Sumo!
A few years ago, arguably my most important book was published. BIG IN JAPAN. It tells the story of Buck Cooper, a hapless fat guy in Texas, who goes to Japan and inadvertently becomes the first blond sumo wrestler. A sports underdog/ fish out of water tale, t’s Beverly Hills Ninja goes sumo, and Buck has to […]
Tales from The Con
So I went to the Salt Lake Comic Con FanX last week and this is what happened: As I walked around (or even as I sat at my booth) I kept thinking it was like I was living someone else’s life. But someone cool. […]
200 People Who Have Looked Inside My Brain
So, a week ago I spent the whole day talking to Mr. Murphy and Mr. Osmond’s English classes at the local high school. About 200 kids are reading BIG IN JAPAN as part of their curriculum this year. Whoa, right? It was partway through the day when I realized: These people have all looked inside […]
Mistakes about the 1956 World Series Yankees and my Dad (with apologies to the fans)
All my life I grew up thinking my dad loved the Yankees. He’d met the team in Japan. I love Japan. I loved living in Japan. I loved learning Japanese. I loved meeting Japanese people. I loved all of that. It’s been 20 years now this spring since I got on the plane to fly there for […]
The Genkan
My husband has been reading my novel BIG IN JAPAN this week. Bless his heart! What a good man I married. And I have to admit that every hero in every book I write is just a different incarnation of my good, good man. So, what’s been interesting as a bystander to his reading is […]
Library Meet and Greet
Last night was the monthly “Author Meet and Greet” at our local public library. A couple of months ago Joyce Wellbaum got in touch with me through another one of the “Friends of the Library” ladies who I ran into when I was in the gift shop after Preschool Storytime. (My youngest daughter and I […]
Deseret News Reviews BIG IN JAPAN
The Deseret News, a Salt Lake City newspaper with a circulation of… a BUNCH, has reviewed BIG IN JAPAN. The review posted about 20 minutes ago. I’m all breathless. I’d heard there was a call for a review, and I knew the Deseret News’s policy of not letting anyone review a book if the reviewer […]
Super Duper Duper Cool!
I went to a booksigning this morning and this author guy said, “Have you seen that sumo video? The one where the little white guy can cream all the huge, enormous sumo wrestlers? Time after time, he just smears them. You have to look it up!” Well, bet your bottom dollar, I came right home […]
Super Blogger Moi
So, even if I don’t add a lot of content to this site this month, I’ve been adding a certain amount of text gravitas to the World Wide Web in general. Need evidence? Check out this list of blogs I’ve been scribbling all over lately. (Many thanks to my publicist Kirk for facilitating the blog […]
Racism, Sexism, Ageism…Fatism?
There’s racism. Ageism. Sexism. Is there “fat-ism?” Having gone up and down the scale through five pregnancies, it’s been something not unfamiliar to me. So I ask: do we in our culture take people less seriously if they are overweight? What kind of self-esteem issues do our young people (as well as adults) have when […]
