It’s May 1st, 2020, and this is the first post on my new site. Though it’s been up for pre-order for a while, today is the official release of Itsuki. When I started writing this novel many years ago, shortly after my return home from Japan, I couldn’t have imagined a day when it would actually be published and available to just about anyone, anywhere–but here we are.
Itsuki has travelled a long road since the first draft was completed. Though it’s seen several subsequent drafts, the departure of a number of characters which once populated those word processor pages, and gone through final rounds of important editing, the heart of the story has always remained. So too has it always opened with Brook’s car running out of fuel on a deserted highway, forcing him to continue his desperate journey on foot.
I’ve read before that once your novel is published, you need to be able to let go and accept that it is no longer only your story, nor are the characters only yours either–in a sense those things now belong to everyone who reads your work. Only recently did the truth of this strike me. I’ve had a number of short stories published, but never anything I spent as long working on, wrestling with myself over, or contemplating as much as Itsuki. A couple months ago I had to come to terms with the inevitable reality that the final version was complete, a done deal, and further obsessing over it or going back to make tweaks was, for the first time since I wrote that opening passage, no longer an option. From today, all of it belongs to readers, who will interpret, visualize and imagine as they will, bringing the book to life for themselves as we all do with the stories we read. I’m happy for that, but it’s a strange new feeling nonetheless.
So, Itsuki, I bid you adieu for now, as you not only head out into the world, but become a part of it. I’ve done a lot of growing up on this road with you.
