I'm Going Back to Japan! Nihon he kaerimasu!

So, after 5 years of hoping to return back to Japan, I am finally going back. If you kept up with my blog, you'd know that I spent 2 years in Nara, Japan (2003-2005) as an assistant language teacher (ALT) on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Unfortunately, I will only have one week to stay there to visit my friends in Nara (Heguri-cho), Tokyo and Osaka, but it will be worth it. I hope to see my former students who must now be in junior high, high school or college. I miss them so much and I've been having that old natsukashi feeling lately when I flip through or discover photos and handwritten notes from them. I will see my former co-worker, Yoriko, to reconnect with some students and then my former co-workers. Besides Tokyo, Nara and Osaka, I hope to take some excursions to Hiroshima and various sites on Kyushu Island. Can't wait!

The Resurrection of The Adventures of Bianca Sukiyama

It's been a while since I've posted to this blog, but I think that it's about time to get back to The Crowd.

What I've Been Doing

I've been going farther and farther down the path of squaredom: working a typical 9 - 5 job since I've lived in Japan. This is great for the income, but a killer on creativity. I am looking into making my life more flexible, by reading The 4-hour Workweek. It's quite inspiring, but halfway through the book, I'm wondering how I can accomplish this to free up some time for me to pursue my more creative activities such as creative writing.

I recently took my manuscript in process, The Adventures of Bianca Sukiyama, to the doctor, the fiction doctor, Cindy Davis, that is. See read through my manuscript, which I found painful to reread and edit myself and gave me all kinds of helpful hints on how to move the story forward. I've been having trouble figuring out the POV (point of view) of the story, since I've always thought of Bianca and Michael both as main characters.

In any case, she had great advice that I intend to follow after I've put the stories to the crowd. I'm thinking about starting an online diary that Bianca would be writing about her daily or weekly adventures. I think that this will give me the opportunity to naturally develop the story and extract the pieces that I like for the book. Ultimately, I'd like to create a graphic novel and not so much a novel, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to find a graphic artist or illustrator that is willing to work with me for peanuts until I turn a profit or created an audience. If you know of someone that is willing to share my vision with them, then let me know.

We'll see what comes of my renewed interest in writing again. Meanwhile, comment away.