The Book Fair Cometh and Updates!

I had been concerned about keeping up physically during the West Hollywood Book Fair. I had visions of being unable to do anything more than sit while poor Marie was left to scurry about keeping the booth supplied with water and ice or luring potential customers. Though my medical tests are all looking good, my new normal includes a lot of physical challenges. My making any kind of appointment or commitment is still very much a leap of faith on my part. I never know until some time after I've been up and about whether I can actually go anywhere or do anything beyond my sofa. Fortunately, I was doing well – and on very little sleep.

Sybpress in the Park was a successful return to Book 

Fairs. We sold all but one copy of our newest title, Alternate Lanes: An Anthology of Travel Using Alternate Transportation in the City of Angels. We had 30 copies! My books were selling in sets of two or entire collections. I chatted up Indie publishers like the brilliant and eclectic Full Metal Orgasm anthologies and indie events like Bent-con with anyone who paused for more than a second. I have a vast collection of cards from folks with their own causes or authors who think Sybpress looked like a good option for publication. We had not done any sort of Book Fair for years, so I think it was great to find that we still knew how to work a booth and a crowd. However, the day was not without it's challenges. There was Carmaggeddon 2: The Sequel closing major parts of the 405 freeway. And then, to add to the traffic problems, there was a triathlon that closed a lot of city streets during parts of the day making travel on the Westside a real nightmare. We all had a far too entertaining a time getting to the park to set up. And these inexplicably coinciding events likely thinned out the crowd. But what really impacted the turnout and our own experience was the punishing heat. The Book Fair provided large gazebos that had panels on all three sides, but the sunlight filled ours in the morning, thoroughly heating it to the point where bread could bake. Thus, when we were out of the sun, the booth remained sweltering. We went through our water quickly. The cans of cold sodas were ingeniously used to cool down certain body parts (see above). Days like this are why I hate bras. They collect heat and moisture. Jon dislikes them for his own reasons which I won't go into. At any rate, we had to go foraging for an electric fan during one of the ice and water runs. That fan was a godsend. It made the booth bearable for the rest of the day. Despite the heat and traffic madness, it was a good day. It was great to meet all the poets and writers who contributed to Alternate Lanes. It was great to connect with old friends like Phil McNamara who was a rock star in drawing passersby to the booth. And, as always, it was delightful to have Sunshine Lliteras about. She was also very kind to get Jon and I home with all of our paraphernalia, including the electric fan. After this, I believe we are in excellent shape to run a booth at the upcoming Bent-con. We are even considering taking a big step and going for a booth at the LA Times Festival of Books next spring!

Meanwhile, the Book Fair Sales continue through Bent-con in December. For discounts on our titles of up to 30%, including tax and shipping, click here: http://sybpress.com/bookfairsale.htm .

Inbox Update

Even before we packed up for the Book Fair, I had made quite a dent in that danged inbox of doom. By this evening, I'll have submitted the last of the unscheduled manga scripts I took on. The Letterer on my team was working on these books with a different editor. That editor had to leave the project, so I stepped in right on top of the deadline. That was fun. With that out of my hair, there is only the manga already in the pipeline. My plan is to be rid of that by the weekend, so I can focus on the three power point presentations I have to finish for Yaoi-con. I only planned on doing two panels, but strange things happen during web conferences, it seems. Meanwhile, Jon is finally working on editing the Demonspawn web series teaser trailer. In a perfect world, I would like that to go live before we leave for Yaoi-con, but we are most likely losing all day Saturday to some work being done on our apartment complex. Past experience tells us that it is best to get out of the building until the dust settles. So, that is what we'll be doing. After Yaoi-con, I can focus on my fiction once again -- until Bent-con. Just kidding. I'm going to do my panel presentations for that while I'm working on the ones for Yaoi-con. My readers have been patient (HA!), and I need to get back on track. I'm  far happier when I can do even a few pages of writing a day.

I'll detail exactly what I'm doing on this year's Yaoi-con panels as well as update the status on the novels next week.

Stay tuned!

Provocative Questions, Saucy Answers and Updates

 BREAKING NEWS! Craig was in my local library today. That was surreal but lots of fun. Apparently, he did usually pull partons over the counter for a big hug while sounding like Elvis. 'Gimme some sugar.' That sort of thing. We also had an earthquake in our neighborhood. According to the maps on the news, we were almost on top of the epicenter. It was fast, but it did feel like the building had been picked up and dropped. Still, I went right back to sleep. We are such Californians.

Reader Questions

I get interesting questions all the time. The theme of the most recent ones have been 'You don't talk about x anymore. Are you still doing that?' I seldom completely abandon a practice or an idea. Usually, when I stop talking about something in the blog, it's because I've hit a dull patch with said activity. I mean, I don't know if my readers want to hear me wine about every time the bread doesn't come out right or how the macarons are mocking me after the many failed attempts. Yes, they are mocking me, especially the supermarket macarons. I am still learning Japanese. Some very kind friends have gifted me with the two major audio learning systems that I use along with the books. The audio has done wonders with my pronunciation. The manga has done wonders with my kanji reading. I'm recognizing more and more on my own. My favorite question from a reader about my learning Japanese was 'Am I tempted to say Anjin-san after I say Konnichi wa (good afternoon). I must admit that I really have to fight saying Konnichi wa, Anjin-san to that poor supermarket clerk at Mitsuwa market. He's just stopped being afraid of helping me. I think that is because he understands the words coming out of my mouth. Okay, folks, that's two pop culture references in one paragraph. No one knew who I was referring to in the blog covering the Green Eyed Monster a couple of weeks ago. The character was a homunculus called Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist. I don't know how you all didn't know that. :) Anjin-san was the name given to Richard Chamberlain's character by the Shogun in James Clavell's Shogun. The upshot is that I'm still studying and practicing and trying to to be irreverent to people who wouldn't get it..

Yoga is another matter. I still do the warm-up exercises, but I didn't take to practice as a whole. I was still dealing with pain issues when I started. Perhaps, due to that, I kept thinking that I was injuring myself even with the mildest of the movement. Tai Chi was suggested to me as an alternative by the clinician providing acupuncture. While looking into it, I discovered that very elderly people with all manner of aliments practice the martial art without hurting themselves. I've seen reports that indicate that Tai Chi can reverse a lot of conditions that cause pain. The I've just begun learning the routines, but I am feeling an impact from just the warm ups.

Dormant Books?

I think the single biggest surprise I've had during the months and months I've been home is that I still have to fight to find time to write fiction. Before I was discharged from the hospital, I was plotting stories and contemplating a very ambitious publishing schedule. Well, that was silly. Even if I set aside all the physical things profoundly slowing my output, there were the hours and hours of phone work to keep my insurance from becoming a mess and other bureaucratic craziness from overwhelming us. Those problems are not  as frequent, but now there are other obligations to my business partners or the people who give me freelance work. Promoting any independent project is a time devouring monster. Spending time with my own characters is very difficult for me to justify on any given day. Today, for instance, I have to finish this blog and move on to a trailer script that I need to get out in a few days.

All of the above is an explanation for why some books I'd hoped would be long out are still in various states of undress as it were. And then, there is a problem common to writers. Characters from one project will be speaking more clearly to me than those in another project. Even though I started one book long before the other, this can happen. It did happen with Ensnared. Lord Darius Galetea is the most arrogant character I have ever written. He is even more arrogant than Simon Molinar which he proved when he shouldered his way past A Soldier's Destiny for my attention. Granted, I was having trouble meshing Simon with my more established characters, Rik and Vincent. But Darius is one of those super hot bad boys that is impossible to ignore. He is still vying for another book. Not right now, milord. I've figured out what was going wrong with the narrative in this Soldier's book. And I have a hard deadline. That helps a lot, it seems. I'm getting a whole lot more fiction out since we decided to get a booth at the West Hollywood Bookfair. I also intend to finish the Vincent Greven Cookbook that I started years ago. I think my problem with writing a cookbook is that I never thought of myself as someone who had original recipes. That has changed markedly since I began that book. I've also been given a great deal of information from cookbook authors and food bloggers on how to attribute a recipe from another cook in my book. This book is a giveaway for people who have purchased my yaoi titles. I am thinking of writing a cookbook for myself, but that's still in the pondering stage.

There is one more project that's been gathering dust for a number of years. That was a script about at Dominant/submissive relationship between a powerful businessman and a woman he had known since she was a child. It's called The Proposal. I began writing it in response to a very bad film about such relationships. The film never found a distributor, so I won't mention the title. However, with all the stuff and nonsense over the idiotic 50 Shades of Gray, I feel that I must respond. My leading lady is as powerful as the Dominant in many ways in this book. I want to show that you can have as hot and kinky a read with a real exchange of power and true informed consent. Irritation and a deadline make for some swift but always thoughtful writing. It also helps that I had a full treatment and half a script. I hope it will be finished. The cut off is four to six weeks before the event to make sure we have print copies for the table. If not, I will provide free sample chapters in a booklet and online.

So the answer is that I have no dormant books. I am working on all of them more diligently. If all holds as it has, I should have most of them published by the end of September. Thanks for the questions. Keep them coming!

Personal Update

Next week, I'm scheduled to have tests to see if I am still in remission. Wednesday is the CT scan which means a long and not so pleasant day. Thus, it's not likely there will be a blog on Wednesday. I should be in full paranoid panic mode by Sunday. It may be sooner. Everything points to my being fine. Panicking is just a thing I do.

Stay tuned.

Big Plant, Cloaks, Daggers and Wild Manga

Jon called the tomato plant a triffid recently. While I'll concede that it does seem to loom over us, I don't think it's ready to walk out the door in a quest to take over the world. I have grown suspicious of the plant as it's only produced one smallish tomato. There have been several buds that haven't produced anything. I may have to rethink unleashing the bees in our apartment. Though I have had a suggestion involving a q-tip that doesn't sound too strange. I may give that a go first. I think the encouraging thing is that I haven't killed the plant or the supermarket thyme plant. That has been very productive and useful for a whole number of applications. I may get some more herbs for the window sill. While I am very proud of my foreboding tomato plant, I am really loving the heirloom tomatoes that are in season at the Culver Farmer's Market. Oh yes, I really do shop there before hitting that hotel bar for the martinis. All of the stalls have some lovely varieties that are wither sweet or tart. I have some really nice green ones that I plan to fry for lunch this very day. I am also loving that the produce I'm getting from there is staying fresh for a week or more. Makes me really wonder how old that stuff in the super markets is.

Cloak and Dagger

I know it seems like I am a bit of a blabbermouth with all the sharing or even over sharing of the intricate minutia on developing web series or the naughty things that have turned up on my Facebook page as I was searching for items to give away at the Bookfair or online. The fact is that on any given day, 90% of the mayhem in my life cannot go beyond a very small circle of people. It makes the blog quite challenging some time. I can't reveal what may be causing me consternation over my writing malaise as it may violate three or four confidences. Even the manga can be a challenge to blog about as I'm not allowed to be specific about the title until our work until the book is at a certain point in the pipeline. No matter how crazy the book is making me, I can only talk about it in the most vague terms possible. I mean, I can – and do – complain about research mystic Buddhist incantations, but I can't tell you why. Sorry about that. However, I am free to tell you about the second Manga I worked on for the Digital Manga Guild. You can read about the super crazy and super funny Wild Boyfriend and why it was too hot for Kindle to handle. Just click the following link: http://www.sybpressyaoi.com/2012/07/sakiras-white-hot-wild-boyfriend-is.html. It may seem silly to be so secretive. I'm not so full of myself to equate my blog with TMZ, but it is frightening how gossip can get around. You just don't know how someone is connected to someone else. Jon and I never discuss any of our scripts anywhere buy home or if we're on the street with no one about. I've been cautioned about who I talk to about certain projects when I was just home from surgery and completely housebound. It's taken that seriously. It's a drag, because I love to gossip. The leeway would also make explaining the various and sundry wackiness in my life a whole lot easier.

So, I've been housebound this week working on these many things I can't talk about. My plan is to clear my inbox of the most pressing of the tasks. This will leave me free from everything creatively save for the books and the manga. That sounds like I'm crazy. How are books – plural – easy. Well, I have them finished in my mind. I just need a stretch of time to type out what I'm seeing in my mind. I'm so certain that I will meet those deadlines that I have the covers in the works. I just have to clear the decks to have at it. At this writing, the decks are halfway cleared. I remain fairly focused despite all these cable channels and all the interweb enticements. I also think the work is getting done faster, because I haven't been inspired very much culinary-wise. I'm getting a lot of great produce and fruit. It doesn't need much in the way of cooking. I'm still annoyed from the baking mishap with the macarons, so I haven't been keen to bake. I'm sure the urge will return when I free up some time, or I get really hungry for something fun.

Updates

The ones I can share will be on the specialized blogs. I will post to those over the weekend.

Stay tuned.

Writing and Publishing -- The Perilous and Profane

Before I begin, I must warn my gentle readers in the strongest of terms that while this blog is about my current writing endeavors, the language and content are very, very naughty. It is very likely not everyone's cup of tea. There are unseemly things done with bud vases and other things too raucous for delicate sensibilities. I'm looking at you, Maw-in-law! Though a bit of that salty language is your son's. Onward then!

It has been very correctly pointed out to me that there is a great deal going on in my life as a writer and editor that is not reaching this blog. I blame the nature of social media branding. I have to have blogs that are aimed at particular audiences who read my work, so they can easily find it in searches. However, a lot has been going on lately, and since this began as a blog about my writing, it's only right that I bring everyone up to speed.

The Return of Sybaritic Press

Things have been fairly quiet on the publishing front save for works by Marie Lecrivain and me. That is changing in a very big way with our first anthology of creative non-fiction. It is called Alternate Lanes, a compilation of works about modes of transportation in Los Angeles that don't involve automobiles. From walking to cycling, buses and trains, the writers talk about their experiences warts and all in poems and essays and photographs. Mine humble contribution is called Crosstown Express. It details the wild dichotomy of riders and scenery on the two bus lines I take to the hospital a few times a month. I have not seen as many swings between affluence and poverty nor as many types of citizens since riding the route 23 trolly line in . That route has been documented by Urban studies researchers and sociologists. There is even a YouTube video that lovingly shows the line. Marie has a wonderful piece on the strange adventures and perils of walking in LA. Yes, people, there is quite a lot of walking in LA. We're getting some serious buzz about the book, and there isn't even a galley. We're also going to do book fairs once again this year though I'm not sure there will be any drunken parrots in the booth. It's a long story.

My Debut in a New E-Zine

Last week, I made my short story debut in a Full Metal Orgasm or FMO, a cyber sexpunk e-zine. The editor takes a deliberately provocative title to make sure there is no doubt that the content is unflinchingly adult in nature. That not only attracts the desired readership, it should warn away those who would be offended by the material. Being the contrary soul that I am, my contribution is not like the others. The Companion is about a dystopian society where someone can be arrested for stealing food and get a decades long sentence in a hell-hole of a prison or sold to a farmer on a colony as a full service slave (yes, service extends to the bedroom). It sounds like it should fit with the no holds barred, brutal sexuality of the rest of the amazing works in this collection. I certain started to write it that way. Somehow, it became this delicate, sensual character study with a very sweet ending. I was really pleased with it and knew it would find a home somewhere in my other works, but the editor very kindly bought the work anyway. It's become a point of controversy with the zine, but that's what I do. I hope my fans who are kind enough to buy it will read the rest. Despite protestations to the contrary, the rest of the stories are very smart and are often saying more that they seem. Reading the entire zine will be like taking an excursion into dark and fascinating places. It's well worth the trip.You can buy it from the website HERE or on Amazon for Kindle HERE.

The Perils of Localizing Yaoi Manga for DMG

I work as an Editor for the DigitalManga Guild(DMG). We work in teams called localizers (they make the material readable for a local audience). Each team consists of a translator, an editor and a letterer. My primary job as editor is to take the raw English translations into more colloquial English. The casual way people talk in the US. That sometimes means translating Japanese pop culture references into the US equivalent. I pass the edited script to the letterer who replaces the Japanese dialog with the new dialog. The whole team is responsible for QC on the finished pages. Finally, I also write the synopsis that will appear on the various websites where the manga will be sold. We're typically given 90 days to finish a 200 page book. We've finished two thus far. We're just finishing volume one of a four part series that we will be working on through the summer. The second one, Wild Boyfriend, just turned up on the company website (see photo above). This means it will be published soon. Working on the localizing team has been an education I really didn't expect. I wrote a blog about one aspect of it on our official site. DMG tweeted it to all of its followers.

Without further ado:

My localizing team mates and I were lulled by the sweet, funny romance of Again Tomorrow. While there were some epic sex scenes in every chapter of Nabako Kamo’s manga, there were a lot of other things going on as well. There were intrigues at the office or at various schools or, in one case, on a crowded subway. If there were eyes that were too young and tender for yaoi, it was easy to move to a benign location in Again Tomorrow. Curious little ones would likely find a panel with two salarymen working in a cubicle very dull and move on. Don’t get me wrong. Again Tomorrow is a white hot, sexy manga. However, the mangaka likes to build the tension or ratchet up the jeopardy for each of the couples before the pages and pages of heated coupling. Thus, the localizer who is also a parent has ‘safe’ pages on which to click when the children wander too close.

This is not the case with the current manga Heaven’s Blade is localizing. Sakira’s Wild Boyfriend covers many more couples who come together in a swift and explosive fashion. The safe pages are far fewer in number and really hard to click on when in a panic. I’m lucky as I only have the Hubs peering over my shoulder periodically. All I have to put up with are comments like:

‘You can’t tit f***k a guy!’
‘He put a bud vase with a flower in there!’
‘Who keeps that many sex toys at work?’ (That one gave me pause.)
‘He just happened to be carrying roofies to school.’
‘Sweat is NOT the same as lube!!’

The comments are a bit distracting, but  could never derail me. I have been thrown into fits of giggles – mainly at my Hubs’ consternation, but I always manage to find focus after a while. My team members, however, have a stickier problem. They have young ones with curious eyes. Fortunately, they are none too stealthy. My team mates have to use cat-like reflexes to switch to a different screen and avert disaster. Of course, the little darlings who never seem to pay attention to their parents before, notice when their parents move so abruptly. Thus, they hang around hoping for a glimpse of what was so interesting. To combat that strategy, my team mates have taken to doing their part of localizing when their little ones are fast asleep. They have been a lot punchier during Skype or email exchanges with this manga. I admire them for soldiering on with their fatigue fuzzy brains through their regular workloads while still churning out quality translations and lettering.

I don’t think any of us anticipated such perils when we signed up to be localizers. Still, it’s a fun gig, and the problems are amusing in their own way.

Again Tomorrow - Ashita Kara Mouichido © Nabako Kamo. All rights reserved. Original Japanese edition published in 2010 by Taiyoh Tosho Publishing Co., Ltd. It’s available for Kindle HERE, for Nook HERE and other formats HERE.

That's covers everything going on at the moment, book wise. There is a whole lot of film related stuff in the works that I'll cover another time.

Stay tuned.

Shoots, Truths and Finding Footing

Everyone has recovered from their colds -- including Magic the office cat. Onward to the blog!

 

There are two truths to any film shoot – no matter how small. The first is that the more hats one wears, the less time one sits. I was on my feet for five full hours to shoot two segments that will be under five minutes in length. The other truth is that filmmaking prohibits going to the bathroom. I wasn't sure if this truth would hold up on such a small shoot. After all, I had no Assistant Directors, P.A.s or caterers around to stop me from reaching the restroom with dozens of questions. There were no questions to answer, but there were dozens of things to do at any given moment. Thus, I could no longer blame not being allowed in the bathroom on a pervasive conspiracy amongst my crew. The third truth is  not a part of the filmmaking process but my own issue --  I would pay for all those physical shenanigans. I spent Friday curled up on one end of sofa in a state that I hadn't seen in over a year. No worries. I was almost back to what I consider normal by Saturday. On a side note, Robert Rodriguez may enjoy being a one man crew, but I believe that if you can pay for a full crew, get the danged crew!

Why did I go through this hair-brained scheme and endure such physical stress? There are a number of reasons that don't sound too crazy. The primary reason is that I'm learning to shoot films on my own, so that I don't have to depend on hiring anyone other that production assistants to help me shoot The Secret Cancer. I realized that if I had a cinematographer shoot footage in Los Angeles, I'd have to have the same person travel with me wherever I went. Otherwise, the footage wouldn't have the same look from city to city. I was also getting hung up on even getting started waiting for crew to be available on a consistent basis. Jon was certain that I could easily pick up what I needed to learn. All I would need to do is practice. He suggested I shoot simple things that I could control easily and that I could shoot fairly often.

At that point, I was looking for a clever way to promote my yaoi titles that didn't involve paying for ads. I was also interested in doing video responses to recipes by my favorite Youtube chefs. I could shoot cooking videos easily. I've been doing those since the fall of last year. It's been neat to have a video dialogue with some talented chefs that I admire. I've also found an innovative way of promoting some of my titles. The foods that appear in manga and anime are real Japanese dishes. Cooking and eating are often central to character relationships. Everyone who has read my work knows that food plays a big part of character interaction. It was a natural to have a food based video promotion. The first videos for Cook Like a Uke (oo-kay) featured my hands and a voice over announcer. And they aren't doing badly as far as number of views goes. I've even made some book sales from what is a very modest effort is a thrill. But yaoi readers like pretty men. There were calls for actual ukes cooking food.

I'm a filmmaker in Los Angeles which is not lacking in pretty men looking to act. I realized I could move my film school training to the next level with actors in front of the camera to light and frame properly. I could not only promote my own titles, but I could also promote manga I edited for the Digital Manga Guild. It happens that a meal cooked in gratitude moved the main relationship in the book toward romance.

As I said a blog or two ago, I did a casting breakdown and signed a four actor pool. I knew that I could probably only handle shooting one or two segments at a clip. I'm hoping to do a few shoots and get as many segments in the can that I can before I'm forced to move on to the upcoming projects. I also expect these very talented young men to move onto bigger things fairly quickly. I must make hay while the sun shines. For the first shoot, I picked a beef curry dish to promote the manga, Again Tomorrow*. The actor I chose to play Yuusei (upper left), the handsome leading man with amnesia was Donal Thoms-Cappello (below right) who is great looking and resembled the manga character. The other was the next dish I'd been planning to film anyway, Tonjiru or Pork Miso soup. The actor playing Misaki who made the dish for a tutor that would later become his lover in Junjour Romantica was Ryohie Watanabe. This actor is actually Japanese and has more than a passing familiarity making that dish. A third actor, Kevin Chambers (He's left in the apron being geeky. He's also about to eat that whole bowl of stew.), agreed to come by for a photo shoot. While here, he read the lines from the voice over announcer who is the antagonist in the videos. That was helpful for the guys on camera, and really kind to me. And I was most lucky to have make-up maven, Cat Elrod, in the house. Aside from being highly skilled at her job, she is always a delight to have on set. She even helped me do the dishes!

All in all, things went rather well. Jon did what set decorating there was before he went to work. I had weeks to clean and organize the apartment. Incidentally, this shoot finally pushed me to change the apartment from being a place where a sick person was recovering back to an apartment. I find I really like not being surrounded by pill bottles. But I digress. There was food prep for each dish, photographing ingredients and the actors, running the sound and shooting the video and selecting wardrobe. The whole five hours went by in a blur. I hope I seemed competent during the whole ordeal. I did manage to get everything on my shot lists. The sound for each segment was recorded properly. It's not all done perfectly. There will be challenges in post, but they are minor enough that I'm certain I can make the required adjustments on my own. The performances were very good. I think the yaoi readers will get what they were hoping for. The Yuusei character was flirty and really funny. The Misaki character was shy and sweet. Above all, the food was really good. Each dish was consumed immediately after I took the last shot of it plated up. What was really wonderful to hear for this amateur chef was that, for Ryohei, the food turned out like real Japanese cooking he would get at home. In this case, I had the sense to listen to him when he adjusted the recipes I was using while cooking on camera. A great chef knows when to get out of the way! I admit that I'm really jazzed that this went off well.

That said, this shoot also drove home that I can't handle running all over a really big sound stage or location for days on end during a feature. I'm going to have to be rigid about what I will be doing on these projects. But I am pleased to know that I will be able to have some role. That wasn't really clear until this past Friday. Yeah, I'm jazzed.

Now, it's back to juggling the scripts and manga and video editing and cooking. A lot of wonderful things are on the horizon.

Stay tuned.

*Again Tomorrow - Ashita Kara Mouichido © Nabako Kamo. All rights reserved. Original Japanese edition published in 2010 by Taiyoh Tosho Publishing Co., Ltd.

Weather Woes, Pioneering Trends and Finding Faces

Okay, I'm almost at the point where I end my own moratorium on making fun of LA weather folk. Today makes more than a dozen times that the forecast missed a rainstorm. There are excuses, of course, that involve head scratching terminology. These are unacceptable in the face of advertising that hysterically touts the finely tuned technical accuracy of one forecaster's instruments over another. Why is it important? It's only rain. I'm in Los Angeles where a rainstorm has the same impact on drivers as black ice does in parts of the country that have real weather issues. One has to a lot more time for all but the shortest of trips. And those trips involve walking. I've been here for nearly two decades, and the motorist vs rain dynamic still befuddles me. Get your acts together, Doppler-gangers, or feel the wrath of my derision!

Strangely, I did two blogs mid-week because I didn't want to write a huge blog last week. I was tired. But many of my readers did not click on the links to the other blogs. I thought they were clearly marked, but that doesn't seem to be the case from the notes I received. No matter. Since one of the blogs harkens back to the first one I did here, six years ago, I'll include it in this blog. The other covers my first casting session in years and my progress in learning how to be a one man crew on the documentary, so that one is in here as well.

Hold onto your hats!

  There are times when I must admit that I go beyond being crestfallen about the pace toward my career goals and drift toward being a touch homicidal. Worry not, my gentle readers are not guilty of anything that would cause such violent feelings from me. However, these people who occasionally infuriate me do inhabit my orbit and have known me for at least a decade. And it's not like I keep my various pursuits a secret. Still, I have well meaning souls coming to me with great excitement and telling me things like 'I just saw something called a book trailer. You should make those to promote your books.' I have four of them online at this moment. This is the latest one I did for the Demonspawn books. Ultimately, I didn't start yelling over this advice, because I haven't pushed the book trailers as far and wide as some of my other marketing efforts.

The latest observation and advice is all about 50 Shades of Gray and its author EL James. I've had a number of people writing me about how this author went from writing fanfiction to writing successful fiction that sprung from the fan works and have a bdsm emphasis. Perhaps, they suggested, I should be doing something like that, too? EXCUSE ME??? In my earliest blogs (SIX years ago), I talk about my creds as a romance fan  and that of a fanfiction writer in the creation of my first book. Geez! What does it take? Okay, I'll grant that I tend to write in niche markets. And perhaps I don't toot my own horn a lot. But I was in a feature film documentary (Trekkies) talking about writing bdsm fanfiction while wearing a corset !!

Okay, that blog was a long time ago. And it was very brief. Maybe I didn't make myself clear. Back in 2005, I was very much in the throes of an obsession with Legolas Greenleaf of he Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. Legolas was everything I adore in any given yaoi character – lithe but very strong and incredibly beautiful while absolutely masculine. I had seen the films almost often enough to recite them, but wanted to do more. At that time I was reading LOTR fanfiction. Most of it was awful. There was some very good stories, but they were still not satisfying. For a long time, I toyed with writing my own fanfiction. I would be entering another fan arena where I was not very well known. Those who knew me would be expecting a certain bent to my fiction – humor mixed with bdsm. I didn't really want to write that sort of thing for my Legolas inspired fiction. Beyond that, I had sold a feature film. I could no longer justify taking the time away from professional creative endeavors in favor of writing fiction for its own sake.

Thus, The Gift of Surrender was born. I created a realm called the Hanyanoor (a Finnish word for The Known Lands). On the Eastern end of that realm was a prosperous kingdom where the King was weakening with each day. He could not really function must past noon on any given day. The kingdom is at peace with its neighbors, but anyone of them could exploit the king's state to overrun it. Princess Sarianna, the sole heir to the throne is persuaded to marry to strengthen the throne. Though she agreed, Sarianna knows nothing of men and is terrified that marriage would be the end of her personal freedom and the right to have any say in the running of her own kingdom. The prospects do not look good.

Sarianna rode long and hard every day following the departure of her first suitor. She rode until her horse was exhausted. She drove the sentries mad keeping up with her. There was no help for it. Riding was the only way the Princess could blot the previous fortnight out of her memory. The thunder of the hooves and the howl of the wind kept his voice out of her head. The jarring, breathless rides made her forget the feel of his hands on her skin. The problem was that the rides ended throwing Sarianna into a spiral of anger and despair. She was a thundercloud when she was not on her horse. For days on end, the Princess said nothing that wasn’t absolutely necessary.

On the fourth day, when Sarianna stormed from the stables, she found Neuvoja waiting instead of Hanna. While she didn’t want another silent, tense bath with her chambermaid, the Princess really did not want to talk to her advisor.

“I cannot hear any words about my demeanor right now, Neuvoja,” she muttered. “Please go. We shall speak in the morning.”

“Princess, I come with news,” the advisor replied. “A messenger from Ritvala arrived with news that King Magnus is journeying here with his three sons.”

Sarianna found her legs had no strength. She sank onto the nearest chair. “Three? When will they arrive?”

“Two days hence at the most,” he replied.

The Princess sighed heavily. “Tell me of these sons of Ritvala.”

“They are accomplished warriors all and said to have their father’s fine looks and bearing,” Neuvoja replied. “The youngest one was born of the Suurimetsa.”

“The Forest People?” Sarianna asked. “I thought no one from the Hanyanoore ever had contact with them.”

“King Magnus did and took one as a hostage bride,” the advisor replied.

“I am to meet three warriors whose father has taken a bride and made her bear him a son,” Sarianna muttered.

“Ritvala would be a good alliance for Arinpera,” Neuvoja said.

“But you still think Rowsdower would have been a better one,” the Princess pointed out.

“I am sorry, Princess,” he said quietly. “I was thinking that they are close to our borders, and the Queen is an ally of your father’s. Perhaps among the three princes there could be a suitable match.”

“Please, say no more of it. I must find a way to do what is required,” she said quietly.

“All the kind words and advice cannot change the fact that I must face these… suitors… alone.”

“Princess…”

“Have their chambers been made ready?”

“Yes, Highness. All is ready for their arrival.”

“Thank you, my dear teacher. Please, send Hanna to me.”

“Princess, it breaks our hearts to see you in such a state.”

“It is the way of things. You had your trials to test your knowledge. Warriors must tax their bodies to prepare for battle,” she said. “There is little being asked of me by comparison. We can talk further in the morning. I grow weary.”

There was much more he wanted to say. Sarianna knew this. But she could not talk about what had happened to anyone. If she talked about it, she would dwell on it. If she dwelled on it, she would never be able to face those brothers.

Neuvoja relented. “Very well. Sleep well, Princess.”

“I will try.”

Meanwhile, Prince Nikulainen or Niku, is not any happier with this situation. He had thought he'd get to choose a mate for love as he was third in line for the throne at best. He and his mother were, as far as he knew, considered hostages at worst. Despite the songs sung by many travelers about Princess Sarianna's beauty, he was loathe to compete against his older brothers for the hand of a woman he'd never met. But his mother told him that things were never what they seemed between them and King Magnus, and Niku always wanted to please his father. Still, he never expected his life to be upended in one instant.

“Highness, help me close the stable! We are under attack!” He shouted.

Sarianna quickly closed the heavy wooden window shutters as Minos closed the great main doors to the stables. Sentries arrived as they finished. The Princess knew they were startled and upset to find her so far from the main building. It could have been far worse. She could have been out riding.

“Don’t try to get me back,” Sarianna called out to them. “There is too much open area. As far as strangers know, I am a stable girl. Go!”

The men took positions nearby to defend the back entrance and the King’s horses. Sarianna didn’t expect an attack there. It was nearly inaccessible to those who were not very familiar with the roads. And the terrain was such that no heavy weaponry could get through. Still, Minos picked up a short sword and gave Sarianna a large hunting knife. They anxiously looked though narrow slats in the door toward the main gate straining to hear what was happening.

The noise was not coming from that far gate. The walls near the back entrance were being scaled. Whizzing arrows viciously struck down the sentries on those walls. The battle was engaged before anyone from that gate could sound an alarm.

“This is madness,” Sarianna hissed. “Who would attack in such a manner?”

“Assassins,” Minos replied with quiet certainty. “I feel it in these old bones. They know you are here or would be nearby.”

“What are we to do? No one has sounded the alarm from this gate!”

“This building will hold. If they try to burn it, help will arrive,” he said.

The Princess looked at him balefully. “Burn?”

“Worry not, Princess. I do not think it will come to that,” he said.

Suddenly, black-clad men with bows and swords dropped down from the wall where the Sentries had fallen. There were ten of them with more on the wall. The guards near the stables were soon overwhelmed with fighting them, leaving the Princess completely vulnerable.

Just as suddenly, the assassins on the wall were falling with arrows in their chests. Sarianna saw a flash of someone running along the wall shooting arrows with incredible speed. Swift footsteps were heard crossing the stable roof. Then, the figure was in the middle of the battle in front of them with a sword drawn. He was very tall with long, pale golden hair. That was all she could see, for he moved so quickly dispatching the assassins two at a time. Her own guards had fallen, but were not dead. This stranger kept killing blows from them. He took up the horn of alarm and sounded it when his last combatant had fallen.

“He is here to help!” Sarianna exclaimed, moving to the door.

“Nay, Princess,” Minos whispered urgently. “It may be a ruse.”

“He has sounded the alarm. I shall meet him before others arrive,” she stated. Minos opened the door, but kept his sword and stood close to her.

Sarianna stepped out of the stable as the young man turned toward the movement. In the light of the sunset, he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He had a tall, lithe body, but he was muscled where Rowsdower had been soft. He had large, expressive dark eyes, fine high cheekbones, a firm jaw and a well-formed mouth. He was masculine indeed, despite the long, thick fall of pale gold hair. Yet, he was very beautiful. The man gazed at her for a long moment, and then he sank gracefully onto one knee.

“I am your servant, Princess,” he said in a quiet, rich voice.

“She is my stable girl. The Princess is not here!” Minos exclaimed.

“Do not fear me, milady,” he said softly.

Sarianna found she did not. “What is your name, sir?”

“I am Nikulainen, son of King Magnus and Lady Reija of Ritvala,” he replied.

She found she liked listening to him. She found it would be hard not to look at him. Her breathing became more difficult. Her cheeks colored, but her gaze never wavered. “I am Princess Sarianna, and I owe you a great debt.”

He smiled then, and her breath quietly caught.

“Nay, Princess. ‘Tis my honor to serve.”

Don't worry, these aren't big spoilers in this epic romance. There are intrigues upon intrigues and betrayals that are painfully close to the couple. And of course there is humor. The book is far from a comedy, but it clearly has a sense of humor. And, of course, there is a twist to the romance. Though Sarianna falls in love with Niku in an instant, she fears his physical power and that of his father. He eases those fears by surrendering his physical power to her. Thus, I still get my D/s twist in there. You'll just have to read the book to see how.

Meanwhile, there is a very tasty excerpt HERE. Warning! Explicit Erotic Content!

The Gift of Surrender is available on all Ebook formats at Smashwords.com HERE .

For Paperback or Kindle, go to Amazon.com HERE.

Casting Sessions

I've been very pleased with the support I've received for Cook Like a Uke. One of the few criticisms – aside from the criticisms based on foreign Japan-o-files thinking that yaoi is something that the Japanese found offensive – is that there aren't actual Ukes cooking the food. I gave that some thought, and realized that this was a fair criticism. And there were things I could do about it. I am a filmmaker, after all. And I live in the land of hot actor boys. Thus, I've decided to use the itsy-bitsy marketing budget I have for the yaoi titles to do some shoots with actors cooking like a uke.And I had a logo done for some new aprons!

I had a casting call last week. It's the first one I've had in a number of years, and I worried that the low budget would limit the choices for the parts. I needed actors who were hot, had a presence on camera AND had credible cooking skills who were willing to work on such a modest budget. I was not very hopeful. Thus, I was very pleasantly surprised when I found four such actors to fill the roles of the various kinds of ukes. At lest, they looked good in their photos and had some very nice reels. But there is more to casting this sort of part than those basic requirements. I had to meet with them to see if they actually looked as good in person (I've been unpleasantly surprised during casting sessions when actors turned out to be a lot older than the photos and reels they post or they've had a few years of hard, hard living since their last head shot and reel was shot). Then, I had to find out if they were truly credible in the kitchen. There are many stories from beleaguered directors about actors who claim they can roller blade or ride a motorcycle only to end up in the hospital and markedly set back en entire film or TV shoot. I didn't want to have an actor or me in the ER from a knife wound, nor did I want my kitchen or me set on fire.

The last thing I had could only gauge in a a face to face meeting is how comfortable the actors would be with the subject matter. That meant, explaining what yaoi is and why it has a rabid, mostly female audience. I basically gave them the history I wrote in a blog last November, Kitchen Supplies, Bromances and Other PicturePostcards. Just scroll down the middle of the blog for the Bromance part. Later, I sent links to episodes to Junjou Romantica and Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi that relate to cooking food.It was funny explaining all of this if the passers by were any indication. Ah well, it wasn't the weirdest casting meeting I've ever had.

The four actors chosen fit the requirements for the roles, and they embraced the spirit of the webseries. I have four different types of guys who will cover some of the various types of ukes, or, in some cases, the very serious, buttoned down Semes who are cooking for ukes. The plan is to make dishes from yaoi anime and manga (this includes a dish from Nabako Kamo's Again Tomorrow that I worked on with a team of localizers for the Digital Manga Guild). The first shoot is scheduled for April 2^nd. I'll post behind the scenes photos of the shoot that day. The first video from that shoot are slated to be posted on April 6^th. The actors who will appear during the run of the series are:

Ryohei Watanabe

Ryohei Watanabe, a Japanese actor/dancer/director who has been in the US for five years. He is an avid cook who has his own recipes for many of the dishes on the schedule. You can find out more about him at ryoheiwatanabe.com.

Kyle  Valle

Kyle Valle, an actor who is also an avid anime fan and foodie who is a talented, self taught cook.

Donal Thoms-Cappello

Donal Thoms-Cappello, an actor/comedian who is a trained cook.

Edward Swingler

Edward Swingler, and actor/dancer/cinematographer who loves to cook.










As you can see, they are very easy on the eyes. I can't wait to see what they will bring to this fun and irreverent little series.

 

The shoot was delayed since I wrote until after Easter. I have all sorts of meetings that cropped up for that day.

Stay tuned!

Mid -week Senanigans, Casting Cuties and Chasing Elves

As promised, Here is the mid-week blog about my other shenanigans. I'm going to lob you at my other blog sites. As I've said earlier, I have to keep my branding in mind when I do these blogs. This fuels the search engine traffic which really does fuel the old book sales.

On the Romantica at Sypress site, you'll find quite a rant about how taxing it is to be told that I should be following current trends that I have been following already for a number of years. That leads into how I came to write my first romance and start this very blog. It's a rabid but insightful rant. I've re-released the book on smashwords. For those who've never read it (naughty, naughty), there is a full explanation of how it came to spring from an obsession over Legolas from Lord of the Rings. There is also some naughty, naughty excerpts to spur you to buy the book! That link is HERE. While you visit, take a moment or two or thirty to read the fabulous and fun blogs of Marguerite Lliteras and sample her fun and naughty book The Intern.

On the Yaoi at Sypress site, I chronicle how my simple little cooking videos to promote the yaoi books, Cook Like a Uke  have involved into an actual shoot with some very, very cute actors. I mean, they are adorable. Of course, there is a tale to tell about the casting session and how amusing that all was. I had to put on my producer suit and actually wear make-up for the meetings with these guys. And, while I was out, I ran into Gary Dourdan from CSI while awaiting my first actor. I was at the preferred place for go-see meetings, a coffee shop in Marina del Rey. Ladies (and some guys), he really is that cute in person.  and he winked at me! I had the presence of mind to not respond with a girly teehee. You'll have to read the rest on the sybpressyaoi site HERE.

Banned in Boston (and elswhere), Slanguage and Updates

 A book of mine was banned this week. It was only banned for 24 hours, but it was banned in Boston and everywhere else Amazon.com services. It was a sudden kerfuffle with Digital Manga Publishing over explicit content that was quickly resolved after a whole lot of hell was raised from all quarters of the manga community. This comes on the heels of Paypal demanding that certain erotic content be pulled from Smashwords.com. This, too, was reversed when the policy ignited a fire storm of protest. I am not a fan of rape, incest or bestiality as content. However, the wording of the policy would have affected classic literature like Lolita or any shape shifting fantasy that involved werewolves. It was also loudly pointed out that Paypal had no problems accepting money from Craigslist and other sites that sell porn and facilitate prostitution. Likewise, Amazon is in a glass house where content is concerned selling everything to 'inflatable friends' to toys that even I've never heard of before. I'm not going to link them here. Just search the site for any sort of kink, and there is a book, DVD and/or product that caters to it. I always thought I'd be banned or stoned by Trek fans because of The Secret Logs of Mistress Janeway, not for a sweetly sexy and funny collection like Again Tomorrow [Now available on Amazon Kindle at  http://amzn.com/B007FN03L6;
On Barnes and Noble Nook at:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/again-tomorrow-nabako-kamo/1109212837 and And On EManga at: http://www.emanga.com/books/Again_Tomorrow]  that was legally published in another country and properly licensed here. I'm glad that the issue is resolved for DMP. I'm really glad that I didn't have to battle to keep my books widely distributed. It would be hard for Sylvia Beach to champion banned authors in an era where one or two companies control so much of either online payment processing or actual content distribution.

Manga Editing – What DO You Do?

The book banning brings up the question of what does this company do and what do I do for it. I know my gentle and curious readers. Digital Manga Publishing is a US distributor of manga, light novels and soon literature from Japan. The Digital Manga Guild is a group of translators, editors and typesetters who work in teams called localizer to convert Japanese title into English. My team consists of LW Hubbard, an ex-pat professional translator who lives in Japan, Hentai Tenshi, an independent music producer who lives in the LA area and little ol' me. Our team works under the name Haven's Blade. I thought that we would be working largely independently of each other save for proofing the final pages. It has been far more collaborative, and it calls on skills and knowledge that are far beyond the manga stories on the pages. There needs to be a broad knowledge of past and current Japanese culture and pop culture. We've had instances where we've had to figure out what to call a product mentioned that is a parody of a wildly popular snack food in Japan. In the last week, we've come across popular TV shows and a catching hit song that had to be factored into the translations. Then we had to figure out what would be a stateside equivalent for those things while not making them too American. The author or mangaka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangaka has to recognize the work. That was why I was listening to the RubberDucky Song earlier this week. What's been more challenging is making the dialogue sound natural and realistic when the characters are 20-something guys. Though the audience is certainly not 20-something guys, the characters have to sound as real as their Japanese counterparts. Since none of us are members of this demographic, that takes a bit of effort and all three of our brains. Among this weeks puzzlers was whether or not young punks would use the term German aphrodisiac and what could be used in its place. I couldn't find any reason for the substance coming from Germany, and I really looked hard. 

The other thing we had to be really careful of was trying to be too current with the slang. The readership has a really wide range in age, and dialog that is too set in a particular time gets dated and looks sill in just a few years. The slang has to be something that has passed into the general lexicon of speech. My rule of thumb is whether or not the Hubs uses the slang. He is so square, he's a cube (that's his description of himself). If he uses it, the term has been around for some time and is likely to stay in use. Overall, the team is aiming at a loose, informal way for the characters to speak that reads as natural to anyone that may pick up the book. I'll talk about the joys of sound FX translation and proof reading on another day. This is just a taste to show that our work is challenging but above board despite the occasional banning. It's also cool to work with some really interesting people that I wouldn't have known otherwise. We all enjoy sharing creative energy and solving each new and often amusing puzzle.

Updates

I do apologize for being such a tease about what's going on in the background. I don't mean to be. I'm torn between wanting to convey a reason for my very upbeat demeanor and just keeping mum until I can spill the beans. I can say that the schedule for these projects is holding firm, so that they day for announcements is coming as promised. Also, I have been taking notes, so I will have detailed blogs about every aspect of the mayhem that is coming.

Stay tuned.