Latin-style music and dance isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Japan, but there’s a surprisingly active Latin dance community here across multiple cities. My first exposure to salsa dancing in Japan was unexpected. A friend invited me to a party without giving me the details, and it turned out...
Something that I have only just recently realized about myself is that my imaginings of my son as an adult have a huge hole in them. When he was small, I had imagined his life until he went to college and then fast forwarded until I was a grandmother. I hadn’t imagined his college...
Dramatic irony is when the reader knows things the characters don’t. It abounds in literature and film, from horror (he’s right behind you!) to drama and romance. Dramatic irony can also destroy a good story when there’s poor justification for it. If two characters who are typically honest could clear up the major plot...
This week’s Adjustment Guidance happiness blog is about how to determine the limits on trust and fidelity that work for you.
I know Tinder has a reputation of being an application used mostly for hooking up or casual dating, but in Japan it is a bit different. In Nagoya, at least, I noticed many of the women I saw were seeking friendship or were using Tinder for social networking. I once met a woman who...
As readers know, the past two months have been a mixed bag of ups and downs and mismanagement of selfcare and it feels like just about everything else. I feel like I spent all of July and August doing a very bad job of spinning plates. Last week, things lightened up a bit with...
If you’re writing a mystery, it’s generally the case that you’ll hide details from the reader. And it’s inevitable that some details will be omitted (a novel that omits no details will never be finished). But sometimes you want to hide things from readers for other reasons. In my own writing, every character has...
