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This series has garnered zero negative reviews! All thanks to supporters like you! 

About who you are supporting

I am a young-at-heart, happily divorced-single, heterosexual English-speaking woman of Chinese descent, currently living and working in Singapore. I read all of Isaac Asimov and Andre Norton works by the time I was 15. Then Anne Rice came along, and began a whole vampire pop-culture genre. As a lifelong, avid reader of fantasy genres, my lifelong dream has always been to become a full-time fantasy fiction author. Life got in the way for 30 years - now, I am finally taking the plunge!

But I need to develop my own space. Fantasy genres are crowded - dare I say, overcrowded - with vampires, were-animals, ghosts, ghouls, wizards, witches and sorcerers. All of them done to death. I wanted to create something different for English-speaking fantasy fans. To give readers  something fresh in which I can carve my own niche.

So I looked into Asian fantasy genres for inspiration - and was utterly disappointed.  Asian anime/manga, specifically Japanese anime/manga - they were all colourful, all different from Western fantasy themes and settings - but all the same. All filled with more and more fantastic characters and worlds in a continuing obsession with mashing up Japanese and Western cultural elements  by artists trying to outdo one another. In the bid to out-fantastic (I had to invent a new word for it, there is no other choice!) one another, Japanese anime/manga fantasy material became monotonously fantastical, a contradiction in terms but one which suits them to a T. One Japanese manga hero/heroine in crazy-huge armour and sword and ridiculous hairdo from one manga began to look pretty much the same as another. One world began to look pretty much the same as another. And did I mention the boobs on the female manga characters? Crazy-huge boobs on skinny girls, the stuff of wet dreams for the teenage male demographic. Such devices sell mangas, but they did nothing to inspire me. On the contrary, I was completely turned off.

Then I chanced upon BLEACH, a Japanese anime/manga series by Tite Kubo.

Now, this was something else. The creator of BLEACH' , Tite Kubo, took the rich tapestries of Japanese history, cultures, spiritual and religious beliefs and breathed much-needed fresh air into the Japanese manga genre. He went low on uber-fantasy elements aka Final Fantasy and went high on everyday Japanese supernatural beliefs, filled his story with supernatural characters modelled on Edo Period Japanese samurai. In effect, he pulled a breathtakingly unique and inimitable one-man creative coup. He deliberately avoided oversized breasts on his female characters save one or two which he retained for plot interest, and avoided romance. My only issue with BLEACH was its overemphasis on fighting and power, which I excused because Kubo specifically created BLEACH for the teenage male demographic.

But I saw the other potentials. The samurai-themes in a Japanese spiritual and religious background is ripe for further development for a different, wider audience. For fantasy readers in their adulthood who have long since left their teenage years and teenage angst behind. There are a near hundred characters in BLEACH, and the premises in the original published storylines are filled with undeveloped possibilities for a new kind of supernatural fantasy genre.

It did not hurt that there is already a huge following.

BLEACH ran for 74 volumes from 2001 to 2016, currently has 120 million copies in print worldwide, and spawned a media franchise that includes an anime television series produced by Tokyo-based Studio Pierrot from 2004 to 2012, two original video animation episodes, four animated feature films, ten stage musicals, and numerous video games, and scores of merchandise. A Japanese live-action film adaptation produced by Warner Bros. was released in 2018.

I was inspired.

I felt I had found my space. My unique base material.

So I began to create a series of novel-length spin-off stories in English-language. One that takes BLEACH into a different creative direction.

About the project

The first creative change I made was to set the spin-offs firmly in a feudal, supernatural world of Japanese Buddhist-Shinto beliefs.

Next, I moved the focus and main protagonists from the teens to the older key supporting characters by fleshing out their characters, backstories, lives, trials and triumphs in the course of building and leading a world and its society. This means removing teenage-related elements - which I did so with glee. 

Then, I greatly expanded upon Tite Kubo’s original concepts with mythological and supernatural elements of my own original creation.

After that, I developed my own plot of political intrigue and civil wars set in the newly expanded and revamped universe.

Simultaneously, I used prose, descriptions and imageries based on Japanese aesthetics.

Lastly, I made sure that everything ties in respectfully with Tite Kubo's original work.

Results of 1 year of market testing

I spent the whole of last year creating the key parts of the series.

But I wanted to test response and reception. 

So I published the first drafts on the world’s second largest online amateur fiction archive. One which boasted over a million amateur works .

But one whose supporters and users are overwhelmingly teen demographic. Whose works were mostly written by teens. Read and frequented by teens whose most popular story choices are stories of teen protagonists and teen porn.

I was prepared to fail dismally. To see my drafts sink into obscurity. To be ignored and overlooked.

Instead, I was amazed.

Despite publishing to the wrong target audience, with no other marketing, from January to December of 2019, my drafts won over 3,800 readers and fans and zero bad reviews!

All my reviewers gave their reviews thoughtfully, and glowingly, for my work.

I did careful research on my competition. I found out that for novel-length, niche genres like mine, which focuses on plot not porn, amateur authors will be lucky to get 2,000 readership in the same amount of time. And that is with marketing and the right audience.

This means there is a market out there.

And my writing is good.

What if I target the right audience this time?

I decided to give it a shot.

Latest update

Only three weeks into January of 2020, and another 100 readers have joined the fray. Total readership count is now over 3,900!

I am almost ready with the first full-length novel.

My long-time friend, a media production professional veteran in Germany, after reading a selected chapter, decided I am on to a good thing and agreed to represent me as agent to approach Tite Kubo for rights discussion. 

Why I need support

Writing is extremely hard work. Fiction writing is harder than writing self-helps or autobiographies, because the author has to take care of plot and character developments. Fantasy fiction writing is the hardest work of all - in addition to the challenges of fiction writing, the author has to create an entire world that is believable! 

If Tite Kubo does not agree to sell me the licence, then there is no choice, I will publish privately as a dōjinshi (read here to understand what is a dōjinshi) but in a reversed manner - taking an English-language dōjinshi into Japan, rather than translating a Japanese dōjinshi into English!

How you can help support!

To keep this project going, I am taking pre-orders  here for my finished work - either as an officially-licenced novel, or as an English-language dōjinshi. 

Part of the funds raised will go towards repaying the loans which I had already taken for this project. The other part will go towards hiring illustrators, book designers and printers, to interpreters to commence talks with Tite Kubo, as well as planned travel expenses to meet with Tite Kubo in Japan.

Other ways you can support!

Like my campaign. 

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A final grateful word

Thank you very much for sparing time to read my heartfelt plea! Every cent you contribute, every time you spread my link and my work, you are helping to make what you love a reality!

Stay tuned for more updates!