Frequently Asked Questions

Based on an interview with senior years journalist Nathan Toll

of Cathedral School, Townsville

Courtesy of Townsville Bulletin

Appearing on Saturday Disney, 2008

Please explain Iaido, and how the competitions run?

Wow! That’s a big opening question!  Iaido (pronounced ‘ee-eye-doh’ …so it’s kind of Old MacDonald’s Farm meets Homer Simpson) means literally ‘the way of meeting life’. The basic image the Kana or Japanese script is trying to convey is that of something in life (specifically, a samurai or shinobi enemy) coming at you like an express train.

What will you do to survive? How will you think, feel and move in the face of great danger? Finding, then learning to live the answers to these questions forms the path of Iaido, also sometimes translated as The Way of the Sword. It is the art of duelling as practiced by Edo-period noblemen, but is also an art form, a kind of meditating, and a school of life for developing strong and good character. So the ideal samurai is gentle and almost impossible to provoke, yet exceedingly formidable when forced to fight. He bears the burden of a chivalric code; politeness, discipline, loyalty, cheerful indifference in the face of death, a heart that burns for justice, all that kind of stuff. In terms of the skills one is aiming for, and the personal virtues that are supposed to go with them, it seems like an impossible challenge. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to it.

As Iaidoka (Iaido students) use real swords, we can’t fight in the ‘old way’ in our competitions. If we did, even wearing body armour, people would die. So instead, as is traditional, we demonstrate our skills alone, just one student and his or her sword at a time, in front of a panel of judges –traditional masters- who watch (mercilessly) every move you make, every breath, every eyebrow twitch.

The stress of facing these five judges is said to replace the tension of real combat. The judges score you on perfection, or the lack of it, so it’s very tough – nerve wracking, in fact! They NEVER smile.

In demonstrations and in training, we sometimes do practice controlled sparring with bokken (wooden swords). We never spar wearing any form of protective clothing, though we do learn how to fight while wearing samurai armour so that we know how to move in it. Sparring in real time is quite thrilling, and I love it personally, but if you don’t listen properly to your teachers or ignore those safety rules, it’s also very dangerous. I’ve seen one student let his concentration lapse and wind up with a nasty, fast-bleeding cut to the head. Had that been a real sword, not a bokken, the strike he failed to block could easily have slain him. So never, never mess with samurai swords without a qualified instructor’s guidance.

The first safety maxim I learned was ‘become sloppy or over-familiar, and your own blade will end up killing you.’ Having said all that, bear in mind that children in modern Japan who come from a samurai tradition often begin sword-drawing at around the age of five or six.

Gold Coast Bulletin article, 2007

 How long have you been learning Iaido for?

As of 2011, 5 years intensively, which includes several trips to Japan to train and compete. So in Iaido terms, I am still a mere beginner. It takes around ten years to develop a good style.

You have had many quite different jobs, including a monster in a side-show ghost train.  When did you really decide to spend the rest of your life writing?

I wrote in High School –two full length novels in fact- then drifted away from the craft and did all those varied jobs before wandering into Law Enforcement, where I stayed for some ten years. But towards the end of that career, the writing bug bit me hard again, and once I took up the pen (and keyboard) seriously, I soon realized that my time had come and there was to be no looking back. So as a writer, I view those first thirty or so years of my life as the ‘input’ season. When the ‘output’ season came, somehow I knew it, and I simply went for it as my new career and chosen life.

Many say that an author’s first novel is somewhat a biography. Was this the case for you?

I think my first novel, a crime thriller called Doctor Id, was more about the world I had been living and working in than my life, though I must admit that I did kind of give myself a cameo in the novel, in the form of the main character’s stressed-out policeman father. I think all storyteller’s garner raw material for characters from themselves or those around them, whether consciously or unconsciously. We should wear T-shirts that say ‘I’m a writer; let the world beware.’

From an article by Nerelie Teese & Andrew Burnell in Australian Journal of Middle Schooling 2009

In Japanese, tomodachi means friend.  Why have you chosen to name one of your more recent novels Tomodachi: The Edge of the World?

What a great question! That actually goes to the heart of the novel, because Tomodachi is all about finding true friendship at the far end of the earth, in a culture so initially alien to your own that it seems miraculous to find a place in it. So I guess that in a way, this first book I wrote about Old Japan is actually the autobiographical one, as well as an imaginative variation on something that really happened back in history. Daniel Marlowe in Tomodachi is an echo of William Adams, a real historical figure who was shipwrecked in Japan in 1600, during the tail end of the long civil war era known as Sengoku Jidai.

What are some of your hobbies, or other things that you do in your free time?

My wife Annie and I have a small property in the mountains of northern New South Wales, where we are slowly restoring the original rainforest’s vegetation. I SCUBA dive and have specialized shipwreck diving and deep diving licences, though my increasingly busy career and a lot of travel has slowed down my diving over the last few years. I still write songs, as I played drums and guitar in a band back in the 1970s when I aspired to become a professional (rock) musician. My son IS a professional muso, so I sometimes get to jam with him or some of his band members –not that I can play or sing to their standard, I just have a go for the sheer love of music (but they’re very gracious and encouraging). And of course, I continue to study Japanese language, history and customs.

Are you a “family man”?

Yes Indeed. I’ve been married to the same beautiful lady since I was twenty, and have always enjoyed a close and fun relationship with my children. I have a daughter and a son, both adults now. My son recently married and is a musician, my daughter works in childcare. They are like my right and left arms, and I’ve always loved their good hearts and insane senses of humour. Observing them and their friends as teenagers helped me to build some fun characters for the books I was writing at the time (such as the Thunderfish trilogy).

Are you a collector?  (Stamps/ coins/ asian artefacts etc.)

I collect Japanese antiques, mainly dolls which are kind of the samurai version of action figures. The oldest I have is 205 years old, the figure of a famous warlord, and he wears real, miniature Edo period armour. But I also love fine woodblock prints. My favourite artist is the incredible Hokusai, whose influence over how humans depict landscapes has been enormous and cross-cultural. He created that famous image of the tsunami type wave, and his use of perspective, colour and negative space reflects the profound influence of Zen on Japanese art.

Sword demo & readings for students in Singapore, 2008

For those first picking up your work, what should they expect?

Adventure, danger, conflict and intrigue! You see, having a mother with a classical education from the old days of the British Empire (both my parents were born in India to army families, and were privately schooled) I grew up on, among other things, Shakespeare. What he taught me was that no matter how beautiful the language or deep the characterization, if you don’t have exciting elements in a story, it’s instantly in danger of being artful but utterly boring. Humans love drama, and that comes from pressure and risk. The proof of this is that some humans even get addicted to danger! Much safer to just become addicted to reading about it.

Do you find music a help or hindrance when it comes to writing?

At times I do like to work with a looped CD or MP3 file playing in the background, usually of Shakuhachi (a Japanese wind instrument) or Koto (a Japanese stringed instrument) solos. Many writers find music supportive, sometimes in quite weird ways. I have heard that Stephen King likes to write with heavy metal pumping out of his stereo. Think I’d be better off with Gwen Stephani’s Harajuku Girls song.

Have you experienced many of the events that occur in your novels?

In one form or another, I have actually lived through quite a few of the experiences I lob on my hapless characters. I guess particularly in my police career. Examples would include high speed chases, the first Grand Prix riot, the second Ash Wednesday bushfires in South Australia, dealing with a serial killer, and being attacked with a knife (not that much fun). Also through SCUBA diving I have actually known one or two unexpected ‘hmm…am I about to die this time?’ moments. Risk usually comes with adventure, and the challenge is to use your wits and training to minimize it instead of being gung-ho and crazy brave (which can so quickly turn fatal). But I say that most of us can draw on real life tastes of fear and danger to write such sequences convincingly – often it’s just a matter of reflection: farming your memories for the right observations.

Through studying Japanese martial arts, have you picked up the language?

Hai! S’koshi! (that means, Yes! A little!) Because my particular martial art is so old and hard-core traditional, it enjoys royal patronage and many Japanese people involved in Iaido come from famous bloodlines in the old nobility. I decided years ago that I would feel rude moving among such unique people without being able to communicate or show proper respect for their customs. They are highly educated and cultured warrior-descendants, and their world revolves around notions of politeness and honourable behaviour. So I felt that to be a respectful part of this world, even in short bursts, I should start learning to speak Japanese. I’m still at it, and will be until I become fluent. I can really get around over there now, but still make many mistakes when talking. Japanese people usually crack up delightfully at the vocabulary errors I come out with. But they are very gracious and forgiving, and always impressed that a gaijin (an ‘outside person’) is learning their tongue.

Article in ‘Classmate’, the educational supplement of The Northern Territory News 2010

Can we expect a movie based on one of your novels anytime soon?

It’s very possible. My Moonshadow series, about the world of the shinobi (or ninja as most of us call them) has been published in the US by Little, Brown, the New York publisher who brought the world Twilight. As a direct result of that, there have already been inquiries about film option rights from Hollywood studios. But having been a professional writer since 1998, I’ve learned not to get too excited until you see an actual contract. I have had a total of 3 film or TV series ‘near-misses’, where it looked like it was really going to happen, then one of the (sometimes more than 30) decision-makers involved in such projects had a doubt and it all fell in a heap. Happens a lot in my industry, and you just have to get used to it, unfortunately. Almost every writer I know has stories like that.

Have you mastered all of the martial arts which you currently study?

Not at all, with each I have just, as we say in Iaido, opened the door. It’s true that I now hold the rank of Shodan, black belt first degree, in The Way of the Sword, but that, in Iaido, is considered the start of the journey, not mastery. Earlier in life, I trained in Ju-jitsu, (for a year) Shotokan Karate, (2 years) Kodokan Judo, (2 years) and the Yang Chen Fu school of Tai Chi Chuen, the combat version of Tai Chi made famous by Jet Li (3 years). But I never attained instructor level in any of these arts –which are fantastic, by the way, and offer different, specific strengths and benefits. Tai Chi is very cool because with a decent teacher, you also learn many natural healing techniques.

Such an array of past jobs! Did you attend university?

As it turned out, I never did Uni but wish I had. I would have studied archaeology and anthropology because I guess that in my heart, I’m an explorer. But I left school with no real plan. There’s a great line in one of the Indiana Jones movies where somebody asks Indy what he’s going to do next. ‘How would I know?’ he shrugs, ‘I’m making this up as I go along.’ That pretty much sums up the first thirty years of my life. Incidentally, though I have few regrets, I don’t recommend this approach. It’s worked out okay for me, but the wiser I’ve grown, the more I believe in planning and goal-setting. Be bold, yeah, but also, try not to waste precious time going in circles…it’s not like any of us know how much time we really have, is it? 

What are some of your favourite novels by other authors?

My favourite novel as a boy was King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard, a ripping adventure yarn set in (then) unexplored Africa. Maybe I related to it because, though I was born in England, I actually lived in Nigeria, Africa as a small child. Perhaps that’s why I also recommend the gritty historical fiction of fantastic researchers like Peter Watt, who is kind of Australia’s Wilbur Smith. Some of my fellow Aussie writers who also write about Asia have really inspired me too, like Alison Goodman, whose young adult novels are genuinely brilliant. I’d also recommend the work of Dr Karen Brooks, who writes about historical Europe as well as purely fantastic worlds. Both of these ladies are awesome storytellers. And let’s not forget the moving, beautiful writing of the wonderful Lian Hearn.

In your travels, how many countries have you visited?

Let’s see…so far I’ve been to Japan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia (mostly the Kingdom of Malacca), Singapore, Finland, Ireland, Wales, England, and France. As an interesting little martial arts-related aside, my daughter was actually conceived in Hong Kong, when my wife and I were staying only about three streets away from Yip Man’s famous Wing Chun Kung Fu school where Bruce Lee was trained (maybe why my daughter wound up doing kick-boxing). But I will always be really proud of my very first ‘overseas’ experience, honeymooning on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia.

Cover of Writing Queensland, November 2007

I hear you play guitar. Any chance of a debut single soon?

Funny you should ask that. I’m no Jason Mraz, but I do write songs and have started recording material for an album. Having a son who is not only a muso but a music producer makes the technical side of things a lot easier. But man, the crafting of a quality commercial song, in its own way, calls for as much hard work as writing a story! After all, it’s simply another form of narrative that needs its own drama, sense of pace, climb to a climax etc.

After experiencing many cultures, which do you find the most inspiring?

I love many things from China, Vietnam, Thailand and Korea too, as well as Europe, but I’d have to say that top of the list for me is still traditional Japan. I can’t explain why I find their culture so relatable and, in some weird subliminal way, oddly familiar. What I love about them the most is that their whole world is a series of contradictions.

Almost all Japanese have ended up with warrior blood in their veins, even those who are not from samurai clans, but when you get to know them, they are amazingly gentle and emotional people. Sweet, generous, and often eccentric.

Their country boasts the most futuristic technology on earth (bullet trains, domestic robots, IT and gaming technology that we won’t see here for years) yet everywhere, they have preserved and continue to honour their medieval world. You can catch a futuristic monorail, the whole train a robot with no staff, to go and see a 16^th century castle that’s been lovingly restored. Schoolchildren travelling with you on that train may be wearing swords or bows and arrows on their backs (in travel bags and cases of course), because having just finished advanced maths and physics, they are heading off to traditional warrior training in a dojo or sometimes, a shrine.

It’s been said that the Japanese themselves can often appear hard, rigid, overly disciplined or even quietly ferocious, yet they hugely admire tenderness and all things furry and cute. Hello Kitty accessories are just one example. Their history includes all kinds of weird and impossible-sounding heroic acts that absolutely belong in books and movies, but require no exaggeration.

So as you can see, being around them regularly provokes thought and creativity in me! For their part, my Japanese friends, coaches and colleagues regularly bow generously and tell me that they are highly honoured that I, a foreign author, keep choosing to put the spotlight on their traditional ways. Me, I just feel incredibly honoured and humbled to have been taken inside such a fascinating and powerful society. I hope to learn even more from them, and to one day prove worthy of all the hard work and patience my teachers have invested in me.

Is literature that important? What do you think it teaches us?

Almost everything you and I aspire to do in life calls for the ability to share ideas and information skilfully, and not always in the obvious ways. So familiarity with, and control of, language is paramount. Reading gives you this and more, if you just stick at it. You can offset being as mathematically challenged as I am by simply carrying a phone with a calculator application, but no pocket device yet invented can help you to hold a real conversation.

Through reading, letting words and their meanings wash over us regularly- we learn to not only speak properly but to communicate. Now, I love visual drama and storytelling as much as anyone, but developing a way with words is far more crucial – it’s a huge key to power in life, starting with the power to be taken seriously on a daily basis because you can actually get through a sentence without using that (innocent and overworked) word ‘like’ six to ten times.

Also, through story we first examine core human values, ideas and customs that absolutely remain valuable and should not be overlooked as we plunge rapidly into a very science fiction-looking future. And for many people, reading is their first ‘virtual’ experience of travel, in time as well as space.

Is reading a dying art in these days of technology, facebook, etc?

Literacy is definitely under attack, and it’s up to all of us to head-off a potentially dumbed-down future for ourselves and the generations to come. But a combination of forces has led to that threat. If we all see to it that we can read, write, speak (and of course, listen) skilfully, then all the social and technological changes in the world, including our current obsession with social networking sites, just becomes another set of choices on the menu of life. To twitter, or not to twitter, in the end that’s your question to answer. But on a deeper level, if an individual never develops real-world communication skills (particularly the ability to actually speak to other real humans face to face) or plain old fashioned social courage, then the only option they may leave themselves is a substitute ‘cyber life’. We’re already hearing anecdotes about people with 200 ‘friends’ on Facebook who have never met any of them because, in the real world, they’re actually too scared to leave the house. Recently I saw the amazing (and, I hear, completely true) documentary Catfish, about a Facebook relationship, which I highly recommend to anybody using the internet. It’s powerful, moving and compassionate.

But psychologists and sociologists around the world are already very concerned about the impact of recent technology on people’s ability to start and maintain healthy relationships, and ultimately, on their mental health. All change presents challenge, so I say, don’t panic, just hatch a plan! Change is the only constant in the universe, so it’s up to each of us, I think, to accept that and equip ourselves to function comfortably in both the actual and digital worlds.

Why should we be encouraging our students to read?

All of the above reasons and also simply that it’s an indispensable life skill. The United Nations used to say, ‘give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him –and his family- forever.’ I think of reading skills in those terms. A good reader can research, analyse, reason but also….imagine! So powerful!

What particular problems do boys face in getting switched on to reading? Why is it important that they do so?

Boys often find that what I call their ancient ‘warrior or hunter-gatherer biology’ turns out to be a driving force in their lives, as if some instinct is telling them that physical training and tenacity is what their role in the universe is all about. It’s natural, and for the most part, healthy. We males must all guard, however, against letting the human ego hijack that drive and turn it into something quite bad. When we fail to respect gentler people, or show a superior, rude attitude toward girls and women, often simply because they are generally less aggressive than men, then it’s time to question whether that ‘dark side of the force’ process is happening to us…

It’s fair to say that the ‘I am a hunter or warrior’ voice pre-dates history itself, but given that there are less mammoths to spear these days and (I hope with all my heart) less warfare and more reason waiting ahead for our species, we men do need to embrace a new, evolved vision (even when we’re young).

I think for starters we need to shape ourselves into the thinking, lateral, creative hunter or warrior type. You could call this character a Renaissance Man, a Holistic Being, a ‘man for all seasons’ or whatever you like. But regardless of the tag, I think being well rounded –articulate, polite, caring and sharp-minded as well as physically tenacious- is the best way to go. In traditional Japan, certain exceptional people were once given the title Kensai. Closest translation I can come up with is ‘sword saint.’  A deeply spiritual person, not unlike a guru (teacher) in the Indian tradition, but who, incidentally, also happens to be a mighty, chivalric warrior. What an interesting blend! For all the Star Wars fans out there, I really think this is what George Lucas was getting at with his depiction of the Jedi knights. It may sound very contradictory, but a true samurai was not primarily a warrior (his warrior-hood was incidental). He was ‘one who serves’, be that service to his family, clan, country, or to all mankind through deeds and living that produced good karma. The core of this stuff in samurai culture was the path of awareness that we now identify as Zen. It’s not a religion, nor even a way of thinking, but rather an approach to being. Sounds all very Jedi to me. Cool, huh?

I love the fact that the same samurai who fought duels and battles also wrote poetry about love, death and nature, and often relaxed after a hard day with ikebana –flower arranging. That says a lot about how many preconceptions and clichés about ‘manliness’ we should simply ignore. There are many forms of bravery, honour and manhood, just as there are many expressions of what our age calls ‘girl power’. All of these things are important, yet remain individual choices, paths for you and I to recognize and follow. I say, listen to that wiser being deep inside you. We all have one, the trick is to get to know that being’s voice. Be comfortable with who you are, but patiently strive to improve; in your day to day ways, your dealings with others, and in all that you do or create. Does that sound like a very high standard? Well, I guess it is, but everything gets easier, then eventually becomes normal to us, the more we do it, right? I also believe that such behaviour is just what our complex, troubled 21st century needs. After all, we do have a planet to save, don’t we?

Courtesy of Julie Langlands

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