By Lindsay Tsuji
Former JET and Toronto-based author J.M. Frey was first inspired to write her latest novel in an onsen in Fukuoka. She eventually managed to accomplish her dream of publishing a novel before she was 30.
Since returning to Canada, Frey has completed a master’s degree in communications and currently works for the Writers Guild of Canada as a researcher. Frey has kept busy by getting involved with the Toronto Geek Community, co-hosting a podcast on DorkShelf.com, and appearing on TV as an expert in fandom culture.
Frey, 28, describes her latest book “Tryptich” as a poignant, character-driven science fiction story about tolerance, love, loss, and culture shock. The book is set to be released this month from Dragon Moon Press. Frey sat down with JETAA Toronto to talk about her novel, Japan and Sailor Moon.
Q. Tell me a little about the book.
In the near future humanity has become a little better than we are with tolerance and compassion or so we think. The aliens show up and they need our help. It’s not like every other science fiction movie where they come to destroy us. They come as refugees asking for help and we give them asylum. The whole book is about the strife that happens between these two cultures trying to share a single planet.
Q. Did you write the book in Japan?
I actually got the idea for the book in an onsen. It was January 21, 2007 and it was freezing. I was living in Fukuoka and I decided to go up to the onsen for a bath cause I couldn’t stand how cold my apartment was. While I was in the bath I realized that it was my mother’s birthday that night. And I realized that I was exactly half the age of my mother at that time. Then I thought oh, isn’t it interesting that when I was 25 I was sitting in a room with naked old Japanese ladies on a mountain and my mother at 25 was at home with me. And I thought what would happen if 25-year-old me met my 25-year-old mom? Then I got into ideas about time travel and surroundings changing so much around us enough to alter our ways of thinking.
Q. What made you decide to go to Japan?
Sailor Moon. I got so obsessed as a kid. It’s partially Sailor Moon and partially my uncles. My grandmother had five daughters and after they were all grown up, a Japanese family moved to the farm down the road and my grandmother helped raise the three boys. She helped them with their homework and stuff because their parents couldn’t barely speak any English. When I was choosing where to live in Japan I made a point of being close to them so I could visit. I also had an obsession with anime in university. I actually wrote my undergrad thesis on Inuyasha. So it seemed pretty logical to go to Japan.
Q. Did your experience as a foreigner in Japan and being outside of that culture influence your writing?
Hugely. Culture shock and all that stuff is a huge part of my work. Cause I’ve lived in France and Egypt and Japan. The strange thing about Canada is that we’re sort of outsiders to our own culture. I’m not Canadian in the sense that my roots come from Canada. But I’m not Scottish in the sense that my roots aren’t from Scotland. And then you travel and are on the outside of every culture. So yes, it’s a huge part of my story telling.
Q. What did you learn during your time in Japan?
Being in Japan taught me to be really self-sufficient and taught me to really focus on going after what I want. The discipline I learned in Japan was instrumental in me being published before I was 30. Most people say that they want to write but never get around to it. One of the things I learned on the JET Program was that if you want something, you have to make it happen. You can’t hope that someone will notice that the air con in your apartment is broken, you have to be proactive about it.
Q. How did you feel when you first heard about the quake and tsunami in Japan?
I was horrified. I haven’t been sleeping and I’ve been having dreams of being trapped in my apartment, frantically trying to save my students from getting washed away. When the JETAA newsletter showed up with the Life after the BOE comic about it, I literally fell out of my chair, had my head on my desk and wept.
Q. What’s next for you?
I might sleep? I haven’t done that in a while. Right now I’ve got two books written and I’m shopping around. I don’t have an agent yet so I’ve been doing a lot of my own work. You don’t always need an agent to get published but doing all the promotional work has been pretty tiring. Right now I’m spending so much time marketing the book that I don’t have any time to write. I’m a writer who doesn’t have time to write! Can you believe it?
I’ve also started writing a memoir of my time in Japan.
Visit J. M. Frey’s website at http://jmfrey.net
Lindsay Tsuji is a JET Alumna who is currently studying journalism