John Boyd

So how hard could it be to write a novel? After all, I’d been working as a freelance writer in Tokyo covering science and technology events for decades. During that time, I’d written thousands of short news pieces and blogs, as well as hundreds and hundreds of feature articles ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 words on a variety of subjects. Okay, writing a thrilling suspense story that people might actually buy would be a challenge, but not so terribly difficult for someone with my experience. Ah! That’s what I naively thought when I began writing my first novel. Let me put it this way: If a feature article can be likened to writing a simple music score for a TV jingle, I discovered that conceiving and refining a realistic plot, creating believable characters, and constructing a story that arced from beginning through to an exciting climax with a logical denouement and satisfying conclusion was akin—in my mind—to writing a symphony. While continuing with my day job, it took me six years of writing, refining, rewriting and editing the story before I was ready to publish! Nevertheless, though the undertaking turned out to be far more of a challenge than I anticipated, so was the sense of accomplishment when I finally published Killing Time in Tokyo on Amazon's Kindle store in November 2016. I learned much from the endeavor. Consequently, it took much less time to write and publish my second novel and the first of a trilogy, The Girl Who Danced Her Tears Away in January 2018. Besides these two novels, you can find examples of what else I write about on my website: www.JohnBoydJapanWriter.com. And if you want to learn about what I have coming down the pipeline, or have a question on writing and indie publishing, or maybe something about life in Japan, sign up for my JohnBoydJapanWrtier short monthly newsletter at https://www.subscribepage.com/c0c0t7. In return, I will send you a dark, mysterious tale called The Ritual that takes fifteen minutes to read but so much longer to forget. Thanks for reading this far! John Boyd Kawasaki, Japan