by Amanda Sun
Ink is also inspired by my study of the history of writing. Ancient Chinese characters were originally written down to communicate with the gods. And in ancient Egypt, the snake hieroglyphs on tomb walls were often sliced through the middle by paint or a chisel to pre-vent them from becoming real snakes in the afterworld. I started wondering what would happen if what we wrote and drew came to life in such a dangerous way, and then I realized that the Tomohiro I’d envisioned would do just that.
Q.
Q How did you come up with the Kami and their abilities to control ink and make drawings come to life?
A. Something I really enjoy about multicultural YAs are the new and sometimes unfamiliar mythologies the authors draw on for their books. I’ve always found the myths of the kami fascinating because the spirits’ reactions and sense of justice are so different from our modern-day thinking. The kami were unpredictable and dangerous, perfect for a darker paranormal. I thought about how the emperors claimed lineage to Amaterasu and how they were forced to deny this divinity during World War Two.
And combining that with kanji characters’ original use as a way to interact with the spiritual world, I started wondering what would have happened if Amaterasu was real. What if the emperors really were descended from her? And what if kanji still held some sort of power? And, like Jun, I wanted to blur the lines between whether that power was being used for right or wrong, just like in the old myths.
Q.
Q What artistic abilities, if any, do you have, and what would you create if you could make your creations come to life?
A. I’ve always wanted to be able to draw, but my sketching skills are lacking! I find other ways to express myself through art—I make costumes. Other than writing, my main hobby is cosplay, which is a Japanese term that combines costume with play. I make elaborate costumes from scratch, learning a little of everything along the way, includ-ing sewing, props, armor, wig-styling—you name it! When the costume is complete, I usually enter competitions and perform onstage. I’ve won a few awards so far, but what I like best is the community and all the wonderful people I meet through cosplay.
If I could make my sketches come to life, though, I’d want to make impossible things, things that aren’t and should be. I’d be tempted to sketch a dragon of my own that I could ride around on—a friendly one, of course!
Q.
Q What do you think are the best qualities of your main characters?
A. I think Katie’s best quality is her bravery. Here she is without her mom, in a country she doesn’t fully understand, and she’s doing her best to keep moving forward.
Even when Yuki gives her the option to speak English, Katie keeps trying to speak Japanese, to push herself and rise to the challenge. She knows there’s more to Tomohiro, too, and won’t let anything stop her from reaching the truth. I also admire that she’s a kindhearted person and a loyal friend who does the right thing simply because it’s right.
For Tomohiro, I think it’s his perseverance. Despite the struggle with his Kami power, he keeps fighting. He doesn’t want to be a monster. He’s living under a dark shadow and yet he wants to do good with his life. He wants his life to matter and to belong to him, and he won’t let anything or anyone stop him. I know how hard it can be to keep going when life looks bleak, and Tomo’s courage inspires me—
and I hope it inspires you, too!
Q.
Q Was it hard to write about a culture you didn’t grow up in? How did your stay in Japan inform what you wrote, and how did you fill in the knowledge gaps as the story started taking shape?
A. I wanted to be as accurate as possible in Ink, so I did as much research as I could. While living in Osaka, I kept a daily journal of all my experiences there, from the temples and shrines I visited to daily life and meals with my host family. I’ve kept in close contact with my friends there, and also hosted students from Shizuoka. While writing Ink, I visited Shizuoka again and took numerous photos, wander-ing through Sunpu Park, touring one of my host students’
schools and sitting in the grasses at Toro Iseki.
Katie was an ideal protagonist for me because she is an outsider looking in, and so it was a POV I could iden-tify with and write with confidence. For school life and Japanese culture, I made sure to check with my friends in Japan as much as possible. I also watched every Japanese school-based drama I could get my hands on to see school life in action.
Q.
Q What was the hardest scene for you to write?
What was the most fun scene to write?
A. I think the hardest scene for me to write was the love hotel.
Beneath the facade he constructs, I know Tomohiro is a kind, gentle person, and I didn’t like to see him acting that way toward Katie. I wanted to shove him in a corner and tell him to think about how he acted! So while it was hurting Tomohiro to act that way to Katie to save her, it was hurting me, too. Poor guy.
The scenes that are the most fun for me to write are when Tomo and Katie interact. From one snarky comment to the next, they have that attitude where they want to one-up each other, but never in a belittling way. Sometimes their replies to each other are so snappy that I have to rush to type them down and I have to separate them in my mind to catch up! I love that they’re competitive in a friendly way.
And of course I love writing the ink scenes. It’s fun to see what sinister way the ink will twist in next.
Q.
Q What are some of your favorite books and/or authors, and did any of them in particular inspire you to become a writer?
A. I always wanted to be a writer. Growing up, my biggest influences were Jane Yolen, Bruce Coville, Lloyd Alexander and C.S. Lewis. I loved traditional fantasy, but then TV
shows like Gargoyles and Beauty and the Beast, where an impossible thing was happening in our world, became so ap-pealing to me. I loved Narnia because it made the fantasy world accessible to me, and I started to search out similar stories that were possible in our world.
I took a turn into slightly darker-edged YAs after reading books like the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness, Half World by Hiromi Goto and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I love those books because they aren’t afraid to take you into the darker places, to let the worst possible things happen before they lead you out again. Also, reading lighter fantasy by Terry Pratchett reminded me to keep my books both realistic and human. I didn’t want flat characters. I wanted bad guys who were likable and had good traits, good guys who had flaws and reasons why they were shaped that way. I love complex characters because we learn so much about ourselves from reading about them.
Q.
Q Without giving away spoilers, can you tell us a bit about what’s going to happen to Katie and Tomo in Book Two?
A. Katie and Tomo are going to have to face some serious con-sequences to their decisions in Ink. With Katie returning to understand her connection to the Kami, her closeness is going to cause Tomo further loss of control unless he figures out how to contain his power. The Yakuza aren’t going to take their embarrassment lightly, and Jun isn’t going to give up on recruiting Tomo to his idea of the future. It’s going to take everything Katie and Tomo have to save each other. I hope you’ll look forward to it!
1Q. At the beginning of Ink, Katie has to leave everything familiar and move in with her aunt in Shizuoka. Have you ever been in an unfamiliar situation out of your comfort zone? How did it make you feel? Did you learn something from the experience?
2Q. Imagine you have the Kami power to draw anything and it will become real. What would you draw? What if there was the possibility that your drawing could turn against you? Would you still take the chance?
3Q. Shiori, Tomohiro’s sisterlike friend, finds herself the target of bullying because of her pregnancy. Did it surprise you that she’d be bullied for keeping the baby? How did you deal with an instance in which you were bullied? Is there any effective way to stop bullying?
4Q. Ishikawa is always calling Tomohiro to
bail him out of bad situations with the Yakuza. Do you think Tomohiro is really helping Ishikawa by rushing to his aid? How else could Tomohiro help him? What would you do to help a friend like this?
5Q. Tomohiro struggles against his powers, determined to shape his own fate. Is there something you wanted to achieve that you had to struggle for? What sort of obstacles did you face, and how did you motivate yourself to keep going? What is something you would fight for until the end?
6Q. What did you think of Tomohiro’s decision to push Katie away to protect her? Have you ever had to step away from someone or something you cared about? If you were a Kami, how would you protect your loved ones?
7Q. At the end of the story, Katie says, “It was my life. I was going to live it.” Have you ever gone against expectation for something important to you or acted in an unexpected way? What was the reaction of others around you?
8Q. What do you think of Jun’s goal to rid the world of the Yakuza, criminals and corrupt governments, no matter the cost? If you were a Kami, how would you feel about being used as a weapon of war for a peaceful goal? Does peace require war? Is force justified to reach an important goal?
“Hold still,” Yuki said, threading the thick obi ribbon through the back of the bow. She pulled the loops tight. “Okay, now breathe in.”
I stared down at my keitai, flipping through the call history.
“Katie?”
“Hmm?”
“Breathe in.”
I took a deep breath and she shifted the bow to the center of my back. “How’s that?”
“Looks great,” I mumbled, flipping through my messages.
Empty.
“You didn’t even look up,” Yuki said.
“Mmm-hmm. Hey!” Yuki snatched the phone out of my hands.
“Ano ne,” she said. “Listen. Yuu will call you—I’m sure of it. You don’t want to be the panicky girlfriend, right?”
I didn’t say anything. How could I? Yuki didn’t know that not being able to get ahold of Tomohiro could mean the Yakuza had him, or the Kami had kidnapped him, or that he’d drowned in an ocean of his own sketching.
Yuki grinned and sidestepped, tugging the creases out of the sleeves of my yukata, the summer kimono she was lending me. “Now look,” she commanded, pointing at the mirror.
I looked.
The yukata made me look elegant, the soft yellow fabric draped and folded around me like an origami dress. Pink sakura blossoms floated down the woven material, which Yuki had complemented by lending me her pink obi to tie around my waist.
“Dou? How is it?”
“It’s beautiful,” I said. “Thank you.”
She grinned, smoothing her own soft blue yukata with her hands.
“Yuu is a jerk for not calling,” she said. “But let’s forget about it for now. It’s Shizuoka Matsuri, and you’re still here with us. So let’s go celebrate!”
Was he being a jerk? I hadn’t been able to get ahold of him since deciding to stay in Japan. It didn’t make sense, unless he was in trouble. Or avoiding me, in which case he’d clearly learned nothing from the first attempt and I would pound the lesson into him tomorrow when school started again.
It didn’t matter if he was avoiding me. Sooner or later, I’d have to get in touch with him. Because as much as I’d wanted to stay in Japan to be with him, I’d also had no choice. If Jun was right, Tomohiro was a ticking time bomb, and I was the only one who could defuse him.
Diane entered my room carrying a tray of glasses filled with cold black-bean tea. The ice clinked against the sides of the cups as she set them down. A pink spray of flowers unfurled in a corner of the tray.
“Don’t you girls look beautiful,” she said. “Katie, I picked this up for you on my way home.” She lifted the spray of pink flowers off the tray, the little plastic buds swaying back and forth on pink strings. She tucked it into the twist Yuki had pulled my hair into.
“Kawaii.” Yuki grinned. “You look so cute!” I turned a little red as Yuki stood next to Diane, both of them with their hands on their hips as they looked me up and down. They were starting to fuss a little too much.
“Thanks,” I said. “Um. We should get going.”
“Yes, I think Tanaka’s starting to sweat a little out there,”
Diane said.
Yuki took a gulp of tea and slid the door to my room open, where Tanaka was waiting in jeans and a T-shirt.
“You guys are taking forever,” he said. “Can we go now?”
“Let’s go,” I said, the long yellow yukata sleeves tangling around my wrists as I slipped on my flip-flops and shoved my keitai into a pink drawstring bag I’d bought at the depato store.
“You look cute,” Tanaka said to us with a smile.
“So do you,” Yuki said. She stuck her tongue out at him as he turned red. She grabbed my hand and we headed out the door.
“Itterasshai!” Diane called after us.
Go and come back safely.
The only word Tomohiro had written on his letter, the word that had sent me running from the airport, that had me tripping over my own feet to catch Diane at the Narita Express platform on the way back to Shizuoka.
Tanaka pushed the button for the elevator.
We’ll find out together, Tomohiro had said to Jun. Tomohiro and I would find out what the ink wanted and how to control it together, without the help of his society of Kami who wanted to overthrow the government and kill off anyone who stood in their way.
It didn’t make sense. Why would Tomohiro push me away again now, when I was so determined to help?
The light was fading outside as we stepped into the heat. It was the last week of summer holidays, before school started for the second semester, and the hot weather wasn’t going to give up easily. We clattered down the street in our zori, or in my case flip-flops, hopping onto the local train for Abekawa Station.
“We’re gonna be late,” whined Tanaka.
“It’s fine,” Yuki said. “We’ll still be in good time for the fireworks.”
The train lurched around the corner and I tried not to press into Tanaka’s side.
“If the takoyaki’ s all gone by the time we get there, I’ll blame you.”
“How would that even happen?” I said. “They won’t run out.”
“Right?” Yuki agreed. “Tan-kun, you and your stomach.”
By the time the train pulled into Abekawa the sun had blinked below the horizon. We stumbled through the musty train air toward the music and sounds of crowds.
It felt like all of Shizuoka was here, the sidewalks packed with festivalgoers while dancers in happi coats paraded down the street. Lanterns swung from floats and street signs glowed, and above everything, we could hear about three different songs competing for attention above the crowded roads. It was a little claustrophobic, sure, but filled with life.
“What should we do first?” Yuki shouted, but I could barely hear her. She grabbed my hand and we pressed through the thick crowd toward a takoyaki stand. Tanaka rubbed his hands together as the vendor squeezed mayonnaise over the bite-size batter stuffed with octopus.
“Anything’s fine with me,” I said. Translation: no idea.
“I’m good, too, now that I have my takoyaki, ” Tanaka said.
“Want one?” The bonito fish flakes on the hot batter shriveled as if they were alive.
“Um, maybe later.”
“We should try to get a good spot for fireworks soon, though,” Yuki said. “Near the Abe River bridge would be best.”
“What’s the big deal about the fireworks?” I said. “You keep bringing it up.” I mean, I loved fireworks as much as anyone, but she seemed a little fixated on it.
Yuki pulled me over, whispering in my ear. Her voice was hot and smelled of the fishy batter.
“Because,” she hissed, “if you watch the fireworks with someone special, you’re destined to be with them forever.”
“Oh.” Jeez, I could be so stupid. So this was some big sch
eme for her and Tanaka. “Do you want space or something?”
“No, no!” She waved her hand frantically. “Not like that.
Let’s stick together, okay?”
“Sure,” I said. As if she’d tell me if that was the plan anyway.
We rounded the corner to two rows of brightly lit tents.
All the thick, fatty smells of festival foods filled the air. Fried chicken, fried squid, steaming sweet-potato fries, roasted corn, strawberry and melon kakigori ice. My stomach rumbled and I moved forward, heading for the baked sweet potatoes. I handed over the yen and pocketed the change. Then I pulled back the aluminum foil to take a bite, the steam flooding my mouth. Beside me, kids dipped red plastic ladles into a water table while an old motor whirred little plastic toys round and round. The toys bobbed in and out of the ladles while the kids shrieked with excitement.
A flash of color caught my eye, and I turned. I strained to hear the sound above the music and chatter of the crowd, but it was there—faintly. The tinkle of the colorful furin, the delicate glass wind chimes like the ones Tomohiro had sketched into the tree in Toro Iseki.
Across from me, the furin booth glowed with electric light, catching on the gleaming chimes as they twirled in the night breeze.
“Hello!” The vendor greeted me in English, but his welcome barely registered as I stepped into the tent. Almost a hundred of the chimes hung suspended around me in a rainbow of glittering colors, spinning above my head in neat rows.
Tomo’s furin had been black-and-white, like all his sketches, but they’d held the same magic, the same chorus together that my ears could never forget.
“You like the furin? ” The vendor smiled. He had a kind, worn face and the early startings of a gray beard.
“They’re beautiful.”
“The sound of summer, ne? The sound of possibility.”
I reached out, cradling a glass furin in my hand. Possibility.
“Yuki-chan, look—” I turned.
I’d lost her to the crowd.
Panic started to rise in my throat. She wasn’t one to abandon me on purpose. Even if she did want alone time with Tanaka, I knew she wouldn’t leave me stranded.