Volume Five Is Here!

On Christmas Day 2010, I sat down to write what would eventually become Joel Suzuki, Volume One: Secret of the Songshell. Now, over eight years and hundreds of thousands of words later, my little sci-fi/fantasy series about an autistic boy who travels to a world where music is magic is now up to five volumes.

That's right - Joel Suzuki, Volume Five: Ballad of the Bluerock, has been officially launched into the world!

Thank you so, so much to everyone that has helped make this journey possible so far: Karen and John from Autism Empowerment, my editor Susan DeFreitas, cover artist Jill Colbert, my fellow authors in the Northwest Independent Writers Association, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and Willamette Writers, all the fans, readers, teachers, media, bookstores, schools, nonprofit organizations, and everyone else who has supported the series, and, of course, my two amazing kids.

If you want to get your hands on a copy, it's available online from these sources:

Amazon - Paperback Edition

Amazon - Kindle (ebook) Edition

Barnes & Noble - Paperback Edition

You can also ask your favorite brick & mortar bookstore to order it for you. Some fine establishments that already carry the Joel Suzuki series include:

Barnes & Noble - Eugene, OR
Barnes & Noble - Vancouver, WA
Chaparral Books
Conrad Books
Harbor Books & Gifts
Kazoodles Toy Store

Of course, there are no in-person launch parties planned at the moment, but I will definitely make an announcement as soon as such a thing is possible once again.

And in the meantime, you can catch up with the entire series by binge-reading the first four volumes:

Joel Suzuki, Volume One: Secret of the Songshell
Joel Suzuki, Volume Two: Mystery of the Moonfire
Joel Suzuki, Volume Three: Legend of the Loudstone

Joel Suzuki, Volume Four: Fable of the Fatewave

Stuff I'm Looking Forward To In 2021 (In January and February Alone)

Well, that was some year, huh? Let's hope this new one is much, much better. So far, it seems like it's lining up to be, at least as far as pop culture is concerned...

WandaVision (January 15)

I love alternate reality/multiverse-type stuff, so I'm really looking forward to this one. Plus, I think I've been having MCU withdrawals.

Cobra Kai (January 1)

Apparently, the release date for Season 3 has been moved up from the originally-planned January 8th to tomorrow, woohoo! You can read what I had to say about this awesome show in this previous post.

Doctor Who Holiday Special (January 1)

Seems like I might have a lot to do on New Year's Day? Then again, I'm assuming that the BBC will be airing this episode (subtitled "Revolution of the Daleks") sometime in the evening after my regularly-getting-woken-up-by-cats-at-330am-self has gone to bed, so I'll probably catch it via On Demand the following morning.

Joel Suzuki, Volume Five: Ballad of the Bluerock (January 7)

That's right, an official release date! We'll have an entire post dedicated to it next week.

Glorified, Issue #3: "Broken Ecstasy" (date pending)

Signed copies will be sent out to our Kickstarter backers in a few days, and it should be available for general sale on IndyPlanet soon.

Four-D: The Winter Suite EP by Second Player Score (February 4)

Four new songs! This release will also get its own post on the day it comes out.

Happy Holidays!

From all of us here at the Brian Tashima Blog and the Joel Suzuki Series, we hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday season.

Felicity: Oh, so you think you're cute with your marginal Microsoft Paint skills, huh.

Brian: Yes, I do.

Felicity: Those are terribly-drawn hats, dude. Even worse than the ones you did last time.

Brian: I dunno, I think they're okay. Joel?

Joel: I agree with her.

Brian: You do?

Joel: Yeah. They're not the correct shape.

Felicity: Right? They're missing the pointy bit at the top.

Brian: There wasn't any room for that.

Felicity: An actual artist would've figured something out.

Brian: I never claimed to be an actual artist.

Felicity: Then stop drawing stuff on our pictures.

Brian: I think it gets the message across.

Felicity: Badly.

Joel: It does match your dress. And the background.

Felicity: Whose side are you on?

Brian: Okay, okay, let's stop arguing. It's the holiday season, after all.

Felicity: That's the perfect time for a family argument.

Joel: Except we're not really family.

Felicity: True. But whatever.

Brian: How about we eat dinner and open presents instead?

Joel: Sounds good.

Felicity: Now you're talking.

Volume Five Proof!

It's always exciting when the first printed copy of a new volume arrives, even if it has a "not for resale" stripe splashed across the cover.

Everything came out perfect, so we are on track to have an official launch date soon! Oh, and in case you missed it, here's the back cover copy again (WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR VOLUME FOUR):

"After a disastrous concert festival that claimed the lives of thousands, Joel Suzuki's archenemy is now, quite possibly, all-powerful. The only way Joel can undo the damage and save the universe is to return to Spectraland, complete his training, and fulfill his destiny as the Virtuoso - the greatest Wavemaker of them all.

Trouble is, Joel is stuck on the Bluerock (Spectraland's name for Earth) with no idea of how to get back, and he has only a few months before the gateway between the two worlds closes forever. What's worse, the one person he thinks can help him - and that he can trust - doesn't believe his story.

Then there's the pesky private eye on his trail, investigating the disappearance of Joel's friend Felicity, who was tragically killed at the concert festival. Or was she? With no solid proof that Spectraland exists, Joel starts to question whether the island of music and magic was even real in the first place...or was it all in his imagination?"

Joel may not have solid proof that Spectraland exists, but we do have solid proof - see what I did there - that this book exists. 'Cause, you know, this is a proof copy, and...okay, sorry, never mind. The humor in the book is better, I promise.

Haiku Hour, Mou Ichido ("Once More")

Hey, remember when I wrote some haikus back in July? Well, I figured enough time had passed by that it was all right for me to try again. As a reminder for those who don't know, a haiku is a Japanese poem that consists of seventeen syllables divided into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Traditionally, they include references to seasons and/or have nature as a topic, but, well, whatever. Hajimemashou!

Spinach eggs and spam

With some cheese toast on the side

Breakfast for dinner

Big furnace filter

Sold out almost everywhere

After the fires

Now how did this work?

Book design, so tedious

Joys of D.I.Y.

Awesome Zelda game

Minus all the hard puzzles

Button mashing, yeah!

A pint glass with the

Second Player Score logo

Chalice of power

Okay, I'll stop now.

Volume Five Cover Reveal!

Here it is (sans text), courtesy of artist extraordinaire Jill Colbert of Manfish Inc.

If you missed the post with the title reveal and the back cover copy, it's here.

Stay tuned for an official release date!

Thanksgiving Fun Fact

Hey there! A big thank you to everyone for reading this blog, supporting my various projects, and generally being awesome through what has definitely been a challenging year for us all.

I'm going to keep this one short, but here's a fun Thanksgiving fact: in case you didn't already know, the entire story of Joel Suzuki, Volume Four: Fable of the Fatewave - and the beginning of Volume Five, Ballad of the Bluerock - takes place on Thanksgiving day, Thursday, November 22, 2012, the same day that this previous blog post was written.

Of course, Joel goes to Spectraland during that day and has a whole host of adventures before returning to the same place and time that he left from (owing mostly to the temporal differences between the two worlds - time moves much more slowly on Spectraland than it does on Earth), so there's enough goings-on to fill a whole 361-page book, but still, it's essentially a Thanksgiving story.

And no, he never does finish his pie.