Featured Interview With Author Yurie Kiri
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Yurie Kiri is a shy, secretive person who used to live on a boat, sailing between various ports in the Pacific Ocean. Yurie lived on the boat until some crazy mega-yacht got loose and went on a full throttle rampage through the marina squashing everything it could hit. Alas, sailing was one of Yurie's passions, now writing and photography are the main passions in Yurie Kiri’s life along with cats of course like the enhanced, intelligent cats featured in New York Stories…
Yurie Kiri speaks Japanese, English, French and has studied Chinese, Arabic and Spanish as well as a smattering of other languages such as Korean and Russian along with binary and hexadecimal machine language because if you really want to get to know someone you need to speak their language no matter if they’re machine or human. Yurie lived and worked in Asia for decades before coming back to America where Yurie went on an extensive backroad journey all across the US and Canada from the rough Mexican border towns to the town of Yellowknife in Canada’s NWT where you need to cross a frozen lake to get into town in the winter. Yurie also sailed (single-handed) from Mexico to the Canadian border, retracing a well-traveled road journey by sea in a small, live aboard sail boat. Yurie has been traveling and gathering story ideas from Asia for the Game Series which covers Japan and other Asian countries and North America for the Murder and Mystery Series which covers the American Southwest.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Very early. I can't remember not being able to read and write. Now, I'm always writing and I write everywhere: in bed or on planes, on boats, on trains, in bars and restaurants and even on park benches. Sometimes I'm just writing, working on a story and sometimes I'm editing again and again, trying to shave off excessive words, sentences or paragraphs… and sometimes I'm watching and listening, picking up bits and pieces of people and their conversations then making notes on scraps of paper or on my phone… All that could be construed as creepy lurking but a smile keeps me out of trouble. I usually describe these story gathering processes in the "Dear Reader (author’s note)" in all of my books.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
All the classic authors that I read in college including George Eliot and Jane Austen plus modern guys like Dan Silva for his spy novels, Mick Herron, Ian Fleming, Jack Kerouac, John le Carre, Carlos Castaneda… and JRR Tolkien of course,
Now, real people and real places are my inspiration. Most of my books have a "Note to readers" introduction where I explain how I got the story idea – sometimes from overheard conversations at bars and restaurants. Actually, I was once accosted by people in a bar who thought I was eavesdropping on them and taking notes, which I was… "Sorry, just work stuff," I said, waving my notes and smiling. Then they left me alone.. ha, ha. However, some of Moonlight Beach also came from interview meetings which I set up with some venture capital people under the guise of writing a non-fiction business book. I met those very interesting people who then formed some of the minor but important characters in "Beach" and "Rip Tide" the next release, coming soon. I never finished the business book or a travel book (like Paul Theroux one of my favorite authors) I also started, finding fiction writing so much more enjoyable.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
"New York Stories" first takes place in the near future when the first rock samples from Mars are brought back to Earth and put on public display. During a wild robbery attempt, Amy and her companion animal, a genetically enhanced house cat called Zeke are exposed to the Martian rocks and to the invisible psychic virus-like Martian entities residing on the rocks. Fast forward towards the end of the century when people are living on Mars, going to and from a much different New York City slowly being destroyed by a warming climate, rising water, undemocratic government and destructive AI embedded into every aspect of people's lives such that banks can now kill people and collect on their life insurance when they don't pay their bills… The Martian entities are still around and they love cats like Zeke and Fred who have to take matters into their own little paws to help the people they love.
Please note that however long it took to write this book, it took a lot longer to edit and polish over and over…. it's like making a violin from a big chunk of wood: carving, cutting, glueing, sanding and polishing over and over…
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