Spotlight & Author Interview: The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn + Giveaway

Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

Everywhere, really. I’m always on the lookout for fairy tales, folk tales, and old stories that I can retell. Sometimes I find a story and think “I HAVE to write this” and other times I’ll have a vague plot or a specific character in mind and then I have to find a story that it can map onto.

If you were stuck on a deserted island, which 3 books would you want with you?

A tricky question, but thanks for giving me three books, instead of just one! I’d have to go with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Different books for different moods, and all good comfort reads for me.

What advice would you give budding writers?

Always be prepared to move on to the next project. The moment you finish one, start writing on the next. In fact, I love to always have one book in the percolation/plotting stage, one that I’m drafting, and one that I’m editing. When I was in the querying trenches, I would query one book until the next book was ready to go, so that I didn’t have to mourn the shelving of a book because I was already excited and ramping up with the next one. This practice will serve one well as a writer.

Are there any books or writers that have inspired your writing?

Definitely. I take inspiration from many places; I think it important for writers to read widely, in a variety of genres, because you never know where inspiration will strike. I certainly find myself inspired by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami (my PhD thesis heavily involved his writing), and of course I am always influenced by the original stories I am choosing to retell (so, in the case of The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn, I was of course inspired by The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett).

Who is your favorite character in the book?

My favorite character in The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn is probably Honda-san, the nature-loving Buddhist nun. I love that she is friends with wild animals and is so at ease in her own skin. Plus, she is a creative problem-solver, which is a skill I highly value.