There Are Four Lights

…actually, it was just sitting in the mailbox this morning—-but it should’ve arrived this way! Yep, my very own copy of Death from the Skies signed by the totally awesome Bad Astronomer, Dr. Phil Plait. And yes, he’s lucky enough to be getting a manga goody bag of…goodness. I’m assuming it will arrive via magic ninjas or team of sailor scouts…

Do you want your very own manga goodies by mangaka Sara E. Mayhew? Great! You can get your copy of Secrets of Sorcerers Vol. 1 over at Amazon! Unfortunately, if you want a print copy of Legend of the Ztarr, for now you’ll have to call up Viz and tell them they should publish it…

Obviously, I didn’t have the time or energy to blog about my TED experience while I was actually there. TED is a brain-melting experience that leaves you feeling amazed and overwhelmed at the end of each day. I’m going to have to refresh my memory when the DVD set arrives of all the great talks that were given within just a few days. As a fellowship member, I did a short talk on a mini TED stage to an audience of fellow Fellows. I took advantage of the chance to give a talk to talk about one of the things I love to talk about most—-Legend of the Ztarr, my new manga series!

As a Canadian in the middle of winter, just being in California was nice (though, apparently 12c is “cold”, lol). I was really thrilled to meet all kinds of amazing people; Of course, all of the fellowship members were extraordinary and simply the greatest group of people I’ve been fortunate enough to become friends with. Everyone is doing something amazing to change the world for the better from all corners of the planet.

Though my family was interested in hearing about whether I got to meet Al Gore or Robin Williams, instead, I was excited about getting to meet Dan Dennett, philosopher and one of the ‘Four Horsemen’ of atheism, Brian Cox, physicist at CERN working on the LHC, and Carolyn Porco, head of imaging for the Cassini mission to Saturn (links point to Flickr photos of them and myself). I’m extremely shy, so I probably freaked them all out a bit by being so quiet!

My Twitter followers count has quadrupled since the first day at TED and my inbox has exploded with emails. There are several invites in the works for various talks/workshops that organizations are interested in having me attend. Hopefully, this TED momentum will aid in my current goal of getting Legend of the Ztarr picked up by a publisher. If there’s one feeling that a TED conference leaves you with, it’s that nothing is out of reach, and any idea is possible. TED is truly an inspiring gathering of the worlds leading thinkers and doers, that leaves a lasting impression on the rest of your life.

If you’ve come across this little blog of mine, I invite you to read Legend of the Ztarr and spread the word about it. You can find my collection of TED photos on my Flickr account, follow me on twitter here, and look me up on Facebook/Myspace as well.

This (first) manga break is of my absolute favourite manga series, NANA. The series creator is Ai Yazawa and it’s still ongoing and serialized in Cookie (a monthly manga magazine in Japan). NANA is a hugely popular shoujo series; Volume 19, released last May, broke 2008 sales record by selling 780 000 copies in one week (the previous record was held by Naruto Vol. 42, which sold 505 000 copies in the week of May 2^nd). The series gets its name from the two main characters; both named Nana, which means ‘seven’ in Japanese. The two girls end up living together in apartment 707, in Tokyo, and become good friends despite their opposite personalities.

One of the Nanas is the vocalist in a band called The Black Stones (or Blast). She nicknames the other Nana “Hachiko” which is the name of a famous loyal pet dog in Japan (and ‘hachi’ also means ‘eight’). Hachiko is your typical girly 20 year old who jumps from relationship to relationship and from one job to another. Among the many contrasts between the two is Hachi’s lack of focus and her seemingly endless boyfriend hopping, compared to Nana’s passion to be a singer and her history with the one man she loves.

Yazawa’s artwork is gorgeous-the details in the changing hair and clothing is wonderful and really suites each individual character. But what I most admire about Yazawa’s work is her writing; the story is a beautiful mix of fantasy (the glamour of famous musicians, dating a celebrity, plentiful designer fashion) and realism (falling out of love, leaving home, struggling to find your life’s focus). No matter what situation the characters are placed in, Yazawa makes it all seem believable. In some manga, sometimes it can seem like a character is making a certain choice solely because it serves the story-but in NANA, every character responds to the situations in a manner which is true to their personality. The interactions that go on between the various characters make you believe that they all really could be living out their lives this way, somewhere in Tokyo.

NANA is more mature than the typical shoujo series you might find licensed here in North America. Personally, I would consider NANA more of a “josei” manga-geared more towards young adults than teens. I can imagine American promoters comparing it to popular teen TV dramas like the O.C. or Dawson’s Creek to try and market to the audience of those kinds of shows, but I don’t think that comparison would do it justice. The story deals with breakups, cheating, drugs, pregnancy, and other familiar drama themes, but none of it feels like it’s been dumped in-nearly everything that occurs in the plot feels necessary to the story-everything feels natural and, again, believable.

NANA was licensed by Viz, here in the US and Canada, and was serialized in their Shojo Beat magazine. It was dropped from the magazine once the story started to outgrow the Shojo Beat age demographic with its increasingly mature content. Viz continues to release the series in graphic novel format, which currently runs to about Volume 14. An anime adaptation was produced and aired in Japan in 2006. The license for the anime has apparently been acquired by Viz, but I haven’t heard any recent news about when it will be released.

I don’t often get the chance to watch or read new anime and manga series, so most of my favourite series are from the late 90s. NANA is one exception. I know I’m not the only one who finds themselves re-reading older chapters and getting sucked in all over again. The balance, flow, and emotion in both artwork and story make NANA one of those great manga series that remind me of why I fell in love with this type of storytelling.

Sara drawn as a Yazawa character?

If I could be in anything else, besides a mangaka, and had a magic wand that could make me a professional in any other field, then I would choose to be an astronomer. I think, most likely, I’d like to be a planetary scientist. I bought a telescope a couple years ago and love going out in the backyard for some stargazing. The first planet I saw was Jupiter, on a really clear summer evening. The small town I live in doesn’t have much light pollution, which is nice. It amazed me that this little instrument could turn what was otherwise just a really bright ‘star’ in the sky into a glowing planet with tiny specks of moons around it. Then there’s Saturn…homg, RINGS~! Ha ha, it’s them Jovian planets that impress the ladies (or at least, this lady).

I did this little doodle a few months ago. I have since chopped off my hair. It was really cloudy and rainy here this summer, so I didn’t get to use my telescope much. My family doesn’t really seem interested in what I look at in the sky, so I mostly get excited all by me onesies, ha! Perhaps, I’m easily amused, but looking through an eyepiece at this dot in the sky and seeing a real planet really geeks me up inside and it blows my mind that it’s so big and so far away–LIKE, WOW~a whole other planet!

This past week, I spent some time in North Bay, about a 2.5 hour drive south of where I live. Usually, nerdtasticly cool people to hang out with have to be imported here, to Kirkland, for me to get the chance to chat non-digitally. But this time, I made the journey down from the k-hole and enjoy latenight caffeine beverage loitering in the Bay. If you mention the LHC around my family you either get a response of “…..?” or “Um, like, that’s totally gonna make a black hole thingy and destroy the Earth, like, omg“–so it’s nice to get away from their adorable hicksvilleness.

On the drive back up to the ‘Shire’ (this only refers to the small part of Kirkland that I’ve hobbitised with second breakfast and no adventures), I listened to the Astronomy Cast podcast. It was the first time I’d heard the show, and this particular episode was done live from Dragon Con and the discussion was from a panel that dealt with scientific facts and/or mistakes in science fiction–from Trek, Battlestar Gallactica, to Dr. Who. I really enjoyed it so I’m checking out more of their episodes!