Emiko Jean, TOKYO EVER AFTER: A Novel

[1:49]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zoe Owens, and you're listening to the award winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology, which you should run out and buy called Moms Don't Have A Quarantine Anthology. All proceeds of that book go to COVID nineteen Vaccine Research. And I'm the editor in chief of Moms Don't Have Time to Write, a new publication on Medium, and we're accepting submissions, so please send personal essays there. And if all that isn't enough you can follow me on Instagram ZibbyOwens and my website is zibbyowens.com. Okay, now back to this amazing podcast.

[2:48]Zibby Owens: Welcome, Emmy. Thank you so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss Tokyo Ever After. Thank you so much for having me. I had a feeling I was gonna really enjoy this conversation because your book was funny and engaging and entertaining and, I really enjoyed it. And I always know that like those are gonna be nice conversations. Sometimes I'm wrong, but usually.

[3:10]Emiko Jean: Yeah. I think I really wanted to write a fun story that felt really lighthearted. I had twins three and a half years ago, and so I started writing this when they were about a year old. And I just wanted to write something that felt joyful

[3:28]Zibby Owens: and that had a lot of heart and humor in it. I cannot believe as I we were just discussing that I'm also a twin mom. I the idea that you could write this, a, so well ever and b, while having one year old twins. Oh my gosh. Like I couldn't even put a sentence together I feel like. So I'm even more impressed. That's legit impressive.

[3:49]Emiko Jean: I've had a lot of help. I have a great partner and childcare, which is, you know, it's worth everything.

[3:57]Zibby Owens: So I a great support system while writing this book. So would you mind telling listeners what your book is about?

[4:04]Emiko Jean: Yeah. So it's about a teenager, Azumi Tanaka, who lives in Northern California in a mostly white town, a very small white town with her single mom. And Izumi has always had a great relationship with her mom, but she does long to know who her father is and to connect more with her Japanese heritage. And through some fortunate incidences, Azumi and her best friend find a book that has the name or who they think has the name of her father in it. And spoiler alert, it does turn out to be her father and he is the crown prince of Japan. And that kicks off Izumi's journey to Japan to meet a father that she's always wanted to know and the country that she's always dreamed of.

[4:53]Zibby Owens: And can I just say that it would be really nice to have like a neighbor be putting like bottles of kombucha or whatever it is in front of my door as well, like in his like random pajama pants or whatever he was wearing, something great kooky, I guess? I would love an admirer like that of sorts. That's

[5:10]Emiko Jean: Jones, their kind of hippie neighbor. The town that Izumi lives in is Mount Shasta, which I have cousins that live there. I vacationed there over the summer with them as I was growing up. And Mount Chasseh has a very large liberal population and they are home to the rainbow gatherers every year, which are a group of Grateful Dead followers. And so he was very much born from that.

[5:36]Zibby Owens: Got it. And even the way you describe, like, first of all, the friendships between what's her the character's name again? Oh, Izumi. So Izumi and her friend when they're like looking through the books and then like, are you gonna try to find out about it? And she's convinced that her father is, like, never gonna write her back or the friend of a friend. And, like, next thing you know, it's like a scene from a movie and everybody's descending and there's, like, secret service equivalents or whatever you want to call it on her, like, her house and her mom's not even ready. I mean, the book is like so

[6:09]Emiko Jean: visual. Like you can just see I mean, first of all, is this already going to be a movie by the way? I should have probably researched this, but So it has been optioned and that's all I can really say. I feel like writers always have like little things they're sitting on or little secrets that we keep. We like to tease out like it's been optioned, I can't say anymore. So unfortunately I'm doing that now. You love it. You love having the secret. You're so excited about it. It's awesome.

[6:36]Zibby Owens: Keep it going. Even when it's public, you can just keep telling people that that's all you can say. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, Izumi all of a sudden then being like thrust into another world from the one that she has lived in. And and even her mother's decision, I found very interesting that she felt like, okay, like I did my job and I've you've grown up normal, and I didn't let anybody else in this. You know, it's just the two of us just the way I wanted it. And now I feel like you can do it. Like, you're if you wanna go, you can go. Like, you're on your own. I've done my part almost. Tell me about that relationship with the mother and the daughter and, like, sort of that feeling where it's it's okay for to send the daughter out. Yeah. So I always knew from the beginning that I wanted Azumi's

[7:21]Emiko Jean: relationship with her mom to be really solid and very supportive. I don't think Azumi would have been able to take such a big risk and go across the world to meet her father if she didn't have that really solid home network to come back to. I also think from the moms, and this is part of my mom point of view too, watching my kids grow up, like being a parent is loving something and letting it go. I think that was, you know, her mom's perspective is that, you know, I raised you, I did what I thought I needed to do with you. And now, you know, it's time kind of for you to leave the nest. Wow. Is that what your mom, your relationship with your mom was like? Yeah. You know, for the most part, I am the youngest of four kids. So I think when graduated, she was pretty ready for me to leave the house in a very good way. But yeah, yeah, I did. I have a pretty solid relationship with my mom. Yeah. My youngest kid is still in kindergarten

[8:23]Zibby Owens: and my husband's like, so are we thinking boarding school for him? When could we do that? Like, I'm like, no, we're not gonna do that. Anyway, it's so funny. It's like time to go. We can hang out in LA. I'm like, no. So anyway, so what was it like writing this book? Did you structure the whole thing, outline it? Like how did you go about writing it? Just what was that whole writing process like for you? Yeah, so I had two novels previous to this one and

[8:53]Emiko Jean: you know the plots are cancer thing. Like you wrote the of your pants or your plots are in you outline. I wrote by the seat of my pants for both of those and I ended up revising probably did like 12 or 15 drafts of those novels. And so with Tokyo Ever After, I was really committed to outlining and to cutting down that revising time. I worked from a pretty solid outline. And actually what ended up happening was there was too much content in this novel. And I think when I turned it into my editor, it was like 95,000 words, which is really long for a young adult book. And she was so gracious about it. She was like, I think it needs to be around 75. So a lot ended up on the cutting room floor. We cut characters and scenes, but what ultimately happened was the novel was much tighter after that. Feel like it's rare to edit something and have it not improve. Yeah. That's so very true. You know, at the beginning of my career, I fought against revisions, but I really see them now as so necessary and so important to a book. I can't imagine ever nothing is ever perfect from the beginning. That's one of those good life lessons.

[10:08]Zibby Owens: Yeah. So how did you become a writer? What was the selling of your first novel process like and everything? How did it get started? How did you get started and all that? So

[10:21]Emiko Jean: I was always a big reader. I loved reading. And I actually never thought about writing until much later in life. And now that I go back and I reflect on it, I realized it was because I had never read as an adolescent a book by a Japanese American author. And I had never read a book that featured a Japanese American protagonist. So even though I didn't know it at the time, that was really formative. So it closed a pathway for me. And so I always thought that being a writer wasn't an option, even though I loved books. And so what ended up happening was I graduated with a master's degree in teaching. I couldn't find a teaching job. I took a bunch of other jobs that I didn't like, and writing became an outlet for me. The first book I wrote featured a white protagonist and it was a thriller. I ended up selling that as my debut. Then as I went on to future books, thought about being more, what's the word I'm looking for? Just including more Japanese American characters like myself. So the next book was a Japanese fantasy.

[11:28]Zibby Owens: And why You?

[11:30]Emiko Jean: That's a good question. That's what I was reading the most of at the time. And so it was where my tastes were at. I think that it's such an interesting time in someone's life. And I think it's a time in someone's life that you go back to as well. So even though I'm an adult now, I do think about my younger self a lot and what shaped me. And I think it's such a great opportunity now as a writer to be, you know, part of someone's shaping, part of their young adult experience.

[12:02]Zibby Owens: It's true. I feel like you're also very open to advice or, you know, open to inputs, open to like your whole life is being unfolded and you don't know which way to go. And I feel like that, at least for me, reading books was like a way of figuring out how to do life, right? So being able to give back is pretty awesome.

[12:24]Emiko Jean: Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think and I think it's like look too. Like I do remember now, I mean, thinking about myself in my twenties and thirties, I just turned 39 last week. Happy birthday. You do kind of go through, you know, like every, maybe every decade or so you kind of go through and you kind of look at yourself and your identity and you're like, who am I now? And what am I doing and where am I going? And, you know, that starts, I think, as a young adult, but it continues, you know, as you grow too.

[12:56]Zibby Owens: Very true. So are you working on anything else now? Yeah.

[13:00]Emiko Jean: So I just turned in, there's going be a second book in Tokyo ever after. Awesome. Yeah. Called Tokyo Dreaming. So Izumi's journey continues. She'll be in Tokyo still, and I'm working on an adult novel now, women's fiction novel. And what's that one about? Or maybe you can't say. I can't say. I can't say, but it does explore motherhood themes, which has let me know since becoming a parent, I'm very interested in that. So it's been great to kind of explore those pathways.

[13:33]Zibby Owens: Excellent.

[13:34]Emiko Jean: Do you feel like since becoming a mom, like has your sleep not become a part of like, I feel like once I had twins, my sleep has never gone back to normal. Do you feel like it's affected your writing at all? Or maybe your kids sleep, I don't know. Yeah. So my kids are sleepers. They're great sleepers. And I'm gonna knock on wood because I don't want to jinx that. But yeah, I mean those first two years in getting them like sleep trained and everything was really difficult. And I felt like my brain was mushed the entire time. And I'm someone that needs like, I need a solid like ten hours of sleep at night. Oh my gosh. My husband can function on like five or six, but I don't know. I need a good, I need a good ten hours of rest

[14:17]Zibby Owens: if I'm going to write and be functional. So it has been a struggle. I don't even know what I could do if I got ten hours of sleep. Could like climb a mountain or something. Don't know. I don't know. Oh, that sounds like heaven. So what types of books do you like to read? Like what are you reading now? Anything good? I am I'm kind of all over the map lately.

[14:38]Emiko Jean: Just more young adult and more women's fiction. I just finished Luck of the Titanic by Stacy Lee, which is a young adult book. And it's so good. She's such a beautiful writer. So I'd recommend that one. And as far as like in the adult realm goes, I've been reading more romance. That's kind of what has gotten me through the pandemic. Beach Read by Emily Henry was so good and so light and so fun and also had a lot of heart. So I remember devouring that and really enjoying it. Her new book just hit the bestseller list. Did see that? Oh, I didn't even know it was out. I'm gonna now I know what I'm gonna do after this. Okay. People I meet on vacation. That's what it's called. Perfect.

[15:17]Zibby Owens: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

[15:19]Emiko Jean: I do. I mean, so I have two little sticky notes that I keep on my desk that I wrote when I first started out. One is Fail and Fail Better, which I originally heard it from Margaret Atwood, but I think it's a quote from a Samuel Beckett play. And it just it reminds me that there are successes in the failures. So even if you write something and it doesn't lead to publication, there's still success there in in writing it. And the other thing is the other sticky note says don't give up, which just kind of reminds you on a daily basis to keep going, to keep writing. Because really I believe with writing the journey and the destination are both in getting words on paper and publication is just icing on the cake. Some good icing them. Yeah,

[16:06]Zibby Owens: It's a filling. Awesome. Well, Emmy, thank you so much. Thanks for coming on Mom's No Time to Read Bugs. Thanks for your totally entertaining read. I can't wait to see the movie. I know it will be made and I know my daughter and I will love it together sort of in the same vein as the Anne Hathaway Princess. What was that when she went with Julie Andrews, Princess Diaries and all of that? Yeah, sort of a new take. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Okay. Thanks. All right. Have a good day. Bye bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens and at moms don't have time to read books. Also sign up for my newsletter at zibbyowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing, and thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.