Rebecca’s Reflections
In the Beginning There Were Pigeons
“In all things, it is the beginnings and the endings that are the most interesting.” Or, so wrote Japan’s famed medieval poet-monk Yoshida Kenkō (1283–1350). Kenkō illustrated this bit of aesthetic wisdom with advice on how to appreciate a romantic affair. The...
Edited Out, Part Four: Tanizaki and the Homeless Cuckoo
Editing a manuscript can be painful. You have to be willing to cut passages that you have labored over for days, sometimes longer. Some great writer equated this process to “murdering your darlings.” You’ll hear some attribute this quotation to Ernest Hemingway....
Edited Out, Part Three: Detouring into the Kyoto Prefectural Library
I continue with the series of scenes that were edited out of The Kimono Tattoo. The edits always improved the narrative flow, dramatically. Narrative timing is a skill I am still learning. In the early stages of writing The Kimono Tattoo, I understood that readers...
Edited Out, Part Two: Dance and the Dalliance in the Yoshiwara
Here's another scene from The Kimono Tattoo draft that ended up on the cutting room floor. Again, we have reference to Hiratsuka Raichō, but also to a controversial feminist painter, an ancient Japanese legend, and the politics of protest in postwar Japan. Why did...
Edited Out, Part One: Hiratsuka Raichō and the Shiobara Incident
When I first sent Melissa Carrigee of Brother Mockingbird...
Home is Where the Views Are
I can’t remember when I decided I would retire to North Carolina. The idea came on gradually. Maybe it was after I spent that month in the Tennessee cabin writing the first draft of The Kimono Tattoo. It was only a month, but I felt such an affinity for the hillsides...