A circle of friends connected by gootouchi! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.
On July 20, mystery writer Seinan Sato appeared on the program, introduced by novelist Mio Nukaga. We asked her about how she came to Tokyo to become a musician but failed and how she started writing novels, which she said she had never read before, and about her latest work “Zanzan” (Afterglow).
INDEX
He will only live to be 27.
Takano (MC): Mr. Nukaga introduced Mr. Sato as “a caring older brother in the publishing industry. You yourself tweeted on Twitter that you “might be a bit aware of it.
Sato: That’s right. I tend to get involved in things that I shouldn’t get involved in.
Takano: If I enter the publishing industry, I would like to be taken care of.
Celeina (MC): Mr. Sato, you were a musician before you became a novelist.
Takano: That’s a great profile.
Sato: But I wasn’t making a decent living, so I was working part-time all the time. My hometown is Nagasaki, but I came to Tokyo to enter a music school. I entered the guitar department of MI JAPAN in Shibuya, and after graduation I played in a band.
Takano: What kind of music were you playing at the time?
Sato: I really loved loud music, but I wanted to sell well, so I played music that was in the vein of J-POP, like Miss Chill and Spitz (laughs).
Takano: That’s good, it’s very explicit (laughs).
Celeina: You are a businessman.
Takano: I was going to be a musician, and now I’m a writer.
Celeina: What made you decide to write a novel?
Sato: Before I moved to Tokyo, I thought I would only live to be about 27 years old.
Takano: Is that like Kurt Cobain, by any chance?
Sato: That’s right (laughs). Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix died at the age of 27, so I thought that I would be successful in music and live only until I was 27 years old.
But when I actually came to Tokyo, I found that I was not as successful as I thought I would be, and it seemed as if my life would go on. I had not thought about the future at all, and I began to feel as if I was in trouble. My band activities were not going well. I had no more time to do anything else, so I started buying novels at the book-off store and reading them. I had never read a novel before.
Takano: So that’s how it all started.
Sato: That’s right. I read them and found them interesting.
Celeina: I read it as a form of entertainment, and I was hooked.
Sato: Yes. It was like escaping from reality. Everything was going wrong and I had no money, so I bought a novel for 100 yen at a book-off store and read it.
INDEX
Becoming a writer for the prize money
Takano: But being a musician or a novelist is a narrow path for both. Now that you are active as a novelist, it is amazing, isn’t it? Did you originally start out trying to write mysteries?
Sato: At first, I didn’t even know about those genre divisions at all. It wasn’t until I learned that the prize money for new mystery writers is extremely high that I decided to become a professional.
Celeina: You are a businessman after all (laughs).
Sato: In the pure literature prizes, even if you win a very famous prize, it’s only about 1 million yen. But for mystery newcomer awards, the “This Mystery is Amazing! Grand Prize, for which I debuted, is 12 million yen, and the Edogawa Rampo Award is 10 million yen (5 million yen from 2022).
Takano: I was wondering if you get that much for the “This Mystery is Amazing! Grand Prize?
Sato: That’s right. So when I was about to beat the deadline, I kept chanting in my head, “12 million, 12 million ……” as I wrote (laughs).
Takano: Then (in 2009), you won the Grand Prize of the 9th “This Mystery is Amazing! Grand Prize (in 2009).
Sato: It was an Excellence Award, so I didn’t get the 12 million in the end.
Takano: But it is a very brilliant achievement.
Celeina: How long did it take you to make your debut as a novelist after you started writing novels?
Sato: Personally, it was tough, but it took me about five years, so I think I’m doing well.
Takano: I heard that Sao Ichikawa of “Hunchback” also made his debut after 20 years of writing. But 5 years is also pretty tough, isn’t it?
Celeina: How did you keep your motivation at that time? You mentioned money earlier.
Sato: Money (laughs). But you were doing music until then, and then you decided to become a novelist because music was not going to work out.
Takano: I have the image of a person who is not good at anything, or rather, I have the image of someone who has difficulty in both areas.
Sato: I was almost 30 years old and had failed at music, so I was motivated to achieve results no matter what.
INDEX
YouTube is like sowing seeds.
Takano: Actually, I also write novels as a hobby, and I’m a bit of an aspiring author myself. Seinan Sato has a YouTube channel called ” Novelist Seinan Sato’s Tales of Things That Shouldn’t Happen. I’ve subscribed to his channel.
Sato: That was a surprise (laughs).
Takano: I had been referring to your articles on how to write novels and how to apply for the New Writer’s Award. So I was surprised when I heard that you were going to be a guest.
Sato: So I am your mentor then (laughs).
Takano: That’s right (laughs).
Sato: The first reason I created a YouTube channel was because I was making my own PVs for my novels. I would gather actors, rent a studio, shoot the video, and put on music.
Takano: Sounds like you have a lot of experience so far.
Celeina: It feels like a music video.
Sato: Yes, it is. I would get my friends musicians together and record them. I started a channel to upload them and posted some videos, but they didn’t get that much attention. I left it alone for a while, but then everyone started to start YouTube, didn’t they?
Celeina: I have more time at home now.
Sato: That’s right. So I felt like I was sowing the seeds. It’s not like I’m trying to make a lot of money by creating a buzz, but I feel like I’m exploring the possibilities of promoting my novel.
Takano: I have learned a lot and have been encouraged by it. I think it is a channel with great social significance.
Celeina: Even if you don’t aspire to be a novelist, you can still enjoy the channel, such as answering questions about what novelists usually eat.
Takano: It’s hard to know, isn’t it? What do mystery writers eat?
Sato: Food is normal (laughs).
Takano: My favorite video was the one where he was writing in silence for an hour, and we watched it together as a couple for an hour.
Celeina: Did you write together?
Takano: I tried, but I couldn’t make any progress. But Mr. Sato wrote 40 pages of manuscript paper at a clip. That encouraged me.
Sato: There are many people who write while playing a video together. It seems to be encouraging to see other people working on it.
Takano: Please subscribe to our channel. The answers to the questions are very interesting, so please check it out.
Celeina: Now, I asked Mr. Sato to choose a song that he would like everyone to listen to together on the radio at this time.
Sato: It’s called “Could Have Been Me” by The Struts.
Celeina: Why did you choose this song?
Sato: I go to “Summer Sonic” every year, and that’s where I first encountered this song. It is an anthem that the band plays at the end of every show, and it includes handclaps, but when they play it in the open air, everyone waves their hands. When I hear this song, I think of the blue summer sky, so I thought it would be a good choice.
Celeina: It’s good. Let’s listen to it!
