So, the USANA international convention 2009 just got finished this last saturday, and of course my desk has a whole pile of things to catch up on. Pretty much *every* employee in the building went to help out the distributors and associates of our products have a good time, learn about the company, and enjoy the convention.

Rumour has it, we succeeded.

For those that don’t know, Manga is the term for a graphic novel done in Japan. Manga is a fascinating thing to read, with it’s own art styles, writing styles, and plot lines. But I have to admit, until a month ago I never *REALLY* read any manga. But, since the purpose of this column is to introduce new novels to people, I wanted to venture into something new for myself.

Enter…Death Note.

It began in 2003, as a weekly showcase in “Shonen Jump”, a Japanese magazine. The concept is fairly straight-forward. A teenage boy named Light Yagami, brilliant in school, who finds a notebook in the school yard. Inside the notebook are instructions, written by a Japanese Death-God, a Shinigami named Ryuk. This notebook contains a set of rules which in essence state that who-so-ever writes a name in this book, then that named person will die.

So. What power! What potential! What would *YOU* do with that sort of power?

Light chooses to kill, of course. He starts off with criminals, serial killers mostly. The police, naturally, are baffled. With a Holmesian twist,  a contracted detective named “L” is introduced, and the battle of wits has begun.

As Vinzini once said, (paraphrase) “We shall have a contest. My brain against yours. When all is done, we shall see who is alive, and who is dead.”

Thus begins a 13 novel set, each one selling for approximately $8 on Amazon. The story is written by Tsugumi Ohba, with art drawing and direction by Takeshi Obata . Written over a period of 3 years (2003 to 2006), the 13 novels have developed a cult following, with numerous fan-fiction, two live-action movies, a tv series and even three video games (never released in the US, though.)

The books are done in black and white, although you might find a color page here and there depending on which set of books you pick up. Personally, I enjoy the color pages, but the art style  was designed for a weekly magazine, and so the black ink suits it best.

Before I go, I should mention one other thing. Manga is japanese, and so therefore is traditionally read from back to front, and right to left.  It takes a few pages to get used to the flow, but you’ll find you quickly adapt to it. In the example below, the FIRST thing to read is “The police are saying…” the LAST thing to read is “someone deserves to die.”

Enjoy, I know I did.

–Steven

Deathnote Page

Wednesday Weekly Writing Tip, July 8, 2009….

This past Friday I had the opportunity to share in the funeral of the father of a good freind of mine. The man himself was a friend of mine, too, as I had met him on several occasions and was even able to vacation with their family once upon a time. He had that distinct ability, as his son so eloquently put it, that if you met him once, you counted him among your friends.

So what does this have to do with writing tips? I’ll tell you. It’s about the *memories*. As I looked around at that church and the literally hundreds of people that were there to honor this man. So what legacy will I leave behind for people to remember me? Honestly, I consider myself a homebody. I am not like this man who was happy to go out and help others, aiding complete strangers and donating his time and money out of the sheer goodness of his heart. I’d like that to be me, but it’s not…I’m ok with that, really I am.

What I want to leave behind is a body of writing that people just might go out of their way to search and find. How many authors get the honor of being repeatedly searched on Google?

As a basis of comparison:

“Stephen King”, 11 miilion results
“Emily Bronte”, 1.74 million results
“Edgar Allen Poe”, 0.84 million results
“Steven Cherecwich”, 0.000142 results

So, umm…yeah. I haven’t quite left my mark just yet. But I’m working on it!

What are you doing to leave YOUR mark in this world?

(You can view the entire story by clicking on the “wth-story” at the top right of your screen).

“Jennifer!” She shrieked, dropping her bags and running to her friends. “Melissa!” they all shouted back, Wrapping their arms around each other in group hug the friends held each other tight for a moment. Melissa picked up her bags and looked at her friends, silently checking to herself her own attiare was appropriate.

Melissa wore a short beige skirt with a pink sleeveless shirt, just the thing for sunny weather. Her eyes quickly glanced over Jennifers blue jeans and a Ramones t-shirt. Next to her stood Sharon, blonde and bubbly as ever, wearing her trademark blue chiffon dress…overkill for a 14 hour plane flight, but that Sharon for you. The last of the quartet, Geine, the most athletic of the bunch, chose light colors to offset her dark skin, wearing a pale blue t-shirt and white jeans to match  her white high tops.

The four girls quickly went through the check in at the airport and stood in line together to go through the airport  security.

“So what’s your favorite part of Italy, Lissa?”, asked Sharon

Melissa smiled at the thought of the brochures she’d spent the last month pouring over. “Oh, definately the statues. I can’t believe how much art there is.”

Geine chimed in, “I want to see the ruins, the ancient architecture.”

“Venice for me!” said Jennifer.

Sharon laughed, “You just want to hook up with one of those gondola-boys.”

Jennifer grinned, “Damn straight I do.”

The group laughed, and proceeded to laugh even harder when Melissa got picked for a full search during security checkin. As they finally made their way through and headed to their gate, the talk resumed.

“You know what I hate most about this?”, said Melissa.

“You didn’t pack enough birth control?”, giggled Jenny

“NO!”, she replied, smacking her friend with a purse, “I hate layovers in strange cities. I always get worried I’ll miss my plane.”

Sharon grinned at her freind, “No worries, honey. We’ll take care of you.”

“Yeah, I know.”, said Melissa, “I just wish we didn’t have our seats so far apart on the plane either.”

“Think they’ll let us switch around?”, asked Geine.

“Doubt it.” said Sharon, “Not after that scare they had last week.”

Melissa frowned…one more thing to worry about with airplanes.

So I’m aiming for Fridays to be a video game review day. Today I’m going to cover the new Ghostbusters game, which I purchased for my PS3.

For those not familiar with my blog, this is about WRITING. So I won’t such much of anything about the great gameplay or the awesome graphics. =)

The story takes place approximately two years after the movie Ghostbustes II. All our favorites are here, Ray, Egon, Peter, and Winston…even secreatary Janine, mayor whats-his-name, and annoying EPA guy Mr Peck are all here with the original actors playing the voices. The mayor has hired the ghostbustes as a city-funded team (a subdivision of the sanitation department), and insurance now pays for all the damage the ghostbusters do.

With Gozer out of the way, typical New-York City greed kicks in, and the local museum is preparing to open a brand new exhibit dedicated to Gozer. As a young female scientist is walking through the exhibit, a pulse wave of energy goes through the building and throughout all of New York, waking up some of the ghosts, and beginning our little adventure.

You, the player, are never given a name other than jibes by the crew “hoss”, “partner”, “recruit”, etc.  As this storyline was written by the original writers of the Ghostbusters movies (Ray & Egon) the character lines are spot-on and hysterically funny. For example, when Ray asks your name, Peter Venkman interrupts and says “No names, Ray. We agreed on that…remember what happened to the last intern?” When Bill Murray says his lines, they are as fresh and funny as the first go around.

For those of us that loved the movies, all the classic ghosts are back. Slimer escapes from his cell and is used as your training mission, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man comes back for a second round, and even the Librarian gets an upgrade (including a backstory!) as a major player in the game.

All told, a short “read”. The game was finished in less than 10 hours on medium difficulty, but it is a game I will be going back for a second playthrough.

Wednesday Writing Tip:

Todays tip is a simple one…keep on, keepin’ on!  One of the biggest things in life about trying to maintain yourself as a credible writer is that you have to have a body of work behind you. It can be good, it can be crap. But what you need to do is keep on writing! It doesn’t really matter if its nonfiction, an essay of the local coffee joint, or if you are working on the Great American Novel….you’ve got to keep writing *something*.

Why? Because it’s too easy to get distracted. To pick up that Xbox, or go shoot hoops, or work on the car, or whatever….life gets busy, and you need to make time for your priorities. If you’re reading this, then chances are you’ve made writing one of your priorities. So try to make it a point to write a *minimum* of three times a week for an hour at a pop….even with that amount (low by some estimates) you’ll be surprised at both the quality and quantity of work you put out.  Each new paragraph will get a little better than the last.

Remember, everyone has setbacks. Did you know Stephen Kings first published novel was Carrie? Did you also know it was the third novel he wrote? Don’t expect success to come straight away…it takes practice, persistence, and above all…dedication to your craft.

–Steven

Not to brag too much, but for anyone reading this, I’ve updated the “About Steve” page at the top there. Look up…that’s right. Yeah, up there. The one on the right. =)

Welcome to Holland, a novelization of the Emily Perl Kingsley essay, as written by Steven Cherecwich

(authors note: I am writing this entirely on-site. The only thing happening off this page will be my thoughts. So here you will see all my mistakes, my re-writes, my edits, and screwups….enjoy…)

Melissa couldn’t beleive her ears when her friends told her about the trip. While in high school, it seemed it was all she and her friends could talk about was having a group trip to Italy, and now the dream was coming true. She could never have done it on her own, but as fate would have it one of her friends was getting married and her father had offered to send the entire bridal party off to Italy on a “last romp” before the wedding in August.

Melissa stared down at her plane ticket, her eyes slightly watering at the fact she was due to board in a little less than three hours. As she got into the taxi and headed to the airport to meet up with her friends, she knew she was in for the greatest experience of her entire life. The taxi drove for a short while, and as Melissa threw a $20 at the driver and hurried into the airport she quickly patted down her pockets to make sure she still had her airplane tickets, her passport and a large wad of cash for the trip.

Her smile went from large to grand as she spotted her friends in the terminal, checking themselves in for the flight. A quick round of group hugs and the four ladies were bound at the hip for the rest of the journey, a single unit of close friendship which nothing could break.

It’s 1987.  Emily Perl Kinglsey has a son, Jason, with Down syndrome.  (Wait! Stop! Don’t feel sad for her, as she is very happy with her life, and her son.) Her circumstances, and other peoples’ lack of ability to understand her circumstances, are what drove her to write this essay.

An essay which I want to turn into a novella, through the use of weekly blog updates.

So, without further ado…my source of inspiration, Emily Perl Kingsley: “Welcome to Holland”

(  PS–if anyone knows how to get hold of Ms Kingsley, I would like official permission for my novelization of this tale.)

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”

But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.

Well, hello there!

I’ll be up front and honest with anyone actually reading this blog…I’ve tried before, and I’ll try again. Creating and maintaining a blog can be HARD. I can only hope that I have something worthwhile for people to read about.

Since this blog was created by and for lit.org, I’m working on a format that I want to do to encourage other writers and what they do.

something like this…

Mondays: A short story I’m working on, I’ll post a few new pages every week.

Wednesdays: Something inspiring on the why’s/wherefores/whats of writing techniques.

And of course, random blog posts any other time the mood strikes me! =)

I recommend you start on top of the screen there, by clicking on the word “12 steps”

Take care, we’ll talk again soon.