THE WORLD OF ASH HOME
HOLLY THOMPSON TALKS ABOUT WRITING ASH

"I hope that [readers’] curiosity is piqued for the Japan that is not sleek and urban, nor the exclusive world of geisha and samurai."--HOLLY THOMPSON, AUTHOR OF ASH

You first lived in Japan for three years in the early 1980s and have made it your home since 1998. Has living abroad impacted your writing?

Absolutely. Living outside one’s home country strips a person down to an embarrassingly naked self, without familiar referents, without the constant refuge of one’s native language, and without the solace of family and friends. This often-jarring experience . . . enables you to develop a sense of humility, to see humor in your mistakes, and to gain a deeper understanding of your home culture and upbringing. All of this inevitably impacts the writing of an expatriate such as myself. Sometimes stories about the States become clearest when I am in Japan and vice versa, when I can gain the perspective that comes with distance.

Talk a little about Kagoshima and the volcano there.

Kagoshima was a dramatic city during the mid-1980s, the time period of Ash, when ashfall from Sakurajima was intense and alarming. After some close Japanese friends from Shibushi introduced us to Kagoshima City, my husband and I returned time and again, enamored of the surrounding lush volcanic landscape and fascinated by this unique ash lifestyle. I knew I wanted to write of life in this setting and how the ash would affect the attitudes and actions of inhabitants like Caitlin and Naomi.

What do you hope readers will take away from Ash?

Ash is about grief and loss, friendship and healing. It is about how grief can cripple even years after a loss, and how elusive recovery from loss can be. It is also about the duality that inevitably plays a central part of any bicultural person’s life. I hope that readers will gain a deeper sense of the challenges facing not only foreigners but any atypical Japanese in Japan. I also hope that readers gain a sense of wonder for the volcanic landscape that Japan is and that their curiosity is piqued for the Japan that is not sleek and urban, nor the exclusive world of geisha and samurai.

What is your writing process?

Writing in the years since I have had children (most of Ash’s creation) has been a sporadic process at best. I have always had to work part time--teaching, editing, freelance writing--and between work, caring for the children, participating in their school events, and, now that we live in Japan, studying Japanese and supplementing their Japanese schoolwork with English home-schooling work, there is precious little time to write. I write in months when I am not teaching, and in the free moments I can snag here and there. I am always, inevitably in a writing deficit--there is always far more that I want to write than I can possibly find time for. Stories live in my head under constant revision for years, before they are finally released onto paper.