What I'm working on
In the pipeline:
- Seiji, a Life in Art. Last year I wrote a short story about an artist who grew up and spent his life in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, Japan, and submitted it for inclusion in a book on new Asian writers. A good friend liked the story so well that he suggested that I write a novel about the artist, Seiji Matsuda. I hope to have it finished, through rewrites and ready for my publisher by the end of 2011.
Future projects:
The City Has Many Faces. Set in Mexico City in the mid-1970s, we follow Joseph Manning through Mexico City's streets and neighborhoods, tour Chapultepec Castle guided by an elderly Indian shaman, attend a gala Christmas party on the grounds of an old mansion that is invaded by rats falling from the sky, see a confrontation between a donkey and an eagle in jam-packed Garibaldi Plaza, visit an old haunted house, meet an Aztec god that causes the death of a brutal Mexico City cop, causes a destructive rain storm and sweeps the smog away with his great broom of wind and rain, and experience the excitement of living in this huge city with it ancient past and thumping, pulsing life.
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Bear. Bear is the name of a character in "Grandfather and the Raven". A dog that looks a lot like one of Hokkaido's big brown bears (except that he's much smaller), and at times acts like one, Bear has had a lot of things to handle in his life. He's finally "dumped" on Grandfather and Grandmother Ueda's doorstep. A heartfelt, humorous story about what happens when a dog looks like a bear. Watch for this book to shop up in 2012.
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MacTavish and Fiske. MacTavish first appeared in 6 of 7 short stories about Sherlock Holmes that appear in Sherlock Holmes in a Flash: New Short Holmes Stories, Manchester, New Hampshire, Abbott ePublishing, 2010. MacTavish is a big orange-and-white Scottish Fold cat that helps Holmes and Watson solve crimes. Fiske, a Yorkshire Terrier, came along later, when it occurred to me that this bossy little dog would make an excellent companion for MacTavish (also known as "MacT") in solving crimes. Watch for this book to appear in the next year.
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The Hypothecary Shop: The Wit and Wisdom of W. D. Polley. Old W. D. is full of humorous, quotable opinions. Here is an example: "One thing to remember when you're fightin' a skunk: He don't mind the smell."
I like old uncle W. D. (Warren Dean). He's my grandfather's fictional youngest brother, and is said to have died at the age of 111 (give or take a few years) in Boise, Idaho. Could be he was really another of my grandfather's kids from his first wife, who died shortly after giving birth to him. Always a bit of a cranky old cuss, he could always be found wearing his trademark ten gallon cowboy hat and a green bandanna tied around his neck, sitting at a table in a local diner drinking a cup of strong coffee, sharing yarns with a few of the locals. Later on when he moved into a retirement home at around 98, you could always find him grousing with the guys and winking at the ladies, who made over him like nobody's business.
I keep running across these sayings of his in my notes (thank God I brought them with me from Seattle when we moved), and I pass them on to you for your enjoyment and, as old W. D. would say it for your "edification".
