Hi all. Been a while. After that 2022 trip to central Europe, I’ve been a bit busy. Went to Bulgaria again in 2023 and 2024 to visit a Ukrainian refugee family (mom and two little kids) I met in 2022 on the train from Bucharest to Varna. Since then I’ve been helping them with rent, food, etc. Hey, no one can help everyone, but I figured I could at least help them. I think she’s planning to get Bulgarian citizenship someday and stay there. Meanwhile, she makes the coolest art, panels from drywall with her brew of plaster to build up bas-relief images and paint them. Here’s an example:
Some are castles, mermaids, or flowers. Sometimes she inserts a clock or something, so multi-media. They’re hard to make — time-consuming, and shipping from Bulgaria costs a bit (and often leads to minor damage around the edge) — but if anyone wants to commission such a “pano” she’d love the work. I used a local framer to protect ones she gifted me.
Meanwhile, “Ripple in the Sea” continues to receive some cool reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. That’s the one about a Japanese-American girl who infiltrates WWII Japan. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GH3M82N
For those interested, here’s a couple of little side-lights:
The title character is named after my sister (middle name Christine), and her friend Maxine is named after my mother.
Also, as the final historical note says, my father suffered from PTSD after the war. When he was very old, near the end, he was seen by a visiting Japanese doctor sent down from Toledo to help the local hospital. My father tried to apologize for all the damage done to Japan, but the doctor said no, he understood, it was war, my father had nothing to apologize for. I have no idea if the doctor really felt that way, or if he was just being kind to an old man, but I’ve always been grateful.
I’ll try to keep this page a bit more current. And if anyone has questions, there’s a feedback page somewhere. Later!