Upon hearing the news from Wang Yu, Yu Dong and Yu Hua had different reactions.
Yu Hua looked interested: "Editor Wang, have you heard when it will be restarted?"
Wang Yu shook her head: "I don't know about that. Editor-in-Chief Cheng only said that there is this rumor. It is not known whether it is true or not."
Yu Hua glanced at Yu Dong again, "You should pay more attention to this matter. You have great hope in the field of short stories and short stories."
"My attitude towards awards is just two words: let it happen. And didn't Brother Wang Yu also say that this matter has not been decided yet, and I don't know how many years it will take to re-establish it."
"That's true." Yu Hua nodded.
Yu Dong looked at the two of them and said nothing more. In fact, he knew this matter much better than Wang Yu and the others. The National Outstanding Short and Medium Story Award was discontinued and was later re-established in 1996, and the name was indeed changed.
, called the Lu Xun Literature Award.
It is too early to worry about the 1996 awards. This award only evaluates works within two years.
The three of them chatted in the reception room for an hour, and Li Xiaolin's meeting over there was finally over.
This time, Yu Dong met another deputy editor, Xiao Yuanmin. Compared to Li Xiaolin, who was more capable, Xiao Yuanmin was much more restrained and calm. She said hello to Yu Dong and Yu Hua, and returned to her office without a few words.
Li Xiaolin read Yu Hua's manuscript and expressed that he liked it very much and must publish it in "Harvest".
But now there is a problem. She wants to publish both "Chaos Diary" and "Alive" in the next issue, but the space does not allow it.
The text capacity of "Harvest" has been revised several times. At its highest, it was as many as 700,000 words, and at its lowest, it was only 340,000 words. Now it is about 450,000 words.
"Chaos Diary" has 120,000 words, and "Alive" is also close to 120,000 words. These two novels take up half of the space at once, which is really inappropriate.
After much deliberation, Li Xiaolin finally decided to publish both novels in two issues.
"But this way, your novel will be New Year's Eve, which will not be conducive to your publishing a single book." Li Xiaolin said with a smile.
Yu Hua seemed not very interested in publishing a single book. He shook his head and said: "The domestic book industry has been in recession in the past two years. There may not be any publishing houses that can accept my book. I guess there is no hope for the time being."
"Don't be too negative. The market is indeed changing, but there will always be an end." Li Xiaolin said.
"I hope so."
…
After Yu Hua left, Yu Dong's life became peaceful.
Most of the time, he sat in the yard and read, and the rest of the time was used to conceive of new books. His parents usually would not disturb him, but sometimes relatives and friends would come over to visit, mainly because they wanted to see Yu Dong.
He is now very famous in the village and among his relatives and friends. Thanks to the promotion of his parents, his reputation as a great writer has spread.
Yu Dong is not bothered by this, because the frequency is not too high and it has not affected his creation.
Originally, he was about to revise the "Deep Space" that he originally modeled, when Jimmy called him.
"Dong, in addition to science fiction novels, can you write some horror-themed novels?"
Jimmy's question confused Yu Dong, and he asked: "Why do you ask that?"
"Didn't I go to the United States to look for a publisher a few days ago, and I happened to meet George Romero. I told him some good things about you, and he asked if he could write a novel on this theme."
"George Romero? What does he do?"
"A very famous director. His most famous works are the Living Dead series, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, and Day of the Living Dead. Have you heard of him?"
"Have ears to hear."
Yu Dong nodded. Jimmy's translation was a little strange. When he said "Day of the Living Dead", Yu Dong almost didn't react. Yu Dong had watched "Day of the Living Dead", but the translation here in China should be "Zombies Out of the Cage".
George Romero, Yu Dong also remembered, should be the director known as the father of modern zombies.
The character of zombies has a long history at home and abroad, and zombies in different countries are also different. However, the image of modern zombies should come from the movies of George Romero.
"What does he want to do, is he want to make a movie?" Yu Dong felt a little strange, "He wants a script, so there is no need to ask me."
Jimmy laughed, "He just mentioned it casually when chatting, and he may not take it seriously. But I think it is an opportunity. He is having a hard time now. The movies he has made in the past few years have not received good reviews at the box office. He wants to transform, but he does not have the ability.
I want to continue with the theme of the living dead, but I don’t have a good story. Horror-themed movies are very popular in the United States now. If you can write such novels, you will have an advantage in the market."
"Of course, I'm just asking, you decide for yourself. If you are interested, I can find some movies about the living dead for you to watch for inspiration."
"I'll think about it."
"Okay, I'm in Yanjing now. I still have some things to deal with here. After I finish it, I will go to Shanghai to see you and report to you about the work situation in the United States."
"It's okay, just get busy first."
After hanging up the phone, Yu Dong considered Jimmy's proposal.
He hasn't done much research on zombie novels, but if he really wants to write them, it's not impossible because he can copy them from movies.
The most famous zombie-themed movies are the Resident Evil series.
Yu Dong has no psychological burden on copying movies, otherwise he would not have written "One Day" before.
But he currently has several projects on hand, and the Resident Evil series is quite large. If he really wants to write about Resident Evil, it will definitely affect other projects.
Relatively speaking, Resident Evil is the most commercial, but commercial considerations are not the first priority here.
"Write it first. If it goes well, write it. If it doesn't go well, put it down."
After thinking about it for a long time, Yu Dong decided to give it a try first. If it doesn't take too much time to write and the effect is good, then take the subject. If you can't continue writing, just give up.
He can no longer remember many details of the movie, but he has not forgotten the basic setting and general story line.
This time he did not plan to change the story line, nor did he prepare to Chineseize it. Instead, he wanted to add some side plots based on the plot of the movie, such as the stories of other characters.
Although the plot of the movie is exciting, due to the different presentation methods, the processing of the story will naturally be different. If you just copy the plot of the movie, the whole story will look thin.
And without the support of intuitive movie images, more side stories will definitely be needed to expand the world view, otherwise readers will be confused.
Chapter completed!