An ongoing frustration for me has always been the divide between my most popular stories and my favorite stories and my best stories.  RocKaiju has surpassed Rhest for the Wicked as my best-selling book, which itself beat out Ghee.  And Ghee outsold the entire Crossworld Saga combined.

RocKaiju is, currently, my most successful book and it may be the centerpiece of my literary legacy.  If that proves to be the case, I will be extremely satisfied and very happy.  Sam and RocKaiju are wonderful characters, and I enjoyed their story greatly.  But RocKaiju is not my favorite story, nor is it (in my opinion) my best story. Continue reading →

I watched a video last week about Librivox.  It’s a free audiobook app that provides access to public domain books.  It’s a great app and a great service, no question.  The video was addressing literacy, not in the rote context of being able to read, but in the act of reading and in the pursuit of the goal of being well-read.  The speaker’s thesis was that any book – and certainly books that survived into public domain like those on Librivox – has something you can take away from it.  Even if it is a disagreement with the author, it is of value.  Cool.

And look, before I begin, I don’t want to sound like I’m disputing that goal.  People should read more, no doubt.  And that isn’t just the author who writes professionally saying that.  That’s the national and world citizen, who knows reading – much like traveling – is a cure for prejudice, ignorance, and so many of the world’s ills. Continue reading →

Somewhere at the confluence of Anime Fan (or ‘otaku’ if you want to be pretentious about it) and Martial Arts Fan is the odd territory of Japanophile.  This is a person who is fascinated with, studies, and generally loves, all things Japan.  From its history to its culture to its myths.  There are other roads that lead to that strange land, but these two seem to be the most common.

I don’t know when my fascination with Japan began, but it definitely blossomed in my post-high school and college days (unlike many peers, I didn’t go into college straight out of high school).  And I didn’t study Japan all at once, I grew fascinated with elements of it.  The martial arts, the anime, the language, the history, the culture, back and forth.  Pieces at a time, really.  At no point would I consider myself a real Japanophile; merely focused on one aspect of Japan’s world, with a journeyman’s awareness of other corners of their world. Continue reading →