Wandering Wednesday: Himeji Castle with Giveaway

Walt Mussell | @ICFWriters

Today we welcome Walt Mussell back to our blog.

(Citation: Guide to World Cultural Heritage Site “Himeji Castle)

I’d like to thank Jenny for having me as a guest this Tuesday and Wednesday. I apologize for answering questions late. I’m operating on east coast U.S. time. 😊

Last summer, after numerous years of frustration, I received the great news from Kindle Press that the book of my heart, The Samurai’s Heart, would be published. Since penning the initial words (and getting initial rejections), I’d published three novellas, two short stories, and several magazine articles. I’d also written some very bad manuscripts that will forever stay hidden.

So why did this one manuscript stick with me? I must say I had some inspiration.

I used to live in Japan. I met my wife there. We’ve been married over twenty years and have two sons. We’ve done our best to visit Japan to see friends and family as often as we can.

On one of those trips (in 2008), we went to see Himeji Castle.

Himeji Castle is Japan’s best-known castle. It’s a six-story structure built to resemble a white heron in flight. It was the backdrop for the movies The Last Samurai and You Only Live Twice. It was also the backdrop for the made-for-TV miniseries Shogun.

Himeji Castle is also the site of one of the biggest mysteries of Japan’s Christian Century, the Himeji Castle Cross (at the top of this page).

In yesterday’s post, I spoke about Japan’s Christian Century (1549 – 1650) and how Christianity was driven underground in the mid-17th century. One of the things the government did at this time was to destroy everything that had even a hint of a connection to Christianity.

The cross I speak of first appeared at Himeji Castle in the late 16th century. Officially, according to the sign at Himeji Castle, no one knows where the cross came from. It appeared when the castle was only three stories tall and Christianity was still welcome though under watch. When the castle was remodeled (1601-1609) to its current six-story appearance, the cross was one of the few items that survived the reconstruction. A picture of how it appears to castle-goers now is below.

(Citation.: Maru-Jan by Signal Talk)

The tiles pictured with the cross along the castle roof edge are called “devil’s tiles.” They are set there to ward against tsunamis, fires, typhoons, etc. They’re meant to bring luck. You can find them on many castles.

But only Himeji Castle has a cross.

And the image of that cross, placed among the tiles, has remained with me. How did it survive the Christian purge? Why would a government that was destroying every trace of Christianity it could find leave such a display on its greatest work of castle architecture?

The blogosphere does offer a theory. The cross may be tribute to a former castle lord that was himself a Christian. It’s also thought that a majority of the samurai in charge of the remodel were Christian. But no one knows.

Anyone have any ideas?

Please comment below for a chance to win an e-copy of my book, The Samurai’s Heart. Check back March 28th to see if you are the winner.

Walt Mussell lives in an Atlanta-area suburb with his wife and their two boys. He primarily writes historicals, with a focus on Japan, an interest he gained during the four years he lived there. He refers to his work as “Like Shogun, but the heroine survives.”
Walt is a 2017 Kindle Scout winner, which led to the contract for his first novel, The Samurai's Heart. E-copies can be downloaded from any Amazon website. Print copies can be ordered at your local bookstore. Please visit Walt’s website at waltmussell.com to subscribe to his newsletter.

Telling The Story Of The Great Unknown Martyrs with Giveaway

Walt Massell | @ICFWriters

Today we welcome Walt Mussell to our blog today. Walt will be joining us again tomorrow and is giving away one ecopy of his book.

When I started writing Christian fiction set in medieval Japan, I knew I would learn much about Christianity’s early efforts there.
What I did not expect, was that knowledge would compel me to do.

Japanese history has what is called a Christian Century, roughly 1549-1650. In 1549, a team of six missionaries, led by Father Francis Xavier, landed at Kagoshima, Japan, and begin the spreading the faith. Within 65 years, the Christian population surpassed 300,000, making it the jewel of missionary efforts in the Far East. However, in 1614, the ruling government, the Tokugawa Shogunate, began driving the religion out of the country. Missionaries were ordered to leave and those that stayed risked death. Over the next few decades, tens of thousands of Christians would be killed. The Jewel of the Far East was now as forbidden as the Garden of Eden.

And one of the worst part about all of this is that so few people today have ever heard of these Christians. A former pastor of mine put it best when he referred to these people as The Great Unknown Martyrs.

It was this history that led me to create a presentation that I now give at churches. I call my presentation, “The Path to Silence: Japan’s Christian Century and Beyond.” The title is based on the book Silence by Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo. The book’s setting is the 1640s, at the end of Japan’s Christian Century. Silence is the story of two young priests who journey to Japan to find their mentor, a priest who’d reportedly committed apostasy. In the end, one of the two priests dies for his faith. The other priest apostatizes to save the lives of local Christians. It’s an excellent representation of what happened in the time period.

The presentation runs roughly 90 minutes. Within a few weeks, I will be doing a 30-minute version for the Atlanta Archbishop’s office for a Lunch-n-Learn. I hope that people will want to invite me to their churches to do the full presentation.

And it’s this presentation that I think has changed me. Of all the things I thought about when I started writing, I never imagined giving speeches. I never imagined being a guest on national (U.S.) radio show as a subject-matter expert on Japanese martyrs. In one way, it’s like I came up with my own ministry.

But then I know it really wasn’t my own doing. 😊

My question today is this: Is there a way you feel you are being called?

Please comment below for a chance to win an e-copy of my book, The Samurai’s Heart. Check back March 28th to see if you are the winner.

Walt Mussell lives in an Atlanta-area suburb with his wife and their two boys. He primarily writes historicals, with a focus on Japan, an interest he gained during the four years he lived there. He refers to his work as “Like Shogun, but the heroine survives.”

Walt is a 2017 Kindle Scout winner, which led to the contract for his first novel, The Samurai's Heart. E-copies can be downloaded from any Amazon website. Print copies can be ordered at your local bookstore. Please visit his website at waltmussell.com to subscribe to his newsletter.

Review of Southern Fried Sushi--with Interview and Give Away!

AP journalist Shiloh P. Jacobs loves her life in Tokyo, her best friend and co-worker Kyoka, and her Argentinian fiance, Carlos. So she spends a bit too much on her credit cards. So Carlos has a new female (but apparently platonic) roommate. So Shiloh forgot to interview the prime minister's wife before the lady left on vacation, and the article is due. So she copied information from an older article she found on the internet...

Then Shiloh's estranged mother dies in Virginia and Shiloh finds herself in the unfamiliar American South to settle affairs. The people are nice, but weird, and Shiloh could say the same about the food.

When Shiloh's links to Japan are brutally severed, how will she manage? Will she accept the South or keep fighting for the Far East? And, some of us want to know, would someone really deep fry sushi? :O

Take a look at that cover! Isn’t it great? I love the blend of cowboy boots and the Japanese fan. The colors are so fresh and I could really ‘get’ the first-person pov straight from the image presented.

Southern Fried Sushi is a cross-cultural tale that sings with authenticity. Shiloh’s deep love for Japan–and her longing to return to Japan when in the South–spoke to me about what makes a place a true home. What causes a person pack up and move halfway around the world? How does a wanderer know when they’ve found a place to belong, a place to put down roots, a place to cling to with all their being?

Back in July, Jenny guest-posted here on the ICFW blog and explained why her book is set in Japan and Virginia instead of where she currently lives. But having a book release in the USA when you live in Brazil, while complicated enough, gains complexity when your country is in the midst of a mail strike! That's right. Jenny hasn't held her book in her own hands yet, though it released October first. What's a gal to do?

Of course, Jenny knew marketing would be challenging, so she had a plan:

I've been on this one for months since I live abroad and don't have the normal range of marketing opportunities. I rely heavily on word-of-mouth to market my books - but that means I need to be visible and be proactive. I don't have any books yet to get away, but I've been posting about my books on Facebook and by email for a long time.

I created a professional website with all sorts of links, developed a Southern food recipe page for contributors, blog about book stuff and writing tips on my personal blog, and have asked for photos of readers with the book (and received something like 40 so far!).

I use book info on my signature in every email and participate in every interview or guest post I'm invited to. I guest post on different sites and always take an opportunity to mention my books and direct people to my sites. Business cards, giveaways through other people's blogs, following up reviews with a thanks and a comment... lots of things!

I think we should give Jenny a hand getting the word out about her book. Check out her blog and have a look at the photos folks have been sending her with their copy of Southern Fried Sushi. I want to give one of you the chance to join Jenny's Wall of Fame. That's right! Barbour Publishing sent me TWO copies of her novel, so I have one to give away*! This opportunity is available only to addresses OUTSIDE the USA (but perhaps not Brazil--no point in having another copy of Jenny's book stuck waiting for the strike to be over!) All you have to do is share a experience you've had (good, bad, or hilarious) with either Japanese or Southern food. If you haven't had either, tell us what you'd like to try! Please add your email address with your comment before Saturday, October15, replacing @ with (at) and .com with (dot) com.

Jennifer Rogers Spinola lives in Brasilia, Brazil, with her Brazilian husband, Athos, and two-year-old son, Ethan. She teaches ESL private classes and is the author of Barbour Books' "Southern Fried Sushi" series and an upcoming romance novella collection based on Yellowstone National Park (also with Barbour Books). Jenny is an advocate for adoption and loves the outdoors, photography, writing, and camping. She has previously served as a missionary to Japan, a middle- and high-school teacher, and National Park Service volunteer. Jenny has a B.A. in English/journalism from Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina.

Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughter.

She is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency. Her first work, a novella, will be available in the collection Rainbow's End from Barbour Books in May 2012. Visit her website and blog to glimpse inside her world.

*"Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws."

Guest Post: Southern Fried Writer

By Jennifer Rogers Spinola

I know many readers assume that since we international writers live abroad, we probably can’t wait to fill up our novels with details about sugar-white Brazilian beaches, ice-cold coconut water, and hot, salty, sand-like farofa manioc flour, right?

Nope. Not for me, anyway.

People often ask me—an American who’s been living in Brazil more than seven years now and two years in Japan before that—how Brazil figures into my writing, and especially my debut novel series. Well, simply from the title, “Southern Fried Sushi,” you can tell my mind is somewhere else.

Precisely.

Because many times, in the grunt and strain and sweat of pushing a heavy baby stroller on broken sidewalks in the tropical heat, or cheeks reddening as I make one more mistake in Portuguese and everybody in the grocery store or overcrowded bus turns to gawk at me, the misplaced American, I wish I WAS somewhere else. Somewhere familiar. Somewhere I’m not introduced as an American (and subsequently judged, according to the hearer’s opinion). Somewhere I can buy peanut butter and grits and not have to explain ANY of it. Somewhere where I could regress back into my un-teacher-like Southern drawl, or look around the table and see everyone holding and cutting with a knife and fork like I do, and don’t have to answer the hundredth (antagonistic) question about Bush or American international policies—while two listeners whisper and giggle together about my accent.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Brazil. I’ve loved Brazil since my first trip here as a journalist in 2000, holding dust-streaked children in rural slums near the Pantanal. It was my dream to come back. My husband and son are both Brazilian, digging into black beans and rice, pouring on the farofa, and shouting “GOLLLLLL!” at every soccer match. And I jump in with the best of them.

But—under my tropical-sun-tanned skin and deceptively Brazilian long haircut and Havaiana flip-flops—I am simply. Not. Brazilian.

I am American. A South Carolina-born Virginia native. A lover of the Rocky Mountains and ice-cold streams and mist-covered pines. A NASCAR-watching, corn-shucking, bluegrass-loving Southerner who’s somehow detoured in countries far from her own. And that’s okay. That’s my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So what does this have to do with fiction writing? For me, everything.

Instead of writing about the environment I find myself in, I often find myself turning to writing—a blank page or a white Word document—to unburden my emotions. The places I miss. The memories I hold dear. The Fourth of July fireworks I don’t see, and snowfalls I long so deeply to feel against my face, just for a moment. A breath of crisp fall that I have nearly lost in years among sunshine and palms.

And so I write.

From this my first published novels were born. I thought, again, one January morning, of the places I missed. The smell of black powder and fall woodsmoke and delicate spring hyacinths. The slope of dusty purple Blue Ridge Mountains. Even the tang of soy sauce and clatter of the Japanese subway system that I’d come to love, and—like everything else—left behind in a blur of visas and passport stamps.

If you’re longing for familiar places, or even longing for some inspiration, consider your past. It may be that, like me, your old loves, and even old hates-turned-loves, will reward you with passion, details, and emotions that you never thought possible.

Jennifer Rogers Spinola lives in Brasilia, Brazil with her Brazilian husband, Athos, and two-year-old son, Ethan. She teaches ESL private classes and is the author of Barbour Books' "Southern Fried Sushi" series (first book releasing in October and now available for pre-order here!) and an upcoming romance novella collection based on Yellowstone National Park (also with Barbour Books). Jenny is an advocate for adoption and loves the outdoors, photography, writing, and camping. She has previously served as a missionary to Japan, a middle- and high-school teacher, and National Park Service volunteer. Jenny has a B.A. in English/journalism from Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina.


Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughter.

She is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency and has recently sold her first work, a novella, to Barbour Books. Visit her website and blog to glimpse inside her world.

Responding to World Crises

There was going to be a great famine throughout all the world.... Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabus and Saul (Acts 11:28-30).

The pictures of the massive earthquake and deadly tsunami that struck Japan last week kept us glued to the computer and TV screens , as we tried to imagine the horror and wrap our minds around the devastation. Our natural response was to want to help in any way we can--and well we should, as we nearly always do in the wake of some newsworthy crisis or disaster.

Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, and called sinners to repentance while He walked this earth; He has commissioned us--His followers, the Church--to continue that outreach until He returns to set things right at last. And so we must. I applaud all who have responded to the tragedy in Japan, in Haiti, in Australia, in New Orleans, and anywhere human need has torn at our heartstrings over the last few years. But we dare not forget that in addition to bringing physical healing and nourishment, Jesus came to offer forgiveness to those who would admit their need to receive it. And that is the first priority of the Church.

The verses above tell us that believers responded to a predicted famine by giving as they were able, but they did so by way of other believers. That's an important point. Though I have no problem with giving to secular relief funds, I prefer to support Christian organizations that provide not only food and water and other physical necessities, but can also provide the gift of eternal life by presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a gift that all people, particularly the Japanese right now, need desperately. The percentage of Japanese who are truly born-again believers is estimated to be as low as 1 percent of the population. Whether that's a true figure or not, we do know that the percentage is extremely low. As horrible as the physical destruction is in Japan, the most pressing need is for hearts to be open to the Truth of Jesus Christ.

As we respond to this crisis with physical and material contributions, may we not forget the crucial, eternal-life crisis that faces each one of us--the need to receive Jesus as Savior BEFORE we take our last breath. None of us knows when that will be, as the recent earthquake in Japan so vividly illustrates. Let's pray with passion and diligence for a great revival to sweep over Japan, as well as around the world, as the Day of the Lord draws ever closer.

Anne of Green Gables--International Icon

Sometimes we think we have to be familiar with the culture of a story in order to understand the story itself. How, then, can you explain the fascination of the entire world with Anne of Green Gables? This beloved novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery has been translated into more than a dozen languages including French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Korean and Japanese.

In fact, Japan has been obsessed with Anne since Hanako Muraoka translated Akage No An (Red-haired Anne) in 1952. Anne has been required reading in the Japanese school system ever since. More than ten thousand Japanese tourists travel to Prince Edward Island, Canada, every year to visit the museum in the village of Cavendish, the setting of Anne of Green Gables and its many sequels. Quite a number of Japanese couples even choose to get married in Anne-themed ceremonies.

Anne-with-an-e has been celebrated in a fifty-episode Japanese anime series in 1979 as well as numerous documentaries over the years. In 2008, both Canada and Japan commemorated the 100th anniversary of Anne's publication with postage stamps in her honor.

What makes Anne so popular in Japan? Girls certainly can't identify with her looks--green-eyed redheads are not common there. Nor is the culture remotely similar. People everywhere have gotten to know a piece of Prince Edward Island through Anne Shirley's eyes, walked with her in the White Way of Delight, and rowed with her on the Lake of Shining Waters even though we may not have any landscape in common. Somehow, the escapades of the beloved orphan, Anne Shirley, transcend culture.

How can this be? Because Lucy Maud Montgomery brought to life an orphan girl who only wanted to belong, an emotion common to all of us. We can identify with Anne in her trials because she speaks to basic human conditions.

This is the key to international fiction, in my mind. For a story to 'take off' and find readers everywhere, it needs to address what we all hold common.

Valerie Comer writes novels of romance, fantasy, and faith from a farm in Western Canada.