Jack Of Arts

In the 9th of September, only ten days after he finalized his book deal, Topaz called him on his phone to inform that the printing is already in process and also started their small marketing campaign for the book.

After he finished his classes, he met up with Chala at the Northwestern's front gate. He found Chala sitting on the stairs of the entrance with a gift box next to him.

"Good afternoon, Chala. You didn't come to my gigs this week. Looks like you've been busy with Ms. Lei." Tayaw greeted Chala in jest.

"Oh. I barely made progress with Ms. Lei. I actually had to check in on my other clients, and my place is also quite far from here." Chala explained, not minding the jest about Ms. Lei.

"They're my copies?" Tayaw asked as he looked at the box next to Chala. "Yes. 5 copies each of the two versions, specially packed for you by the folks at Topaz." Chala said, picking up the box.

"It's a beautiful box, how nice of them." Tayaw said as he sat down next to Chala and received the box.

He opened the box and took one copy out and examined the cover. The entire book cover has a predominantly black background dotted with stars throughout, portraying a dark starry night.

The front of the cover is a small full body portrait of a child sitting cross-legged on the floor reading an open book on his lap. There is what appears to be golden smoke coming from the open book from the child's lap that spreads up to form the letters for title of his book "GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES FOR CHILDREN".

Surrounding the letters of the title are connected silhouettes of various characters from his fairytales, also formed by golden smoke. At the bottom of the front cover is his pen name written in golden cursive letters.

"T.L.D. Grimmauld" is the pen name he came up with based on his own initials and a name of a place he found in another work he received from the mysterious roulette, The Boy with a Lightning Scar. It was a beautiful cover giving a feeling of dream-like fantasy.

He then took out a copy of the A.d.u.l.ts version from the box. It was not much different with the cover of the children's version. In place of a child sitting, is a side view of an a.d.u.l.t man sitting on a chair leaned down reading a book on his lap.

Instead of golden smoke, the title and silhouettes are formed by normal white smoke "GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES FOR A.D.U.L.TS". At the bottom of the front cover is his pen name written in silver cursive letters. This book despite of similar format with the children's version, is giving out a mysterious dream-like feeling.

He and Chala then went to visit three of East Ouigab's biggest book stores to see the posters advertising his book. The poster is quite huge at approximately 2m x 4m horizontal orientation that occupies the bookstores' front wall. The poster's background is based on the appearance of a white marble, a huge contrast with the actual cover of his book but gives out a similar feeling. "GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES, T.L.D. Grimmauld. Short stories for our generation" Written in the poster, in classy black semi-cursive, is the title of his book, his pen name, and a simple catchphrase.

Next to the text of the poster is a photo of a hardcover copy of the children's version of his book. Tayaw appreciated both the covers of his books and the posters and gave a silent thanks to whoever designed them.

A week later, in time for Tayaw's 17th birthday, Grimm's Fairy Tales hit the shelves of bookstores in Ouigab and other cities in the country. Tayaw, who didn't get to sleep smoothly during the previous night, is currently taking a shower as he got ready for the day.

While eating at the dorm's dining area, he received a text of Chala that simply says "Congratulations on your debut, author." Tayaw smiled at the text message and replied "Thank you."

The lectures of the day are just as uneventful as usual and Tayaw just listened carefully when needed. After having lunch, Tayaw found and empty classroom and took out a copy of both the children's and a.d.u.l.ts' version and thought for a moment.

He then flipped over to the title pages of each book and neatly wrote down "To Ms. Nelly Lei, the first person to acknowledge me as an author. Tayaw L. Dagem." and signed it with his newly made-up autograph.

After his lectures were done, he went to the Writers' Guild office at West Ouigab. Entering the office, he immediately looked at Ms. Lei's table to see Ms. Lei flipping over sheets of paper.

He walked over to Ms. Lei's table and waited for a good timing. "Good afternoon, Ms. Lei. " Tayaw greeted Ms. Lei after she finally looked up from her table.

"Oh. Tayaw. What do I owe your visit?" Ms. Lei asked, surprised of Tayaw's appearance.

"I'm here for my promise, remember?" Tayaw said smiling as he pulled out two books from his backpack and laid them side by side over Ms. Lei's paperwork.

Ms. Lei was pleased at the gesture and examined the books on her table.

After bidding goodbye to Ms. Lei, he opened his phone and looked up for a nearby bookstore, only to give up on the idea and hailed a cab instead. He asked the driver to take him to the closest popular book store.

The driver drove him to a strip mall that a branch of a nationwide stationery retail chain is located. He was pleased when he saw a small poster advertising his book is posted on the shop's store front. Even though the poster is only one of the many posted, he was satisfied of Topaz's marketing efforts.

He walked past the stationery area to the book section in the back and found the shelf where his book is located. Despite the unassuming part of the store, there were some signs adorning the shelf that his books are on display. "24.99 BCG. 34.99 BGC." He read the price of the paperback and the hardcover versions respectively.

There is also a woman in her 30s browsing the a.d.u.l.ts' version of his book. He pretended to browse the nearby books while secretly watching the reaction of to his books. After a few minutes, the woman returned the book to the shelf and moved on to her shopping. He was disappointed but stayed nonetheless for longer.

A few minutes later, the woman browsing his book earlier returned to the shelf and took one copy of his book and put it in her shopping basket. It was just one sale but the satisfaction of watching someone buying the book gave Tayaw hope for his books to sell.

He was distracted when somewhere on the corner of his vision, something was sparkling. "Oh! Tayaw, you dumb f*ck. How could you forget?" He cursed himself. After adjusting the focus of his eyes, he was surprised by what he saw. 'View Points – 1279'.

He was about to celebrate at the number but he suddenly realized that View Points does not mean sales, but the number of people who enjoyed reading at least a part of his book.

They did enjoy browsing the book, but were they intrigued enough to buy the whole book? Even if they bought his book, how many of the View Points are contributed by the children who listened at the a.d.u.l.ts who read them the stories in his book?

He was interrupted from his thoughts when someone patted his shoulder by someone behind him. He turned around in confusion and looked at the person which turned out to be a clerk of the store judging from her uniform.

"Is there anything you're looking for, sir?" The store clerk asked him. He realized he have must either appeared to be lost, or shoplifting. "Hello. Well, nothing in particular really. I'm just looking for stories I can tell the kids I'm tutoring in English." Tayaw replied.

The shop clerk nodded and walked towards the shelf where his books are displayed and grabbed the reading copy of his book. "Here, sir. This is a compilation of fairy tales that are newly released. I have seen some of the stories and I think they're more special than the traditional fairy tales. I recommend you to buy this one." The clerk pitched his book to him, which made Tayaw feel funny. "I'll browse them first." Tayaw simply replied and the clerk left.

While on his way back to East Ouigab, he was compulsively checking the 'View Points' in his vision. Since leaving the bookstore, the 'View Points' increased to 1322 from the previous 1279. He doesn't know how many cities Topaz decided to sell his books, but the view points surpassing a thousand in only eight hours since the book stores opened today is already impressive in his eyes.

Arriving at his station in East Ouigab, he headed straight to his dorm and picked up his guitar and continued his preparation of the songs he will perform later in the evening. His practice this day was unusually difficult for him and he could not even begin a single arrangement for the songs he planned to arrange. He simply could not concentrate as he is constantly checking the slowly increasing View Points.

Arriving at ROH Factory at 4:45 PM, his stomach grumbled so he decided to go to a nearby snack stall to recharge his energy a little before heading in the bar. While walking back to the bar after his fill, he noticed that Chala's car was parked in front of the stationery store beside the bar.

He knocked on the window by the front passenger's side to see if Chala is inside. A few seconds later, the window rolled down, to Tayaw's surprise, by a man with East Asian features who appears to be in his early 40s.

"Hello." The man smiled at him as if he was familiar with Tayaw, to Tayaw's confusion.

Chala leaned over from the driver seat. "Tayaw! It's still early! Get in the back seat!" Chala invited Tayaw inside the car.

Laying his encased guitar and settling himself in the back seat, Tayaw is trying to remember if he ever met the man with Chala before. Judging by the man's appearance, he is either a Teungebian with East Asian features, or a foreigner.

"Tayaw, meet Dae Ho Lee. Dae Ho, meet Chala." After Chala's introduction, he was reminded of the Korean name among the list of agents he e-mailed when he was looking for an agent.

"Hello, Mr. Lee. It's a pleasure." Tayaw reached out his hand from the backseat, which Dae Ho firmly shook.