As I once explained to a friend, I don’t have hobbies. I have serial obsessions. I know I’ve talked about this before, and how it often relates to research for the stories and books. I owe at least some of the impetus for the Yamada series to a fascination with ancient Japan and Asian mythology in general, which probably grew out of my general fascination with world mythology. Never met a mythos I didn’t find at least interesting. So in general I have to say that this penchant for serial obsessions, at least where the writing is concerned, is a good thing. It has kick started a lot of stories and probably every novel I’ve ever written. But there’s an aspect to the inpulse that I don’t think I fully appreciated until very recently. Continue reading →