Please give a warm welcome to romance author, Jin Okubo who is here to tell us about his inspirations behind his new book Love.
Jin, what inspired you to write your beautiful novel, "Love"?
There are many reasons why writers choose to write. There
can be huge ideas or even feelings, where we may draw our inspiration. For me
there are a few, but out of those few one stands above the rest. I have always
had strong women in my life. With that in mind I was able to draw inspiration
by focusing my main protagonist as female.
The idea for romance came from my own love of the
literature on the matter. I tried to pen fantasy and even a biography, but
neither had the appeal or draw of romance. Then came the view, which I wanted
to take. I wanted to paint the picture of true to life relationships. The ones
we could all relate to in one form or another. In that sense the women in my
life took a big role with one particular person taking center stage in the
characteristics of my female lead.
As I started to pen my first romance novel Love the
whole circle of relationships and particularly the one with the woman who would
become my main character I drew on my experiences and my feelings.
Many people would sit and listen to music to get
inspired and I am no different. As I started to tell this story I listened to
the singer Meatloaf and how he talks about love. It can be said of me that I am
a hopeless romantic and would love for life to be as it is in fiction, though
that is not true.
The biggest step that I took was breaking up my novel
into two parts. The first one being ‘Love’ and the second one soon to be
released is called ‘Kaoru In Loves Shadow’ and while Love is inspired more by
my inability to accept or see my life in a relationship, it deals with the
internal conflicts I as a man had during my relationships and how it moved me.
I often think that women are much more perceptive then
men which is why the second novel is more, true to form of what is happening in
the real world. It is this duality that I find missing in the romance genre
today. This need to fill that void, to write a fiction romance that holds true
to the form of daily lives is what drove the story home for me.
That need to connect with real people and show our
shared experiences from the silly arguments which meant so much to the missed
signs of love, even that part connected to the love over a lemon of a car. A
real life romance.
Living in L.A. Robert runs his life with clockwork precision. He thinks he knows about love, about romance and about life. Why shouldn't he? The classics have taught him all there is to know. But they are just fiction.
He has a girl, a house with a den full of classical books, and a job where people leave him to his own devices. Everything seems perfect, but happiness eludes him. And with the realities of being in a relationship, the point of breaking seems to be ever closer...
***
Excerpt:
A Touch Of Flavor
The first true fight we had
was nothing more than a trivial point, still neither of us was willing to give.
Such was our nature. Still looking back the first true fight was trivial yes
but a true test of wills. I was her husband now and needed to insure that my
will was not cast aside at her whims without contest.
Toast would take jelly or
butter, and there are even folks who would take it plain, or be as ghastly as
to take it with margarine. I was of the group that preferred butter, and or
plain if there was none to be around.
As you would guess her to be,
she was the polar opposite of me. There was nothing better than for her to be
my mirror opposite. Yes, she was the jelly type of person. Always needing it in
the mornings. I swear it was not a normal kind of need. Yet, there I would sit
quietly watching in suspended horror, every time. My dear lord how she would
shovel gobs of jelly in varying flavors, depending on her mood, onto the poor
tiny slice of toasted bread.
I do have to admit and take
full responsibility that her over-reaction, was indeed caused by a poorly timed
joke, at non-other than the toast’s expense.
There were so many other
things that could have been pointed out. Yet it was the offense of bread by her
that I wanted her to see. In her own words the slice of bread stopped caring
about itself once it agreed to be burnt to the right edible color. Why should
I, of all the people around take offense to her way of eating toast?
Now let me remind you that I
had said nothing. I had not spoken the utter discomfort I felt with her way of
eating toast. My body on the other hand…
Yes, I know that as I sit
here writing this explanation that it may sound contrived or even crazy. She
may be the crazier of the two if we were taken only on the issue of this toast.
But never forget that of the two the crazy one is I. Yes the wording could be
phrased better but then again the topic is toast is it not?
The bread we had taken for
this morning’s repass was a nice pumpernickel bread baked fresh the day before.
The bakery liked to try new things and, as she was the adventurous one, she
went head over heels as the bread was baked in small baguette style loafs. In
all manner of speaking, any bread lover would see these and think great,
wonderful and maybe even that these were the greatest invention since donut
holes.
Then there were the other
people. The ones who did not go into a frenzy over food as simple as bread. For
these people, people like myself, bread was food and nothing else. What came to
mind even more was why anyone in their right mind would slice bread so small
that it was bite sized.
Yet here we sat with wafer
thin slices of toasted bread.
“Would you like bread with
your jelly?” A playful tone, light but it was there in my voice as the words
came out. Well maybe there was a touch to much sarcasm.
Where can I buy this fabulous book?
About the author.
There
are few interesting things that can be said about my home town. I grew up in a
mildly racist country town in the Santa Barbara mountains, though I am hopeful
that things have changed there. Having grown up during the great migrant issues
of California during the 80’s and 90’s, I was able to experience some of the
issues when I was getting my higher education in university. The biggest part
of my life was finding my self-identity, which was never truly clear to me as a
youth.
Upon
finishing my university studies I moved to the beautiful country of Japan only
to bounce back and forth between the U.S and Japan for a couple of years.
Finally, I received my Japanese citizenship in the spring of 2014. My life has
been filled with many strong women which is one of the contributing factors in
my protagonists tending to be women. I am a lover of classical literature. I
hope to bring in a new style of classical literature in the current age of fast
paced easy to read cookie cutter style novels that are being pushed out in mass
across the world. Choosing to stick to my own style of writing rather than to write
for easy to sell books has made my work difficult to get into, yet it is the
joy of writing that is the reason as to why I do things the way I do.
There
is always the temptation to write easy to digest books that are made to sell,
rather than books that are written for an experience reader and very few writers
have mastered both. As I work to improve my craft, I am inching my
way ever closer to that perfect balance of books that will satisfy the modern
reader and the reader who focuses more on content rather than face value.
I
would like to make a comment to my, would be readers: “I write to
challenge my reader. As you face this challenge you will find that you will
grow to love the characters I have created. This love will bring a deeper
understanding to my writing and my characters more.”
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