Articles
June 16, 2015
From Book Editor to Thriller Writer: Barry Lancet’s Advice to Aspiring Scribes
Jeremy Hill On May 10, 2015, award-winning author of the thrillers Japantown and Tokyo Kill Barry Lancet spoke about how he moved from a career in editing to writing fiction and offered some pointers for aspiring authors. The lively audience contributed to the experience and insights shared. Our thanks to Jeremy Hill, who wrote this report based... more
January 27, 2014
Learning to Write Well
By Peter Mallett
In 2005 to 2006 university professor and writer Peter Mallett did a master’s degree in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University in the U.K. where he began his first novel, Appassionata. Formerly Arts editor of Kansai Time Out and publisher/editor of Artspace, he has written for the Asahi Evening News, Gramophone Japan, Opera News, the New... more
November 19, 2013
Rebecca Otowa on Crafting “My Awesome Japan Adventure”
By Avery Fischer Udagawa
Rebecca Otowa authored the memoir At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman’s Journey of Discovery (Tuttle Publishing, May 2010), which led to a review in SWET Newsletter No. 124, available online to members, and a speech described in No. 126. Otowa has now released a second book, this time for children. My Awesome Japan Adventure: A... more
November 23, 2009
Some Notes on Anthologies
by Suzanne Kamata
According to conventional wisdom, anthologies are a hard sell. Readers supposedly don’t buy them; reviewers are generally loath to review them; therefore, publishers tend to shy away from bringing them into print. Nevertheless, pick up any writing magazine and you’ll probably find a call for submissions to a forthcoming anthology. For example, in the January/February 2009 issue of... more
April 2, 2009
More thoughts on self-publishing
by Hugh Ashton
I’m not attempting to monopolize this blog, but my last post seemed to generate quite a lot of interest, including some from people who had interesting things to say, but haven’t yet bothered to write them here as comments.
One point that was made in conversation to me was the question of self-publishing fiction rather than non-fiction. To summarize... more
March 27, 2009
Is this the future of fiction publishing?
by Hugh Ashton
About two and a half years ago, I finished a novel with which I was quite pleased - Beneath Gray Skies - it’s an alternative history novel, set in the Confederacy of the 1920s. Actually, I was very pleased with it indeed. I’d done things in my writing I’d never done before: multiple points of view,... more