THREE GENERATIONS

Two books, three generations: a grandmother, mother, and daughter, all strong women who work hard, all stubborn women who quietly live as they believe they ought. Ordinary women, not saints.

The first generation, and the second generation as a tiny person, appear in Miss Gone-overseas, a tale set during WWII on a Japanese-held island in the Western Pacific. During the years I lived on the same island I was privileged to hear a few stories from those who were children during the war years. A fortunate find, a survey of the town of Kolonia as it was during Japanese colonial days, brought the past to life for me, and set me to imagining.

All three generations appear in Overseas Stories, set in the 1980s, with a brief step back to the 1970s. The book showcases the island as I knew it, but through the eyes of my fictional characters. With editing and the addition of a lengthy new story, the book became a prequel or sequel to Miss Gone-overseas. For those interested in the expat experience on a tropical Pacific island, it is easily a stand-alone novel told in a series of linked stories. Actually the book is all three (prequel, sequel, and stand-alone) at the same time.

Neither of these two books would have been written if I had not lived on Pohnpei, an island in the Western Pacific. Miss Gone-overseas also benefited from my family living in Tokyo during my 6th grade year, a year of living in a tradition-style Japanese house in a regular neighborhood. So years later when I encountered Japanese fiction while wandering the shelves of a small California library, I was ready to fall in love.

A few of the Overseas Stories were begun when I still lived on Pohnpei, others a decade later, and all were revitalized in the past few years. The last story, which brings the tales of these women full circle, was composed recently just for this second edition.