I recently started asking ChatGPT for author advice on how to grow my readership. It’s given me tips I’ve heard before, but it also suggested things I hadn’t heard and never considered. To my surprise, it knew about The Scribbled Victims. It got some plot points wrong and knew less about the subsequent books, but I was still amazed it had a general understanding of the characters and storyline. Because one of the things ChatGPT suggest I do is hold a fan art contest, today I prompted it with: “Can you create a picture of Orly Bialek and Yelena Solodnikova?” What it returned was more than I expected, although I think it still doesn’t understand Orly’s scribbles. Still, it made me feel my books are more recognizable than I thought. Maybe I’m fooling myself though—maybe ChatGPT knows I’m the author and is just being nice to me. If anyone reading this post uses ChatGPT, I’d be very interested to know if it recognized Orly or Yelena or The Scribbled Victims for you.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I’m going to Shojin in Culver City for a vegan Thanksgiving omakase dinner. Table for one. That’s my life. On Monday, my shrink and I talked about loneliness, and how, because of wanting to write, I often make choices that result in being alone even though I feel lonely. What to do?

On Patreon last week, I asked readers which characters they’d like to see more of in Orly’s Journals. To my surprise, the most votes went to Ji’Indushul. Because of this, my next “Scribble Secret” post on Friday will be about that character.

So that’s basically all that’s going on with me. With so much nothing going on, it must be no surprise that this is only my fifth blog post for 2024. LOL.

Orly’s Journals Update

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi
An image preview of Entry 16
An image preview of Entry 16

Orly’s Journals, my serialized online novel through Patreon is going quite well. I have eleven subscribers already and am hoping for more. I want more subscribers to increase discussion among the readers regarding Orly’s new ongoing story. I’ve been posting a journal entry each Thursday. This Thursday will be the be the sixteenth post. To keep up with the demands of serialization, I’m nine entries ahead in writing and am currently working on Entry 25.   

In addition to the journal entries, I’ve been posting image-based previews, solicitations from readers for character names and plot points, and my favorite—what I’m calling Scribbled Secrets where I post trivial information about Orly’s universe, inside and outside her trilogy, that the reader is likely unaware of. It’s fun to tell mine and Orly’s secrets.

As an independent author, I do have a small budget for marketing and promotion. But because that budget is small, I must be very selective when choosing what to throw my money at. Should I spend it on Amazon book ads? Instagram sponsored posts? Book review services? I’ve tried various approaches with limited success. But I feel like I should be more active in my attempt to increase awareness about Orly’s online journal and her book series. If anyone has any suggestions, my ears are open.

Other than that, I recently went through a minor writing slump where I was just spinning my wheels on the same entries. I think, at one point, I was only five entries ahead of what had already posted. I’m sure some, if not most, was due to depression. But I feel like I’ve gotten back up and am enjoying the substance and pace of what I’m writing again. If you’re one of the eleven people subscribed, I hope you’re enjoying reading the current work as much as I am enjoying writing it.

Announcing Orly’s Journals

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi

Announcing Orly's JournalsSo, way back when I last posted in March, I talked about writing two stories at once, because one was good for providing the regularity I need for maintaining my mood and the other because it excited me. Well guess what happened? I put both of them down. I know that sounds bad but let me continue because it’s actually good.

When I woke on April 5, I was thinking about Patreon and had the idea of writing there in serial form, a new novel made of journal entries penned by my character Orly Bialek, picking up where The Black Wax Vampire Trilogy ended. This concept excited me more than anything I’ve felt in years. I kicked around the idea for a few days and then decided to go for it, and it was then that I put down the other two books.

So, for the past two months, this is what I’ve been working on every single day. I’ve been writing as Orly again and building the Patreon page which launched a few days ago. I plan to release a journal entry there every Thursday evening.

Today is Thursday. Her first journal entry drops tonight.

I have no regrets putting the other two books on hold as writing Orly again makes me feel happy. I do have fears though. I’ve never written in serial form, and her POV is slightly different because of the nature of journaling. But more than that, I feel like some series continue long past what is beneficial to the thrust of the story and the universe created. Though I love what I’m doing now and look forward to releasing the installments, I hope I recognize when to stop.

So, if you enjoyed her trilogy or are new to Orly and want to read a new vampire story, I hope you’ll check out Orly’s Journals.

Pushpins

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi

Bulletin Board of Notecards
Three stories in notecards.

I know my last two blog posts suggested I was leaning toward writing a novel version of Filming Tara Raikatuji, but I no longer think it’s going to be my next project. I took six days off from my day job, with the intention of resting before my busy fiscal closing period. On Thursday I mapped out the three stories I’ve been kicking around in my head using note cards to identify the major beats of each story. I typically lay out six beats per story. The stories were Filming Tara Raikatuji, Forever Candy, and something I for now just refer to as Candela. The Candela story has two rows of cards because there are two parallel stories in it. I pinned them to my bulletin board but ran out of pushpins. I don’t know how that happened. I’ve had many more cards on this board before. Anyhow, I felt good after pinning the cards up because it told me I did have things I’d be able to write from beginning to end. In general, I won’t start writing until I know my beginning and ending.

I spent the rest of the day and Friday evaluating which of the three stories I should pursue, and I landed on Forever Candy. It’s the least brave story to write because it’s the least personal, but I chose it for two reasons. The first is that I’ve been worrying about what writing I can share if I continue in this creative writing program at UCLA Extension, because it’s online, and so the instructor and students are all faceless and I don’t find myself getting to know them. I realized that it’s difficult for me to share drafts of things that are very personal with people I don’t know. The second reason is that it’s my goal to traditionally publish my next book, and I think Forever Candy is the easiest to explain and the most marketable.

Saturday, I wrote a prologue for Forever Candy. It was only five hundred words, but it was a beginning, and I’m still happy with how it came out. Yesterday, I pushed myself to shift settings and begin the first chapter. After a couple hours, I only settled on the first three sentences—32 words. But it’s a start. I’m a little intimidated to embark on this book because I’m writing in third person, which I don’t typically do. I also have a major character who’s male, something else I’m not accustomed to if I’m not that male, and especially after spending the last eight years writing Orly Bialek.

But hey, the point is, I began something I feel like I might be able to write all the way to its ending. As always happens at the beginning of any writing project, I think I’ll be able to write this story quickly, in this case, a year. If history is any indication, it’ll likely be at least two years. At least I’m writing again. Yay me.

Okayo, my Love Village favorite.
Okayo, my Love Village crush.

On a totally unrelated note, can I mention just how much I love the new show on Netflix, Love Village? It’s a more mature version of Ainori Love Wagon, which I absolutely loved and made me cry more than any other show I’ve watched. Love Village is making me gush buckets too. If I have any influence over my readers, I highly recommend.

Absolutely Done

Posted on by Robert Tomoguchi

I haven’t blogged in a while because not much has been going on. The three beta readers who planned to do a full read couldn’t meet my deadline so I had to scrap that extra read after a few weeks and turn the manuscript over to my sister for editing. We fell a little behind schedule as I got the pages to her later than expected and as I only allowed four weeks for my sister to get through the manuscript and she needed a couple weeks more as she has a stressful day job just like I do. But I received the manuscript back and accepted most of the revisions. I then gave the manuscript to my mother, who has been dying to read it, for one last proofreading, which she finished on Friday. Today, I finished writing the Thank You page. So after I post this, I’ll turn the final version over to my interior designer to complete the typesetting and layout. I’ll also be ready to send it to my audiobook narrator, Laura Bannister. If everything goes well, I think the print book and audiobook will release in November.

rtomoguchi TikTok page
Don’t be too blown away by the size of my following.

As far as my marketing effort goes, I didn’t make much progress with all the time I had while waiting to get the manuscript back. My efforts on Instagram fizzled and I’m making more of an effort on TikTok, but even that’s inconsistent as I have a hard time coming up with content. I had some pins made using the design from my favorite tattoo—a scribbled heart with a banner that has the names Yelena and Orly on it. I’ve sent a few of them out to readers hoping it’ll be a nice surprise. I’m also having bookmarks made, but I don’t have much visual sense so I’m hoping my designer can make something nice out of my ideas.

I hired a programmer to move my author website from tomoguchi.com to rtomoguchi.com. I did this to better match my social media handles.

I didn’t pick up any new hobbies during my time off from writing either. Instead, I’ve been reading and watching reality TV. I fell in love with this show called Ainori Love Wagon, but already watched all the available episodes. I hope it comes back for more seasons.

I’m stalling from posting this. Part of that is because I’m hoping I’ve forgotten something that I can mention to make my life sound more interesting. The other part is because I feel nervous to send off the manuscript for production. To assert that I am absolutely done with it, after three years of work, feels so final. I wish the moment was more unique, but here I am, sitting in my usual seat, at my usual Starbucks, on my second drink.