I wouldn’t have felt right writing in depth about a country I’d never visited, so I made two trips to Japan during the writing and revising of A Mortal Song: in April 2011, not long after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami (we’d already booked tickets and accommodations, and it was touch and go for a few weeks whether we’d make use of them or not), and in July 2013, which was also technically my son’s first trip overseas, although he was barely a bump in my belly then. 😉 You can read about those trips and see some photos by following the links, and here are some of the key settings:

Mt. Fuji, Sora’s home:

Tokyo’s residential streets:   

Nagoya’s train station:

Tokyo’s Imperial Palace:

Ise’s Shrine:

To see more of the settings that made their way into Song, check out my Behind the Scenes page. And the digital booklet offered as part of my pre-order gift pack will contain even more photos and lots of commentary!