Happy New Year!

Well, I’m back from a little break with our first release for 2010. It’s the third chapter from Sakae Kusama’s The Constellation Shine in the Sky. I decided to call it “Beautiful Days.” I don’t normally like stories with school settings, but I enjoyed this one a lot. Even though the characters are young, it’s not a childish story. I hope you all like it, too.

For downloads, please visit the web page.

So I ran into a little trouble uploading this. I need some feedback from people who can’t use Mediafire. Which download site do you prefer? I was using Badongo, but, lately, I’d become increasingly unhappy with it. Then, yesterday, I found out they moved all my files into the “recycling bin” and they won’t let me retrieve them, or upload anything else, without upgrading to paid account. Well, that’s the end of that! If you all will let me know which sites you think are good, I will provide a second link for this release tomorrow. And, of course, direct downloads will be available in about a month. Sorry for the inconvenience.

EDIT: Thanks for your input, everyone! Some of you mentioned MegaUpload, and I already had an account, so I decided to use it. I’ve never had problems with MU, but I’ve heard that other people do. We’ll see how this works. ^__^

Thank you, GB! Your work is awesome, as usual. ^__^

New releases can be downloaded at their respective web pages. Please read the FAQ before posting info or sharing in other places:

Sakae Kusama, The Constellation Shine in the Sky, Chapter Four
Setona Mizushiro, The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese, 2nd Edition, Extra

So, finally, we have a new chapter from Sakae Kusama’s The Constellation Shine in the Sky. It’s a oneshot called Summer Landmarks. I thought it was quite sweet. A good way to close off the summer. Like the first chapter in this collection, this story has a page of notes that will probably be helpful, especially if you don’t read kanji (or only know the easy ones, like me. ^__^) This story assumes you know kanji, or at least understand how it’s read, so you might be a little confused at the end. My notes are fairly brief, but there’s plenty of information online if you’re interested in how Japanese is written. I think it’s fascinating, personally, but I don’t want to overwhelm anyone with boring details.

Speaking of kanji, I want to talk a little bit about the title of the Mouse Extra and Carp, Chapter 3. As you know, Carp, Chapter 3 is called “Owl.” Why? Other than the fact that all the chapters are named after animals, I had no idea… until I saw the second edition of Mouse. The new extra is called “The Mouse, Thinking at a Dead End.” The interesting thing is, the word for “dead end” in Japanese is “fukuro.” The kanji for “owl” in Japanese can also be read “fukuro.” Coincidence? Maybe… but I’m guessing not.

I think she used the kanji for “owl” so that the chapter title would continue her animal theme. However, because that particular kanji sounds like “fukuro,” it implies the meaning of “dead end,” even though “dead end” is written with a different character. (Unfortunately, my website won’t allow me to use Japanese characters, so I can’t show you the difference.) Chapter 3 is called “Dead End” because, well… if you’ve read it, you know why. ^__^

So, basically, they’re homophones, two words that are written differently, but sound the same. If I just said the word “fukuro,” and you couldn’t see how it was written, you wouldn’t necessarily know whether I meant “owl” or “dead end.” In this case, she meant “dead end,” but wrote the word “owl.” Maybe, something similar would be, if I used a deer (the animal) as a mascot for my website since it’s called PresenceDear.

This might apply to the word “koi,” as well. “Koi” means “carp” and “love,” but the words are written differently.

Thanks, everyone, who contributed to this! GB, Txilar, Reppu, Y-san and all of you who have been sending moral support… ^__^