steepholm

I considered asking for this to be blazoned on my new book, thinking it might attract attention in Waterstone's, but in the end we went with a shot of the charming (but I suspect unlicensed) Peter Rabbit-themed shop in Yufuin Floral Village, Oita Prefecture. You must wait until the final chapter to makes its acquaintance in the text, but it's worth it.

Either way, my book is finally published! (At least in electronic form - the physical lags by about a month.) Will it do well? Will it languish? I've been in this game long enough to know that commercial and even critical success are unpredictable and bear only a slight relation to my own estimate of a book's worth. (Why was The Lurkers, easily my worst novel, the only one to win any sort of prize - albeit a very small one?) At any rate, if it does sell, it will be only partly due to me. There are always people hungry to read about Japan, and Studio Ghibli has its own draw, so they will deserve a lot of whatever credit there is to be shared round.

Despite, that, I intend to take it all.