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Fairytale Feel
The Jingu Magical Garden follows a young girl who lives inside San Antonio’s Japanese Tea Garden, who discovers a strange blue egg that hatches a tiny blue dragon, and embarks on an adventure through time. What is the most challenging aspect of writing an adventure for young readers?
The greatest challenge I faced writing THE JINGU MAGICAL GARDEN was striking the right balance between oftentimes hard-hitting historical facts and a light-hearted fantasy. My hope was that the fantasy element would help make the history lesson less pedantic and more relevant to young readers. I wanted them to be invested in Lillian’s dilemma, to understand her yearning to be like any other all-American girl, and to cheer for her as she faced discrimination and hardship with the dignity and grace her parents instilled in her and her siblings. I also strove to keep the writing style somewhat old-timey and nostalgic with the intent of creating an almost fairytale feel to the narrative—one that would highlight the magical aspect of the Japanese Tea Garden.
Can you share a little about the research that went into getting the details of the time period just right?
Four years in the making, this book of historical fiction required extensive research. I was fortunate in that there is a great deal of recorded information about both the Jingu family and the Japanese Tea Garden to draw from. I did my best to keep the historical timeline accurate, although in a few instances, I took liberties to enhance the flow of the narrative or to give a nod to one of the key characters. For instance, the scene where Lillian Jingu has a conversation with Commissioner Ray Lambert in the Bamboo Room could not possibly have taken place, for Lambert passed away in 1927 at the age of fifty-nine. But Ray was so instrumental in both creating the garden and enlisting Eizo Jingu to run its concession, I felt I owed it to him to include him somewhere in the body of the novel.
Can readers look forward to seeing more work from you soon? What are you currently working on?
I have completed the second book in my DUNE DRAGONS middle-grade fantasy series, DUNE DRAGONS and the FAIRIES of the LAKE. However, I don’t intend to release it until next fall in order to devote time to marketing THE JINGU MAGICAL GARDEN. I am currently putting the finishing touches on a painstakingly researched historical fiction novel, REDEMPTION, which is intended for adult readers.
Spanning seven decades and set against the magnificent backdrop of Lake Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes, this sweeping narrative chronicles the lives, loves, and hardships of a resilient band of pioneer families facing the challenges of an often harsh and ever-changing landscape with dignity, compassion, and an abiding reverence for the natural world that sustains them.
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Tut Tut, the wise turtle who lives in the pond, explains that it may be more trouble than she bargained for. Undeterred, Lillian takes the egg home and keeps it warm, eagerly waiting for whatever is inside it to hatch. When her little brother, Kimi, finds her with the egg, Lillian lets him in on her secret. Despite her protests to the contrary, Kimi is convinced the egg holds a puppy. Soon, the egg hatches, and a strange lizard-like creature emerges. The Jingu children name him Kokoro, and the baby dragon proves a delightful pet, but they fear that should he be discovered, he’ll be hauled away and caged like an animal in the Brackenridge Zoo. Their dilemma is solved with the discovery of a crack behind the waterfall leading to Jaloloquay, a land forgotten by time. At last, they have found a safe haven for Kokoro! But little do they know this discovery will lead to more adventures than they ever dreamed possible.
