The Spirit Captive

Website Launch

2009-01-25T21:07:00.000-08:00

After hours and hours, days and days, of tinkering in Notepad and Gimp, I've finally finished the official website to promote The Spirit Captive. It's been quite a while since I've done any web design, and my biggest challenge was remembering how to put everything together and to troubleshoot it. My sincerest thanks go out to my good friend Matthew Miller, for the advice and suggestions.

The site features information about the book, praise from other writers and readers, a sample chapter (with a link to the next five chapters, available at Authonomy), an author bio, and, best of all, a short guide to the folklore behind some of the many traditional characters and creatures you will meet in The Spirit Captive!

The site is best when viewed with the Firefox browser (worst when viewed with Internet Explorer), with a resolution of at least1024 x 768. Hope you enjoy!

TSC on Authonomy

2008-12-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

Authonomy is a site from Harper Collins to help authors increase their chances of getting published. Anyone can read a part of an author's book, vote for it (by clicking the link that says "Back this book", or adding it to their "bookshelf"), and the highest-ranked manuscripts will have a chance of being read by HarperCollins editors!

Please check out my entry there for The Spirit Captive, and create an account and back my book. (You can't support, rate, or comment there without an account.)

Thanks to anyone who helps out on this. Questions, comments, and especially criticisms are welcomed.

Welcome!

2008-12-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

I've started this blog in order to have a place to promote my novel, The Spirit Captive. If you're interested in supporting the novel or following the progress of its long and arduous road to publication, please bookmark this site, or join the e-mail list!

For those who would like a bit more information on the book, here is a short summary:

In a house built on a mysterious and fabled mountain in central Japan lives the Lord of Winter, one of the four gods and goddesses who govern the passing of time and the seasons. With the arrival of a cursed letter, he and the spirits which serve him find themselves pawns in a carefully-woven plot, a conspiracy authored by an anonymous figure who is determined to recover something he has lost long ago. Yet the fortunes of all of these figures, great and small, high and low, will be determined by Oyuki, an ordinary young woman who stands fearfully yet eagerly at the beginning of an arduous and fateful road. Before the story’s end she will see the awe-inspiring valley of the Kiso River, the hellish wastes of the Deep North, and an obscure farming village seemingly hidden away from all the world’s troubles.
The Spirit Captive is a blending of history and culture, drawing from the myriad sources of Japanese tradition. It is a mystery with generous helpings of humor and romance, pathos and tragedy, featuring the traditional ghosts and monsters that are ubiquitous in Japan and are becoming increasingly well-known in America. Oyuki is an uncertain and yet decisive protagonist in an unfamiliar world, determined to prove herself to the spirits who have taken her into their care. Her real plight, quite apart from the uncertainties she faces, is an echoing of a classic motif worldwide: whether she will remain content with a humble, human-scale life, or pass into an alluring existence that is perhaps more glorious, yet full of danger and leading only to tragedy.

This is the first book I have written, though I am now close to finishing a second, which is tentatively entitled O Son of the People!

Thanks for supporting me and The Spirit Captive! Please leave any comments, thoughts, questions, etc., that you may have. I look forward to getting to know anyone who might be interested!