About Keiko the Fairy: The Kujiki
Keiko the Fairy is a great adventure of the heart and a coming-of-age story set in contemporary Japan. The star characters are a 16 year-old half-Japanese girl named “Red” who attends the American School in Tokyo and a 17 year-old American Naval Intelligence seaman named Nick. Our young heroes are introduced by an unexpected source, a bawdy 1,400 year-old Japanese Bamboo Wood Fairy named Keiko. Keiko tries to help her young friends navigate through the dramatic events that are impacting their lives by drawing from her long and rich historical and philosophical past. She conveys her influence by using her own unique methods of storytelling and personal powers like fairy dream vision: which allows the recipient to see the events of the past and feel the emotions of the character in view. Ultimately, she gives her friends tools they will need to help them find inner peace and happiness in their often difficult and dangerous world.
Behind the Scenes
From 1989 to 1993, I lived in Tokyo, Japan as a language consultant. The first thing that became very apparent is that everything, and I do mean everything as the exact opposite of how I was taught to experience the world. It was the most difficult thing that I have had to do in my life. The culture is a treasure trove of history and fascinating discoveries. When the U.S. economy went into free fall in 2009, and all my advertising, marketing clients stopped spending money, I began to write this series to try and share with young people, and old alike, all of the extraordinary things I learned living in Japan. It took an additional three years of research to complete the books. It is extremely difficult to represent that culture to the American audience, I hope that I have both honored the Japanese, and created a work of interest for others. The President of Paramount Pictures, Animation, accepted the project for consideration, sadly it was not accepted, but who knows, it sure would make a cool Cirque du Soliel show, or featured animation…