Thank you for your update on the writing contest. I was a finalist, and have been anxiously checking the Tokyopop site, and your blog, since my "used for submissions" email has been down for a week and I can't get hold of anyone to fix it. Glad to know the winners have not been announced yet! I was mildly panicking for just in case I was fortunate enough to place!!

I am looking forward to your latest work!!

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Thanks. :D
I'm glad TOKYOPOP is sortig things out. :)

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Great interview!

Ha, I couldn't see the image last night when i was looking at LJ. I was hoping that you were doing something in the vein of one of my fave manga stories Chojin Locke. *Sadly I wish I could read more Japanese, those stories are awesome.

I'm still holding out on going to SDCC this year. If you are there, I'd love to talk to you in person and get my "The Dreaming" books signed. I'm glad that your works are getting awesome reviews.

Rock on!
-TS

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Thanks, Tony. :)
I would LOVE to see you at SDCC this year. I hope I'll see you there! :)

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Oh, that said, my next project is much like Chojin Locke (action-adventure-drama-romance).
I just re-read your post and am wondering what the heck you're talking about?

Umm... the "sci-fi comic for telepaths" thing is a joke, but you knew that, right?

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Erm, it may not be suitable to comment about this here, but I would just like to wish you a Happy Belated Birthday. I know your birthday is already over, but I would still like to wish you all the same.

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hey, thanks for mentioning it! :D

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Hey! I'm an anime/manga writer with Mania.com. I really enjoyed In Odd We Trust. I haven't lifted myself off my lazy bum to write the formal review yet, but when it's up, I'll let you know. :)

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Thanks! :D I'm real glad you liked "In Odd We Trust". :)
Please let me know when you get around to writing it up.

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Wow, my condolences to those that lost their job at Tokyo Pop. That's really hard, especially considering the situation of books and manga's as of right now. I pray that they find work soon.

I hope so too, It's rather bothersome when you're left wondering for a long time who won. I hope that they did send out the letters as they said they would. It would be rather frustrating if they didn't do at least that for the winners. I'm also one of the finalist too.

It's wonderful to hear about the four star review for In odd we trust. I hope to get my hands on a copy soon. *grins* Also that comic for telepaths was terrific. I do hope you write more of them.

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Hey, thanks for dropping by, and congrats on being one of the finalists! I wasn't told the names of the finalists, so I don't know which one you were. I wish you luck all the same - hopefully TP will sort things out and send out letters and prizes to everyone who entered ASAP.

Thanks for saying you're looking forward to "In Odd We Trust". :D Hope you'll enjoy it. I WILL do more, I have 2 more in stock, ready for release. ;)

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Heh, and I can't wait to read them then. ;) Well I do hope you enjoyed my story. I was rather nervous sending it in, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong, including both of my printers being out of ink. I was extremely surprised to be even considered for a finalist. I really do hope this is sorted out.

By the way what category would you say "In Odd we trust" would be placed under in a bookstore? I'm probably just going to have them pre-order it for me, but just in-case I figure knowing what it might be classified under would give me a better shot of beelining for it rather then scouring about the whole store. Which would only make me wind up spending more money...as if I don't spend enough in there any way. *sweat-drops*

Oh and a happy belated birthday to you. I just noticed. :D

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I enjoyed ALL the stories sent into the competition, so I'm certain I enjoyed yours. And haha, printers always break down when you need them to work.

As for "In Odd We Trust", I think it would be classified as a thriller, but I have no clue how bookstores will stock it. As graphic novel, or as Dean Koontz book? I'm curious as to see how individual bookstores will handle this. So perhaps you're best off asking the salespeople to help you LOL

Thanks for the belated b-day wishes.

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Late yesterday I got a promo copy of the book! I cannot wait to check it out!!! Awesome!

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Thanks! I hope you enjoy it!! :D

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Date: 28 July 2008

Dear Ms Chan,

You may not realise it yet, but we here at the Society for Telepathic Pre-Cognitive Arts are writing to express our appreciation of your as-yet undrawn and unconceived graphic novel _[you know what, when & where]_.

We affirm that this seminal work of fantasy fiction thoroughly deserves the acclaim it will receive in the feature review of the Books That Don't Yet Exist liftout section of the upcoming weekend edition of Perennial Pre-Cog Weekly.

We look forward to the rest of your readers thoroughly enjoying this seminal work once it hits bookshelves in 15 months, 17 days, 9 hours, 42 minutes and 11 seconds from now.


Sincerely,

Agatha K. Huxley
President,
Society for Telepathic Pre-Cognitive Arts

P.S. In order to avoid an untimely encounter with a rather sizeable bird dropping on Monday 7 July 2008, we suggest you expedite your trip the to grocery store to 11:46am, or delay it until 11:48am. Do bring an umbrella.

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Thanks, Agatha, for the recognition from your esteemed society. :) Any chance for me to gain membership? I just sent you all my details.

Thanks for the bird dropping warning as well. Not only are you telepathic, but you can foretell the future. That's one talent I certainly lack. :P

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Ms. Chan,

I hate asking, I usually never would, I usually have tons of self reserve in this sort of matter, but I've been so anxious, and you seem so nice so I'm hoping you won't bite off my head over this question about the writing contest.

Tokyopop says on their website under the rules that they will send a certified letter to the winners, and the winners are expected to follow the rules within 10 days of getting that letter, or else they will forfit, and the prize will go to someone else. I have to be gone from June 28th- July 10th, and planned to have my mail held. If the letter comes, I know I'm going to be sick over having missed it and having forfitted, but there's no way I can be here for "just in case". Do you know if there been any sort of news from Tokyopop?

*ducks and covers just in case you DO bite!!*

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I bite. *BITES*

I'm real sorry about how long the announcement of the winners are taking. :( Concerning the writing competition, I've justed emailed TOKYOPOP's marketing department about it, so hopefully I'll get a reply soon.

If you don't already know, there's a possibility that the winners may not be announced via TOKYOPOP, because they recently went through a massive restructuring that threw the whole place into disarray. If all else fails, I'll announce the winners on my blog and post up the winning entries. It certainly steals the thunder bit, but I'm afraid it's all I can do for the people who put in their time and effort to win this competition.

Still many thanks for entering the competition, and you should go and enjoy yourself from the 28th - July 10th. :D

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lol, *ouch!*

Thank you for answering me, I imagine that the situation over there at Tokyopop has thrown quite a bit of gum into the works for many things. Honestly I don't mind at all how it's announced, because if by some miracle I'm in the top three, I'll be thrilled either way!! I'm looking forward to reading all of the entries, I'm curious to see what everyone came up with, I found it quite a fun challenge, and look forward to seeing what perspective everyone took from the manga and how they used it for their story. It's so facinating how a dozen people can read the same thing, yet walk away with different thoughts or ideas about it.

Thank you again!!

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I'm starting to wonder if the winners will ever even see the prizes that were supposed to be awarded with this. I was under the assumption that one of the reasons they were doing this was as a way to give writers a chance for possibly working for popfiction. Though now that seems less and less a reality.

Oh well, I did have fun, and I hope that you can, or they will, announce the winners soon.

*hands disinfectant to Sundowner2*

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Yeah, this whole thing has left a rather sour taste in my mouth. TOKYOPOP asked for 10 pages of original art from "The Dreaming" for this competition, which I've autographed and sent to them - but it seems that this has been lost in the reshuffle. I haven't had a reply from TOKYOPOP regarding this competition so far, and I'll wait until Wednesday to send another email. If I don't get a reply, I'll announce the winners on the 1st July on this blog.

I feel especially bad for the winners, and also the other people who entered this competition. I hope that if I put up an open call on the internet, I can still get in touch with those who entered and hopefully post EVERYBODY'S entry up for all to see on my website.

In fact, I think I'd best start doing this now. I can't expect to rely on TOKYOPOP for this. :(

Edit: Wait - I'll wait until Wednesday. I just realised I last emailed them last Friday, which doesn't give them much time to reply.

Edited at 2008-06-22 12:29 pm (UTC)

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I'll admit... though I loved the series and I am always up for a writing challenge, the chance to write the novelization was my main modivation for entering, as well as the chance of being able to put in a cover letter that I placed in the contest. I've been trying for the last two years to get a yes on some young adult manuscripts I've written, but so far, just getting positive comments along with the rejections. Eventually I'll reach my goal but meantime a little encouaging news or anything that gets me closer is always appreciated!! Just getting to be a finalist was really exciting for me, and gave me the feeling of "thank goodness!! It's a something positive in the mail today!!"

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I know, sundowner2. :( That's what irks me about the whole TOKYOPOP thing - alot of people had hopes resting on it, and they just implode when they were on the verge of announcing the winners. What perfect timing, *sigh*

Anyway, have you tried submitting your manuscript to a literary agent? You say that you have young adult manuscripts, but what genre are they in? It can help if you find an agent that charges a percentage fee (NOT a flat fee), because then they'll do their best to get your work published. Let me know whether you've considered these options. :D

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Like Sundowner2, I'm also trying to break into writing in the young adult feild, more leaning towards mixes of fantasy, but I'm also working shorter more 'modern life' type stories. Problem is that I haven't been able to find many contests for young adult short stories, or if I do they want them from well Young adults, not older writers who have a BA in Fiction writing.

Getting an agent is a great idea, I'm actually trying to look into it. My greater challenge is that I keep getting told differnt things on sending in manuscripts. "You have to have it finished before you even give it to an agent," or "You should only have at least 5 chapters written for them to read" or "There should be a summary and the first chapter." It's very confusing especially when you're really the first person in your family to attempt to break into the world of writing.

Like Sun I was really hoping for this to work out becuase, like her, I thought, even if I don't win, I can say "Hey I was a finalist".

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I recommend the Writers Market books,they have some wonderful ones, including FORMATTING & SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT. That one is great to take you through query letters and packets, proper formatting and the like for shorts, to manuscripts. Most valuable book I have, I think.

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Sadly, I havn't been able to find representatin, so not gotten to find out who is fee based and who is percentage based. I have been submitting to literary agents for a while, and gotten actual pen to paper comments that were very nice, but saying that they just couldn't use me right now. One told me not to give up, she loved what I had but it wasn't for her and to keep trying. *sigh* I started to submitting to publishers as well last year, and actually have one of my manuscripts being looked at right now, so I'm hoping. Not daring to hope, but still hoping all the same.

What I have written are fantasy books, each starting off in the "modern" world. Example: Normal kid, something magical happens. Those were always my favorite sorts of books growing up, so that's what I find comes most easily to me to write. I have two completed young adult fantasies, at 45,000 words each, a completed middle readers fantasy at 30,000 words, and a very good start on another manustript. I've tons and tons of short stories, everything from bizarre fairy tales to a bit of sci fi, but no luck on selling those to magazines yet. I don't plan to give up, one of my favorite young adult writers Vivian Vande Velde took 23 tries to sell her first book, and I remind myself of tha every time I get a rejection. Each rejection is one less to go before I get a yes!!

I have a seven month old, so it's hard to get time to work on submitting, but I'm not letting that stop me from writing, or submitting. Even if I'm not getting out as many query letters as I was, it's still better than none.

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Mistake! But don't think I can edit. Vivian Vande Velde got 32 rejections before getting a yes. :)

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Thanks for your positive attitude.
I'll wait until June 25th (Wed) for a reply from TOKYOPOP. If I don't get one, I'll send another email, but irregardless, I'll post up the winners on the 1st July on my blog.

That's my plan. I'll real sorry about this whole thing. TOKYOPOP's situation really has not helped things, *sigh*.

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