Black Blood Brothers

I have decided to rewatch the Black Blood Brothers series. So far I have seen episodes one through four. We have met Jiro Mochizuki. He is an old vampire, an old blood. He is also known as the Silver Blade. Apparently Jiro has made it his mission to eliminate the Kowloon Children.

The Kowloon Children are some powerful vampires. They can quickly turn humans to vampires and control them. A group of Kowloon Children abducted Jiro's younger brother. Jiro used up all his strength defending against these vampire. Luckily Mimiko, a compromiser, gave her blood to Jiro to energize him.

Mimiko experienced the resonance, where she could read the mind of Jiro because her blood flowed through him. I don't know the full story. But it appears that compromisers negotiate agreements between the humans in power and vampires that want safe harbor in the Special Zone.

Katsucon 2012 Wrap Up

I have returned home from Katsucon 18, also known as Katsucon 2012. Memorable voice actors included Chrisopher Ayres, Greg Ayres, Richard Epcar, and J. Michael Tatum. Webcomics in the house included Phil Kahn, Onezumi, and Chris Flick.

There was some adult only features at the con. Titles covered adding eroticism to fan fiction, digital love, the hentai panel, and japanese bondage. There were many sessions I just could not attend due to time constraints. I would have loved to see webcomics are really business, steampunk to cyberpunk, make your own plushie, and guilded age.

Of course you got to love the cosplay. There was a Japanese girl there dressed as some sort of princess or goddess. She had a huge coin on her back. Who knows where that was from. There was another Asian girl. I could not recall her costume as she had really long legs on display, and used some costume tricks to make them even longer. A lot of people, including myself, liked some of the off-beat outfits like the Donnie Darko rabbit suit. That guy received a lot of high fives.

Online Promotion

I went to a short deck presentation on promoting your work online. The theme was that you are the advertisement for your work. So act professionally always. Be known for delivering the goods. Update social media on a schedule. Spend around an hour a day on this activitiy. Guest blogging can drive good traffic to your site.

Build relationships. Your fan base will most likely be people like yourself. Look and see who covers you in the press. Email them. Don't be discouraged if people say you suck. It is going to happen. Tweet during the business hours of 9am to 5pm. Reply to tweets frequently. Treat Twitter like a chat room. The months of December and January are going to be dry no matter what.

Try to reach the prime influencers. Look to Klout for determing who they are. Bloggers are usually volunteers. Help them reach their goals. Know that they want to do little work. Give them something they can cut and paste. Tell people what you want them to do. This is the call to action. It works.

Webcomics Redux

Print on demand is great for low volume printing. Createspace is a good resource for this. They give you a free ISBN number. Lulu works but is more expensive. GotPrint is good for promotional items. It is recommended that you do not do spread covers (that span front and back of book).

In general, it is best not to do work for free. Exposure is hardly worth anything. Better to partner up with a writer or artist. Make sure you have a contract to specify the terms. You don't need a lawyer to draw it up. Contracts are especially needed if you are working with your friends.

The contractual relationship could be a work for hire, where you pay them up front in exchange for all the rights to the work. Be careful and weary about giving up your digital rights. Better to do a partnership where you share a percentage of ownership in the product.

There is no guarantee of any profits. If there are any, it will probably takes years to generate them. So if you can get a fare rate for your work, you might consider a work for hire relationship. Note that it is customary to retain the right to use your works in a portfolio that does not generate revenue.

The Rise of Webcomics

Webcomics have been exploding in popularity over the last 10 years. To be successful you need to hustle. You can save money by putting in a lot of effort. Do your marketing using old school face-to-face methods. Go to local conventions. Network there.

General web advertising makes use of Google AdWords. However anime and webcomic specific ads can be purchased through Project Wonderful. You can also be a publisher for them and make money by hosting their ads on your site. Note that you need to pay $10 to start out with a Project Wonderful account.

It is highly recommended that you get your own webh site. Your URL will be your identity. Build up some content first. Then turn to ads to drive users to your site. You must be even more established to get success using KickStarter to raise funds for your projects.
More on webcomics later.

The Voice Actors Guild

There is one feature I always love to attend at anime conferences. That is the voice actors' panel. I liked hearing some weird voices from Richard Epcar. I was surprised to find that he stars as the voice in the new Skyrim game. My favorite voice actor present was J. Michael Tatum. Among many other roles, he is the voice of Jiro Muchizuke in Black Blood Brothers. Classic.

Voice acting wears on your throat just like singing does. There are some tricks to deal with this. Ellen Stern said she steams her throat before and after jobs each day. A small cap full of brandy helps keep your voice strong during the job. Take it easy on this one. You don't want to be slurring.

There are no short cuts in the voice acting industry. Get trained. That is the fun part. Beware of scam artists trying to milk you for your money. Don't train specifically on voice acting. Study plain acting. Learn how to be yourself and find your own voice. Practice by speaking text from kids books aloud for 10 minutes each day. This will help you do cold readings.

One interesting insight was that video game voice work pays more than anime voice overs. I was also surprised to hear J. Michael Tatum's story. He said he would not speak when he was young due to a speech impediment. Now he rocks. Go Jiro.

Brony Haters

I attended a session that discussed the changing face of the anime conference attendee. One thing was clear. There was no love for Naruto fans at this panel. They also derrided Bronys, which are males dressing up like My Little Pony. Weird.

There is a growing sect of multi-fandom fans at the conferences. They just don't like anime. They love Doctor Who. They love Star Trek. Should conferences cater to these other interests? That raise the profits. It also alienates some anime purists. There was no clear answer. There was consensus that conference probably need to evolve.

I heard an interesting analysis on the difference between East and West coast conference goers. Each coast attendees are more hyperactive and crazy. West coast fans are more formal and laid back. They have a greater interest in the scholarly side of anime analysis. I was on the East coast for this conference. Strangely enough, we were discussing the trends in a scholarly fashuion People came to the talk.

The Birth of Inuyasha

I went to a presentation on the creator of Inuyasha. She is Rumiko Takahashi. To tell the truth, I really did not know much about her. Rakahashi was born in 1957. One of the main themes in her work is that of the love story. She practivally invented the magical girlfriend saga.

Takahashi is best known for Ranma 1/2. Her work essentially made Viz Entertainment what it is now. They produced an unflipped version of her anime for the Western market. By 1995, Takahashi had sold over 100,000,000 books. She is known as the Queen of Manga.

Some say Takahashi is the most successful female author in the world. She started Inuyasha in 1995. I did not start watching that anime until over 10 years later. Strangely enough, the presenter of the talk I attended did not care for Inuyasha.

History Matters

Consider the history of the people you are writing about in your fiction. You can borrow from modern day events. However you should be subtle. Your prose should not sound like an essay. For science fiction, pay attention to the elements. What does the material do? Consider them from a scientific viewpoint.

Politics are a big deal. Some people wants to be more important than others. Who is in charge? How do people make decisions? The politics of the region are going to lead to conflict. This conflict is what will give birth to your story. If you don't have conflict, you won't have a story. Or you will not have a story that anyone wants to read.

Finally pay attention to the religion of your characters. What is the place of each character in their universe? Do the religions conflict with each other? How does science affect the religion? These questions can drive your plot in an interesting way.

Start with the Topography

I attended a talk on create the universe in which your work of fiction resides. This was supposed to be a presentation. However the guys opened the floor up for questions from the audience almost immediately. Nobody likes listening to an hour long PowerPoint presentation without time for questions.

In general you should remain driven and focused on your outline. That does not mean that your characters cannot have a small side quest now and then. Limit these to a chapter or two. One of the first jobs of an author is to acquaint the reader to the characters. You want the reader to be on the side of your characters, especially the good guys.

Give a little attention to the scenery of the place. What resources are available? You don't have to literally draw a map. But you should tell the reader the general size of the area.

Writing Mechanics

You should try out Google docs if your are collaborating with someone else while writing. Both of you can edit the same document at the same time. Now let's talk writing basics. It is best to take a top down approach. Produce an outline of your plot from start to finish.

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Figure out what your story is about. Know your ending before you start. This allows you to add subtle foreshadowing right from the start. Make sure you actually do end your story srong.

It is good to also start out with some notes on what each chapter is about. Your notes don't need any sort of formal formatting. The start is most important. This is where you make your "elevator pitch". Get your reader hooked in the first 25 words or less.

World Building

Today I attended a talk on world building. This is the work you do before you write that novel. You don't need to finish this ground work before you start writing your text. But you should make an effort to understand it all.

Create a well defined set of rules for your universe. You don't need to explain all these rules to your audience. But the characters should be bound by the rules. There are exceptions. The bad guys can be breaking these rules. They are bad after all.

Plot is a tricky subject. You don't want to jump the shark. That is, you can't immediately come out with something big in your prose. Otherwise you will have to keep trying to raise the stakes. That just does not work.

Breaking into the Gaming Industry

On day 1 of Katsucon, I headed over to a talk on breaking into the gaming industry. The blurb on this session encouraged people to come with questions for the Q&A session. Well I showed up on time. There was some technical difficulties with the on screen projection at first. Then the presenter went into a massive Powerpoint presentation. This lasted until we got kicked out of the room. WTF?

I was really looking forward to a question and answer session. You know. I like to hear from the insiders at game shops. No such opportunity here. Big let down. I stay to the end of sessions I attend. This one was no different. I wish I knew this was just a PowerPoint review. I would have bolted really early. I could have read all this info online.

Katsucon 18

Today we checked into Katsucon 18. We are going all out this year. Reserved a hotel room for two nights. This helps us rest up a bit between hectic events. Also helps save on food costs. Last year we waited for hours to register. This year we planned ahead and preregistered.

Imagine our surprise when we found the preregistration line very long this year. If we waited to register at the event, there was no line at all. Go figure. You just can't win. The hotel is big. We spent a lot of time walking around even after we arrived on our floor.

As usual, there were a number of scantily clad ladies attending the conference. I liked the outfits where you could not guess whether someone was wearing a wig, or dyed their own hair. I was surprised to be informed that Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle was staning in the registration line just in front of me.