And the adventure continues... But first, have you seen my cover for Slave to Sensation?! (Yes, I'm going to keep randomly mentioning that delicious cover because I'm rather madly in love with it) ;)Okay onward with the Tokyo trip roundup. If you haven't read Part 1 and want to get the full experience *g*, click here.
Alas there were no unfortunate moments of hilarity/loosing bits of my teeth on Sunday (yay!) so this part may not be as exciting as instalment one. But I've tried my best to color everything in drama.
So I go down to breakfast the next morning and eat like a linebacker (I swear). And then I look up from my sixty-fifth trip to the breakfast buffet and what do you know, there's an actual six feet tall gorgeous linebacker type standing next to me. So I do what any good romance writer would do - I turn around and go back to my table. (Arggh! Why? Blame it on the tooth I say!).
After returning to my room and attempting to put on makeup for the first time in a year (no joke), I run around frantically collecting all my stuff which has somehow exploded all over the room in the very few hours that I've actually been awake and then it's time for the party! (It was a lunch/early-afternoon event).
First, I found out that Awaken the Senses has been retitled for the Japanese market and is called A Sense of Plumeria (I'm not sure of the correct translation but that's somewhere near it). First person who posts in the comments as to where the editors found inspiration for that title, and who's never won anything on this blog before, gets a free copy of Secrets. Specific answer wins over general. :)
Connected to that, I was given a beautiful flower-themed pen by the Team Desire section of Harlequin Japan. It's the prettiest thing and I signed all my autographs with it that day. After that came a magazine interview. Then it was onto the party part of the day.
It was a sit-down event with over ninety attendees plus Harlequin staff and the first thing was an interview with me on stage. I even got to wear a nifty little microphone clipped to my collar, just like they give people on Oprah.
After the interview came questions from the audience. One of the most popular was whether I could see Japanese men as being heroes in romance novels. My answer: Have you seen Ichiro Suzuki? I would so stalk that man if he wasn't already married (good romance writers don't stalk married men).
Then I was asked to sit at a table and sign some autographs. How cool! I was totally overwhelmed not only by the number of people who'd bought my book, but by those who'd bought all three of them that have been released in Japan so far. It really touched me - especially when people told me their copy of Desert Warrior was so dog-eared because it had been read and reread. That would've been more than enough to make my year, but these readers bought me gifts (see pic above)!
It was a brilliant, brilliant day and all I can say is that if Harlequin Japan ever asks any of you authors to come to an event, GO! They are the loveliest team of people and the readers here are warm, friendly and completely wonderful to talk to.
13 comments :
Plumeria is often used to symbolize Love and Rebirth. I can sort of see the correspondence to "Awaken".
Sounds like fun! Sorry about the tooth, though. What about Ken Watanabe? Oh my, oh my, oh my. :)
I've never been to Japan, though I did live for two months in Korea. I would like to see Japan someday.
and the Love Hotels... When I was there, three or more generations of families would live in the same house. So, couples that wanted a little time to themselves would check into "love hotels." These places have everything you can think of for an erotic night out. ;-)
Also, as my husband told me once... he bet that many Japanese were conceived in a love hotel.
Wow, I didn't know that Maura! It's actually not the answer but if no one else comes up with a better guess, you're the winner :)
Hi Lynn - from what little I've seen of Korea (weekend in Seoul), I'd say the two countries are very different for being so close together. The whole cultural aspect is so unique to their own environment.
Cynthia - omg! you read my mind!! Lol. Me and my friends are plotting to check into a Love Hotel before we leave Japan because we soooooo want to see the inside of one. However, as we're all supposed to be respectable teachers, we're going to have to drive to a wayyyyyyy out location to do our spying!
Emma, you crack me up. *G* No it's not scratch and sniff. Imagine if they had smell on the internet? You could plug in something and wallah, you could smell everything you looked at!
I won't deny.. but I may have gone to one too... ;-0 for research
So tell all - what was it like? *g*
I think Japanese readers are very generous and very sweet to their favorite writers. One of the ladies I know LOVES Linda and Nora. She said if she actually had a chance to meet them in real life, she may just faint from the excitement. It was really cute. :)
Same for Korean readers.
When I was in Korea, I was looking for very specific Chinese historical novels written by a very famous Korean writer. I said I was looking for XYZ title by so-and-so, but my cousins were scandalized and said, "You should NEVER say just his name! You should always say So-and-so sun-san-nim (sun-san-nim = sensei or in this case, more like san or sama in Japanese)! If you don't, the bookseller may not give you the books you want because you're an ignorant ill-mannered person!"
Sounds like you had a fab time. So what did you get from your readers? :D
:-) Well,,, this was 1991... in Misawa. My two girlfriends and I had been at one of the small ice festivals. Great fun. And we decided to find a place to sleep. The hotels cost about 100 dollars a piece and we were not too flush in the pocket. (We were all in the military-2 AF girls and 1 Navy girl)..
One of them said (not me) why don't we check out the love motel??? We drove in. They put a piece of paper across our license plate. We stayed the night for about 30 dollars (yen prices...)
This was one of the local love nests so it had a nice tub, bedroom, and a few erotic toys (I'll let you find out), plus a TV with erotic movies.
One place I heard about had a slide going to down to the bed... The more expensive hotels have more elaborite playthings. LOL
Lots of stuff Angelle, lots of stuff ;) Actually, it was some really sweet things bought with me in mind - souvenirs and handmade jewelry (pretty!). Plus food. Food is always good. :)
Cynthia - sure, we believe you when you say it was all innocent. Uh-huh *g* But seriously, a slide? How cool!
I've visited China but never Japan. It would be a terrific place to visit!
Hi Maura, it is a pretty cool place. Lots of old culture and crazy new stuff all in the same place. I loved my one visit to China, though - it's so huge and so complex that there's an incredible amount to see.
The only problem with my trip to China was my two (male) coworkers wanted to spend all the free time shopping and I wanted to see archaeology museums and temples! Next time, I'm leaving them at the hotel!
So, I'm dying to know - what was the inspiration for the Plumeria title?
Maura - the heroine wears the perfume of fragipani (a very lush scent if you've never smelled it). The scientific genus for that flower is Plumeria. :) The reason this comes up in the book is because Charlotte is a gardener.
Lol about your co-workers. I love seeing temples! I admit I'm not too huge on museums but I saw a few in China because one of the people I was with really enjoyed them and I went along to expand my mind. They really are worth it - the culture is so incredibly old.
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