Thank you all for your welcoming comments!

First, let me say, with some practice, that I am not a writer. I say with practice for the simple reason that I have, in fact, written a novel. If I recall correctly, the working title was “Simpler, Dumber, Badder.” The moment I decided to write this novel is etched upon my mind. It occurred in the Blue Coyote, in Maynard, Massachusetts, over a burger, cut in half, fries, and a beer, not cut in half, while looking into my wife’s brown, expectant eyes. She had just announced that she planned to complete NaNoWriMo, that is, National November Writing Month. And I had said, “Hmm, that could be fun. I’ll do it with you.”

Do not, ever, say these words, at least not in the context of NaNoWriMo. It seemed innocent enough. Fifty thousand words in thirty days. What, that’s a little over three pages a day. How hard could it be? I decided to set the novel, sort of a corporate conspiracy adventure, on Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands. Having lived and worked there for four years, and the experience being a little unusual, I thought I would have plenty of material. Instead, I could not leave the world of memory for the one of fiction. Three pages is a lot of words. A lot. And I found them to be, on rereading, laugh out loud bad. This disturbed my compatriots dutifully typing away on their own novel in the Concord Public Library.

I go on too long. Enough to say that I had much practice, as my friends asked after my progress that November, in saying that I am, in fact, not a writer.

Second, let me say that TextFugu is wonderful. My miss-understanding of です is wholly my own, probably to be often repeated, due to my simple understanding of this complex language. I look forward to learning more Japanese, and meeting all of you, over the next year or so.