The Brazen Shark,
my latest novel from Sky Warrior Books, tells the story of a couple whose
honeymoon in 1877 was interrupted by samurai air pirates who hijacked a Russian
airship, hoping to overthrow the Japanese emperor and restore the shogunate.
This plotline posed a particular challenge
for me as a writer living in the desert southwest of the United States since I
wanted to portray Meiji-era Japan as accurately as possible.
Even if time and money would have allowed me
to make a research trip to Japan, I’d still have the challenge of capturing the
historical period.
This is, of course,
where library research comes in, but the challenge was what kinds of books to
read?
My research for the novel started with a book about the
history of the samurai. It was a great
book full of illustrations and information about living conditions, armor, and
fighting techniques. The problem was
that there were samurai from the thirteenth century through the second half of
the nineteenth. Even a very in-depth
book such as the one I had could only devote a few pages of each section to the
period I was interested in. So, I asked
my brother who had traveled in Japan if he had any books to recommend. He introduced me to Lafcadio Hearn.
Born in Greece to an Irish father and Greek mother, Hearn
immigrated to the United States in 1869 where he became a newspaper
reporter. After spending several years
in New Orleans, where he wrote about Louisiana’s Creole and Voodoo cultures, he
immigrated to Japan and changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo. He wrote several books of essays about Japan
including Gleanings in Buddha-Fields,
which I found particularly useful.
Through Hearn, I got to see Japan through the eyes of a westerner at
roughly the period I was interested in.
Rather than be presented with cold facts, I got to travel with Hearn as
he visited a Shinto shrine, admired Japanese art, and listened to children in
the streets singing songs.
When doing research, it’s important not just to look up
facts, but where possible, to read accounts from people who have had experiences
similar to what you describe. If you’re
writing about space travel, read accounts from astronauts about their
experiences. If you’re writing about
gunfighters in the old west, you can read books such as Pat Garrett’s The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. Some historians might debate Garrett’s
“facts” but the book does give you the Old West experience through the eyes of
someone who lived it. The further back
in time you go, the more challenging it might be to find those kinds of
accounts, but even a little snippet can help you gain insight to what was
important to people living at that time and place.
The fourth novel in my Clockwork Legion series will have
scenes set in New Orleans. I’ve been
fortunate enough to spend some time in the Crescent City, but you can bet I’ll
be looking to my old friend Lafcadio Hearn for his insights into what the city
was like over a century ago.
Great things have been expected of Thea, the seventh child of two
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attends the Wandless Academy, the one school on Earth for those who have
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Four hundred years after The Secrets of Jin-shei, the Syai Empire
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An outsider and a child of two worlds, Amais searches for the magical
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Sometimes loved, sometimes worshipped, sometimes demonized, the cat has
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