Chapter Fifty Four – The Baron Comes To Life
The details of Shizuku's work that summer don't interest us, because it all went to plan. Hayao gave her an advance of half the first article's fee and that kept them solvent those two months. She worked like a demon planning her article structures, gathering the key arguments she'd use and phoning to arrange interviews. In August and September she worked in Kyoto and that was convenient because it was summer break and many of the professors and senior administrators she needed to interview had the time to see her. And because she was working to her own timetable she could take time to be on the phone pretty much when she liked and she and Seiji talked often. The six weeks apart were nothing like as bad as the three weeks of Belgium.
Back in Cremona Shizuku finalized the article details and sent her drafts off to Hayao. By the end of the year it was all done and the series of articles appeared in Raise the Anchor from January to March 2006.
But by then, amazing things had happened to throw all of that into the shadows. Hayao became the important link that Shizuku had suspected.
-oOo-
She was lunching with him one day when they got talking about her writing.
"I never knew you were a fiction writer. What kinds of things have you done? I'm sure I'd recall your name if I'd seen it in a bookshop."
"That's because you haven't. I've never been published although it's not for want of trying."
"Really? That's crazy. If you do fiction as well as you do political commentary you should be published. What do you write?"
"Pretty much anything – children's books, fantasy novels, romances, several short stories, one science fiction story and some ghost stories."
Shizuku reeled off a list of Tokyo publishers she'd offered work to. Hayao sat for a minute and then got a business card from his wallet.
"Children's stories you say?"
"Hm."
"Give this guy a try. Tell him Hayao sent you." He smiled. "And I've always wanted to use that line."
So she did. It was a Kyoto children's publisher, they were known for their illustrated books which was why Shizuku had avoided them – she was a writer, not an illustrator. Shizuku wrote to the man Hayao had mentioned and included a disk with two of her early stories on, two that used the Baron as the main character. This man, Kazu Yokoyama, phoned her a week later and asked her to come and see him. The issue was that both stories were good, but the format his publishing house used required illustrations. Kazu explained that part of their job would be to find an illustrator to work with Shizuku and produce artwork that she was happy with.
She left Japan before the thing really got started but during the first half of October an e-mail arrived that contained proof work from three illustrators. The images from the first two artists were nice but lacked something. One of them was too heavy and cartoony, too much of an American influence. The second guys work was good, it had a rather dreamy feel to it and he favoured pastel colours and faded backgrounds. Easy on the eye but not entirely the kinds of scenes she'd imagined. And then she opened the third set of files. And she sat there quietly and looked at her screen. She was shocked. It was like… well, she didn't know what it was like. It felt like looking inside her own head. She'd sent copies of the photos of the Baron doll to Kazu and one or two of her own crude sketches that gave scene layouts and unlike the other two illustrators who had put a lot of their own interpretation into the work, this third artist had taken the photos of the Baron and simply put life in them. In these pictures the Baron actually walked, climbed and danced. When he ran he held his hat on with one paw and in one image where he was holding a cat girls hand Shizuku could feel the love in his expression. It was extraordinary. Sitting there Shizuku was transported back in time eleven years to a difficult two months, two months when she had wrestled with a story that would not go the way she'd wanted it to. She'd sat up late into the night, hardly eating, neglecting her schoolwork. She'd had to do this because he was coming. And for her, he was love. She had given herself two months to write this story, a test it was, a way to show to herself that she had the same value in her that she saw in Seiji. She had got that story finished – just, but she had never really liked it. It had become a symbol of what she could do, but she never seriously thought it had the makings of something people would ever pay money to read. During her rethink period of last year she had taken it out and given it a polish. In fact a major spring cleaning, until finally she was happy with it. She found that after all she really rather liked it, as a test piece it had not worked, but after she had done a large rewrite she grew to love it. It was, she admitted to herself, her first violin, and no matter how rough it might seem to others, it held a charm for her that no other story did. And now this artist – Shizuku looked at the e-mail again – a girl named Ume Enomoto, had given that story life. The Baron had life. She answered the e-mail at once. It was a very short e-mail.
"Please use Ume's work. It's perfect. I don't mind which scenes she illustrates except that my only request is she paints the dance scene and the end scene where the Baron says good bye."
-oOo-
In December a finished portfolio of two dozen images arrived through her letterbox. She took them, and Seiji with her, down into the garden and there, despite the cool damp of the day, she opened the envelope and went again into the past, into that world that until now had existed only for her. Yet here she could see that it existed for Ume too, and through her skill it could exist for everyone. Seiji looked through the pictures.
"Wow, these are wonderful, she's really talented. I love her faces."
"Aren't they cute? Look at his eyes in this one. Oh, I could fall in love with him myself."
"And these are scenes from your book?"
"Hm."
"I've still not read it."
"Didn't you ever read it?"
"No, you know I didn't. You never let me read any of them."
"Would you like to?"
"Of course."
"Wait, I'll get it for you. I have a hard copy upstairs."
She brought the slim file of typed sheets down. It was late in the afternoon and the light was fading so as he began to read, Shizuku went back inside and brought out a fistful of candles which she stuck with a little of their own wax to the arms and back of the wooden bench. It was quite dark when Seiji finished reading. He sat back and handed her the papers.
"Shizuku, this is beautiful," she heard his voice faltering, his emotion, "This is just wonderful. How come no-one agreed to publish this before?"
"I didn't submit this one for years, it wasn't in this form, it was quite bad at first. But last year after it's rewrite I did send it to four or five publishers but they said it wasn't the kind of material they could use. I just didn't find the right publisher."
"And you have now?"
"Yes, it seems so."
"Shizuku, I am so proud of you. This is great stuff. It's brilliant! And these illustrations – wow, if this doesn't sell then there's no hope for civilization."
He leaned towards her, put an arm behind her neck and kissed her. For a long time.
And as it turned out, there was, after all, hope for civilization. For the book was published in the following February and became quite popular. Not a huge success but enough so that children's book critics began asking when her next work might come out. Being an unknown author, Kazu Yokoyama wasn't able to offer her a contract that included a royalty clause. All he could offer was her retention of copyright and a single lump fee. But that was enough, it was at the time, for them, a magically huge amount, and enough to get them back on course. In light of later events Shizuku realized she'd been robbed, the book sales made this a very nice profit maker for Kazu, but she retained the vital copyright and through Hayao she went in search of an agent, and her next work, still through Kazu's company, was negotiated on a much more favourable contract.
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11 February 2007
For author notes to Chapter 54, please refer to my forum (click on my pen name)
