Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 203



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203.

Guns and Sword Magazine, a pulp fiction magazine published in several states in the Sun Belt, starting with California, mainly published genre novels related to “guns” and “swords,” as its name suggests.

Perhaps that’s why the magazine’s most popular and long-running serials were the hard-boiled detective novels ‘Detective Rem Series’ and the sword and sorcery novel ‘Ronan the Barbarian’.

The two works, each representing ‘Gun’ and ‘Sword’, had a lot of die-hard fans as they had been serialized for a very long time. In addition, both works have maintained their form for a long time and are still proudly maintaining top-tier performances.

That was the nature of the work from the beginning. The reader’s needs and the writer’s ability had to be in harmony in order to continue the series. In both works, the writer had a story he wanted to show, and the readers wanted it too.

In order to become a good genre fiction magazine, such long-running serials were absolutely necessary. This was because readers who bought the magazine to read long-running serials would read new works and become fans, creating a virtuous cycle.

Of course, ‘Princess Quest’, which was a huge hit a few years ago, also received help from them.

At the time, readers who bought magazines to read masterpieces like ‘Ronan the Barbarian’, ‘Detective Rem’, ‘Rainbow World’, and ‘Defiant Dungeon’ were instantly captive after reading a novel featuring two desirable female characters as the main characters.

In fact, that was the best-selling time for Guns and Sword magazine in recent times.

Both works are immensely popular in their own right, while still helping to attract readers to new releases.

Even as the writer’s skills improved, it was easy for the company to manage. However, there was one moment a year when those works that didn’t require any extra attention turned into a bit of a headache.

It was right at the end of every year when the ‘Work of the Year’ award was selected.

Since humans are creatures who like to stand in line, the selection of year-end award winners has been a natural part of the magazine culture since some point.

Each magazine selected the best work of the year and the best work of the year in each genre and announced it in their last issue at the end of the year, and that’s where the problem arose.

‘Ronan the Barbarian’, ‘Detective REM’, and most recently, ‘Defiant Dungeon’ which has completely regained its momentum.

There was once a time when the successive awards of such long-running popular series became a problem.

If they kept giving out awards, Ronan the Barbarian would have continued to dominate the sword and sorcery genre.

What started out as a parody of the past work, ‘Conan Saga’, has now succeeded in differentiating itself from the Conan Saga by creating its own universe, and has become incredibly popular.

As the series has been running for several years and still consistently ranks high in survey indicators, Ronan has been selected as the work of the year several times.

And it was the same with Rem.

The problem was that as this situation continued, the two works were blocking other works from receiving awards because of their long-running popularity, even though this was not intentional.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t be awarded.

‘Because there hasn’t been a work that has clearly surpassed Ronan. At least ‘Princess Quest’? And that was only towards the end of the work.’

Arthur Reynolds, editor of Guns and Sword magazine, smoked a cigarette and thought:

Each magazine tried to address this problem in different ways.

You could create awards in various fields and give them to works that you want to honor separately. Or you could even create a Hall of Fame and send long-running popular series to that.

But Guns and Sword magazine didn’t take either of those approaches. Instead, they established a new award that was given only to writers who had debuted that year, and continued to award ‘Ronan’ and ‘Rem’, thereby proudly sticking to their own way.

We will never change the award winners in a blind and ignorant manner.

The most important thing in a genre is fun.

If there’s no work that can beat Ronan and Rem, then that’s all.

At one time, the popularity of a long-running series was barely surpassed by ‘Princess Quest’.

However, that year, ‘Ronan the Barbarian’ did not show any signs of decline, and ‘Princess Quest’ did not receive the ‘Sword and Sorcery of the Year’ award due to its fatal flaw of being serialized for a short period of time.

Instead, Shin received the ‘New Writer of the Year Award’, but thinking back now, well······.

‘Well, that sounds a bit presumptuous.’

Arthur smiled bitterly.

Who would have thought that the author who failed to push out Ronan in a close competition a few years ago would win the ‘Best Work of the Year’ award, the most prestigious award selected by Guns & Sword magazine, with the unanimous vote of the editorial board and overwhelming support from a survey?

The arms bend inward, a field where Ronan and Rem would normally be fighting each other.

It was the first time in a long time that an external award winner was selected.

Arthur slowly looked down at the results sheet on the desk.

『1985 Guns and Sword Magazine List of the Year Award Winners.

1. Best work of the year: ‘Losers’ series – written by SEEN.

But there was no other work besides this one.

And probably ‘everyone’ thought so.

***

Christmas has always been, along with Thanksgiving, the most important holiday for all Americans.

America, except for a brief period when hippies encroached, has always placed the highest importance on ‘family’ and ‘religion’, and as a result, there was a strong perception that ‘Christmas is a time to spend with family’.

So I spent most of the week-long Christmas holiday with my mother.

And surprisingly, Jiwoo also joined us this year, and when I asked him if he would mind not having to go back to Texas to see his family, he seemed to be reluctant to go so far.

This guy, I wonder if his last name will change to Han next year.

On the first day, we went to a department store together, went shopping, watched a movie together, and had a meal together.

And on the way back, I stopped by a comic book store to say hello to Bill and some other friends, and then bought the magazine that was released that day.

It’s been that way all along.

I spent most of the Christmas holidays with my family, buying up all the pulp fiction magazines that came out during Christmas week.

Normally, when it comes to Christmas, you would think that logistics companies would be closed and magazines would be closed as well, but that wasn’t the case.

Christmas was the highlight of the season.

It’s the time when parents looking for a suitable gift for a boy or girl go to comic book stores and bookstores and pick up random magazines or paperbacks, thinking, “A book would be better. Among them, genre novels are good because there’s a lot to read.”

So many magazines were paying extra costs to supply logistics. No, they even went so far as to put out a Christmas edition with a pretty cover.

This year’s Guns and Sword magazine featured Ronan the Barbarian sharing a glass of eggnog, the quintessential Christmas drink, with a protagonist from another novel on the cover. Ronan, normally a dashing barbarian warrior who smashes the skulls of civilized people, was particularly striking in his Christmas Santa hat.

But I didn’t open the magazines I bought that way and just put them aside.

‘We’ll see the results on the last day of the Christmas holidays.’

After the family event, we had already made arrangements to gather at my house with friends and check it out together.

So I tried to relax for a week by going to church, listening to carols at home together, and listening to my mother’s stories from her childhood.

And then the long-awaited December 27th arrived.

Early one morning, I woke up and checked on my desk the seven pulp fiction magazines I had steadily collected, except on Christmas Day, to make sure I hadn’t missed any.

The one at the top was ‘Guns and Sword Magazine’, which I also serialized.

And then there were six magazines below.

‘Battle Stories’.

‘Future: Science Fiction’.

‘Western Gunslinger Magazine’.

‘Real Man Hood Fiction’.

‘Mystery Case Magazine’.

‘Wonder Adventure Magazine’.

There are seven volumes in total.

There were many other small magazines published, but these were the pulp fiction magazines that could be said to represent California at the moment.

I felt the urge to take off the plastic cover right now and check the results, but I desperately resisted.

My heart was pounding at the thought that I could check it out with my friends if I just wait a little longer.

And around lunchtime, Doofy and Alexa came to our house together at a set time.

“Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas~!”

Two people each carrying a large gift box.

“Merry Christmas. How was your day?”

“Yeah yeah! I’ve been rolling around the house all day! My relatives are all over and we’re watching ‘About T’ together!”

“The whole family, including my parents, gathered together and had a good time.”

Certainly, the two of them were different from our family in this respect.

Koreans had only recently settled into American society, and so even when they gathered as families, they did not gather in large numbers like Alexa and Dupi’s family.

Even in my family right now, I haven’t heard that my mother has any relatives, so it’s just the two of us.

‘So, did we go to church a lot during Christmas?’

I guided the two of them into the house, thinking that it was a slightly curious difference.

Then, Jiwoo ran down from the second floor in a hurry and hugged Alexa with a joyful look.

“Alexa!”

“Errrrr!”

The two people were now so close that they were almost like sisters.

“Oh my, Alexa and Doofy are here.”

“Oh, hello! Mrs. Han.”

“Nice to meet you, lady.”

“Oh ho ho, Lady Rani. Alexa, are you ready to take it easy today?”

······Mom, why are you talking to Alexa while looking at me with such meaningful eyes?

I looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed.

The fact that Alexa and I were dating was already known to both families, so whenever I visited them, they became more formal than before, and Alexa was no different. And whenever we did that, my mother would look at me and Alexa with eyes that said she couldn’t stand how cute they were.

And recently, the scalp has been added to that gaze.

“Okay, has everyone eaten?”

“Yes! I just had lunch. Thank you for your consideration.”

“But as a cowboy, I wouldn’t refuse a lady’s meal······.”

“Hahaha, then I’ll bring something light. God, stay in your room.”

“Oh, I’ll help you too!”

“Oh, Mother, I’ll ask you to do this just for today.”

I barely managed to stop Alexa, who was acting in a way that made it hard to tell whether she was coming as my ‘daughter-in-law’ or as my girlfriend and friend, and I half-forcefully pushed the three of them back and went up to the second floor.

But Alexa was still restless, glancing downstairs.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Don’t worry. Just relax.”

“Hey, how could you do that! She’s your mother!”

“······I told you it’s okay.”

“You always bring me a present when you come to my house! Mom just waits for the cake you bring!”

“It feels like we’re meeting with the intention of marriage.”

“······.”

Oops.

Alexa’s face turned red like a carrot the moment she heard my casual words.

And when I saw Alexa like that, I felt my ears burning as well.

······The problem was that Jiwoo and Dupi were right next to us, looking at us as if they were going to eat popcorn.

“Here’s a live-action version of ‘About T’ in its true sense.”

“Scalp······ My mouth feels so dry that I feel like my teeth are going to rot.”

“Okay, let’s go into my room.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes! Miss Alexa! You go in first!”

“Wow. This reaction is also quite······.”

“It’s really fun to try to make things awkward when both of you are excited.”

Jiwoo. When did your analytical skills become so strong that they rival your scalp? You’re cute, but scary.

After a brief moment of awkwardness, I entered the room I had cleaned up the day before with three other people.

Doofi sat down naturally on the chair in front of the desk, Alexa and Jiwoo on the sofa that they had brought in a while ago, and I took out seven pulp fiction magazines from next to Doofi and spread them out on the table.

Alexa, who had been fidgeting, quickly became interested when her gaze was drawn there.

“Oh······.”

“Is it a good thing to win a lot of awards from magazines like this?”

“Yes. ‘The Best Work of the Year’. It’s a kind of awards ceremony that each magazine holds every year.”

The scalp that was explaining on my behalf turned its head towards me and asked a question.

“God, as far as I know, there has never been a work that has won all seven awards.”

“okay?”

“Ah. So, how many are you expecting?”

After hearing the scalp question, I thought for a moment.

In fact, receiving a lot doesn’t mean that it has any great meaning.

This award is more like a bonus event, with the editors of each magazine adding their biased selection to the questionnaire votes.

Still, the reason I decided to buy all the magazines from the seven major publishers that had some influence across California and check the results with my friends was actually simple.

Even if it wasn’t a particularly prestigious award, if many people chose my novel as the work that shined this year, then I could look forward to winning a prestigious science fiction literary award, which I had set as my goal.

That’s why I was looking forward to it all Christmas season.

After thinking it over, I declared while receiving the gazes of Alexa, Doofy, and Jiwoo.

“All seven.”

“Haha, God. I’m sure you can do it.”

“······But aren’t the results already out? The magazines are all out.”

“Shh, Jiwoo. Shin and Doofi have entered the world of men.”

“Ah~.”

I couldn’t hear what was being said next to me.

After exchanging heated glances, Doopi and I each removed the plastic to check the results.

I opened the award-winning page of ‘Guns and Sword Magazine’, which I was most curious about, and I found myself smiling without realizing it.

“Guns and Sword Magazine, ‘Work of the Year’ Award.”

“Ya-ha-!”

“congratulation!”

Then, Doopi, holding ‘Battle Stories’ in his hand, pushed up his glasses and spoke.

“Battle Stories wins ‘Best Picture of 1985’”

“Back-to-back home runs!”

“Awesome!”

After that, results came out one after another.

Future: Science Fiction Wins ‘Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year’

Western Gunslinger Magazine, ‘The Cowboy with the Sunset Behind Him’ Award.

Real Man Hood Fiction Wins ‘Most Badass Novel of the Year’ Award.

Mystery Case Magazine, ‘Best of the Year’ Award.

Winner of Wonder Adventure Magazine’s ‘Best Novel of the Year’ award.

Although their names were different, they were all the most prestigious awards in the magazine.

“······.”

Contrary to what I had said confidently before, I bit my trembling lips in front of the surprising results.

In fact, I ended up receiving the highest award from all seven magazines.

“Guys······.”

I looked up, dumbfounded, and my eyes met with three people who were laughing brightly.