Cold Sake

My historical fiction about a woman samurai who lived in ancient Japan and fought in the Genpei War.

House of the Seven Gables. Library of Congress image. Cold Saké The novella that became Cold Saké is rooted in a dark November evening in New England as the sun was setting—a scene out of Washington Irving. I had taken on the project of writing a short story for a contest and Yamabuki, who turned out to be the story’s protagonist, was still forming in my consciousness. It was especially dark, a night of the new moon, as I headed out of the office and, on what turned out to be a particularly lonely evening, drove down the two lane tree lined road toward Boston....

The Yamabuki series is inspired by a 12th-century woman chronicled in historic writings of the times. It is said Yamabuki was beautiful and that she accompanied Yoshinaka, The Rising Sun General, and Tomoe Gozen, a more famous woman warrior on their adventures and into battle. Some accounts even say she was a general who led troops into ferocious battles. In writing I hoped as much as possible to avoid setting the action in Tokugawa era, which is familiar to many fans of historic Japan....

Without realizing it, I had made a big deal out of Yamabuki’s armor.

Introducing the reader to an unfamiliar constructed world takes patience, care, and research.