Well, it’s Friday, and thanks to the diligent efforts of everyone who helped us track the cover clues, I’ve managed to retrieve the cover art from the ninja thieves! And so, with no further ado, allow me to present the cover for the second Shinobi Mystery, BLADE OF THE SAMURAI: June, 1565: Master ninja Hiro Hattori receives a pre-dawn visit from Kazu, a fellow shinobi working undercover at the shogunate. Hours before, the Shogun’s cousin, Saburo, was stabbed to death in the Shogun’s palace. The murder weapon: Kazu’s personal dagger. Kazu says he’s innocent, and begs for Hiro’s help, but
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Celebrating a Shiny New BLADE
This morning, I received the cover art for the second Shinobi Mystery: BLADE OF THE SAMURAI. This afternoon, my cover art was stolen by ninjas. (They did it last year, too, and I suspect this might be a pattern forming.) If you want to see it, I’ll need your help to get it back. I’ve called in some friends to help me track down the shards the ninjas left behind, along with bits of the jacket copy describing the new Shinobi Mystery, which will release from Minotaur Books in July of 2014. The first clue might leave you a little
Read morePick Your Poison (Forensics in Historical Mystery, Part 1)
Two weekends ago, I spoke at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold Conference on the topic of Forensics in Historical Mystery. A number of people asked me to share the information here on the blog, so for the next few Mondays I’ll be talking about translating modern forensics into historical settings, and how I handle forensics issues in the Shinobi Mysteries. For the uninitiated, “forensics” literally translates “of the law” – and the science of forensics involves the interface between science and law. More specifically, forensics is the science of investigating and solving crimes. However, the primary job of
Read moreAn Island, a Weapon, and a Plot Point Walk Into a Novel …
Tanegashima is the second largest island in Japan’s Ōsumi Island chain, located off the southern coast of Kyushu (the southernmost of the four major islands which make up the country of Japan). During the medieval period, Tanegashima was considered part of Ōsumi province and ruled by the daimyo in control of that territory. In 1543 a Portuguese trade ship heading for China found itself blown off course and landed at Tanegashima. The accident introduced the Portuguese to Japan (and vice versa) and within a few years the Portuguese had established a trading relationship with Japan. Among the most popular Portuguese goods
Read moreFact from Fiction: Shinobi vs Ninja
At signings, I’m often asked why I refer to my ninja detective, Hattori Hiro (or Hiro Hattori to those who put surnames last), as a “shinobi” instead of a “ninja.” The answer is simple: the two are one and the same. Many Japanese words are written using Kanji, or characters, originally borrowed from Chinese. In Japanese, the word many English speakers pronounce as “ninja” looks like this: The Chinese pronunciation of those characters is “nin sha” – from which the English language derives the word “ninja.” That pronunciation is used in Japan, but more often, the Japanese pronounce those characters
Read moreI’ve Been Kidnapped!
I should have known better than to trust a woman with a gun and a van…. I’VE BEEN KIDNAPPED! On this, the final day before the release of CLAWS OF THE CAT, I find myself trapped in a secret location and interrogated by an armed woman and a very large dog whose sense of humor doesn’t run to books with kittens in them. Clearly, I have some explaining to do. If you think I’m kidding, follow this link to the secret underground lair of Bayard & Holmes. What you find there may surprise you…
Read moreHow an Author Becomes an Astronaut
Nine years; 500,000 words; one dream; one week to go. The eighteen months since my agent, Sandra, sold my debut novel have passed much faster … and much more slowly … than I imagined. At times the days dragged out with unreal slowness. The time between the sale and publication seemed never-ending. Weeks passed without any word from my editor, and even though those weeks were a normal part of the publishing process, the stretches of silence weighed on my mind like the world on Atlas’s shoulders. At other times, I marveled at how fast the time flew by. I’d
Read moreA Word or Two About Seppuku
Seppuku (sometimes also referred to as hara-kiri) is a form of Japanese ritual suicide. Throughout most of Japanese history, only samurai were allowed to commit seppuku. The first recorded seppuku was that of Minamoto no Yorimasa, a warrior and poet who committed suicide by slashing his stomach open with his sword after suffering defeat in battle. During the medieval period, samurai committed seppuku for several reasons, most commonly to avoid being captured after suffering a defeat (in the manner of Minamoto no Yorimasa), as a penalty for shameful or criminal activity, or to expunge the shame of surviving a battle in which
Read moreHow My Mother Discovered the Amazon
The road to publication is filled with “firsts” for authors – so many that we sometimes forget that we”re pulling others through the looking glass with us. Case in point: my mother. I owe my lifelong love of books and writing in no small part to my mother’s influence. She read to me. She taught me to read. She bought me books and paper and crayons and listened to me read my (likely nonsensical) whimsies over the years. She encouraged and supported me – and she financed a trip to an early writers’ conference (over a decade ago) that set
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