Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest, Jonelle Patrick.

Jonelle is the author of five novels set in Japan, andhas been writing about Japanese culture and travel since she firstmoved to Tokyo in 2003. Her most recent novel, The Last Tea Bowl Thief will shortly be released.

She’s a graduate ofStanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Language Institute,teaches at writing workshops, and is a member of the Mystery Writersof America, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime. Shedivides her time between Tokyo and San Francisco. 

Norm: Good day Jonelleand thanks for participating in our interview.

Jonelle: Thanks forinviting me! I’m delighted to be here talking with you at BookPleasures.

Norm: How did you getstarted in writing and what keeps you going?

Jonelle: I’ve been awriter all my life, and when you’re a writer, you write. All thetime. I can’t help it, it’s like breathing. Fortunately, thereare lots of good places to do it these days—my blog and my monthlynewsletter soak up some of those words—but my friends are alwayshappiest when I’m beavering away on a book, because otherwise theyget these WAY too lengthy emails.

Norm: What do youthink most characterizes your writing?  

Jonelle: Almost everythingI write is connected to Japan, and I hope my readers always take awaysomething that’s so interesting, they can’t wait to tell theirfriends about it. I want them to feel like Japan insiders afterreading something I’ve written, and hope that the entertainingoddities and cultural observations give them a glimpse into worldsthey didn’t know existed, but would like to spend more time in. 

Norm: Do you writemore by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? PleaseSummarize your writing process.  

Jonelle: I lay track infront of a moving engine. I always know where I’m headed, but I letthe developing relationships between the characters steer how I getthere.

The characters always growand change—sometimes in quite unexpected ways!—as the plot tossescomplications into their lives. I’ve found that it pays to alwaysbe on the lookout for alternate ways to get to my destination,because sooner or later, a character is going to sit down in themiddle of the tracks and refuse to go the way I’d planned.

Norm: Whatinspires you?  

Jonelle: If I’m beingtotally honest…failure! The most interesting insights almost alwayscome from failing at something. Failure makes me stop and think, notjust about what happened, but why it happened. Failing means I’mstill taking chances and experiencing new things, which is where thebest and freshest writing comes from.

Norm: Do you thinkabout your reading public when you write? Do you imagine a specificreader when you write?

Jonelle: I do! I write forpeople like myself, who love to be utterly whisked away to anotherplace or another time.

I write for readers whouse books to travel to other worlds and alternate realities, the wayother people escape on a plane. I was lucky that the pandemic hitwhile I was working on The Last Tea Bowl Thief, becausespending hours in samurai-era Japan was much more entertaining thanspending them between my all-too-familiar office walls!

Norm: In fictionas well as in non-fiction, writers very often take liberties withtheir material to tell a good story or make a point. But how much istoo much?  

Jonelle: There’s onerule of writing international mysteries that I would never break: thecharacters and story are fictional, but the cultural details can’tbe.

In fact, everything aboutthe setting and the historical period and the cultural norms have tobe absolutely accurate, right down to the pickle seller outside the1500-year-old convent gate.

I think one of the greatpleasures of reading novels set in exotic places is how much we learnby seeing that culture through an insider’s eyes (which is why allthat glamorous “book research” people always imagine me doing inJapan is more likely to be checking whether the Mejiro subway stationhas escalators or stairs than gazing at blooming cherry trees…)

Norm: How do you choosethe names of your characters?

Jonelle: That’s quite aninteresting question, because Western readers aren’t familiar withJapanese names, so I have to use all kinds of tricks when naming myJapanese characters.

The first thing I do is tomake sure none of them start with the same letter. Then I try tochoose last names that are already familiar in the West—Mr. Honda,Mr. Suzuki, and Miss Kurosawa have all made an appearance! Westernersalso need to be able to easily pronounce the names inside theirheads, so names like Kiri are good, but Ryosuke, not so much.

And of course, they needto be culturally accurate–for example, their first names need tofit their age. Just as someone named Gertrude is more likely to be agrandmother than a kindergartener in America, no high school girl inJapan is named Keiko anymore. The names also have to be accurate fortheir historical period—characters who lived in samurai era Japanhad very different names than people do today. 

Norm: How do you dealwith the loneliness that comes with writing?

Jonelle: It’s notloneliness that’s a problem so much as dealing with awkward dinnerconversation. Nobody—and I mean nobody—wants to hear what mycharacters did today in 1700s Japan. I have to make up for the factthat I’ve just spent all my waking hours in never-never land byhoovering up some news tidbit or amusing internet meme I can toss outinstead.

Norm: If you couldrelive a moment in your life, which moment would you choose and why?

Jonelle: I’d relive thatfirst glorious day I was riding the Yamanote Line and realized, “I’MLIVING IN JAPAN!”

As adults, we don’t getto feel the pure joy of childhood as often as we used to, but I feltit again and again during the first year I lived in Tokyo, becauseevery day I’d see or eat or experience something that I didn’tunderstand, so I had to stop and think about it. It’s about asclose to being a kid again as I’ll ever get.

Norm: Could youtell us about your most recent novel, The Last Tea BowlThief ?

Jonelle: With pleasure!This one is a mystery with two timelines—one set in samurai-eraJapan, one in modern-day Tokyo—and the storylines slowly converge.

As the puzzle pieces fallinto place, the reader learns the whole satisfying story of themissing tea bowl. But it’s also the story of two women fromopposite sides of the globe, whose futures depend on finding thisrare masterpiece. They soon discover that neither can possess itwithout the other’s help, and unless they find common ground, bothwill lose what’s most dear to them.

Norm: How much researchdid you do before writing the novel?

Jonelle: If you don’tcount being in Japan for eighteen years—which provided all thechallenges and mixed feelings about what it’s like to be aforeigner living in Tokyo—it took about two years of exploring anobscure village near Kyoto during every season and in every kind ofweather to make that place come alive.

I also badgered many adocent for details at restored traditional farmhouses, annoyed many apotter at his wheel, paid my respects at the mountain convent whereone of the characters is sent by her family, and traveled around toevery museum show featuring works from the Six Ancient Kilns (usingmy American phone to take furtive forbidden reference photos, becauseit doesn’t make the super-loud shutter sound that’s required bylaw in Japan).

Norm: What was thetime-line between the time you decided to write your book andpublication? What were the major events along the way?  

Jonelle: I startedoutlining a book about a stolen tea bowl long before I had an agent,but it didn’t turn into The Last Tea Bowl Thief until tenyears and four other books later.

Along the way, I found myagent, endured trial by fire learning how to post, tweet, blog andInstagram, and steadily acquired the ten thousand hours of writingthat finally led to the lucky day my editor at Seventh Street Booksplucked this manuscript from the thousands bamming on his door.

Norm: It is saidthat writers should write what they know. Were there any elements ofthe book that forced you to step out of your comfort zone, and if so,how did you approach this part of the writing?  

Jonelle: Ahahahaha, one ofthe main characters in The Last Tea Bowl Thief is a foreignwoman who has lived in Japan for years, and I bet you can guess whoseliving-outside-the-comfort-zone experiences got poured into her!

Not one pair of pants inall of Japan fits her, the last empty seats on the subway train arealways next to her, and her command of honorific Japanese sometimeshas the opposite effect from what was intended. I once heard someonedescribe being a foreigner in Japan as being immersed in a weak acidbath—at first, it’s just nice and warm, then after a while, itstarts to itch a little.

The longer you’re there,the more sensitive you become, until the only way to escape thediscomfort is to find a way to desensitize yourself, or run away,screaming.

My Japanese is now fluentand I’ve learned to snag the coveted spot standing next to thesubway door instead of sitting, but the truth is, Japanese nativeswill never see me as anything but a foreigner. After writing TheLast Tea Bowl Thief, though, I can now be mildly amused by that,saying to myself, “It’s all material.”

Norm: Do you agree thatto have good drama there must be an emotional charge that usuallycomes from the individual squaring off against antagonists either outin the world or within himself or herself? If so, please elaborateand how does it fit into you novel?

Jonelle: I agree that kindof emotional conflict is absolutely necessary to the telling of agood tale.

In The Last Tea BowlThief, all kinds of people want to possess the missing tea bowlfor all kinds of reasons, some of them noble and some of them not,but all of them achingly human. Desiring something enough to steal itsets up both an internal conflict (with the character’s conscience)and an external one (can they get away with it?) The conflict ripplesout from there, affecting everyone from the person the tea bowl wasstolen from to those whose mission is to catch the thief.

Norm: Are you workingon any books/projects that you would like to share with us? (We wouldlove to hear all about them!)  

Jonelle: I haven’tstarted my next book yet (although I admit I’m thinking about it!)because I’ve been busy launching a monthly newsletter calledJapanagram that covers topics like little-known but trulyexcellent stuff to do outside the big cities (firewalking at Mt.Takao!), Japanese home cooking (all the delicious foods you’llnever see in restaurants), seasonal things you can only do/buy thatmonth (like ghost lamps) and a monthly essay called Why, Japan, Why?that delves into all the puzzling things about Japan that have amusedand amazed me over the years (please tell me you’ve always wonderedwhy Oreos are more Japanese than sumo wrestlers in Japan!)

Norm: Where can ourreaders find out more about you and The Last Tea Bowl Thief?

Jonelle: The Last TeaBowl Thief bookwebsite has all kind of great info and extras, like a video slideshowand how to host a killer pop-up book club (complete with the recipefor an original cocktail called The Ninth Attachment!)

I write a blogabout stuff you’ll only see in Japan called (how surprisingly) OnlyIn Japan, and everything you might want to know about me and my booksis at MY WEBSITE

Norm: As thisinterview comes to an end, what advice can you give aspiring writersthat you wished you had received, or that you wished you would havelistened to?  

Jonelle: I suspect youlovely aspiring writers out there don’t need much inspiration towrite what you love, so I’m going to throw out something practicalinstead: if you want to be a professional novelist these days, youalso have to be a blogger, an active (and genuine) member of all thesocial media communities, and be prepared to spend as much timepublicizing your book as you did writing it.

And you can’t wait to dothese things until you have a publishing contract in hand, so devotesome time every day after you finish working on your manuscript tobuild communities of people around you who will want to read it.

Norm: Thanks once againand good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Jonelle: Thank you somuch, Norm, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk withyou and answer such great questions!

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