Long Time Expat In Japan
Book Review Pines by Blake Crouch I went into this book knowing nothing about it. You need to understand that when you live on the other side of the world, you don't get the ads for the new Fox TV show starring Matt Dillon. On Amazon, it had eight thousand reviews, 4 stars. It was … Continue reading Book Review – Pines
No confefe, it was a conference, last weekend. Same as last year, I had two days to think about, talk about, and dream of writing. I wish I could have been more involved this year but RL is what it is. I missed the mornings on both days; I blame the fickle Japan Consumer for … Continue reading Japan Writers Conference
Book Review or How to Read Self Help By Lorrie Moore Forget how to describe the type of sentence for giving instructions. Remember only interrogative, declarative, and exclamatory. Look up imperative online. Discover that it is fourth grade level language arts. Feel embarrassed, but since its been over forty years, cut yourself some slack. Most … Continue reading Book Review – Self Help
Book Review Birds of America By Lorrie Moore My Dad passed away more than couple of years back. He'd been sick; his kidneys had failed and the transplant went poorly, so he was in dialysis three days a week. He had to sit still for three or four hours with a needle in his fistula. … Continue reading Book Review – Birds of America
I feel a little better about my kanji this month. I took a break for about a month for summer vacation and also work. But I came back with a fresh perspective. And the characters kind of reflect that. The following say (basically) precise pen, spare ink, where spare means not too much. If you … Continue reading August Shodo
Book Review Dave Barry Does Japan By Dave Barry Dave Barry, for those of you who are not in the know, is a Pulitzer Prize winning author. While his more well-regarded books include I'll Mature When I'm Dead and Homes And Other Black Holes, the most representative is Boogers Are My Beat. I was first … Continue reading Book Review – Dave Barry Does Japan
Book Review The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu Last month, I started listening to a podcast, Writing Excuses, which was recommended by a writing colleague at the Tokyo Writers Workshop, Karen McGee. An excellent writer of mystery, crime, and short fiction. She recommended a couple of episodes to help a fellow TWW-er. I piled … Continue reading Book Review – The Lives of Tao
... you find yourself deeply involved in the squealing feedback loop that is political social media. I spent the morning (yes the whole morning) reading my twitter and facebook feeds, then following links to news sources.This is unusual for me. I have tried for the last couple of months (since November to be precise) to … Continue reading You know you’re in trouble when
I don't usually write with a cursive style with kanji. In my shodo society, they want you to know the basics first. Makes sense. Sensei does an annual art show at the local bank. This year, I'm contributing the following. Since it's not the regular submission, I can do whatever I want. And I wanted … Continue reading Cursive
Most of the kanji we practice in my shodo society comes from Chinese poetry. Sometimes it's obscure and indecipherable, others it's pretty straightforward. Most of the time, I just write it and try hard to make it pretty. Hey, that's the idea, right? But this month, I looked into the origins. This month is from … Continue reading Reflections of an Early Spring Journey in ChangAn
B.S. Donovan 