Dizzy Excerpt in Kizuna Kindle Charity Anthology

August 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

An excerpt from Dizzy Sushi called “Plum Blossom” appears in Kizuna, a mixed-genre anthology of short stories to benefit the orphans of the disaster-stricken Tohoku area in March of this year.

Horror, humor, human drama, science fiction, fantasy, absurdist, bizarro, weird, new wave, bugpunk, Cthulhu, Sherlock Holmes, historical fiction, and more make up this diverse collection of stories you can read on your Kindle or your smart phone or computer by downloading the Kindle app.

From editor Brent Millis’ (kizuna.charity@gmail.com) introduction:

I turned to my friends in the writing community. Would they contribute? Sure they would! Soon I had ten authors. Then twenty. Thirty… Author friends of author friends were submitting. Authors from Spain, Singapore, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, Germany, France, America, the UK, Australia and Canada all stepped forward. I was stunned. Even now, as corny as it sounds, the gratitude I feel at their selfless desire to help makes me very misty-eyed.

Kizuna means bond and expresses the strong emotions we all had at the devastation Japan suffered during the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the tsunami that came afterward. I was introduced to this project by Trent Zelazny and am proud to be able to do a little bit to help those in need with my writing. Purchase Kizuna Here: http://amzn.to/kizunaebook

 

Filed Under: Japan, Writing

Maple Leaves in Japan

August 5, 2011 By

400px-Acer_japonicum_aconitifolium_fall_color_web

More great info on maple leaves from japan-guide.com: “Each year, starting in mid September, the ‘koyo (colorful leaves) front’ slowly moves southwards from the northern island of Hokkaido until it reaches the lower elevations of central and southern Japan towards the end of November.”

Photo: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.
Filed Under: culture, environment, sites, Travel

Dizzy Sushi

February 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

After having just graduated from one of the most rigorous schools of Western philosophy, Melissa J White decided it was time to try Eastern philosophy for a change. But sitting zazen in California made her itch to discover the roots of Buddhist practice, so she decided to take a radical step and move to Japan for a year with Walker—her long-term boyfriend and Sting-Look alike. From a gaijin youth hostel to an ancient Kyoto farmhouse, “Dizzy Sushi” tells the tale of a year of being an outsider in a country that is a paradox of beauty and difficulty. As each chapter unfolds in a new house, this traveling couple grows further apart until a startling discovery pulls them back together to make the decision of their lives. An artfully detailed, articulate, and authentic memoir of self-discovery, “Dizzy Sushi” is about what can happen when you test the boundaries of culture and commitment

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Melissa J White is an award-winning advertising designer and writer. “Dizzy Sushi” will be her first published book for which she won the Recursos de Santa Fe Discovery Prize. For the last five years she has worked as a script supervisor, story consultant and branding expert. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and three children.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“DIZZY SUSHI IS DELICIOUS! PART LOVE STORY, PART SPIRITUAL QUEST, THIS BOOK IS AN ELEGANT AND LUSTY LITERARY FEAST FOR THE HUNGRY READER’S HEART AND SOUL.” — Sarah Lovett, author of “Dark Alchemy”

Filed Under: Writing

Akiko Yosano Tankas Approved

September 1, 2010 By

Translator Sanford Goldstein has graciously allowed me to reprint Akiko Yosano’s tankas in Dizzy Sushi.
405px-Akiko_Yosano_posing_by_window
#97

Those Plum Blossoms in the poem
You wrote at parting—
They weren’t on your mind. . .
Last autumn she was the one
Leaning against this post

#144

On that cold morning
in Kyoto,
Frozen stiff,
The tip of the writing brush
Borrowed to paint my lips!

Tagged: Akiko Yosano, Kyoto, poetry

Filed Under: art, culture, POETRY