Pink and Gray and Shige

I've honestly been meaning to write this entry since the news first came out but kept putting it off. But this is definitely one news piece I want to discuss as it combines two of my favorite things, books and Kato Shigeaki.

The news has been out for a while, but Kato Shigeaki is going to have his first novel published next year and it is titled Pink to Gray. It is about two friends who both enter the entertainment industry, with one finding great success and the other very little.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

I've always been an avid reader since I learned how and for those who check out my other journal, My-kei, know that I've tried by hand at writing novels by participating in National Novel Writing Month. Of course even though I've written enough for a novel I have yet to be happy enough with what I wrote to begin the rewriting stage for them, which they of course need. So I do admit about being a bit jealous of the fact that Shige was able to write his first novel and have it considered good enough to publish. Of course I'm sure he's done rewrites and everything else that comes with novel writing but still it's pretty amazing that he could get out the story he wanted to first time out instead of the trail and error other authors have faced.

I do feel like I get what kind of dedication it must have taken to write the novel in such little time. With Nanowrimo the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in only 30 days so the fact that he wrote his in about two months and had to spend up to twelve hours in front of a computer to do so is something I can relate to.  And I know that it really shows how little he had to do during that time, especially if he did rewrites.

I am really interested in the story. Even though Shige has commented that it is not autobiographical one of the main rules of thumb for authors is to write what you know so I'm sure the novel is still colored by his experiences in the entertainment industry. And the title is rather telling seeing as the colors for the main leads of idol groups tend to be either red or pink and of course gray is the kind of color you would only expect something like an unknown back dancer to wear.

Of course while I will be buying the novel I won't be able to actually read it. Of course it's my goal to one day be good enough with Japanese to be able to read something like this, but for right now it's just not happening. But I still want to support him and wish him well with this endeavor.