City Series:Volume6d Afterword
Afterword[edit]
How am I already on the fourth book?
I’ve been feeling really good lately and that has a tendency of making my afterwords vulgar, but I’m a lot calmer today. Perfectly composed. Nothing to worry about. Probably. Surely. Only a little at the most. Hopefully. If we’re lucky. (Last year, I decided I would write normal afterwords after turning 25, but so much for that.)
Now that I’ve started a longer series, the feedback from readers has been a lot different and I’ve learned a lot from it. Maybe it’s because you’re seeing the characters for a longer time, but there’s more people telling me what they want to happen instead of just saying how they liked the book.
And the most common request, summed up into a single sentence, is “make Hazel an adult already”. Hmm…so are you asking me to give her a coming-of-age ceremony or have her go bungee jumping?
…Damn, I’ll have you all know I have a way dirtier mind than any of you. (But how I am I supposed to prove it?)
Anyway, Hazel and Berger have come so far. It looks like I’ll actually be able to use the entire plot I initially outlined. It really is thanks to all of your support that I was able to bring this to four books so far.
Thank you so much. The story has almost reached the conclusion, but the bombing of Hamburg shown in this one and the bombing of Berlin on August 23 really did happen. Japan joined the war in December of ’41, so that means the Allies had already arrived at Berlin only a year and a half later. A lot of help Japan was, huh?
Now it’s time for another friend email. Except I’m short on time, so it’s a chat instead.
“Hi, we’re at #4. Rejoice.”
“Wait. #4?”
“What? If you don’t explain yourself in two lines or less, you will regret it.”
“Don’t be dumb. We only just finished the fourth afterword email thing the other day, so why are we doing it again? And why in a chat?”
“The last one was censored.”
“Why? Too dirty? Did we really say anything that bad?”
“No, it wasn’t that. They kindly worded it as ‘this one lacks the usual punch’. I feel like they’ve forgotten this is supposed to be an afterword, but the point is the publisher has given us a blank check to go nuts on this one. Yodelayheehoo!”
“What’s this yodelayheehoo stuff, idiot? But fine. If you insist. …So I saw this black-haired girl the other day, okay?”
“Black hair? That must mean she was Ultra Mobile Ground Combat Magical Girl Gonzales who was Atlantis Hero #2 in a past life. She can remove her glossy black mohawk and throw it as a boomerang. So what about her? Her transformation sequence has some real oomph to it, if you ask me.”
“Why do I even try talking to you?”
“Wow, not the reaction I wanted. Are you one of those levelheaded modern men?”
“Fine, if you need a topic, here’s a multiple choice quiz on what will happen to Hazel next time:
- 1. Hazel is already an adult.
“Uh, oh! Looks like we’re out of space! That’s the end of this section! Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye! Yay!”
“D-dammit, man! What kind of ending is that!?”
None of that deserved a real ending. Anyway, here’s what I’ve been working on lately.
Zenon City Tokyo is publishing in the February, June, and October issues of the bimonthly MediaWorks novel magazine Dengeki hp and Image City SF is publishing in the April, August, and December issues. These are illustration focused and less serious cities, so check it out if you have some time. That’s about all I’ve been doing lately.
My background music this time was Dvorak’s From the New World. I listened to that while wondering:
“Who will end up lying the most?”
Now, then. Next up is the final Berlin novel. Let’s get this done.
February 2001. Another snowy morning.
-Kawakami Minoru
Satoyasu Page[edit]
Now her chest has grown some. That’s why I had her naked on the cover. Hazel has a lot of nude scenes…right!? Right…
-Satoyasu
| Back to Final Chapter | Return to Main Page | Forward to Illustrations |
