Some months ago, a writer friend gave me a little notebook with a Japanese design on the cover to record my preparation for the launch of...

For those of you who missed my book launch at Porter Square Books on October 2, 2018, I present below the text of my presentation. In...

As a writer, you dream about the day when you will present your first book to the world. That day—Tuesday, October 2, 2018, has come and...

I recently did an interview with Dead Darlings, conducted by Marc Foster, about my novel, "Gina in the Floating World."Among the...

During the past two weeks, I’ve been to three readings at bookstores. These events couldn’t have been more different from each other, but...

After writing the first draft of Gina in the Floating World, I searched for other novels set in Japan with a young, female, and gaijin...

I wrote this poem in high school for our annual literary newspaper. But, with three weeks until publication of my novel and four weeks...

In addition to being a writer, I am also an artist. I work in several media, but one of my favorite is paper or mixed media collage....

Writers should read, right? Lately, I've been reading books from debut authors like me. Although I tend to prefer fiction, I loved this...

(Image from Amazon.com) It may feel like an arbitrary year, but I chose 1981 quite intentionally as the year in which Gina in the...

#firstlineofnovel

Kitagawa Utamaro Woodblock Print The concept of the “floating world” (ukiyo) originates in medieval Japanese Buddhism to refer to the...

September 25 is the magical date—the day that Gina in the Floating World will officially be born. The book will not be late or early—that...

Cheryl Suchors, author of the inspiring memoir of adventure and persistence--48 Peaks: Hiking and Healing in the White Mountains (She...

Art figures prominently in my novel, Gina in the Floating World. The title of my book itself refers to an aspect of Japanese life (“the...

Writing is all about revision, and Gina in the Floating World is no exception. I have shredded and re-crafted it numerous times. Although...

Nara, Japan, is known for its magnificent cherry trees, which blossom between late March and early April. In my 20s, I was fortunate...

As I prepared for my interview with Mr. K, the club owner, I worried about my lack of glamour. I had all the wrong clothes and the wrong...

The rain poured down in opaque sheets outside the American Express office in Tokyo, where I collected my mail, and considered my...