NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

It is once again November and that means it is time for  NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, or as I prefer to call it  # ChaNoWriMo  or Chamoru Novel Writing Month. For those brave enough to try their typing or writing hands at NaNoWriMo, the challenge is to write 50,000 words of your prospective novel by the end of the month. 30 days for 50,000 words.  I've been doing this for several years now writing a number of different stories and novels, some of  which have made their way into the many things I've published through The Guam Bus. Most of these November novels have been focused on my alternate history for Guam referred to as "The Legend of the Chamurai." In it, there were pre-Spanish contacts between the Japanese and Chamorus and in the early 17th century, a group of samurai assist the Chamorus in fighting off the Spanish. In these stories, I've tried to give life to a number of legendary figures such as Chaife, Fu'una and Puntan, Ukudu and othe

This November I am once again participating in ChaNoWriMo or as its known elsewhere as NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month or Chamorro Novel Writing Month. This means that this blog sadly will not be receiving much attention. During this month, the challenge is to write 50,000 words of your novel. For me, I am continuing my long-standing story titled "The Legend of the Chamurai." I first started it in 2011 and I've been writing parts of it every November since then. The story so far has spanned over 500 years and a host of characters. It has spanned from the world of the dead, to Okinawa and Taiwan, to the Caroline Islands and to the northern islands of the Marianas. At present, I am writing sections of a great challenge that involves a unique or mysterious task on each of the Marianas Islands. Three champions sailing up the island chain, fighting monsters or finding artifacts on each island. Very fun, getting to use different aspects of the islands to come up w

Just a few more days until ChaNoWriMo. Kao listo hao esta? Ti bei puni na gof ti listo yu'. Mamange' yu' kada diha, lao ti hu hassussuy i estoria-hu para ChaNoWriMo. Esta tres anos maloffan di hu tutuge' este na estoria, put i Lihenden i Chamurai. Gof malago' yu' na bei hu na'funhayan este na estoria, lao chachago' ha' i hinichum este na chalan. Kada sakkan ani mata'ta'chong yu' para bai hu tuge' este, hu tulailaika gui' gi este na banda, hu na'ladadangkolo gui' gi este na banda. Gi humuyongna esta mas ki 150,000 na palabras i tinige'-hu.  Gi un lepblo, diposti na i titige' i ma'gas. Guiya fuma'tinas i petsona siha, guiya gumiha i estoria ni' minalago'-na yan matuge'. Gi este na manera, un titige' kulang un Yu'us. I lepblo i mundo-na. Guiya muna'fanhuyong este na tano' yan todu i manasaga' guihi. Lao para Guahu, ti taiguihi i siniente-ku put tumutuge&#

I'll be at the Sukicon this weekend at the Phoenix Center at Father Duenas school in Mangilao. I will have a bunch of interesting things to display and even some stuff to sell. Sukicon is a gathering or cosplayers, gaming nerds, anime/manga nerds and even comic book geeks. There is an artist alley and different booths by exhibitors. For me, I'll be displaying/selling the following things: 1. I'll be displaying some of my grandfather's tools. I have a nice complete set of the seven traditional tools that I'll put out, as well as some examples of the 150 year history of Chamorro blacksmithing in my family, most notably a machete that is more than 100 years old, and made by my great-grandfather Mariano Leon Guerrero Lujan (Bittot). I also have some tools that my grandfather made and one or two that I helped him make more recently. This will be interesting as I'm sure most of the people attending Sukicon think of "culture" a bit differently, as usually

I haven't posted much for the past week because I have been rushing to finish up my novel this month for ChaNoWriMo or Chamorro Novel Writing Month. The goal is to reach 50,000 words by the end of November. It is almost the end of November and with two days to go I am at 45,000 words. I should be able to make it this weekend but it has been a long slog.  For three years I have worked on the same story tentatively titled "The Legend of the Chamurai." In it a warrior makahna or wizard during the ancient times has a vision where she witnesses the end of the Chamorro people. In order to prevent that end from taking place all sorts of giant mythical creatures and samurai and Spanish soldiers get mixed in. The first 50,000 words of this story were very focused, establishing the world of ancient Chamorros, the types of powers and spells they might have, the lore and the cultural knowledge that guided them at that time. The next 50,000 words built on t

In the writing world, November is a special month, although a generally crazy month. It is known as NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. During this month all of those who have a passion for writing are encouraged to cast caution into the wind and blitz out the novel they have always dreamed of writing. It is something anyone, from any walk of life can participate in. All it takes is commitment and time management. The link for the website where you can sign up is (nanowrimo.org). For those who take on the NaNoWriMo challenge, the number 50,000 signifies both a hated overseer and a inspiring target. As this process is about getting those who want to write, to write, everyone is given a target, 50,000 words, that they are to reach by the end of the month. Over the course of November you are to type out 50,000 words of your chosen story. Since the target is all that matters you are not encouraged to edit and rewrite as you write, but simply charge forward unt

The Guam Bus is the creative team that consists of myself and my two brothers. Over they years we've talk about alot of creative projects, and even started some of them, such as Battle for Kamchatka, but we haven't ever really finished any of them. We made ashcans a few years back when we had a table at WonderCon in San Francisco, and I did write the script for four issues of Battle for Kamchatka and Jack did pencil three of them, but we never actually formally published anything. Jack is back on Guam for the next few months and I am taking advantage of his presence here by making him create for me on my various Chamorro Studies and Guam Museum projects. He is also working on a one-shot comic book script I wrote last year about "Makahnan Mimu" or "Warrior Wizards" in Ancient Chamorro times. If all goes well, he should be done with the pencils by the end of next month. Here's a panel from the comic so far:

I feel like I haven't been posting much and I'm not sure how true this is.  I feel like I've been neglecting several things this month because of work and also because I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. The goal of National Novel Writing Month is to write 50,000 words of your novel before the end of the month. Right now, with five days left to go I am at 35,000 words. I am pretty certain I can make it, but with all my other obligations as well, I'm starting to feel the crunch.  I wanted to share an early part of my novel. It is titled "The Legend of the Chamurai" and tells the store of how Samurai and Chamorro warriors end up defeating a Spanish invasion of Guam in 1616. This story takes place over 600 years with different makahna or Chamorros with magical and superhuman abilities try to keep hope alive of defeating a mysterious force that will come to obliterate them. Part of the fun of this story is that I get to bring into a

The past few months have been difficult in terms of writing. I still write quite a bit, but I just don't find as much time as usual. I am currently the program coordinator for the Chamorro Studies program at UOG and in addition to this I have two kids and teach five classes and so down time where I can type or scratch out my thoughts feels about as rare as seeing a sihek in my backyard. But since November is National Novel Writing Month, I've decided to set aside time each day to work on a novel. Gof magof yu' put este, ya gof excited yu' para i mamaila na mes. My idea is one I've been thinking about for years and I've written about a few times on this blog. I call it "The Legend of the Chamurai." It is a story about how prior to the Spanish colonization of Guam in 1668, an event took place that has almost been completely lost in Guam History. This is the period where the Spanish interacted with Chamorros and visited Guam, but did not settle ther

I haven't had an art exhibit in about two years now, since my last solo show titled "Before the Storm, After the Fire" in May of 2010. In December 2011, I hung a small exhibit featuring artwork created by my brother Jack but conceived as part of a project I've been working on for quite a while, but only got a small amount of funding to work on last year. The project is titled "The Untold Story of the Chamurai: How Chamorro and Spanish Warriors Fought Against the Spanish in Guam in 1616." The exhibit in it's still unfinished glory is meant to tell the previously unknown tale of how Samurai and Chamorro warriors fought against the Spanish who were attempting to wipe out all of the Chamorros on Guam in 1616. I had first imagined this project more than 10 years ago as a way of combining my interest in samurai manga, anime and fiction with my interest in reading and teaching Chamorro history. I wrote up an entire story arc, filled with action, drama, romanc

This month or next I'll be finishing off an art project I've been working on for more than a year with my brother Jack and  i nananfamagu'on-hu Jessica Chan. To be truthful, while I have been working on it for more than a year, the hardwork is actually being done by these artists, I'm doing more of the conceptualizing of it. The project is titled The Untold Story of the Chamurai: How Chamorro and Samurai Warriors Fought off the Spanish in Guam in 1616. I will provide the description below for you to read to get a better idea of what I'm intending, and you should be interested after reading such a weird title. I received a Guam CAHA grant for this project and so the excerpt below is from my grant proposal. The artwork will be displayed in an exhibit sometime this fall. I'm not sure where. I might have a small exhibit in a few months of the just the artwork, perhaps at I.P. Coffee or a similar place. Then later around December I might have a more serious show