Article on LOVE IN TRANSLATION

Just a quick note to say that my local newspaper, The Half Moon Bay Review, which was kind enough to write an article about me when MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT came out, just did a piece on LOVE IN TRANSLATION. Take a look here.

Crazy for Kanji

When I first started studying Japanese years ago, I became immersed in learning the written language, from hiragana and katakana (the phonetic language systems) to the actual characters—the kanji. And Celeste Duncan, the protagonist in my forthcoming novel, Love in Translation, also discovers an inexplicable connection to kanji once she finds herself in Tokyo.

No one, though, is as obsessed with kanji as Eve Kushner, a Berkeley-based freelance writer and blogger, who is a certifiable kanji addict. But instead of just sitting in her attic deconstructing kanji all day, she has channeled her obsession into an entertaining and delightful book called Crazy for Kanji: A Student’s Guide to the Wonderful World of Japanese Characters, published by Stone Bridge Press. Crazy for Kanji is filled with interesting facts, photos of kanji in action, cultural clues, games, puzzles and more.

Whether you are a serious student of Japanese or simply fascinated with these characters for both their beauty and practicality, you will find Crazy for Kanji a fun and engrossing read.

Eve stopped by to answer a few questions.

How did you become interested in kanji? Why Japanese? Why not Chinese characters, from which kanji developed?

I was forced to study several languages as a child, and I hated it (because I hate anything that I'm forced to do), but as an adult I've discovered that I love learning languages. In fact, the whole reason I started studying languages as an adult is that I went to hear the writer Rita Mae Brown speak at Black Oak Books in Berkeley. When a woman asked for advice on becoming a writer, Brown advised her to learn as many languages as possible, explaining that when you see connections between Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, English, and so forth, lights and bells will go off for you, and it will enrich your understanding of English immeasurably. After I heard that, I decided to study a different language every semester until I'd learned a little bit about 20 or 30 of them!

I studied Spanish for four years after that, and found that Rita Mae Brown was right. After Spanish, I tackled Japanese, because I'd felt fascinated with Japan since age 13, when I traveled to Japan and China with my family. We spent very little time in Japan and much more of the time in China. The contrast between the two was striking, because at that time (1981), Japan was quite advanced technologically (much more so than the United States), whereas China was definitely not. I fell in love with Old Japan—with the small bridges and gardens and all the daintiness of shoji screens and temples.

Then in college I took a course where we covered the "greatest hits" of Japanese and Chinese literature in 10 weeks, and it was the Japanese literature (Kawabata, Tanizaki, Mishima) that moved me in particular.

And then you moved on to formally studying Japanese?

Yes. In the late '90s, I discovered the now-defunct literary magazine Japanophile. I was trying to find my niche as a freelance writer, and they did eventually publish several of my articles. As I began to develop the idea of myself as a writer who covered Japanese topics, it became apparent that I should learn to speak the language.

When I started to tackle Japanese in 2001, I was hardly a natural at it, but I kept going. In our third course, we started kanji, and I hated every single bit of the way we learned it. I had no idea why we needed to write words with these complicated characters. Up till then, we'd written words phonetically, and I didn't understand why that was no longer enough. Again, because I felt forced to learn kanji without knowing why, I initially resented it. It didn't help that the teacher seemed to feel no affection for kanji at all. In Japan and elsewhere, kanji are so often treated as bitter medicine to "swallow" (via rote, joyless copying and memorization), and that was the feeling she passed on to us.

Then I came across a copy of Michael Rowley's Kanji Pict-o-Graphix, and everything changed for me. It's not that I responded to the graphic mnemonics; I'm not a very visual person, so I didn't even really see them. But he showed what each component in a character meant, and I found this fascinating. Little bits of meaning could add up to larger bits of meaning. I began making complex diagrams, where I noted the breakdowns of characters, taking these analyses further and further until I'd arrived at components that simply couldn't get any smaller. Because kanji utterly mystified me, I felt determined to study them down to their tiniest specks, thereby gaining some kind of control or mastery. (Ha! No such thing with kanji!)

And this turned into an obsession, which turned into love, and before I knew it, I came to love the very thing I used to hate!

How did Crazy for Kanji come to be published?

I met Peter Goodman, the publisher of Stone Bridge Press, in the late '90s when he was selling books at the Solano Stroll street festival in Berkeley. I fell in love with several of his books and with the whole idea of what he was doing. Soon after I met him, I profiled him for the East Bay Express and Japanophile. I also reviewed some of his books for various publications and we continued to keep in touch.

Friends who knew of my kanji obsession were always telling me I should write a book about kanji and I began to seriously think about it. I approached Peter and he told me to write up a proposal. Much to my delight, it intrigued him, and he instructed me to go in particular directions, such as explaining the basics of how kanji work and even writing about the use of characters in China, Korea, and Taiwan. After a lot of hard work, Crazy for Kanji came to fruition.

Do you have a favorite kanji?

I'm really crazy about 意—pronounced “i” (as ee, in English). For one thing, I think it's adorable. It reminds me of an upright animal, complete with a curving tail. I blogged about this at http://blogs.japanesepod101.com/?p=940, so the explanation and images there should give you a better idea of what I mean. Also, since 意 means "heart, mind, thought, meaning, sense," it factors into words about consciousness, intentions, thoughts, and feelings, all of which fascinate me.

What's up next for you on the kanji horizon?

I'll definitely keep blogging about kanji, and that occupies a huge amount of my life.

I'm less clear about my kanji explorations in the long term. As long as I keep blogging, I'll eventually cover many of the Joyo kanji (the approximately 2000 characters used in daily life in Japan). Without killing the spontaneity and fun I now feel whenever I investigate kanji, it might make sense to be more goal-oriented about covering the Joyo, so eventually I will have written essays about all of them, creating a kind of Joyo encyclopedia with essays on each character and its etymology and compounds.

And, last but not least, what is your favorite Japanese food?

I'm a tea addict, so I love green tea ice cream. When it's done right, it's tantalizingly full of possibilities. It seems to hint at something, but ... what? That "something" is always just around the corner, luring me on.

Be sure to visit Eve at her Web site and at her Kanji Curiosity blog. Eve is participating in a number of events in the San Francisco Bay Area throughout 2009, including appearances at the Asian Art Museum and the Soko Gakuen Language School in San Francisco. Get more details here.

Saltwater Buddha - by Jaimal Yogis

You don’t have to be a surfer or a Buddhist to enjoy Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer’s Quest to Find Zen on the Sea. This coming-of-age memoir by San Francisco-based journalist Jaimal Yogis, with its crisp, clean prose and delightful self-deprecating tone, will pull in any reader who has ever yearned to learn something new as well as garner some spiritual meaning in life.

Yogis is an award-winning journalist and photographer. He holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Hawai’i and received his Master’s Degree in Journalism from New York’s Columbia University. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including: The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Toronto Star, The Surfer’s Journal, Transworld Surf, Beliefnet, Tricycle, Yoga Journal, The Utne Reader, Shambhala Sun, and San Francisco Magazine.

In the midst of preparing for an extensive West Coast book tour, Jaimal took some time to answer questions about writing, surf culture, and the spiritual and surfing life.

As a journalist, what challenges did you face writing a book-length work as opposed to shorter articles?

Unlike a lot journalists, I started off writing magazine pieces that would get up to 15,000 words, so writing a 40,000 word book wasn’t so difficult. The real challenge was writing about myself instead of other people, which I hadn’t done much. I just had too much information about this character, Jaimal Yogis, and most of it was fairly unimportant. Do people really need to know that I love cheesecake or what I named my first pet bunny? Probably not. But it’s a balance because in memoir, you also have to develop yourself as a character that people are invested in and that necessitates some details. Ultimately, I decided to try and follow Kafka’s advice – I think it was Kafka, anyway – and only give details that I thought were absolutely essential to the story. But that wasn’t always easy and I’m sure I didn’t always do it perfectly.

Saltwater Buddha has an interesting structure and is mainly comprised of very short chapters. What led you to pursue this format?

I honestly don’t know. I didn’t even think about it. It just came out that way and the publisher thought it worked so we decided to go with it. They even made the chapters more pithy in some places, which I think is a cool experiment. People always tell me that they read the book in one or two sittings so maybe it helps make the book more manageable in our time-constrained world.

But mostly, this is how Saltwater Buddha wanted to express itself. I’ve always been a fan of the idea that stories have a life of their own, and if the writer can relax and surrender control, the story can express itself more purely, as it wants to. Maybe because it’s a Zen story, Saltwater Buddha seemed to like this style. I’m not so sure I’d do it again, but it worked for this project.

My husband was born in Japan and grew up by default in a Buddhist culture. When he began surfing, it seemed he got more in touch with his Buddhist faith. Do you think an interest in Buddhism is common to many surfers? If so, why?

I always thought I was one of the few Buddhist surfers and I felt almost embarrassed to tell some of my surfing mates that I meditated. I guess I was afraid they would think I was weird or something (even more than they already did). Sure, I knew there were millions of people who saw surfing as a meditative experience, a “Zen” part of their lives. But I didn’t think there were all that many people who truly had a Buddhist practice and a surfing practice. It turns out that there are tons all over the world. You wouldn’t believe how many people have contacted me saying that they are long-time Buddhist practitioners and surfers. This book could have easily been an anthology. And there are even more people who are passionate about one of these two practices and sort of dabble in the other, or in something related: yoga, kayaking, t’ai chi, sailing. Why is this? I don’t’ know for sure, but as much as surfing and Buddhism (at least in the west) still seem a bit fringe, they aren’t. There are more than 20 million surfers in the world and many more Buddhists. So there’s a natural overlap that is inevitable. But if I were to pick one reason, I’d say it’s that both surfing and Buddhism attract introspective people, people who are interested in finding real freedom. I’m excited about the release of the book around the world because I think a lot of people with these common interests who might have felt a little bit alone, like me, will now have more of a reason to talk and come together. Your husband Manabu and I are the perfect example.

I’m fascinated by the culture of Surf Nazis, which you describe well in the book: those surfers who feel they are entitled to a particular surfing spot and bully those who dare to tread. What do you think causes this kind of behavior?

So many people are fascinated with this phenomenon, surfers and non-surfers alike, because it seems so strange. Isn’t surfing a peaceful sport? Well, yes and no. As far as I know, being in the ocean is a healing, joyful experience for everyone who loves to play in it. But we humans are strange. We become very possessive over the things that bring us the most joy; and since there are a limited number of ridable waves around the world on any given day, it makes sense that surfers try to hoard them and even fight over them. It’s human nature to try and covet what makes you happy. We do the same thing in relationships, in religion, with good art – and the list goes on.

That’s one way to look at it anyway. But localism in surfing is also very complex. It’s fascinating. It can be territorial, just like gang violence, which I suppose relates back to our tribal instincts for protection and belonging. But it can also be a safety thing that you can compare with, say, road rage. There are surfers out there – experts and beginners – who are plain reckless whether they know it or not. Like bad drivers, these surfers put other people’s lives at risk, either because they have huge egos and think they have entitlement to the ocean or because they are trying to surf somewhere they’re not capable of surfing and don’t know the common etiquette that exists iin surfing. So, just like the Los Angeles freeway, tensions are going to flare when the traffic gets heavy in the water. It’s unfortunate that this is happening more and more as the population grows. But from a Buddhist perspective, the days when anger is most likely to arise are also the best situations to practice patience and compassion. I think every fight that happens in surfing could be avoided with even the smallest amount of wisdom and compassion. This can be developed just by looking at the situation from a bird’s eye view and thinking about how silly it is to fight while you’re playing in the waves.

Do you anticipate a time when you will tire of surfing and move on to another sport?

No. The ocean is constantly changing, so it’s always interesting and challenging. It’s a teacher that never runs out of lessons. Thank the lord.

What is your favorite San Francisco Bay Area surf spot? Or is it a secret?

I don’t like driving so my favorite spot is right in front of my house on Ocean Beach. There’s nothing like walking out your front door and over the dunes to surf.

Does the act of writing parallel surfing in any way?

Surfers are very focused on waves and think that everything is like surfing – everything. Writing is no exception. There are lots of comparisons but I’ll just give this one: I write and surf best when I don’t think too much and just let myself be spontaneous. I’m betting that’s true for most surfers and writers.
What is next for you on the literary horizon? On the surfing horizon?

I’m trying not to plan too much. I have this huge west coast book tour happening all summer where I’m doing readings, talks, and signings at coastal bookstores between British Columbia and San Diego. It may go international too – hopefully some tropical places – but the summer tour is about all the planning my brain can handle right now. I usually don’t even keep a calendar so you can imagine why planning that many months out is a stretch. I’m really excited about the tour because I’m trying to make it carbon neutral by doing tree-planting volunteer work in state parks along the way, so let me know if you need some trees planted. (No, this is not an ad for free yard work!) I’m also dabbling in a novel, but it’s too early to talk about that. And I’m always doing some journalism pieces and writing some poetry that I often post on Facebook. Folks can keep up with my ramblings there, or at my Web site.

LOVE IN TRANSLATION -- The Cover

The cover art for LOVE IN TRANSLATION is here and I couldn't be more pleased. The book comes out on November 24, 2009. Yay!

FACE of BETRAYAL by April Henry and Lis Wiehl

My guest today on the Girlfriend's Cyber Circuit Lit Blog tour is April Henry, whose new book is Face of Betrayal.

When 17-year-old Senate page Katie Converse goes missing on her Christmas break near her parents' white Victorian home in Portland, Ore., law enforcement and the media go into overdrive in a search for clues. Three friends at the pinnacle of their respective careers--Allison Pierce, a federal prosecutor; Cassidy Shaw, a crime reporter; and Nicole Hedges, an FBI special agent--soon discover that Katie wasn't the picture of innocence painted by her parents. Did Katie run away to escape their stifling demands? Was she having an affair with the senator who sponsored her as a page? Has she been kidnapped? Is she the victim of a serial killer?

April Henry knows how to kill you in a two-dozen different ways. She makes up for a peaceful childhood in an intact home by killing off fictional characters. April had one detour on her path to destruction: when she was 12 she sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to noted children's author Roald Dahl. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine.

By the time she was in her 30s, April had come to terms with her childhood and started writing about hit men, drug dealers, and serial killers. She has published six mysteries and thrillers, with five more under contract. Her books have received starred reviews, been on Booksense (twice!), translated into four languages, short-listed for the Oregon Book Award, and chosen as a Quick Pick by the American Library Association.

April co-wrote Face of Betrayal with Lis Wiehl, a legal analyst for FOX. They have a contract for three more Triple Threat mysteries.

In March of this year, April’s young adult thriller, Torched, came out from Putnam.

What others are saying about Face of Betrayal:

Publishers Weekly
“A sizzling political thriller. … The seamless plot offers a plethora of twists and turns.”

Romantic Times:
4.5 stars [and they don’t give out five stars] “Wiehl and Henry have penned a winner that seems to come straight from the headlines. Captivating suspense, coupled with tightly written prose, will entertain and intrigue."

Ingram:
"Readers are in for a treat as trial lawyer/commentator Lis Wiehl and mystery author April Henry team up for a political thriller."

April was kind enough to answer a few questions...

What is one thing you've learned about the publishing industry since getting your first book deal?
Hang in there. You’d think that after you first get published it’s all smooth sailing, but it’s not. Your career can seem like it’s in the toilet and you can still find yourself on the top of the best seller list with another book. Janet Evanovich was once a washed up romance writer. I know Charlaine Harris and she had had two series kind of die out from under her. She decided to write about what she loved best: the South, and vampires (back when no one was writing about vampires) , and humor. Now her books hit the list and she has a TV series.

How do you approach writing your novel? Do you outline the plot? Start with a character or...?
I start with a plot idea. Like what if you were to take the story of Chandra Levy, the senate intern who went missing, and use that as the kernel of a story.

I’ve written books in all kinds of ways, and they all work. I wrote one book, Learning to Fly, not knowing much except the main character would be alive at the end. Every day, I just sat down and wrote a little bit more. I’ve also sold books on the basis of a detailed outline and a 20,000 word sample. I’m probably more of a plunger than a plotter.

What is the elevator pitch for Face of Betrayal?
Katie, a 17 year old Senate page, disappears. The prime suspect: the Senator who may have been more than just a mentor. Three women – an FBI agent, a federal prosecutor, and a TV crime reporter – team up to find out what really happened.

Describe how you got your first book deal.
I had had the same agent for four years. She had tried to sell two books, with no success. Then she read Circles of Confusion and thought it would be a perfect fit for Carolyn Marino at Harper. And Carolyn bought it in three days. So it was a three-day, four-year success.

What and where is your favorite restaurant and why is it your favorite?
The Pirate Bar in Vernazza, Italy. For breakfast, they serve Sicilian pastries and blood orange juice. Dinner brings fresh pasta, pesto, fish that was in the ocean less than eight hours earlier, flavored with olives and lemons that grow all around the town.

Thanks, April! Despite all the bad press pirates are getting these days, I'm off to book my flight to Italy to swing by The Pirate Bar! Best of luck with Face of Betrayal.

Check out April’s Website here and her blog.

Finish Your Novel with Group Dating

I recently joined an online group of published women writers. They share tips, offer support and also get together for in-person group writing dates. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to join in. Writing groups can certainly be helpful and I’ve participated in many, but after having spent the past two years in an MFA program I’ve been feeling thoroughly workshopped out. It’s been kind of nice to once again be alone with my writing and not having to deal with critiques and suggestions, however well meaning.

I found out, though, that these meetings are not feedback sessions or workshops. Writers simply get together at a coffeehouse or cafe and write. They might take a break to chat a bit, but no one is required to even talk about what she’s working on unless she wants to.

So I decided to try. I usually do my writing from a home office, which I am lucky to have. But along with experiencing occasional feelings of isolation, there are way too many distractions at home, not to mention the sometimes ho-hum familiarity of my surroundings that can hamper creativity. I find that meeting at different places—having somewhere to go—has sparked my writing life. Sitting and working quietly with fellow writers has also improved my productivity. Knowing that Phyllis is revising her poetry, Mary plotting her mystery, and Susanne and Cyndi are hard at work on their novels inspires me to hunker down and get moving with my own novel-in-progress. I feel that if they can do it, so can I, and I get more writing done now in two hours at these group writing dates then I sometimes do in a whole morning fiddling around at home.

So if you’re having trouble buckling down to write, you may want to try going out on a date—a group writing date.

Simon Cowell as Acquisitions Editor

One of my pleasures is watching American Idol. Notice I didn’t say guilty pleasures— I refuse to suffer guilt over any of my pleasures. At any rate, I’ve been watching the show since the very first season, and have rarely missed an episode. I don’t consider AI a reality show; it’s simply a singing contest, right out of Star Search or even the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. And one of the reasons I enjoy it is because I have participated in a number of singing competitions (albeit Japanese ones). Japan has always been a land of musical contests—my first trip to Tokyo was the result of winning a prize in a songwriting contest sponsored by a Japanese record label, where I was able to sing my song in the final competition (I ended up with the Best Spirit ranking, not the Grand Prix. Alas, I did not become Japanese Idol). Knowing first hand the pressure of performing under such circumstances allows me to relive this vicariously while watching Idol. I’m amazed at the poise of some of the very young contestants. It’s also exciting to see fresh new talent (I generally skip over the train wrecks, which don’t interest me).

But watching AI over these recent weeks as the show has been going through the motions of accumulating its Top 12 for the season (which turned out to be a Top 13), I realized another reason why I like it so much; it proves time and time again how subjective the music industry is and in turn also mirrors the experience writers have with the publishing industry. It’s very much like trying to get an agent for a book or a publishing deal—often there is no rhyme or reason as to why some books get chosen and others are left in the dust. Why, oh, why, viewers moaned, did Jasmine get picked over Jesse when the latter has such a better voice? Jasmine, as new-judge Kara DioGuardi likes to say, “has the whole package”— young, cute, and commercial (she was voted off by the public, however). Jesse was older, quirky, and probably wouldn’t be a big seller. Megan is quirky too, but she made the Top 13 because she’s blonde and beautiful. Bloggers are asking, have the judges been too easy on Scott because he’s blind? Maybe so, but what a hook: a curly-haired guy with an angelic face who doesn’t appear to be vision impaired.

Perhaps I find comfort in Simon Cowell's harshness since I've weathered so many rejections. For all the hype and glitz of AI, a lot of it mirrors real life, whether it be that not all dreams come true or that sometimes those that do don't turn out as planned, or the old adage, be careful what you wish for. As an AI contestant or anyone trying to make it the arts you have to be flexible enough to roll with the punches and possess the right doses of realism, optimism, and pessimism and develop a very thick skin.