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This month my bread-and-butter work (teaching English coummunication part-time at local colleges) started up, so I haven’t had so much time for blogging. I’ve been trying to put whatever energy that I have at the end of the day into my book projects, and I’m happy to report that I’ve finished a couple of drafts of my new adult novel, The Baseball Widow, and have made progress on a young adult novel, which is currently untitled.  I’m not very good with titles, to tell you the truth (though I think The Baseball Widow is pretty good). Still waiting to hear from my agent!!

The y/a novel is an expansion of a long short story that was published in Cicada as “Pilgrimage.” I think that “Pilgrimage” worked as a title for a story – or for that story – but I think it needs a catchier, okay cooler, title to attract hip young readers.  Also, I’ve added some characters and sub-plots. The narrator’s alter-ego is a manga character named Gadget Girl. Some of the action takes place in Paris, and the overall theme is body image. Using these elements, here are some titles I came up with:

My Big Fat French Summer Vacation

Gadget Girl Goes to Paris

I am Beautiful

Exquisite Corpse

Bonding for Beginners (I’ve used this title before, but it’s also a story about a mother and daughter trying to bond, so maybe I could use it again?)

They pretty much suck, right?

 

 

 

Conversations with Locals: Make Your Destination Come Alive by Therese Walsh

My debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, relies a lot on place. Though this story has a simple premise—an upstate New York woman finding herself again after the loss of her twin—it relies on a second narrative that reveals her life as a child growing up with her sister in Castine, Maine. Notes are left for the woman in the present day after she purchases an artifact from her past, and suddenly she finds herself lured to Rome, Italy.

 Upstate New York. Castine, Maine. Rome, Italy.

 I know much about upstate, as that’s where I live, but I didn’t know anything about Castine and had only tour-book knowledge of Rome. In order to instill the story with the authenticity it needed, I tapped into the richest resource out there for place—speaking with locals.

I traveled to Castine and walked its streets. I stopped into its businesses and chatted with the people there. I learned that one of the town’s favorite hangouts was a little dockside eatery called The Breeze. I ate there and spoke with the owner—how long had it been there? Had it always had that name? I made a note and later included The Breeze in my story. I bellied up to a counter at a local café and, after a warm-up period with the others there, asked what their favorite town sayings were (“ayuh”) and for the name of the local storyteller—and then I sought him out. Kenny Eaton of Eaton’s Boatyard told tales of his town and shared details about life on the water. The twins’ father shouldn’t be a fisherman, he said, because the water was too deep for that in Castine; but he could be a boat builder or a lobsterman. The waters turned dangerous in late autumn, and things could change quickly on the sea at any time of year.

All of these details made their way into The Last Will; some became cornerstone details of critical scenes.

Rome was critical to the story as well, and specific aspects of the city shaped key moments in the plot and revealed character. I didn’t travel to Rome, though I learned a lot about it by speaking to someone with intimate knowledge—Adam Nixon at RomeBuddy.com, who lived in Rome for large chunks of the year. I devoured his site, then emailed him directly. Adam was terrific, explaining things I’d never read in a travel guide and describing the types of happenings you’d find in Rome around the holidays. I also conversed frequently with another, a man who’d grown up in Italy and who had a comprehensive knowledge of the Italian language; he smoothed over some of my textbook attempts at Italian to make them sing.

Would I speak with locals again when trying to learn more about a particular place? Absolutely. Speaking with those who live somewhere is one of the quickest and most reliable ways of learning about the heart and soul of a place, and imbuing your story with authenticity.

Write on, all!

 

Therese Walsh recently sold her debut novel in a two-book deal to Random House (Shaye Areheart imprint). The Last Will of Moira Leahy is about a woman who lost her identical twin–and a large portion of herself–about a decade ago, but reconnects with her former life after purchasing an artifact from her past. Through interwoven narratives, we see Maeve Leahy as she was and what led to the tragedy with her sister, Moira. We travel with her in the present day as she unravels the truth about the artifact–who’s following her and leaving her notes—as layers of her past are peeled away and the course of her future is forever altered. The novel was be published on October 13th, 2009. Therese is also the co-founder of one of the Writer’s Digest best sites for writers, Writer Unboxed. You can learn more about her and her novel at her website: ThereseWalsh.com.

KidLit Query Contest

If you write for children, you might want to check out this contest. You could win a manuscript critique by an agent from the prestigious Andrea Brown Literary Agency. And then, who knows? Maybe you’ll be on your way to being the next big thing.

Another Honor for Call Me Okaasan

Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering has been declared a finalist in the multicultural nonfiction category of the USA Best Book Awards 2009. Once again, my appreciation goes out to the twenty wonderful writers who contributed their work to this project. Brava!

Family Relationships*

Growing up in a nuclear American family, I thought that my parents, my brother and I composed a family.  In Japan, I’ve come to learn, “family”  includes everyone living under one roof, and sometimes those who are not living. This came to light last week when, for homework, my daughter had to make a list of people that she would be buying souvenirs for on her school trip to Kyoto.  She was supposed list each person’s name, a possible gift, and the price of said gift. She was then to work out a budget for the trip.

My daughter likes shopping, and giving gifts, so her list was rather long and way over budget. Of course she listed her twin (and the toy sword she would buy for him), her parents, and her grandmother. Surprisingly, she also listed her grandfather, whom she has never met. He died before she was born, but my daughter is familiar with the shrine in my mother-in-law’s quarters, and she has seen my mother-in-law put out offerings for his spirit. My daughter knows that he is dead. She wrote the Chinese character for “death” next to his name. And while I tried to persuade her (in the interest of saving money) that her grandfather didn’t really need a gift from her school trip, she refused to remove his name from the list.

We finally reached a compromise. Instead of buying separate gifts for all of her immediate family members, she would buy a box of individually-wrapped sweets, and leave one or two at the family altar for her grandfather. And then the whole issue became temporarily moot when a typhoon swept through here last week and her trip was postponed.

 

*”Today I’m participating in a mass blogging! WOW! Women On Writing has gathered a group of blogging buddies to write about family relationships. Why family relationships? We’re celebrating the release of Therese Walsh’s debut novel today. The Last Will of Moira Leahy, (Random House, October 13, 2009) is about a mysterious journey that helps a woman learn more about herself and her twin, whom she lost when they were teenagers. Visit The Muffin (http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/blog.html) to read what Therese has to say about family relationships and view the list of all my blogging buddies. And make sure you visit Therese’s website  to find out more about the author.”

Christopher Savoie isn’t the only one

My novel, Losing Kei, features a foreign woman who, after losing custody/access to her bicultural son, decides to kidnap him. In real life, American Christopher Savoie is in a Japanese jail for kidnapping his children – the children he was granted custody of by an American court, the children his wife brought back to Japan without his consent and wouldn’t allow him to see.

This case has attracted media attention abroad, but not so much here in Japan, where it is not uncommon for custodial parents to deny their exes access to their children. Japanese courts do not grant joint custody, perhaps because they believe shuttling a child from house to house is disruptive. In spite of international pressure, Japan has not signed the  Hague Convention on International Child Abduction which seeks to standardize laws among participating countries to insure that custody decisions protect the rights of access of both parents. According to an article in today’s Japan Times, “The government has argued that signing the convention may not protect Japanese women and their husbands from abusive foreign husbands.”  To me, this sounds like a lot of bunk. Although abuse is no doubt the cause of some divorces, it’s not the only reason partners break up.  And I’m sure it’ s not the only reason that some custodial parents refuse their exes to see their children.  How about instituting something called a “restraining order” and allowing the rest of the mothers and fathers to see their children?

In Which a Normally Quiet and Reserved Person Becomes “Vocal”

I was interviewed by a reporter at the Japan Times. You can read the article here.