Tokyo Literary Godfather

After coming to this world for nearly a year, Kei Fujiwara has finally made some achievements.

Although he still hasn't won any special fame in the broadcasting industry, he is not considered an unknown person, and belongs to the crab generals among the shrimp soldiers and crab generals.

The main achievements of the year were in the publishing world. The publication of "White Night Journey" has brought him huge profits. The royalties received in just a few months have already been the wages of many salaried people for several years. And this is just the beginning.

On New Year's Day, Kei Fujiwara received several gifts, including from the TV station, the Spring and Autumn Society, and a personal gift from Yui Mizuhara: a pen.

Seeing this pen, Kei Fujiwara suddenly thought of something, so he spent money to buy a computer and printer the next day, and put them in his newly rented apartment.

In what age, who still writes with a pen?

However, this pen is very suitable for signing at the autograph and so on. Thinking of this, Kei Fujiwara put the pen in his bag.

The results of the Naoki Award were announced in mid-January, which is still about a week away.

The media has also speculated more frequently about Naoki Sho. These five works are all masterpieces and have good sales. Among them, "Winter Girl's Warm Sun" may be a little behind in terms of sales, only about 100,000 copies.

But this is a female novel. If this novel wins the award, it can be regarded as filling the gap in female works among previous Naoki Award-winning works. Therefore, this book has a high chance of winning.

It would be great to win the Naoki Prize, but it would also be a shame not to win. Kei Fujiwara is a profit-only theorist. In his opinion, the greatest value of winning an award is that it can sell more. Other than that, it is of no use.

"White Night Journey" in the parallel world failed at the Naoki Film Festival, but it still sells well all over the world.

What's more, if you can't win the Naoki Prize, you still have the Ranpo Prize. Although the Naoki Prize is the highest award for popular literature, Kei Fujiwara prefers to win the Ranpo Prize because... this award is more auspicious.

Many well-known awards have a curse. For example, the famous Academy Award has an Oscar curse. Actors who win the Oscar will not be able to produce good works for a long time after winning the award, and may even go bankrupt. Divorce, being caught cheating, and other big failures in life are in this world.

Unfortunately, Naoki Sho also has a Naoki curse, and this curse has lasted for seven or eight years.

The authors who have won awards in the past seven or eight years seem to be unable to write best-selling novels after winning the award...

On January 15th, Kei Fujiwara, Kazuhiko Itagaki and others came to the venue of the Naoki Awards, the New Joy Hotel.

The place had been booked by the organizer. Fujiwara Kei and Itagaki Kazuhiko walked to the door, identified themselves to the security guard and went in.

The hotel was crowded, mostly journalists and people from the publishing industry. Ten judges were being interviewed at the moment.

The Akutagawa Prize and the Naoki Prize announce the winners at the same time. The Akutagawa Prize is a purely literary award. The reading threshold for such works is high, so it does not attract much attention from the public, but it still has a high status.

Kei Fujiwara walked to the area where the writers were sitting, and next to him was Ikema Watanabe. Ikema Watanabe is in his thirties, looks gentle and elegant, and has a literati temperament. When he saw Kei Fujiwara, he stood up on his own initiative.

"Teacher Sima, you are here."

"Good evening, Mr. Watanabe." Fujiwara Kei returned the greeting and glanced at Shimada, who was sitting next to him. Shimada looked at Fujiwara Kei, his face turned pale, he forced a smile, and then quickly lowered his head.

"I have watched "White Night Walk". It is really an excellent work." Ikema Watanabe said, "I was really shocked when I found out your age. It is true that young people will always be the main force in this world. Army!"

In fact, Ikema Watanabe can be considered a young writer, but compared with Keiichi Fujiwara, he seems older.

"'Aurora Murder' gave me a lot of inspiration. It is a very good work."

The two have been chatting. After becoming a professional writer, it is also very important to keep in touch with people.

Itagaki Kazuhiko sat next to Fujiwara Kei and would interject a few words from time to time. But Shimada sat aside and didn't dare to say a word. Fujiwara Kei had conflicts with him.

This time, "Aurora Murder 2" was released in advance. The original intention was to snipe "White Night Journey". Unexpectedly, not only did it fail to affect the sales of "White Night Journey", but I was actually discounted by the other party.

So now he is in a very embarrassing situation. Not only has his rift with Kei Fujiwara increased, but Ikema Watanabe is also a little dissatisfied with him now, thinking that he has made wrong decisions. It is estimated that the editor-in-charge of the next work will be changed.

He offended two of the three most profitable authors of Spring and Autumn Society at one go. Sometimes Shimada really wants to find a traffic light and hit him to death.

"Teacher Sima, hello, we are reporters from Fushan Station. Can we interview you for a few questions?" Suddenly a young reporter came over. He was not allowed to enter the area where the author was, so he had to stand outside and talk. Shouting.

Fujiwara Kei looked back, stood up, and said to Itagaki Kazuhiko: "Mr. Itagaki, I'm going first."

"Yeah, but if I ask you some too sensitive questions, such as those related to politics, it's best not to answer them."

Itagaki Kazuhiko reminded that people in the broadcasting industry are troubled here. These reporters always like to ask writers some sensitive questions, hoping that a certain plot in their works will allude to the government or even criticize the cabinet. Kei Fujiwara writes about socialism, which has received a lot of repercussions in society recently, and he is afraid that these reporters will ask whether something is available or not.

"Okay, I understand. These are my family, don't worry."

Kei Fujiwara smiled and patted him on the back, and walked up to the reporter. As soon as he appeared, a large number of microphones were poked at him and stood up one by one in front of him.

"Teacher Sima, what do you want to express by writing such a work?"

"Teacher Sima, do you think the current laws protect children enough?"

"Teacher Sima, do you think Bai Yexing's tragedy will happen in reality?"

“Do you have anything to say to the readers?”

"Why did you choose the socialist genre to write? Before you, almost no socialist mystery work could sell well. Where does your confidence come from?"

"Teacher Sima, who do you think is the most likely to win the Naoki Prize among the five shortlisted works this time?"

"Since they are shortlisted, their abilities must be between equals. Who will receive the award depends on the judges' choice." Fujiwara Kei replied with a smile, "Everyone knows that I am a newcomer. For me, being shortlisted is a big deal. It is already a great compliment, and I will be very satisfied regardless of whether I receive it in the end.”

"As for why I chose the socialist school... In fact, before I started writing, I didn't think much about the genre. I just wanted to write a good story. As for whether readers are willing to distinguish it after writing it, that's up to the reader. free."

More and more reporters are asking questions, and some of the questions are too tricky to answer. They might as well ask you directly if you have any dissatisfaction with today's society. Just when Kei Fujiwara felt tired of dealing with it, someone shouted "Kyogoku Shunpei is here" from somewhere, and most of the crowd immediately dispersed.

Fujiwara Kei took the opportunity to escape, and not far away, book reviewer Chiba Shinichi was also being interviewed.

"If I were a judge, my vote would definitely have to be "White Night Journey."" Shinichi Chiba said to the camera, "Whether it is literary heritage, writing skills, plot tension, emotional expression, or even theme innovation . "White Night Walk" is undoubtedly the strongest among the five works, and it is a unique masterpiece in recent years."

“So do you think White Night Walk is most likely to win the Naoki Prize this time?”

Chiba Shinichi shook his head: "To be honest, it's not the case. The author of "White Night Journey", Shima Keita, is an out-and-out newcomer, and the Naoki Award is not a newcomer award after all. The other finalists have more or less been nominated. , I think the Naoki Prize will give priority to others. Unless the judges of the Naoki Prize this time have enough courage, they will award this award, which represents the highest honor of popular literature, to a newcomer."