Citizenship Credit #2: So When Is This Book Being Published?

While Flickr is being slow with me messing with the photos, I think I'll talk about my book! Yes, despite being technically in an English class that is somewhat remedial (at least, that's what Mr. Andy gave the impression of), I actually write. A lot. It's mostly fiction, since I find nonfiction to be a little boring to write about. Anyhow...I'm actually working on being a published author, oddly enough without going for an English degree like most people think is required to put words on paper. If Crichton can be a doctor and write awesome books, then darnit I'm gonna have my engineering degree-shaped cake and eat it, too!

One of my books is titled Urami, which is the Japanese word for "grudge". It is a historical fiction based in the Edo Period in Osaka, Japan, around the late 1600s. The main protagonist is a samurai's wife named Megumi, who is also the mother of two boys and makes kabuki masks. Her husband had a run-in with a yakuza (Japanese mafia) gang in Kyoto, and they had followed him back to Osaka to give him one last chance to work for them. Tragedy befalls upon Megumi and her family when her husband insists on "no". To begin with, her husband is killed that night on the street. If that wasn't bad enough, two goons from the yakuza gang break into her home, kill her sons, raped her, cut off two of her fingers on the right hand for daring to defend herself, and then they burn her house down. Talk about Murphy's Law in extreme mode. The local blacksmith rescues her and cauterizes her wounds as he tells her that they have taken her husband's head. She decides that revenge is the answer, by donning an unpainted Kabuki mask, dressing in her husband's clothes, uses his sword, and disguises herself as a mercenary for hire. On her way to Kyoto she comes across some unlikely allies, like a crazy old hermit that has a knack for explosives and a young ninja who faked his own death to get away from his profession. Will she gain revenge on the yakuza leader that had her husband killed? And if she does, what does she do next?

I've been working on it for...oh...three years now? And I haven't really finished it. I have this nasty plague that seems to attack all writers called "distraction". Usually one thing or another would keep me from sitting down and actually writing. Hopefully I can beat away this nasty habit and get published before I'm too dead to enjoy the rewards. I plan on Urami being a trilogy, and I got the second book mostly planned out in my head. The third book might be a difficult task.