Now I am paranoid. Noone has ever read any of my writing before. Not because I have purposefully hidden it or kept it protectively away from prying eyes, but just because I never showed anyone, it didn’t occour to me. This is something I intend to publish – which means anyone will be able to read it, or no one may read it at all. Both prospects are very scary in their own ways. I am not writing this because I want people to read it. Although if reading it makes anyone happy or less bored for a few hours I guess I would like to think I helped. It is quite conflicting.

The stupidest things are worrying me. Is the work just rubbish? Will people think events in the book relate to anything in my life? there is a relationship breakup in the story – will my ex’s think this is somehow to do with them? (Which it isn’t). In short – I am having trouble seperating myself and outside people’s opinions of myself from the text. I am sure this is something everyone goes through, it has just taken me a long time to ever think of showing my work to someone which is why it is getting to me now I guess. Wisdom apparently does not come with age. It got me wondering if I am just writing this for any good reason at all.

So I went back and re-read my first post entitled “Why am I making a graphic novel anyway?” to find out what the reason for all this is.

“So i am ayanami is a continuation of my attempt to get a story down on paper. The difference with this one is that I am determined to finish it, and get it published, even if it is just a small self funded run to share with friends.”

I think I will keep re-reading that for a bit until I stop with the paranoia. As long as someone enjoys the story and I don’t get caught up worrying about it to the point that writing it is no longer fun, it really doesn’t matter how good it is. I don’t expect to ever make a living from this, so it really doesn’t matter!

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Drawing: Character design from my graphic novel ‘i am ayanami’. She isn’t a happy bunny here. This version is another Alice one. Will draw some more Ayanami ones when I am feeling like the sunshine outside isn’t sarcastic.

I sound and feel like a teenager today – probably best to stay in doors…

Links:
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Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.

Links:
Original drawing
My graphic novel website
Follow me on Twitter

Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.

Links:
My graphic novel website
Follow me on Twitter

Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.

Well it has been good. For the freelancing. I have work. I actually was slightly too pro-active on the meeting front and got too much work. But this kinda works out in my favour, as I do have 6 weeks without income to make up for, and having a float in the business account rather than it relying on what tiny amount of my savings are still intact is a good plan.

But – and this is a big one – I quit my career to strike out on my own, due in large part to wanting time to work on my graphic novel. Now I am at home, working on everything but my graphic novel. Nothing new has gone onto the ‘i am ayanami’ site as there is nothing to show. I have hardly even read any more cyberpunk books or brainstormed any more ideas. I did about 4 or 5 hours work editing my first draft ‘i am ayanami’ prelude manuscript when in Wales. But really. That is it. All those plans to work on the plane to Japan? Nope, nothing happened. On the trip out I had a killer headache the entire time. On the way back I had a window seat and took the opportunity to see the world from above. Having never been on a plane before this was quite a novelty and we went over some absolutely amazing scenery. Wonderful for inspiration and I was overjoyed to see how the lane wings moved so much and opened and closed like transformers… but apart from loosely calling it inspiration or research, trying to call it work it a bit weak.

Which brings me to now. Finished my freelance graphic design work for the day – now procrastinating from anything marginally useful by writing a blog post about my lack of productivity on the graphic novel this very blog is about. Apart from enjoying the irony – it isn’t really helping my mood much!

So, in my first month and a bit of freelancing I have learnt this – plan your time. Say ‘No’ to work if you have enough. Treat your personal project as a client; Give it’s aspects deadlines, promise it days of your time and write them as such in your work diary, ensure it is equal in importance to any other work. If you don’t, it will always fall down the priority list and you will suddenly sit bolt upright a year later in shock wondering where all this wonderful time you quit your career for went. Otherwise I might as well go back to work  full time, as currently my only advantage is being able to get from bed to the office in 30 seconds… which although appealing… is not why I decided to work from home!

Personal projects always suffer if you are a workaholic – because you prioritise clients over internal work. Like all the design agencies out there whose own sites are out of date because they keep doing great work on everyone else’s instead.

So my advice for the day (as I shout into the void to my no-readers on here) is – Treat your personal project as a client or it will never get done.

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Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.

My favourite form of augmented reality has always been the ‘Virtual light’ style head’s up display with information connected to the real world. Until recently there had been no commercial project which took this on and created anything like the interface or experience I am interested in. But Apple have done it – well some iPhone app creators have anyway. Utalising the new iPhone 3Gs video capabilities they have made the first step to my kind of augmented reality application. In this case it is a London tube map finder which pops onto the screen showing the street directions to all the London Tube lines in the area and let’s you know which is closest. Sadly I do not have an iPhone, and know London well enough not to need the app anyway, but I am all in favour of this kind of thing developing and think this one would be really used to tourists and people who are often lost. Useful and innovative? A good combination I think.

Lost in London & in need of an augmented reality way to find the nearest tube station? There’s an app for that! I am looking forward to seeing how this idea develops and what else can be added to it – I know we are a way away from the really detailed information I would want (essentially I would like to be able to ‘google’ the world around me in this format), but until then, this is a good step in the right direction. Somewhere between this and Google Earth’s new streetview would be a good mashup down the road as well, as they have a lot more information.

I read about the app originally here:

Revolution Magazine article

Links:
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Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.

Really – if you want a laugh and to learn a little more about fiction writing this is a much more enjoyable way to do it than any other text book I have read. it covers character creation and introduction, plot holes and mistakes, descriptive writing and everything else in between.

If you see any of these mistakes in my first draft (for those who are reviewing it) you have permission to give me an almighty slap.

Buy How NOT to Write a Novel: 200 Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs If You Ever Want to Get Published or else…

Links:
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Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.

Japan is a country with many different sides to it’s culture and heritage. In many ways I saw similarities to England with our range of rural countryside and castles and also having a large international city as it’s capital. In some ways it felt familiar even if people were speaking a different language. But this may be true of all countries, being my first trip makes it hard to draw conclusive or accurate comparisons, so I will continue to make broad sweeping statements just based on what I have seen and see where that gets us.

Things to know about Japan:

English words that everyone seems to know: Quite a few people speak a little English. Many people in larger cities seem to know a smattering of things such as ‘Good morning’, ‘Hello’, ‘Bye’, ‘Thank you’ and similar basics and many enjoy practicing them. Assume they know roughly what you remember of studying french in   and stick to basics.

Just to make life easier; quite a few words are well known over there and become part of the language, words such as ‘bathroom’, ‘toilet’, ‘hotel’ and anything non Japanese like ‘coffee’, ‘ice-cream’ and ‘chocolate’ just need a slight Japanese accent to be valid. Generally I found that adults, especially those working in train stations and so on, can give basic directions such as left, right, up, down and a platform number (which are usually in English on the platform too). Tourist offices always have local maps in English as well. So I would say that even if you don’t speak a word you can get around – although learning basic polite phrases like ‘good morning’ and ‘excuse me’ is always a good idea in any country.

Younger people tend to know things which have migrated into Japanese slang like the word ‘Lucky’, so you may hear English in sentences by people who don’t actually speak it. The same as an English person might use the word Manga, Karaoke or Karate without knowing any Japanese.

They seem to love the English. English music is huge in Japan. The Rolling Stones especially. English history is seen as very cool somehow. People will often ask when they talk to you if you are American, when you reply and say you are English they usually think you are the best thing since sliced bread. I don’t entirely understand, but entire hoards of college boys hanging about at night would yell about how cool we were as soon as divulged this information (usually as we were trying to get past so we could get home after a late night out).

Crime. There isn’t much. I can’t say there isn’t any – but I didn’t see any. I saw hundreds of bicycles left on the streets and outside houses with no locks. No one stole them. when I explained to people how in England we had to use locks all the time they were shocked. Also, the legal age to drink is 21. There are beer vending machines which do not require ID to use. Yet I did not see a single person on the streets drinking or any youths using the machines in the entire time I was there. Put one of those vending machines at the end of my road and I suspect teenagers from across the county would flock to it even if it meant walking for miles… Oddly, cigarette vending machines do require ID – so if you smoke you will need to buy them from shops as you can’t get a temporary Japanese ID card.

Shops, such as 7-11, DailyMart and anything else along those lines are everywhere in larger cities and near train stations in smaller ones. And they are open 24-7. Anytime of day or night you need a snack, a drink, sweets or alcohol they are there. Late night chocolate buying runs became quite a hobby of mine as Japanese sweets are really good (I highly recommend Mini Galbo in chocolate or strawberry chocolate and any variety of Pocky chocolate sticks).

There are some cultural differences which can be quite subtle if you don’t know where to look. For example; it is really, really rude to eat while walking unless you are at a festival and it is street food which comes on a stick. It you want to eat a snack sit down on a bench or wall to do so. If you aren’t sure if your food is ok to eat walking, sit. You may see people eating and walking who are Japanese, but it is hard to tell if they are doing it because it is ok, or because they are being rude to those around them. Also do not eat anything on any public transport, unless it is a long distance Shinkansen (Bullet train) where food is served.

Trains: If you want to see more than 2 places or cities in Japan get a Japanese Rail Pass. It will save you a fortune and works all all Shinkansen (bulelt) trains, any JR local trains and busses and also the shuttle train to and from the airport into the city.

Live music – there will be no signs, but never take photos at live gigs of any kind. The bands make money by selling photos and are usually tied contractually to one photographer. I made this mistake and had to apologise profusely after the one other westerner in the place came up and told me what I was doing wrong. I would suggest if going anywhere you ask if photos are ok. I’ve started doing this and it was much nicer to know I wouldn’t accidentally make another mistake. If you don’t know any Japanese just point at the camera and as if it is ok and they will either be very agreeable, hesitant or say no. Anything other than agreeable means you shouldn’t. Museums and similar places usually have a photo with a cross through if you can’t – but if you aren’t sure always ask first. If they look reluctant or anything other than very happy about the idea, take it as they want to say no but are afraid to be rude and put the camera away. Definately see some live music. We saw local Visual Kei bands – which are kind of glam rock metal and seem to be primarily concerned with style and over the top costumes. Also, the crowd won’t dance or move unless the band directs, which means we saw a hoard of teenage schoolgirls all repeating the same motions as the band (usually para-para computer game moves) which was surreal to say the least. What was terrifying was then the band instructed them to ‘headbang’ (which means all hold hands and shake your heads in a sort of cute little girl version of that style) while lights strobed – this was exactly like a scene from a horror movie and scared the life out of me. Soudns silly – but this was the greatest culture shock aspect of the entire trip. I haven’t ever seen entire rooms of people do this and the Japanese sailor outfits, srobes and long hair waving was a missing scene from the Ring I swear… it is hard to describe – but believe me, it was scary!

Places to see:

Japan has some amazing sights, from the peace momorial park / dome in Hiroshima and the floating temple next to Miyajima mountain just off the coast and all the shrines and temples in Kyoto to the busting busy city life of Tokyo.

Some places I went and things I did which were of note were:

Hiroshima peace memorial park and dome – beautiful and haunting, the only surving building from the A bomb and surrounding areas are a beaufitul memorial to those who were lost. Including the girl who made a chain of 1000 paper cranes and many tributes to her.

Miyajima island. Climed mountain and saw the sights plus the temples on the mountain itself. Also saw the floating temple at night – absolutely beautiful. As a side attraction the deer on the island are tame and seen by the locals as pests – You can pet them.

Osaka – Osaka ju (castle), Black stock tattoo parlour and drinks bar (complete with pet pythons as well as drinks and a coupel of great tattoo artists). This is a nightlife area which is great for people watching. You can observe the countless hot young overly groomed and stylish Japanese men (under 21 so unable to go into bars) hanging out till 5am on the streets smoking and using their mobile phones hoping girls will approach them – yep, that’s right, in Japan the girls have to approach the guys on nights out.

Takarazuka – Didn’t get to see a play but saw the famous Takarazuka all female theatre building and local area. Osama Tezuka Museam was really great as well.

Kobe – Kobe beef for the meat eaters as it is famous worldwide. Cables – yes, power cables – they are everywhere in this industrial city and the images of them remind me of many cyberpunk and sci-fi films from Japan. Kobe is also considered very ‘international’ and has themed areas for different countries (with varying levels of accuracy). It is the home of Shirow Masamune and might explain why his work is so a-typical for a Japanese artist and has such a international flavour, especially as he is a hermit/recluse who never leaves Kobe. There is also several famous Sake brewers located in the area.

Kyoto – Shines, temples, shrines… Gaiko (Geisha, but do not refer to fully trained Kyoto Gaiko as regular Geshia even if the English tourist information does) district tours, shrines, Bar Moonwalk 200 yen bar, Bar ING rolling stones bar and the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine which has thousands of red shinto gates. We were lucky enough to see a Rumik World exhibition as well while here. Also check out the International Manga Museum – thousands of books to read (some in English) as well as galleries of art and exhibitions on particular authors or artists. Also the museum is full of Japanese people just reading books and kids dressed in costume hanging out with their friends. Toei Move Land (also called Kyoto Movie Park) is a good fun and silly theme park which has shows (such as live power ranger ones and martial arts displays) as well as themed yearly exhibits, museum on the history of the studio, lots of silly tat to buy, street performers and so on.

Tokyo – Harajuku for fashion and cosplayers (people who take on the characters of computer game and TV shows for the weekend all dressed up and hanging around posing for photos). Tokyo Tower has an amazing view – I recommend this at night so you can see how close the view is to every cyberpunk cityscape ever drawn or created in films. The ‘otaku’ fan district for anime, manga and computer lovers is Akihabra – many many shops dedicated to all things collectibles, readable or watchable. Things are priced by desirability rather than anything else so if you like anything which isn’t rare or too popular you can get a good bargain. Also, find stores called ‘Bookoff’ these sell second hand goods at huge discounts. Nekobara – cat petting room in a shopping mall which is a few pounds to get in and allows you to play with cats if you are too busy for your own pet. Quite silly but being away for so long  I missed having any kind of affection so I spent quite a while in here – it was also a good novelty side trip before doing any serious shopping in Aki. I also went to a ‘Maid Cafe’ in Aki, where you eat over priced cake in an overly cute cafe and all the waitresses are dressed as french maids – cute full covering outfits and not anything sexy about the whole thing. I went out of curitosity and found it to a be a cute charming place where before you can eat your cake you have to say a little spell (complete with hand gestures) to ensure it is delicious with the waitress. A ocne off tourist thing for me but evidently a common hobby for 20-30 year old Japanese business men. Shibuya crossing is in Tokyo – it is the huge multi zebra crossing used in every film where hundreds of people cross at once. Miyazaki Museum – It was closed while I was there, but really do go, even just to see the lifesized Laputa robot on the roof, although I am told everything about it is good. I will go on my next trip!

To be honest the list will just continue for another thousand words if I do not stop here! There is so much to do and see. I could have spend another month just wandering and people watching to see how the culture works.

I will put some more photo’s un in my next post.

Links:
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Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.

So sorry guys, the first draft will be AFTER Japan… The only issue now is that I am being quite critical of the sections which are finished rather than writing the missing pieces which still only exist as a series of bullet points. Perhaps my editing and rewriting is just a form of procrastination. Either way. It has left me quite behind on my already fairly generous schedule.

However, 12 hours on a plane should offer plenty of time to fix this. I say should. I am taking a copy of Gibson’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties‘ with me in case I just don’t have the energy to type, or just have nothing to type due to being in awe of the amazingly unnatural state of being so high off the ground in a little metal tube with wings. I am not afraid of flying – I think the whole idea is pretty interesting and am hoping to get a window seat at least one way so I can see how clouds look from a birds point of view.

Either way – I hope to get at least some work done on the journey and that the experience of being in a foreign land might help with some of my writing by literally broadening my horizons. Results either way will be noted.

My Japan trip however is far more organised than my writing. This is in no small part due to the fact I did very little of the planning. The bulk (say 99%) was orchestrated by my lovely friend Zoe Burgess. I even have an itinerary.

I have learnt a few things however. Book your unlimited money saving forigner rail passes early – and remember they cost a lot of money even though they are much cheaper than buying individual tickets. I recommend these guys: http://www.mybus.co.uk/apply/jprailpass.html. Another reason for using them is that you can book tickets to the Studio Ghibli museum from them (foreigners cannot book them inside Japan) at the same time: http://www.mybus.co.uk/apply/ghibli.html. Another good thing is that you can pay online then go and pick up your tickets from the My Bus Regent Street office. This will avoid the nail biting panic I had today by waiting in for my rail tickets ‘Guaranteed 1pm next day delivery’ which turned up at 1.35pm and in the end didn’t even need a signature, thus didn’t require waiting in

Other advice I would give is to call up your banks and tell them the dates you will be abroad – this avoids the trouble some of my friends have had where they use their card abroad and it gets blocked as potential fraud by overzealous protection measures.

To avoid too much laundry I have bough cheap packs of undies and vest tops (which handily come packaged really small) so I can get rid of them as I go if there are no handy laundry facilities. Make-up remover wipes are also handy if you think you might stay somewhere with limited washing facilities.

Lastly – photocopy or scan and print your passport. Take a copy with you in case you loose yours and need to go to an embassy (where knowing your info will be very handy) and leave another copy at home in case anyone needs to find you.

Sensible advice over – I am taking my trusty Acer Aspire One netbook, pen and paper, my Nikon D50 DSLR, my Coronet Clipper medium format camera and a variety of other essential items. My stuff looks like this:

Wish me luck on my first adventure out the country

Links:
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Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.

I didn’t think it would ever happen. In fact I have been pretty anti-Twitter for some time without any real reason to be. I had the general impression it was nothing more than people posting ‘tweets’ about what they had for breakfast. But actually there are some pretty good feeds up there with interesting comic and sci-fi related news and links. In fact some of my favourite authors and artists seem to have been on Twitter for some time…

Eating my proverbial hat I now have an account here. I will post up when I put new content onto this site in a handy news update kinda way, as well as post up links and news relating to graphic novels, cyberpunk and anything else vaguely relevant but not needing an involved long winded post written about it on my main blog.

So if you want to stay in touch will all the exciting (no wait the other one) updates I may wish to post simple click here and add the exciting new web 2.0 magical (Ok it might not be magical) i.am.ayanami feed to your Twitter page. It is that simple.

Links:
My graphic novel website
Follow me on Twitter

Help ‘i am ayanami’: Buy anything at all from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here and 5% goes towards the fund to get my work printed / published one day.