The Audio, Slideshow, and Transcript for my Sakura-Con 2014 Yuri Panel

Last weekend my girlfriend Amy (@phoenix_red) and I went to Sakura-Con, where we did a yuri panel on Saturday night from 9:00 to 10:15 pm. In previous years (like here, here, here, here, here, and here), I have written about panels (or panel-esque events) that I have hosted. Rather than just tell you about this one, I uploaded my recording of it onto SoundCloud (link here) and have uploaded the transcription I made of it onto Google Docs (link here.) You can also see the slideshow slides here.

I was initially very annoyed at Sakura-Con because they charged Amy and I admission, since the standard practice at cons is not to charge panelists admission and Sakura-Con didn't make it clear that their policy differed beforehand, but I still really enjoyed the weekend and had a lot of fun doing that panel. Other things I attended: the MINT and Angelic Pretty fashion shows, the latter of which was especially fun even though I'm not interested in wearing Lolita fashion myself; the Attack on Titan Q&A, with Mikasa's voice actress Ishikawa Yui and AoT's producer Kinoshita Tetsuya; the Noitamina panel where Amy and I won a Noitamina commemorative book in a raffle; and the Attack on Titan autograph signing where I had my copy of volume 10 of the manga signed.

The panel was a lot of fun, and it got way more people than I expected. It was a "Whoah!" moment in the best way to see this line on arriving to our panel's room.

And here you can see the audience below.

The panel started later than expected because of technical issues, but Amy was a badass and got shit resolved, together with Edward Elric. Before the panel started, one of our moderators, an Ariel from The Little Mermaid cosplayer (I was surprised by how much Disney cosplay there was, even not counting all the Elsas from Frozen) warned us that some people in the audience might ask inappropriate questions because of our panel topic and that we didn't need to answer anything that made us uncomfortable, but that didn't happen. The audience was pretty great.

Amy's and my friend Ben, who designs games including a yuri one mentioned in the presentation (he recently did a BL game also), our other friend Ben, who is the creator of the Licensed Heroes webcomic, and our friend Jake, who creates the Modest Medusa webcomic, were in town for the con weekend and were able to attend our panel. Adding to the coolness, Kelly (azumarrill.tumblr.com) and Audrey (achievement-hunter.tumblr.com), the awesome Ymir and Christa cosplayers I geekily photographed earlier that day

attended the panel also, resulting in this photo after the slideshow ended.

Anywho, it was a lot fun! Panels are basically a way to geek out with other people who are interested in something you like enough to create a presentation about. For this panel, I redid most of the slides to put more emphasis on trends in yuri. When I put together my first panel, back as a senior in high school, I emailed Okazu's Erica asking for panel advice and she was really nice and gave some good tips, so if you want to do a yuri panel and have any questions about it, feel free to ask me.

A look at volume 1 of the Psycho-Pass manga, some Yayoi x Shion goodness, and some rambling on doujinshi

This post started as one thing and ended entirely another. I decided to add some fan art and a link to a good fanfic about Psycho-Pass's yuri couple below this review, and hey, an artist who does fan art I really like of said couple is releasing a doujinshi of them at GLFes (a yuri doujinshi event in Tokyo on May 26) and here's a translation of its preview pages, and here's some more info about GLFes.

The Psycho-Pass manga adaptation, re-titled Kanshikan Tsunemori Akane (Inspector Tsunemori Akane), is currently running in Jump Square, a magazine aimed at the oldest subset of the shounen demographic, late teens. As someone whose first exposure to Psycho-Pass was through the anime that premiered last fall, like most people who've tried at least one iteration of Psycho-Pass' story, it's hard for me not to compare Miyoshi Hikaru's manga adaptation to the anime.

As in the anime, the manga's story takes place in Tokyo in 2112. The government has implemented the Sibyl System, which monitors every citizen's psychological state (or psycho-pass) to deduce whether they will commit a crime. If one's psycho-pass becomes too "clouded", one is judged a latent criminal. In theory, latent criminals with low enough crime coefficients can be rehabilitated through therapy. In practice, they're fucked, and have next to no chance of returning to normal society.  The Sibyl System, unsurprisingly, has very flawed criteria for judging people. (Btw, I love the people who criticize this story on the grounds that a society enabling such an obviously flawed government institution is implausible enough to constitute a plot hole. Yup, that never happens.)

It's disappointing that the most extreme example of Sibyl screwing up isn't included here- Kagari Shuusei telling Psycho-Pass's protagonist Tsunemori Akane, a non-latent criminal, that he has been a latent criminal since Sibyl judged him one at five years old. That information not only illustrates how much the Sibyl System can mess with people's lives, it's Kagari's only background information and gives more context to his resentment of the amount of choice Akane has had.

At least in the manga we still get Karanomori Shion mentioning that she had a medical license before she became a latent criminal and Sibyl figured she'd be most useful as a physician/lab and data analyst for the Public Safety Bureau's Crime Investigation Division; see Kunizuka Yayoi reading a guitar magazine (which alludes to her past as a guitarist in a band, as the anime later shows in a flashback illustrating what Unit 1 of the PSBCID was like when she joined them); hear Masaoka Tomomi's explanation of his past as a detective who became too good at what he did; and see hints of what made Kougami Shinya into a latent criminal, which fuels his vendetta against the story's main villain.

Akane, just out of school, joins the PSBCID as an Inspector. Inspectors go after latent criminals and plain old criminals on Sibyl's behalf. They work with Enforcers, latent criminals Sibyl judged as having the aptitude to catch latent criminals and criminals. Enforcers aren't able to leave the PSBCID unaccompanied by an Inspector. The other Inspector in Akane's unit, Ginoza Nobuchika, sees latent criminals as subhuman while Akane wants to work with them as equals. This becomes a source of tension between them.

Chapter one covers Akane's first day on the job, in which she and her co-workers deal with a hostage situation that escalates- thankfully, not as badly as it would have if Akane weren't willing to make up her own mind rather than follow whatever Sibyl says.

Chapter two covers the anime's episode two, in which Akane deals with her guilt over having hurt Kougami to save the hostage's life. As in episode 2, she and Masaoka arrest a latent criminal at the mall. In a weird story change from the anime, Kou, who should be recovering his ability to move in a hospital bed, having been hit with a heavy duty stun gun, decides Akane and Masaoka arresting a run-of-the-mill latent criminal is enough reason to break out of the Public Safety Bureau (something he took elaborate measures to do in the anime, for a much more crucial reason) and run to the mall so he can help. This scene is supposed to make him look like a badass, but just makes him seem like kind of a drama queen. The low amount of danger Akane and Masaoka are in aside, the idea of instantly recovering from being temporarily disabled because of sheer willpower is stupid- that's not how being disabled works- but again, I guess the editor or someone thought it would seem cool.

Chapter three brings us halfway through the story covered by episode three, in which Akane and the other members of Unit One investigate a series of suspicious deaths at a drone factory. Not being able to connect to Sibyl or any outside communication within the factory puts them at a disadvantage.

I've only mentioned the changes I don't like. ^^; Better changes: seeing the day Akane found out what Sibyl considers her viable career options, and seeing her break the news of her choice to her parents, who weren't pleased but stopped opposing after she told them why she wanted it. (Her parents' opposition was only alluded to in the anime. Also, now I wonder what would happen if someone said they wanted to do a job outside the range of what Sibyl deemed appropriate for them. That was kind of sort of answered with Rina. She sang anyway and- assuming she isn't a special psycho-pass snowflake like Akane- I guess stayed free by dodging getting her hue measured by staying in the underground scene of a less regulated area of Tokyo?) We also briefly see Akane's training at the Academy and her meeting her boss before being sent to her first day on the job.

That said, time to bitch about another change! Yayoi and Shion, who are lovers in the anime? The first scene indicating that they're together in the anime is toned down here. So you better understand, here's a visual comparison.

I shouldn't need to explain the difference, but there are people who missed the point of that scene in the anime even though it was as clear as the sun is bright for most viewers. In the manga, Yayoi isn't putting the last touch on getting dressed while leaving Shion's office and Shion isn't lying on her office's couch while pulling her pantyhose back on. The fact that she's pulling on thigh highs instead of regular pantyhose also makes a difference, and it's impossible to contrast these scenes without sounding like a perv isn't it. Ah well. I've already translated the first part of a smutty doujinshi (that I'm buying) below, so I suppose I'm past the point of no return already.

Tl;dr, there are many good things about the anime and some of those good things are still here- but going from this volume, this is still the beta version. I didn't read this volume looking for a carbon copy of the anime. I wanted some changes, since I might as well re-watch the anime for the exact same take on P-P's story, but I wanted the changes to more consistently not make me go : \

But whatever, I still really like the anime. (Reader: "What the hell was the point of this review, Katherine?")

This review also gives me another excuse opportunity to post fan art, as well as a fanfic rec. I found a really good fic on how Yayoi and Shion got together, "In Darkest Red" by Jen.

And some of the fan art is nsfw-ish, so I'm placing it all under the cut below.

An Idiot's Guide to Shinjuku Nichoume

I recently realized that my hard won first-hand knowledge of the lesbian scene in Tokyo- gleaned when I stayed in Tokyo for two months last summer- might be appreciated by folks looking to explore it. So here are some notes.

To get to Nichoume:

To the west of Shinjuku station, you have the business district- your classic concrete jungle of skyscrapers honeycombed with offices. To its east, you have the shopping and nightlife area. (Including an Animate!) I worked as an intern on the west side, and first visited Shinjuku Nichoume after a middle-aged male co-worker warned me that I should avoid that area. Thank you for the reminder, good sir. ^_^

Exit the east side of the station and keep walking until you start seeing bars full of men only and shops filled with images of buff, half-naked men. Why did I not mention bars full of women? Most of the businesses in the area- including bars at the ground level (a lot of bars in Tokyo are on higher stories in buildings, requiring you to look up to see the signs for them), are aimed at the dudes.

Want a shop aimed more at queer ladies? (I'll get to bars and events.) Go to the Love Piece Club- a.k.a. the place that produced and sells the Plica-chan movie- which is in a different area of Tokyo. I visited it once. It's a nice, if very pink, place, with an interesting bian manga selection towards the back- mostly tankoubon by Takeuchi Sachiko

and issues of Carmilla, a lesbian magazine that made me wonder who the hell buys it.

Love Piece Club's address:
文京区本郷7-2-2 本郷ビル2F
Directions to LPC (in English!) found here.

Bring a map! Ideally ask a business owner or an officer at a police box for directions, since they're more likely to know the area well than a random passerby. Obviously, you should make it easier for the people you're interacting with by learning basic conversational Japanese and how to ask for directions. Don't make your server at the restaurant you dine at cry on the inside from having to pretend you deserve a cookie for knowing "Konbanwa" and "Arigatou."

My guidebook (Frommer's) didn't remotely list every lesbian bar- just some popular/especially foreigner-friendly ones. The night before I left Tokyo (where I got a drink at a Nichoume bar to wind down and rest my feet after having spent the day visiting a maid café and buying doujinshi with a friend, and going around Tokyo by train to see certain sites one last time), I was given a list of all of the lesbian bars in Nichoume and their addresses by someone who works there, but I...uh, didn't find it where I thought it would be. (With a couple event flyers I've kept.) But I know there are a lot. ^_^; I wouldn't post it here anyway, since I assume that at least some of those bars may not want to be that easily found.

This past year, the popular Motel #203 bar changed its name to Bar Gold Finger and moved to a shagadelic-looking new ground-level location. I assume it’s still a good bar.

Photos not mine, from Bar Gold Finger's website. (CLICK THE LINK. That amazing music.)

Bar Gold Finger's address:
新宿区新宿2-12-11林ビル1F
Click here for a map showing how to get there.

Be prepared to answer how you found out about whichever bar you're visiting. The super-nice bar owner at Kinswomyn (Nichoume's most famous, established bar) seemed to get a kick out of seeing the description of her bar in my guidebook.

But god damn, Kinswomyn. You're a lovely bar, but you don't make it easy for me to find recent pics that show that. (Used interior ones only, since there are no exterior pics, and exterior pics wouldn't work anyway because the entrance is just a door in a hallway.) I gleaned a few from Kinswomyn's Twitter account, found here, here and here.

I included the third pic because of the character I spotted in its background.

Kinswomyn's address:
新宿区新宿 2-15-10 第 1 天香ビル 3F

You'll have to work harder to find this one. From the direction of Shinjuku-doori, walk up Naka-doori. Down one of the first few roads to your right, you'll find it in a building to your left. When I visited it, its outside sign was faded. Hopefully they've replaced it. If you get there before the crowd arrives at 9:00, you may pass by its door without realizing you just did and wondering if you got the address wrong, before asking someone else in the building where Kinswomyn is, being pointed back there, and staring like an idiot before opening it. ^_^ Good luck! In all seriousness, just bring a map and the address and say "Sumimasen, kono basho o sagashiteimasu" ("I am looking for this place") to someone. (Maybe more than one someone.)

There's an all-women's party every week in the area, and the lesbian bar owners are big on promoting each other's events, so when you visit one, you're likely to get a recommendation or flyer for the next party coming up. Best thing about the event flyers- they have maps! If you go to a Nichoume party, be prepared to cough up a 2,000 to 3,000 yen cover.

The best place to find flyers for all of the upcoming lgbtq events in the area is the CoCoLo Café. CoCoLo Café accepts credit cards, but the bars don't. The Advocates Café does, but only if you charge 5,000 yen or more at once. The Advocates Café is really a bar that opens and closes early, renowned for being a good place to get word-of-mouth event/club recommendations. Like CoCoLo, it is aimed at all genders and sexualities, but unlike CoCoLo, men make up the vast majority of its clientele- including quite a few non-Japanese folks.

 Don't own these photos, screencapped them from Advocates's front page.

Advocates' address:
新宿区新宿2－18－1 第7天香ビル1F
You don't need an address or a map. You can't walk down Naka-doori and miss Advocates.

Ditto, from CoCoLo's website.

The food at CoCoLo is decent, and I had a dessert drink (a matchacchino) that I quite liked. But it's especially nice for its flyers and the ability for gay couples to be lovey-dovey at a restaurant without worrying about getting side-eyed. Or getting awkwardly hit on like I was, before ditching the woman in question with the other girl she hit on at the same time (really) because she creeped us both out and we got along and were sick of being politely tolerant while craning our necks around her to speak to each other more. CoCoLo also stays open until 7:00 in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights (midnight on Sundays and Mondays through Thursdays), so it's a good place to get a slice of cake or coffee or something late at night. Here's a video tour of the café.

CoCoLo's address:
新宿区新宿2-14-6 第１早川屋ビル１階
Map (in Japanese) found here. It's easy to spot from Naka-doori.

The trains in Tokyo stop some time between 12:00 and 1:000 in the morning, so if your home base isn't in the area and you don't catch the last train (check the train station schedule if you want to catch it, or the first train at 6:00-ish in the morning) and you really don't want to make yourself stay awake until the morning train, your best/cheapest bet is one of the internet/manga cafés. Just start walking in the nightlife area of east Shinjuku, and you're bound to see one. See here for more details on what internet/manga cafés (and other lodgings) are like. Unlike the author of that article, I think internet/manga cafés are the most miserable places in the world to sleep (you're basically paying for a booth with a computer, a pleather pad covering the ground, and a cracked beanbag chair, with nothing to block out the light), but if you're dead tired it'll do. Sometimes the booths with the pads are sold out, so you have the option of buying one sans a pad.

Anecdote: I once locked myself out of the sharehouse I was staying in because I'd left my house key in my other bag. My housemates weren't home, and I  couldn't contact them. I tried to break in- checking the doors and windows and trying lock-picking with hairpins for the first time. My housemates weren't back by the time the last train to downtown Ikebukuro (I was in a residential area outside of it) was about to arrive, so I took the train downtown to find an internet café. At the first place I visited, the guy at the counter said they only had padless booths left. I was like "lol No" at the idea of paying to sleep on a floor, and left to check out the other internet café in the area. Their credit card machine was wonky, so they could only accept cash, but I was too low on it. (Spent the day in Shibuya's shopping area- which, incidentally, has a wonderful Mandarake.) Long story short, I went back to that first internet café, and the guy at the counter was like "lol No" when I asked if they still had any booths available. Sleep-need aside, my nerves were frayed by the pick up artists hanging around outside (there because of the love hotels downtown) whose presence dominated the area (due to there being a lot less normal people out at that hour) and who were, like, ten times more persistent and than they are during the day. I normally don't curse out people, even creepers (my tactic usually being to ignore them), but I snapped and (sensibly, in English) told one of them to f*** off. I finally walked back to the sharehouse...and miracle of miracles, there was a light in one of the rooms! The front door wasn't loud enough when I knocked, so I sensibly (and cathartically) kicked the door until I hear my housemate coming.

Uh...the point is that there's always something worse than sleeping on a pad and misplacing your house key can screw up your night. And here's another good article on cheap lodgings.

Last but not least, some Twitter accounts of interest for their event announcement tweets. More convenient than getting a flyer, although you can get a cheaper cover at some events if you bring a flyer.

Bar Gold Finger (which holds a Gold Finger party on the third Saturday of each month)
Dyke Weekend 2012
Kinswomyn
La Niña (The account for the La Niña parties held on the second Saturday of each month.)
Stonewall AJET Japan (An English-language Twitter account for a new LGBTQ community group aimed primarily at English-speaking expats and visitors in Japan.)
Tokyo Wrestling

If you have other suggestions for the list, let me know!

So...uh, yeah. That's what I've got. If you visit Shinjuku Nichoume (or any other nightlife area where my ramblings may be relevant), godspeed. *salute* I hope this post proves useful.

Check out Okazu's Live Stream Yuri Panel!

On Sunday April 29 (i.e. tomorrow), Okazu's Erica will be holding the first live online yuri panel! :-) The panel can be found here. It will go live at 5:00 pm Eastern US Time.

Erica will answer a few questions submitted to her in advance in addition to one or two that people ask during the panel.

If you want to attend a yuri panel but haven't found any in your area, this is a good opportunity!

Reporting Back: Lesbian Anime and Pizza Night

In my yuri panels at cons, I show clips of different shows. To show full episodes at this event, I needed to get screening rights. Surprisingly, the guy in charge of obtaining screening rights for events at my school didn't have much luck getting responses, while I was able to without too much trouble. (I guess you're more likely to have luck if you contact the distributors as the individual holding the event instead of the institution hosting it.) I felt a little bad about usurping his job. lol But I needed those rights, damn it.

Media Blasters responded to my Facebook message by saying that it's fine as long as I don't charge admission. A representative from Nozomi kindly responded to my Facebook request with this handy link, and shortly after I emailed Nozomi and Section 23 permission requests as outlined in the link, I got screening rights from them. My school would normally have to pay an exorbitant fee to screen, say, a live movie, but thankfully, anime distributors are sane.

To promote at my school, I put up some fliers in the Campus Center, emailed faculty in the Study of Women and Gender and East Asian Language and Lit departments, asking if they could forward info on the event to students and faculty in their department, as they have done before, and announced the event in two classes where I thought it would be relevant.

Before the event started, I made paper signs saying, "LESBIAN ANIME AND PIZZA NIGHT IS TAKING PLACE HERE." My friend, classmate, and fellow yuri fan Sara helped me tape them up. The Resource Center's DVD player wouldn't finish loading the Kannazuki no Miko DVD 1, so Sara went to her dorm to get her Playstation 2. (Yay, Sara!)

While Sara was gone, my second and third guests, Erica from Okazu and her wife Pattie, arrived. I didn't tell Sara, who's familiar with Okazu, that they were coming, so she was really surprised when she came back. lol

At the point in the KnM episode when the Orochi followers attacked and Chikane rode to the rescue on her horse (something that made more sense to me than anyone else there- the horse part, that is), another friend, Andi, stopped by and I flailed to explain what was happening.

After KnM ended, I put on Marimite and ordered pizza from Pizza Amore. Then I played Revolutionary Girl Utena, then Simoun, then Strawberry Panic!

At the beginning of Simoun, a friend of Sara's stopped by, along with two students who hadn't seen any yuri at all before. I was delighted to introduce them to the genre. Then we played the second episode of Marimite, talked about nerdy things without anything playing, and capped the night off with a couple of pretty clips from the Utena movie. (Many thanks to Sara for getting it from your dorm! I'm sorry you had to run there twice. ^_^;) My favorite clip- also my favorite part of the movie- is the dance scene.

By the time we played the Utena movie clips, Sara, Erica, and Pattie were the last attendees left. Erica had also brought some manga and neat goodies from Japan to give to the different people who came to the event. After Erica and Pattie left, Sara and I did the clean-up...which was just throwing the pizza box away, unplugging the Playstation, and taking down the paper signs outside.

And, that was it! There was much fangirling (it is not possible to have a gathering of Marimite fans without at least three of them gushing about how awesome Sei is), humorous commentary and relishing of pizza. ^_^

For anyone interesting in holding a similar event, I would think that you could do it at a local library, or an lgbt community center, or a non-lgbt community center. Once I figured out how to get the screening rights, it was pretty easy to set up.

Yuri Event At My School This Week!

Yup.

There will be pizza, soda, and much merriment. (I will wait to order the pizza until about half an hour in so that I know what to get.) If you're in the area, stop by!

The anime line-up (order not yet determined) will be:

Kannazuki no Miko episode 1
Maria-sama ga Miteru episode 1
Revolutionary Girl Utena episode 1
Simoun episode 1
Strawberry Panic! episode 1

If you need directions to my school or a map of its campus, you will find them here.

Conbust 2012

My college's annual con, Conbust, took place this past weekend. I didn't do a yuri panel this year. Instead, I'm planning a Yuri and Pizza Night! event later this month. I'll post more about it after its details are set in stone.

Day 1 of Conbust, Friday:

I went to the room hosting the 7:00 panel on queer content in sci-fi, fantasy and anime and caught the end of the fanfic panel. Its attendees discussed whether one could re-publish a fanfic as a successful novel. Fifty Shades of Gray, anyone? Or the scads of professionally published "sequels" and alternative takes on Jane Austen's works? (I know the latter type of fanfic- fanfic derived from literary fiction- isn't what the attendees had in mind.)

The queer panel attendees mostly discussed how to incorporate queer characters into speculative fiction- like, how do you reference a character's queerness without being "gratuitous"? The person asking the "gratuitous" question was totally well-meaning, but the question (as it was phrased) was a little jarring...and the ensuing discussion made me a little uncomfortable...like the person who said that "If the characters are openly gay, the show's going to be all about them being gay." It reminded me a little of how, before I came out to certain friends, I was less afraid of outright rejection than changing from "Katherine" to "My Lesbian Friend Katherine" in their eyes. Thankfully, the less enlightened members of the panel were countered by the ones who got it.

Later in the evening came the panel on publishing. Two authors, Stephanie Dray and Annette Klause, and one editor, Sharyn November, hosted it. It was the fullest of all of the panels I attended this past weekend, and it was interesting. Here are my notes from it.

• November: “We live for wonderful writing. We live for finding that new author who’s fantastic. Everyone’s looking for wonderful writing. That’s the important thing to know. *cosplayer enters* Oh my god.”
• Sci-fi = hard sell, but coming back into vogue. Dystopian = growing in popularity.
• Publishing landscape has changed drastically over the years and is changing every day. People ten years younger than you will be mostly reading e-books. Books are becoming almost a fetish object for some people.
• Melanie Kroupa = “A wonderful, wonderful children’s and YA editor.”
• Every author-editor relationship is different, because it’s like a business relationship that’s intensely personal. It’s a very tricky relationship to find balance with.
• As an author, you’ve got to know what to ask for and when to say no. (When interacting with an editor.)
• November: “I always say to authors, ‘I don’t trust you if you always agree with me.’”
• Different grammatical editing requirements for children’s fiction than fiction for an older demographic. (e.g. “goin’” = no, “going” = yes)
• “The way you get published is to have a little talent, a lot of luck, and a lot of perserverance.”
• “I think in traditional publishing it helps to have an agent, especially one who will be a lioness for you.”
• Agents = “You want that person you gets you. You want that person who will fight for you. There’s a chemistry involved.”
•  Get involved with author’s organizations, read books on it, learn what to do. Be professional in your letters to publishers. Keep cover letters short and professional. “If you don’t take yourself seriously, I’m not going to.”
• Target your submissions. Know what kind of work the publishers you’re submitting to publish.
• You need to belong to writers’ groups. You need to share your writing with other people.
• For romance writers = Romance Writers of America. Members of romance community = bigger on self-promotion than most writing communities.
• While trying to sell your first book, don’t stop writing.
• “Romance will take a lot of risks, I think. At least Harlequin does.”
• How do you find an agent? There’s Agent Query and Publisher’s Lunch (where you can see what people sold which books, and what kinds of books different people typically represent). 
• Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Scbwi.org
• Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Sfwa.org <- Only open to people who have already been published.
• Never go with an agent or publisher who wants you to pay them up front to read your work.
•   If you quote, say, song lyrics or a work of literature not in the public domain, you have to pay for it. This can be expensive. The publisher won’t pay for it for you.
•  If you can summarize your book in one sentence in a catchy way, that saves your editor a lot of trouble.

The last panel of the day was an 18+ panel called Tits or GTFO (Internet survival). It wasn't what I expected, but it was funny. The panelist went through different geek genres and media (sci-fi, fantasy, games, anime), making fun of how they objectify women. She mentioned a Japanese website that generates what someone's boobs would look like based on their name. She tried to find it, but wasn't able to. I had the dubious honor of being the person who found it via my own laptop, and we had way too much fun coming up with random names to type in, like "Clark Kent," "Bruce Wayne," "Olive Oyl," "Picard," "Spock," "Kirk," "Spongebob," and "your mom." Here it is. ^_^;

Day 2:

In the afternoon, I stopped by one of the dealer rooms and met a super-nice person who reads this blog, Kori Michele Handwerker. We chatted for a bit, and I spotted a piece of art at her table that I bought for reasons that...you'll understand if you see it.

Heehee. ^__^

I also learned about her ongoing webcomic, a gay romance with a light dash of fantasy called Prince of Cats. I got a copy of the first issue of its print version. Only one issue has been released so far.

It's about Lee and Frank, two best friends who attend a high school in a small town. They have feelings for each other, but have yet to admit it to...well, anyone. (One student notices that Lee likes Frank and drops little hints about it when he sees Lee.) Assuming that Frank is straight, Lee gives Frank's number to Adi, the girl who likes Frank. Adi asks Frank to homecoming and he accepts because he doesn't want to hurt her feelings. Naturally, Lee gets jealous. Another plot point is that even though Frank wants to go to college, his family can't afford it, while Lee's can. A cat Lee saved has offered to grant him any wish he has (which Frank knows about), and Lee wants to use it so Frank can go to college. Frank refuses it, telling Lee that if there's anything they've learned from fairytales, it's that magically fulfilled wishes backfire. (Frank can also now understand what cats are saying, although that aspect only briefly comes up.) In short...the story is in its early stages, but it's cute so far. ^_^ I like both of the leads, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they get together. The end of this volume promises that the homecoming situation will be resolved in the next issue's worth of story.

After meeting Kori, I wandered up to the where the Anime 101 panel was held. A librarian who promotes anime at the library where she works ran it. She presented a PowerPoint illustrating what anime is, its history in Japan and the U.S., and what some of its genres are. Disappointingly, yuri and yaoi weren't included. The nicest part was seeing the attendees gush over the titles they really like out of the examples shown.

A few hours later, I went to the Geeks in Love panel, since I've seen panels like it advertised at a lot of cons but never attended any of them. It was interesting. Some of the topics discussed included: how not to be creepy when role-playing with someone else as a fictional couple online (which I haven't done); how to deal with people in certain geek forums on the internet being like, "Show us yer boobz!" to posters who identify themselves as women; and stereotypes about geek girls and guys...and how some geek guys are so excited about meeting geek girls that they can be creepy and objectifying when interacting with them. One woman irritated me when she said that all lesbian movies and lesbian storylines on TV suck- and no, she didn't seem to be using hyperbole. There aren't enough lesbian movies and lesbian TV storylines, let alone enough good ones out there. But if you think that there aren't any good ones, you aren't really looking. Another woman and I gave her some recommendations, like Imagine Me & You and Lost Girl. (Lost Girl is awesome. Watch it.) Poor Buffy. Even though its lesbian storyline definitely has some problems- like Tara's death and Willow being labeled a lesbian without bisexuality ever being brought up- the panel host and attendees flayed it more than I thought it deserved. Granted, I'm biased because Buffy was one of my obsessions in middle school and I have sugar-coated memories of it.

Day 3:

I attended the 2:00 E-Publishing, Self-Publishing, and E-Books panel that was hosted by Kathryn Scannell, an author who has published her work in print and in e-book format, and Lisa Janice Cohen, an author who has exclusively published in e-book format. This panel was really interesting also. Here are my notes:

• E-book publishers want a lot more self-promotion. They won’t hold your hand for you.
• Before sending your story to a small publisher, research their reputation and look at sites like Preditors and Editors. (“Preditors” = not a typo)
• Authors often mistaken copy-editing with developmental editing, or proofreading with developmental editing. If you don’t understand what developmental editing is/the value of developmental editing, you shouldn’t self-publish.
• At every stage, if you’re using someone’s professional services, you should use a contract. Read the fine print. Read everything in their terms of service. Be sure you aren’t giving away any rights that you don’t want to give away. In contract with e-book publishers, include condition like, “If you don’t agree to publish this within [for example] three months, I can take this book elsewhere.” Otherwise, a publisher can sit on your book indefinitely.
• There are businesses out there that specialize in choosing your e-book’s formats.
• Re: formatting, before you put anything up for sale, have you friends download it on their e-readers to be sure that it looks good.
• One can (politely) email lisa@ljcohen.net with request for free e-book w/ advice on electronic publishing.
• Blog by Kristine Rusch = recommended for advice. http://www.kriswrites.com/
• To anyone contemplating the indie route: Don’t be in a rush. There’s so much crap being put out there that if you rush it instead of polishing it to a high sheen, doing the right promotion, GETTING REVIEWS, before publishing it, it’ll get buried underneath all of the crap.
• A lot of e-books publishers want to know what your online presence is—a website, blogging, social media, etc. Make sure your online presence supports the talent you’re trying to convince publishers you have. If, say, you’re selling a humor book, your tweets shouldn’t be boring. But don’t get too caught up in social networking/promoting, because you won’t get writing done. Set up an opt-in newsletter on your website. Publish it at least once a quarter.

And that was it!

Comiket Days 2 & 3, Takarazuka, and Kabuki

After months of anticipation, Comiket's over. ^^

Today was the big shopping day for me, when the doujinshi circles whose booths I most wanted to find were selling doujinshi- Myao (Morinaga Milk), UKOZ, Sakuraike, Atelier Miyabi (Miyabi Fujieda and Minamoto Hisanari), and Kaishaku. UKOZ, Sakuraike, and Atelier Miyabi were in the West Halls, while Myao and Kaishaku were in the East. I mostly bought what I wanted to buy and told the mangaka from whom I bought it, "I love your manga!"/"I'm a fan of your manga!"/"I love so-and-so-title!" (Or in Kaishaku's case, "I've read your manga.") Morinaga Milk was the first person I tracked down (she's very sweet, seems to be in her 30's, has long auburn hair), and the person who I got chills from meeting the most. (I reverently asked a woman helping her sell her doujinshi, "Are you Morinaga Milk?" and she said, "No, she is", pointing to the woman seated next to her. I hope Morinaga didn't see me when I jumped after walking away from her table. ^_^;;;) She seemed really surprised by my saying that I was a fan of Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo and Girl Friends (every person I introduced myself to today reacted with some surprise), and wanted to know which country I was from. She was selling a Madoka Magica doujinshi, an Ami x Rei Sailor Moon doujinshi and the one I was most excited about, her Ai no Chikara ("The Power of Love") doujinshi, about two police women. UKOZ sold several original doujinshi and a couple of Hayate x Blade books. Sakuraike sold all-original doujinshi, two of which were yuri. Atelier Miyabi sold a Madoka Magica doujinshi, a rather thick The Idolm@ster doujinshi called White Platinum, a Tiger & Bunny doujinshi, a Touhou doujinshi, and some K-ON! doujinshi. I found Kaishaku last, since I accidentally wrote that they were in the West area instead of the East. ^_^; They didn't have any doujinshi displayed (and I didn't especially want any, although I would have bought one if it were out), but I introduced myself anyway. It's fascinating to actually see the people behind so many of the titles I've read over the years, having spun larger than life impressions of them based on their work.

After Comiket yesterday, I attended my first Takarazuka show. The Flower Troupe performed Phantom, Takarazuka's version of The Phantom of the Opera. It was excellent. The actresses played their characters flawlessly. The actress who played Carlotta, especially, seemed to have fun with her role. It was lush and glitzy and over-the-top and everything I expected from Takarazuka, complete with a final music hall dance number that had absolutely nothing to do with the main story. I got some souvenirs at the gift shop (including an admittedly hot clear file of the Flower Troupe's Top Star, Ranju Tomu, and possibly a fan t-shirt; each troupe's Top Star has her own merchandise area in the store) during the intermission. After the show, I went outside where the fans were lining up along both sides of the street in front of the theater to snap photos of, squeal over, and hand letters to the show's stars as they slowly (very slowly) came out one by one and walked to their cars with security escorting them. Some fans continued to watch them intently as they drove away, still snapping photos. (One star waved from her car, prompting a burst of waves from the fans who were watching her.) It was quite fun. ^_^

This past Friday, I attended Takarazuka's most popular male equivalent, Kabuki, at the Shinbashi Enbujo Theater. It began with a 30 minute comedy about a lord and his wife. At first, the wife was a "good" wife who gave her husband massages, served him his drinks, etc, but she eventually realized that he was a good-for-nothing. Of course, this meant that she became a domineering shrew, but she learned the error of her ways after her husband feigned being attacked by a burglar. The second, longer play- which I liked more- was a ghost story. A famous painter's apprentice wanted the painter's wife so, after raping her under the threat of killing her baby, he threatened the painter's loyal servant (who acted as the play's clown) to help him kill the painter. He took over the painter's estate and ordered the servant to take the baby to a waterfall and drown it. The painter's ghost saved the baby and gave it back to the servant, who was then attacked by a man the apprentice sent to make sure he did what he was supposed to. The ghost killed the would-be murderer by dragging him into the water, and temporarily paralyzed (but didn't kill, for some reason) the apprentice when he showed up to kill the servant and baby. The stage had a large running waterfall during this scene, and it was a lot of fun to see the actors chase and fight each other in it. Finally, an actor introducing himself as the story's "author" showed up and told the audience that the servant raised the baby using "milk-like water" that dripped from a miraculous tree. When the baby was five, he avenged his father's death. For the waterfall, the one actor who played three roles, and the ludicrous ending, it was fun. (But not nearly as awesome as Takarazuka.) So, yup. Enjoyable past few days.

Comiket Day 1

I almost labeled this post "つかれた.” I had a great time at Comiket today, but it was tiring. ^_^; I met up with Fernando Ramos (a.k.a. @HelloNavi), a Comiket veteran who I met via Twitter.

We both thought Comiket was supposed to open at 10:00 this morning, but the line didn't start moving until until 11:00. (Once it started moving, we got in pretty quickly.) Luckily, the Comiket staff handed out Madoka Magica fans to the people waiting to get in (they ran out of Homuras before I could get one, dang-it; I got Kyouko and Sayaka instead) and I had an an umbrella.

We went to the company booths area first, where we swam through the crowd to get to the line for Ichijinsha. (Most of Ichijinsha's merchandise was for Yuruyuri, as expected, but I only wanted Sayuri-hime. A million thanks to Fernando for patiently waiting in line.) Then we got lunch at a restaurant (Big Sight has several restaurants) and went to the cosplay area, which was outside. It. Was. Awesome. There were some fantastic cosplayers, but my squeal-inducing favorites were the two women who cosplayed as Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. Did not expect to see them, even though Fernando wasn't surprised. I also briefly stalked a woman dressed as Possessed Himari from Mawaru Penguindrum, because her costume was great and Fernando hadn't noticed it, and I was very sensibly like, "Really, you have to see this costume from this awesome show that you haven't seen!!"

Then Fernando left Comiket for another engagement and I explored the doujinshi halls. The first day of Comiket is BL-centric, although there's still some yuri and het. It was interesting to see the variety in the rows and rows and rows and rows of doujinshi tables and people-watch the sellers and buyers. Definitely looking forward to tomorrow. ^_^

Conbust 2011 Yuri Panel

Above: The opening slide for my panel.

Another year, another nice panel with the very nice people at Conbust.

My one difficulty this time was that I couldn't find my adapter yesterday (probably left the stupid thing in Florida), but I was able to borrow the use of a laptop from one of the con staffers, who helped with setting it up. (She said, "Anything for yuri!")

I presented the panel on the second floor of Seelye Hall, the class building where Conbust always takes place.

The people at the panel were familiar with Rose of Versailles, Sailor Moon, and Utena (and one person knew Kashimashi and Hourou Musuko), interestingly, but not the other titles, so I had the pleasure of introducing them to pretty much everything else- especially for the woman who was like, "OOOH! I'm writing that down," and jotted down titles and mangaka names from several slides.

This time I showed less clips than usual. Sometimes less is more- and I couldn't pull up everything I'd originally planned because I was on a different computer. As usual, some stuff was changed, but the structure was pretty much the same, and a lot of the fun for me was in seeing how people reacted to what they saw. (What piqued their interest, what they laughed at, etc.) My favorite part of doing these panels, of course, is meeting other people who are interested in yuri.

This time I'm posting the slides I used, in case anyone's interested. You might not agree with everything I've included (or not included), but my objective was to not only include the titles I like, but show a variety for other people to choose what they like. (Also, crappy titles can be fun to talk about- "Yes, this is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms"- and they make the good titles look better.)

I included my favorite Takarazuka clip to show what they're like. (Oscaaaaar!)

The woman in the photo above is Ikeda.

Just to give people a taste of what Shiroi Heya's art is like.

Whoops- had to note that Anise and Carmilla were around in the 2000's. (In Anise's case, both the 90's and 2000's.)

Had to note the switch to a bi-monthly schedule after the merger.

Ack, didn't mention that it recently went bi-monthly.

Surprisingly, the folks at the panel didn't know that Utena's been re-licensed.

This time I gave away Yamibou's craptastic ending, after I was asked. The panel attendees had the expected "Wtf?" reaction.

After I explained the Chikane-Himeko-Souma love triangle, someone said, "So they're rivals." I said, "Well, he doesn't know that she likes her," and someone replied with, "Of course he doesn't." The panels attendees exploded with laughter when Souma started his victory-scream while Chikane kissed Himeko at the end of episode 1. (That's the scene I showed a clip of.)

I mentioned how the Mai Hime characters show up again in an alternate world setting in Mai Otome, and how the creators of KnM made Kyoshiro/Shattered Angels with Chikane and Himeko as side characters, which the panel attendees thought was pretty cool.

My description of StrikerS got a really warm response.

Update @ 6:20 p.m.: On Twitter, I was asked for a little more detail on the "warm response" to StrikerS. To quote my answer, "I mentioned how, in StrikerS, adult-Nanoha and adult-Fate live together and raise Vivio, and the panel attendees got excited and said things like, "Awwww!" and "Oh, just like in the picture!!""

I mentioned Ikki Tousen also.

Moonlight Flowers was a good opportunity to address some of the long-held assumptions about relationships between women pre-high school graduation vs post-high school graduation in Japan, and how those assumptions have been subverted in this story (and others).

When I mentioned these assumptions to a friend recently, she was not only surprised, she asked, "Is that true for guys too?" I couldn't give her a solid answer. >___> (I should have been able to.) I told her that I haven't heard of that assumption for guys, and yaoi seems to have a lot more adult-centric stories, so I think that relationships between teenage boys are taken more seriously (i.e. not a "passing phase") than relationships between girls. If anyone can chime in with a "yay" or "nay" that would be great.

As expected, the panel attendees got a kick out of the plot description for Love My Life. ("The main character comes out to her dad- her's mom's dead- and he tells her that he's gay too, and so was her mom.")

When I described this series as "This girl, the main character *points with mouse*, and this girl *points with mouse* start attending an elite all-girls' school, and they meet the most popular couple. The main character falls for the popular butch *points*, but her *points* best friend likes her too, and then you still have her *points again* girlfriend," someone replied with, "So it's basically Smith." (See definition 2.)