by Rebecca Copeland | Mar 29, 2023 | Mystery Fiction
“And isn’t it better really to leave things only hinted at?” This is a well-cited line from Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s 1929 novel Tade kuu mushi (translated by Edward Seidensticker, Some Prefer Nettles). The protagonist’s father-in-law utters the line midway through the... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Mar 15, 2023 | Mystery Fiction
“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... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Mar 1, 2023 | Mystery Fiction
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.... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Feb 15, 2023 | Mystery Fiction
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... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Feb 1, 2023 | Mystery Fiction
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...
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