About me:

Not much to say, except that I love all things Japanese in general, and manga and anime in particular. That probably describes about half of the people that frequent this site, however, so I'm just one in the crowd. That's fine with me. After dealing with a couple of obnoxious flamers, I'd rather keep most of the personal details to myself. Certainly there are some things I will share:

I am older than you, probabilistically speaking.

I have one son and one husband, several cats and a dog.

I am very shy in real life, although I am an accomplished public speaker.

I wish I had studied writing in college.

Like Kakashi, I have many hobbies.

If there is such a thing as reincarnation (and if anyone is taking orders), I would like to come back as a feudal-era Japanese princess. Or maybe a floating world era maiko. Or a kunoichi. Or a Claymore. In any case, I would like to carry the knowledge of indoor plumbing back with me, as this is the one modern convenience I cannot live without. Dream big, I always say.

My writing is fifty percent for you, and fifty percent for me. I post here because I'm trying to improve, and because your reviews encourage me to keep at it. In return, I hope I'm connecting with people who love KakaSaku and Miyazaki, and bringing you some enjoyment. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to leave a review-- positive or negative-- especially those of you who point out things that could help me improve. I truly appreciate it. Even "Update soon!" makes me smile. It's nice not to know that I'm not writing in isolation.

Link to my live journal page.

New Work: Call Me "Sensei"

It's a Halloween Fic, in honor of that most joyous of holidays. And lemony. Please take a look at the pictures that inspired it:

Eva

The black-haired doll is the inspiration. She's on a very long list of expensive hunks of plastic that I must own. I already own Leah, the pink-haired dolls in the later photos. I think she embodies Kakashi's fantasy Sakura, although certainly not the real thing. Much too sexy, right? And those boobs!

Nanowrimo:

I will be participating in National Novel Writers' Month this November and doing my damnedest to finish. The goal is to write the rough draft of a novel in one month-- sloppy and ugly-- just to get it out there, and work on revisions later. I really want to succeed. More than anything! If anyone wants to cheer me on, my penname on nanowrimo.org is sakuraofthespring. I could really use your support.

I will be updating TSWL once during November, as I am almost finished with the rough draft of the next chapter, but I won't have a chance to update Mizuage until the end of the month. Thanks for your patience with me.

Italian Translation:

My good friend sayurinomoe has kindly offered to translate a few of my stories into Italian. I can't believe how generous you are!

About my pen name:

I chose Sakuraharu as my pen name a while before I started reading Naruto. I meant for it to read, "sakura of the spring," but given my limited knowledge of Japanese at the time, it came out kind of bastardized. Also, I was on pain killers at the time. I probably should have changed my pen name to something more clever and less fan-girly when I started writing Kakasaku stories. I think it's probably too late, now: I don't want to be accused of plagiarizing myself. Oh, well. I plead stupidity.

About Year in the Life:

I have not abandoned this, though it is on hiatus. I am hoping to start on it again eventually.

About Mizuage and To Sensei, With Love:

I am taking turns writing these chapters, as I get depressed with each chapter of Mizuage and need something to lighten my spirits.

KakaSaku Fan Club's Shakespeare contest:

Is tentatively scheduled for December, 2009. The idea is to write a kakasaku fic that reinterprets one of Shakespeare's plays. Not sure yet if I will be participating or judging. I feel inadequately prepared to do either, as I did not study English Lit in college, but still I hope to participate somehow! See the kakasaku FC on forums.naruto.fan.com for more details. I can't wait to read the other entries. I am sure several well-known authors will be participating, as well as some who deserve to be better known.

KakaSaku Fan Club's "Classy" Fan Art contest:

A few months ago, the KakaSaku Fan Club (over on the NarutoFan forums) organized a fan art contest for the artists among us. The challenge was to take an existing piece of classical art and transform it into a KakaSaku themed piece. My friend Modernday Portia organized the whole thing (apparently she does not need sleep!) and the contest was a brilliant success.

You can see the contest entries and the original paintings upon which they were based here:

http://forums.narutofan.com/showthread.php?t=500093&page=3

The winner of the contest was Leona 101. Her painting was a transformation of Edmund Blair Leighton's famous "Alain Chatier," and it is amazing. As a prize for first place, I've written a piece to go with this painting, to serve as its backstory: Seijin no Hi. (Coming of Age) I hope it lives up to Leona's work!

Fan Art:

Thank you to sayurinomoe and eldr-fire who have drawn several fanarts related to BOFR. In these, Tsuki is much cuter than I imagined! I am blown away that you think enough of the story to illustrate it.

Tsuki and Susuwatari

Go Rin No Sho

Kendo Girl

Bath

Hot Springs

Expressions

Father and Son

Generations of Hatake

Thank you to sayurinomoe for drawing even more amazing art, these for Fourteen Dates:

Fourteen Dates Study 1

Fourteen Dates Study 2

Fourteen Dates Study 3

Fourteen Dates Study 4

Fourteen Dates Ch 44

Fourteen Dates (wedding)

And these for BOFR. You overwhelm me! I wish I had a sliver of your drawing talent.

Sakura Study

Simply Tsuki

And sayurinomoe has created a kakasaku doujin, based on a chapter from BOFR. God, I love it!

illness

Here is the link to the first page. You can click on it to see the rest.

Also sayurinomoe is working on an original kakasaku doujin that I hope will be posted soon. I have seen some of the drawings and they are amazing. Go MOE!

Commissions:

The talented kimeko-28 has created a couple of amazing drawings for BOFR and Kaidan. I am so pleased with these!

Kakashi and Tsuki

Kaidan