Monday, September 04, 2006

The Marquis of Mooikloof

Finally the kids are back in school, and none too soon as it was getting harder and harder to make Lilia do her homework. Finally, I'm getting a little time to myself to catch up on editing and writing and friends. A couple of days ago I had coffee at Tully's with the South African writer Sean O'Toole, who gave me a signed copy of his recently published short story collection, The Marquis of Mooikloof.

Before he became Sean O'Toole, Award-winning Writer, he was an assistant English teacher in Tokushima, on the same government-sponsored program that first brought me to Japan. I met him when we both participated in my friend Andy's writing workshop. I'd published quite a few stories already by then, so I offered to help him find markets for his work, and I even published one of his stories in my literary journal, Yomimono. He came over to my house one day and let my kids crawl all over him while I introduced him to the Novel and Short Story Writer's Market.Now he's famous, in certain circles, at least, in South Africa.

Way to go, Sean!

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You were on JET, too? I was an ALT in Oita from 88-89, and a CIR in Tottori from 92-95.

5:29 AM  
Blogger Liz said...

That makes two former JETs who read your blog, Gaijin Mama! I was in Sapporo from 93-95 and then worked at an English Conversation School in Kagawa-ken from 96-97. Small world.

1:01 PM  
Blogger Gaijin Mama said...

I was an ALT in Tokushima from 88-90. I met my husband here in '89, so I never got out of Tokushima.

6:02 PM  
Blogger Lotus Reads said...

That is so cool, I thought the name Sean O'Toole sounded familiar and then I realized I had seen it in the "Yomimono" index. After I leave you this comment I'm off to read his story "Sun City"! I'll have to look for his book, too!

6:36 PM  

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