by Rebecca Copeland | May 11, 2022 | Japanese Culture
The elevator ride to the ninth floor left me woozy. I was already nervous. What if he turned me down? “Enter,” he barked when I knocked on his office door. I pushed the door open just enough to squeeze through and met his gaze. His eyes, slightly... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Apr 26, 2022 | Mystery Fiction, Translation
When you write, do you hear voices in your head? Do the words on the page turn color? Do they fly? When I was writing The Kimono Tattoo, the scenes unfurled on the screen of my imagination. They were most vibrant when I went out for my morning run. There must be... 
by Rebecca Copeland | May 5, 2021 | Mystery Fiction
It starts with birds. I wasn’t sure how to begin at first. I sat at the oilcloth-covered table in the cabin, gazing out over the porch, thinking back to Kyoto. I had already decided to set my novel in Kyoto. In order to write about Kyoto, I had to... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Jan 27, 2021 | Japanese Culture
If I had it all to do over again, I would do it differently. Of course, I didn’t know then what I know now. I had been given the opportunity to translate Kirino Natsuo’s award-winning novel, Grotesque, and I was elated. It was the first time I’d been contracted to... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Jan 13, 2021 | Japanese Culture
I was not the first pick to translate Kirino Natsuo’s Grotesque. Kirino’s agent went the rounds of other translators before being directed to me. And once she found me, she did not give me a contract on the spot. I had to “try out” for the job. She sent me several...
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