“Uh, they green-lighted the three-month serial release.”
“No way?! Seriously?! They’re actually going to let me write that?!”
“Yeah, actually, the president gave his approval, so if you don’t send them in, we’ll have problems.”
“…Right.” (P-presidential approval?! What’s up with that?! What would have happened if he hadn’t approved it?!)
And so I kept on writing with trickles of cold sweat running down my spine, but Suzuki the editor and Enami the illustrator probably had it a whole lot rougher than I did. While I was writing, I heard other writers and editorial staff members saying, “Suzuki looked like he was having a tough time,” and “Enami’s working really, really hard,” and while I did feel guilty, I was also very grateful. I hope my writing was able to live up to that…
In any case, I plan to work on a non-Baccano! one-shot story and simultaneously keep writing Baccano! as I get new ideas.
At the very least, my current objectives are to study hard every day and work to create my own style, so that the PR department staff doesn’t tell me, “It’s not humanly possible to advertise your books!” and come after me with chainsaws… And I get the feeling that not only have I written this sort of thing three times, but the objectives keep changing on me… It must be déjà vu.
* As usual, everything from this point on is thank-yous.
To Chief Editor Suzuki and the people of the sales, PR, and editorial departments, for whom I caused even more trouble than usual with this three-month serial release.
To the copy editors, who checked my vast number of typos, dropped characters, and ungrammatical sentences, and also to the designers who made the book look good.
To my family, friends, and acquaintances, to whom I’m indebted for all sorts of things, and particularly to the good people of S City, who helped create Samantha’s mixed dialect.
To “T,” who was kind enough to tell me about their experiences for certain descriptive passages (no more “experiencing,” a’right?).
To the great Katsumi Enami, who, during this three-month serial release, was terribly busy with three books’ worth of designs for mostly new characters and with illustrations for Dengeki hp posters and still managed to make them all fantastic.
To you, the readers who picked up this book, too.
And to the people who hadn’t read one of my books before.
My apologies for saying something similar to what I said at the beginning, but everyone mentioned above has my deepest gratitude.
July 2003, at my place
Listening to the noise that plays in the background of Eraserhead (directed by David Lynch).
Ryohgo Narita
1932 Drug & The Dominos Page 20