Many of us experience a time in life where we’d like a do-over, and I suspect I’m not alone in feeling that way about my early twenties.

After being briefly wed and quickly divorced by age twenty-four, all I wanted was a fresh start. I abandoned my Minnesota life for a job teaching English in Japan, planning to take a year to reflect, heal and figure out what to do next. 

I ended up the lone English speaker in an isolated rural area, where I was drawn into serving tea to my male co-workers, performing with a koto (zither) group, advocating for female students and colleagues, and embarking on a controversial romance.

Of course I signed on for a second year — not because this was the Japan I was seeking, but because it turned out to be the Japan I needed.

The Same Moon offers a story of encouragement and hope … and a little escape — to 1990s Japan!  

To learn more about The Same Moon

• Read reviews and media coverage of the first edition, including one by The (Vancouver) Columbian, which describes the book as: “both a journey through Japanese culture and a journey toward self-understanding, security and faith.” 
• Visit the webpage for the book. 
• Check out the Q&A I did with the Spiritual Media Blog.
• Find the book at Camphor Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Indigo and elsewhere, coming soon. 

Camphor Press is offering 15 percent off purchases of The Same Moon. Please sign up for my e-newsletter to receive the discount code. “The Same Loon” flies every couple of weeks, sharing ideas, updates about my writing and events, and good reads. Upcoming issues will include writing prompts and tips to help you tell your own story.

What makes this edition new?

I was thrilled that Camphor Press wanted to add The Same Moon to its growing shelf of books about Japan. (Side note: On July 30 Camphor will release an anthology on rural Japan, including a chapter I wrote.)

Here’s what’s new in this edition of The Same Moon:

• Camphor’s deft editing has evened out the prose.
• The new interior layout gives the text “more room to breathe.”
• My new epilogue, “Stitches in Time,” answers lingering reader questions.*

* If you’ve already read The Same Moon and would like to read the epilogue, just let me know, and I’ll send it your way.

Thank you so much for your support and interest in my work!