Here at Casa Mysterioso, instead of recycled site-owner publicity, we offer interviews with other people in the arts--writers, musicians, actors, entertainers, and sometimes just plain characters. We add new ones all the time, and site visitors are invited to contribute. If we use your interview, we'll pay $35. Query by e-mail.

Interview with Jan Burke
Interview with Jeremiah Healy
Ben and Diane (An Interview with Stephen Booth)
Cold Days and Deadly Nights (An Interview with Steve Hamilton)
Mysteries (An Interview with Irene Marcuse)
The Stone Monkey (An Interview with Jeff Deaver)
The Salaryman's Wife (An Interview with Sujata Massey)
A Kiss Gone Bad (An Interview with Jeff Abbott)
Charlotte Justice (An Interview with Paula Woods)
Blood Money (An Interview with Rochelle Krich)
Letter From New Orleans: (An interview With Andy J. Forest)
The Lady From Charm City (An Interview with Laura Lippman)
Crescent City Views (An Interview with Anne Rice)

 

The Salaryman's Wife
(Interview with Sujata Massey)
by Andi Shechter

AS: Sujata, while Rei Shimura is a fascinating character-a Japanese American living in Japan, you're a pretty fascinating character yourself. Did you ever consider writing a character who was more Sujata? Tell about your background, if you would.

SM: Thanks for the compliment, Andi! I guess I am an odd one to be writing this series about a young J-A woman. I am half Indian and half German; my parents met in the early 60s in Cambridge, England. I was born in England, and while I grew up primarily in Minnesota, where my father settled as a university professor, I only changed my citizenship to the US in 1998.

We were in the very early wave of Indians living in the US, and it was quite an isolated experience-isolated from other Indians, who weren't in the Midwest, and also isolated from many of our American neighbors, because we were so foreign. So I regret that I missed learning a lot of cultural things about India, such as language and life. That's probably the reason I studied Japanese so seriously, and flung myself in Japanese life, when I lived in the Kanto area in the early 90s. I wanted to prove to myself that I could be a "good Asian". And that, in itself, is a lot like the character of Rei Shimura.

AS: What caused you to chose mystery as a means of writing? I ask because it seems that telling Rei's story, as an observer in Japan, might be in itself, great mainstream novel material, as well as a unique setting for mysteries.

SM: I was drawn to mystery because I just have had so much fun reading them-and I became immersed in the genre in my mid-twenties, the time I was living in Japan and the English language library on the navy base was full of mysteries, both modern and vintage. I also realized there were quite a few nonfiction accounts of young people's lives in Japan, and also a few mainstream novels, that didn't seem as potentially fun and accessible to readers as a Japanese-set mystery would be. So that's why I went for it.

AS: You've chosen some really interesting themes of Japanese culture - manga, the very advanced art of flower arranging. How do you know about these things? Do you still travel to Japan to research?

SM: I dabbled in a lot of different Japanese arts because I wasn't doing much in Japan, and my husband was away at sea. I taught English, studied cooking and flower arranging, and collected vintage kimono and obi. The manga were something I couldn't help noticing everyone reading on the subway, so that got worked in. I haven't traveled to Japan since 1998 because I have a small child. However, when she is a little older I may go back for short research trips again. I'm itching to set my feet on Tokyo ground!

AS: Is Rei ever going to come home in a future story?

SM: Funny you should ask. In the fall 2001 release, The Bride's Kimono, Rei goes to Washington DC, and in the book I'm writing now for publication in 2002, she goes to San Francisco!

AS: You used to be a newspaper reporter, true? How did that affect your writing? Do you think it's harder to write fiction after a career of expository writing? Did it help with your research skills?

SM: Yes, I was a features reporter at a late, great daily called The Baltimore Evening Sun. I think feature writing helped me learn to write about setting, dress, food, and other topics descriptively. It also helped me make deadlines, and do research, as you suggest.

AS: What's the best thing about writing for you?

SM: Best thing about writing-working at home, and having total control over where the story goes (something that wasn't true about newspaper journalism).

AS: What's your next book about?

SM: The next book is The Bride's Kimono, coming out Sept. 1. It's a mystery about fashion, ancient and modern, as the title suggests. Rei travels to Washington DC with a collection of antique kimono. One goes missing, as does a Japanese tourist she befriended on the plane. The book is not just about fashion, but also relationships-the way courtesans in Old Japan had to balance different lovers, and the challenges Rei faces in that regard today. It is probably the most romantic mystery I've written to date. I had a blast doing it.

AS: Do you like the convention scene? Is it something you expected as part of writing - the whole social scene, the chance to meet writers and readers?

SM: The convention scene-ah, I was so scared when I set foot at my first Malice Domestic, before I was published, and the first Bouchercon as well. I felt like a complete nobody. However, it's easy to make friends at conventions, and I treasure these acquaintances. The problem is as I get further along in my career, the convention time gets taken up with meetings, so there are less chances to form spontaneous friendships. Maybe the only way to do it is stay awake (hard for a mother of a 3 year old) and hang out in the bar!

AS: How have your books been received in Japan?

SM: It's hard to answer how my books have been received in Japan because only the first has come out there at present (though the next two, Zen Attitude and Flower Master, were purchased by the same publisher, Kodansha). I have not gotten any reviews from the Japanese media except some of my observations on Japanese manners were lifted from The Salaryman's Wife and analyzed in a serious economic journal. I have gotten good reviews in The Japan Times when the English language versions of my books began being shipped to Japan in 1997.

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