On Book Tour (Really?)
The Eureka Key
As I type, I’m on a plane heading off for my very first book tour, to promote The Eureka Key. I’m quite startled by this occurrence. I mean, I knew it was going to happen; I’ve seen the itinerary and everything. But I can’t help but suspect that the book police will pick me up sometime soon for impersonating the kind of author who’s successful enough to have book tours.
Now that I’ve landed in Alexandria, Virginia, and taken a little stroll around the Old Town neighborhood, I can report that I’ve seen: handmade rugs that make my brain spin with the idea that somebody crafted something so glorious TO BE WALKED ON, a life-sized plastic horse in the back of an old-fashioned pickup truck, and a white-haired gentleman playing clarinet inside his (closed, locked) jewelry repair store.
I like this neighborhood.
Read MoreNue
Note the thick black fog surrounding the nue.
A nue is…what is a nue? It’s very hard to be sure.
A deadly creature from Japanese folklore, the nue is said to be a combination of monkey, tiger, and snake. It’s hard to know how anybody can be sure about that, however, since the nue is always surrounded by a dense black fog that sickens anyone it touches. Even hearing the nue’s eerie, wailing call can bring on confusion and illness. Entire cities have been stricken by the approach of one of these monsters. They are very difficult to fight, and your best bet is to avoid one at all costs.
Read MoreDouble-Mouthed Woman
One of the creepier creatures out of Japanese mythology, mostly because she looks so innocent. You’d never know, upon meeting a double-mouthed woman, that there is anything out of the ordinary about her. Oh, you might notice that she never (not ever) puts her long hair up or even in a ponytail…but you wouldn’t know that this is because there is a second mouth hidden on the back of her neck.
Most double-mouthed women are fairly benign. The worst they do is sneak down to the kitchen at night and eat all the food in the house. The one in Deadly Flowers, though, is a little more alarming. Don’t fall asleep in her house, no matter how nice she seems.
Read MoreThings Ninjas Didn’t Do (That You Think They Did)
#2) Be male.
Deadly Flowers
Were there really female ninja? People ask me this when I mention Deadly Flowers.
The thing is, we don’t actually know that much about what ninjas really did. They were secretive. That was the whole point. A ninja who got written into the history books probably wasn’t a very good ninja. So we go on myth and legend a lot. And legend has it that there were at least some women who worked as ninjas.
It’s said that a woman in feudal Japan, named Chiyome (or Chiyojo), lost her husband in battle. There weren’t that many options for a widow in that time period. She could marry again, or she could become a nun. Chiyome went in another direction. She opened up a school for ninjas. For girl ninjas.
Chiyome is said to have take in girls and trained them to travel around Japan as spies, gathering information for her husband’s overload, Takeda Shingen. They were called “walking maidens,” her students, for their itinerant ways. Another name for female ninjas was “deadly flowers.”
Can we prove it? No. But then we can’t prove anything much about ninjas.
Could it have happened? Why not? It was a time of civil war in Japan. Things were unsettled and desperate. A warlord like Takeda would have been glad for any advantage he could get over his rivals. For women to act as ninjas would have gone against tradition, it wouldn’t have been something to be discussed in polite society, and the women who did it would have been taking on great risk and hardship. But, yes, it could have happened.
Read MoreCentipedes. Not Cute.
I always thought centipedes were on the cute end of the buggy spectrum. Okay, not butterflies, not ladybugs, but kind of sweet, with all those little wiggly legs.
That was before I met Japanese centipedes.
They are not just terrifying; they are poisonous. No wonder they feature widely in the folklore. There’s one giant centipede from Japanese mythology who ate baby dragons for lunch. And of course there’s the one I put in Deadly Flowers, who tries to eat my heroine.
Read MoreLitPick Interview
“Where do you get your ideas?” “Who’s your favorite character?” “What advice would you give aspiring writers?” LitPick has an interview with me up on their webpage today!
Read More
Things Ninjas Didn’t Do (That You Think They Did)
This is not an accurate ninja outfit (although it does make a super cool nesting doll).
1) Wear all black.
It’s so easy to think of a ninja all in black, hood over face, that even books and other resources who get other historical details right usually fall for this one. The truth is, in pre-modern times, black clothing was both rare and expensive. (It takes a lot of dye to get cloth really black, so it costs a lot.) Even if a ninja could afford an all-black outfit, he or she wouldn’t be likely to wear it on a mission.
This might be a samurai (the two swords are kind of a giveaway) or ti might be a ninja pretending to be a samurai. Hard to tell.
In feudal times, the Japanese did have access to indigo as a dye, so dark blue would not have been uncommon or rare. For a night mission, that might have worked well. But most of the time, a ninja would probably have been wearing clothes that let him or her fit in–looking like a farmer, a peasant, a beggar, a monk, a nun, or whatever else would be inconspicuous. A successful ninja = someone who doesn’t look like a ninja. That means dressing like everybody else.
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Thomson focuses on newfound connection, magic, and suspense to conjure a fast-paced, heartwarming mystery. Thomson’s world is populated by resourceful protagonists, fanciful creatures, and quirky supporting characters.”
—Publishers Weekly