More Mowing & Murder: Autumn Maze

I’ve mentioned previously that I cut an annual autumn maze. What I didn’t mention is that the last couple of years, I’ve used a secret theme.

It’s hard to invent a wholly new labyrinth each year without being repetitive, so one year I chose an usual word from a book title, a word I figured no one would recognize, and used it as the basis for my maze. It seemed to work pretty well, the maze was reported properly twisty — the word was kitsune — and no one realized they were actually walking through connected letters.

That became my private joke. Half of the maze was bizarre swirls and winding paths, meant to draw out the younger kids but not lose them, and half was a series of interlinked passages based on some personal literary reference. But last year, I was found out, thanks to Google Earth. My mother, who with my father owns the field in which the maze is cut, was looking up her property’s aerial view for some reason and realized the map had been updated after I’d done my maze. Continue reading

Fox! Origami Kitsune

Multi-talented reader Emilia sent me this photo of an origami kitsune she folded. (Folded? Created? What’s the right verb there?) The original origami design is by Hideo Komatsu.

kitsune origami sitting on cover of KITSUNT-TSUKI

Emilia lamented that she could not find any designs with multiple tails. But if you recall, Tsurugu folded an origami fox with just one tail, so I think that makes this “authentic to the scene” or something.

Thanks for sharing this, Emilia!

Interview at Letters from Annie

Kitsune-TalesToday I can share with you a nifty interview about the Kitsune Tales series over at the blog of Annie Douglass Lima. She’s running a series called “Realm Explorers” about worlds built in fantasy (or fantastic history, as in this case), which is a pretty fun idea.

Hop over there and check it out — you might even learn something!

(Also, don’t forget that today is Digital Book Day and you can grab a free copy of Con Job, today only!)

Laura speaking on Japanese Folklore at ACen

1780087_10152101380099580_432369860_o[1]I’ll be speaking at ACen (also known as Anime Central) this weekend on a number of topics, including Japanese Folklore & Mythology. The talk isn’t strictly limited to Japanese tales, but that will be the focus since ACen is an anime, manga, and J-culture convention. Admission is by convention badge purchase only.

(Also, yes, I’m at a convention the week Con Job releases. We’ll try to keep the corpses to a minimum.)

Want to know more about the background of the Kitsune Tales — or of Sailor Moon, Dragonball, Princess Mononoke, or any other blockbuster title which has a lot of references to folkloric sources? See you there!

Tiny Youkai

A quick blur of moment drew his eye — a mouse, skimming over the ground? No, a tiny youkai, galloping through the tangled grass, waving stubby arms and piping something in a shrill, unintelligible voice.

Kaworu bent toward him. “What?”

Metal split the air above his bent shoulder and struck the tree beyond. Kaworu did not waste time looking after it but made his lean a roll, dodging to one side and coming up in a crouch.

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Betobeto-san, the Footstep Youkai

Happy Halloween! Let’s talk about something spooky.

Her footsteps in the litter and debris muffled the forest noises around her, and for a moment she considered humming to further drown the sounds that frightened her. But it would be foolish to handicap herself. She kept quiet, listening to her too-loud footsteps.

Twilight made the way difficult, and she hoped she was still going the right way. She slipped, half-losing her zouri. She paused, to refit it to her foot, and the footsteps did not.

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