A lot of research went into writing NOGITSUNE.  The history and folklore of America and Japan (more about that here) mostly, which then branched out into pop culture, as the kitsune is still a living, evolving icon. It was important that my foxes grow in an authentic manner from the roots of our real world, so you’d believe them in mine.

But from there I had a lot of fun with it, giving simple things like children’s games a new twist, the way I think they might have changed due to being fox-adjacent. One of these is the Five-Second Rule. That brief window of time after you drop an m&m or something on a hard surface, within which the Rule dictates it’s still clean enough to eat. In my hometown, we either jokingly pounced on the candy to pick it up in time, or if someone felt particularly daring, she might just “kiss it up to God” and eat it anyway. Sometimes it’s tough to let that last m&m go.

In a fictional city where food, good cigarettes, and even Starbucks cards are routinely left as offerings to the unseen, what would children from a supernatural lineage (and a couple of generations of indulgent elders) do with the Five Second Rule? How does a family tradition arise, and what would someone from a hundred years ago or a modern cousin from whichever Old Country think of it?

Sometimes I worry that people will read NOGITSUNE and think “WTF, no one does this! She’s just pulling it out of her ass!” But I hope I struck the right balance of actual and fictional, so that it feels like a thing these characters would do. That I’ve been respectful enough of the origins in creating something new.

And that you’ll love it.