I’d be happy to post more about my life in Japan here. I do have a personal blog where I write about life as the mother of a disabled child in Japan (among other things). You can check that out at any time.

I echo Lisa’s sentiment that it would be very interesting to hear about your life in Japan. Where are you living? Do you speak Japanese? I was in Tokyo a few years back and though I found it beautiful, I was a bit ill at ease because I couldn’t make even the smallest attempt at conversing with people.

What a discouraging setback with your editor, and I’m impressed by your drive and your back-to-the-drawing-board attitude.

You certainly deserve a pat on the back for all you’ve accomplished so far, and it should serve as a reminder to you that if you’ve done it once, you can certainly do it again.

I am currently reading for review Kurt Vonnegut’s new book, released posthumously by his son. In the introduction by his son, Mark Vonnegut talks about how he remembers that Kurt always felt like his success, his talent, or his inspiration would suddenly disappear at any moment, that it was never a guarantee.

10,000 words a day is a lofty goal. Sometimes I find that if I set small goals for myself, I’m more likely to achieve them, feel good about my success, and then go on to push myself so much farther. If I set a large goal for myself and then don’t keep up with it, I sometimes get discouraged, but that’s just me. I like our Monday Page here for setting goals and revisiting whether or not we attained them. It helps us celebrate the little accomplishments each week. (That being said, I haven’t posted on The Monday Page yet this week. I think I’m more of an every-other-week person.)

I’d be interested to hear more about your life in Japan. My mother lived in Japan for a few years as a girl, but I’ve only been a couple of times and only very briefly.

And I love the writers’ group 10K quota. Goals like that really get your hand moving, and turn off the inner editor.

Seeing as you’ve been fairly prolific in recent years, with five novels completed, please share a few of your secrets! Do you find that squeezing in your writing time, while sometimes a challenge, doesn’t take a lot of self-discipline because you love the process? How do you apply yourself to the chair and get it done, rather than taking care of all the other things that demand your attention? What else competes for your time while your daughters are at school?

Please forgive all the nosy questions–just hoping for a peek behind the curtain