Cold Blood

In historic fiction, places and time spans might not be strictly correct, but most people who write in that genre attempt to have some sense of geography. The home of the Taka clan is a mythical province called Great Bay. As seen today, the area in and around the mythical Taka compound. As a novel of fiction, but based on a historic person and historic setting, this device allows enough artistic license for the Sword of the Taka Samurai to hopefully not become too didactic....

Re-enactors in traditional Japanese costume preparing the for Hollyhock Festival.

The paperback edition of <em>Cold Blood</em> has been released this morning on Amazon, which is currently filling pre-orders and taking new orders. I am delighted that the Toot Sweet team was able to get the book out for the holidays. We at Toot Sweet Ink will be celebrating in the coming days like most other people, except I will be working on Cold Heart and Laura will be getting out our first hardback, Cold Sake, with its new cover, sans the excerpt from Haru....

I expect to beat the March 16th date, but have set it at that so that I don’t disappoint. The Yamabuki story takes a turn as she enters a bandit town, Minesaki, in Nagato Prefecture, where she meets none other than the Rising Sun General, which brings unexpected consequences. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0991266773

The Tale of Genji was written in the late 900s C.E. by a woman known to history by the name Murasaki. The work is considered by many to be the earliest novel ever written. The author was believed to have been a lady in the emperor’s court and her observations are said to be a thinly disguised fictionalization of the people she knew. Most people who are familiar with Japanese literature will say the work is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, work in Japanese literature....