Heading to ALA Anaheim for the APALA Award Presentation

I'm packing my bags for the U.S., and my first stop is ALA Anaheim!

On Saturday, June 23, I'll be wandering the exhibition floors, catching some author talks, and pre-signing copies of Orchards at the Random House booth (#2511).

On Sunday morning, June 24, I'll be at the APALA Asian/Pacific American Awards presentation and will give a brief speech.

Time to pack! Maybe see you there...

After the Typhoon--Beach Houses on Hold

Yesterday, typhoon #4 tracked across Kanto. The wind gusts slammed so hard they felt like earthquakes, and Kamakura's coastline was hit hard, wreaking havoc for fishing families and wakame growers.

The timing of this early typhoon couldn't have been worse for the owners and managers of the temporary umi no ie or beach houses--the summer restaurants that are built right on the beach just for the summer swim season.

There was major damage to many of the umi no ie. Heaps of seaweed, construction materials and debris lie everywhere, and there is much clean-up work to do before reconstruction can begin. Hmm, perhaps it's time for the city to rethink this idea of building, even on a temporary basis, directly on the beach.

One truck driver had clearly picked the wrong time and place to make a delivery or pick-up--apparently during the typhoon.

The wind this morning is salty and blowing at sand-pelting speeds, which always brings out the crazy wind surfers.

And the clouds are ever shifting.

So now that I've desalted the windows, the car, the laundry balcony, the garden, we can get ready for the typhoon #5...due to hit Japan tomorrow.

My New Verse Novel--The Language Inside

This has been an intense June so far, with a heavy dose of bookmap homework on a new novel due in advance of the SCBWI Tokyo Writers' Retreat in Gotemba June 8-10; the SCBWI Tokyo Translation Day 2012--Bringing Japanese Teen Literature to the World on June 16; and the final editing of my new YA verse novel The Language Inside.

At last, I"m happy to reveal the cover of The Language Inside.

And the flap copy:

Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it’s the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma’s family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts to stay with her grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment.

Emma feels out of place in the United States, begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother’s urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena’s poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return early to Japan.

And the full jacket design:

Thank you to my editor Francoise Bui at Delacorte/Random House. The Language Inside is due out in May 2013. ARCs coming soon!