This book took a long time to publish. My initial plot idea occurred to me close to 40 years ago. It floated around in my head, going nowhere because I had a rather ridiculous plot device for the 2nd half of the book--a cliche so bad I don't even want to write it here.
I did start writing it back in 1990 - very rococo, over-elaborate prose, and "thankfully," my apartment was robbed, and computer stolen - with the only copy of the manuscript (backing up saved me from bad writing).
Started writing again in 2010, I believe. And finished a pretty solid draft then. Showed it to Neal Stephenson who was kind enough to introduce me to an agent, and then, contrary to what I imagined, a great agent was not enough. Editors had some kind things to say, either because they saw merit, or because they respected my agent. But the book crosses genres too much, and no one picked it up. One editor, however, spent forty-five minutes on the phone taking the book apart, something really wonderful, given she did not intend to publish it, and because of her input, I removed the middle 1/3 of the book, and wrote a complete new center.
Then I let it sit - every once in a while, I'd go back and pare away any word that explained what was implicit.
Finally, with the publication of Cimarronin with Neal, Charles Mann and Mark Teppo, as well as my publication of Old School - Expanded Edition - the time seemed right.
So, book out in the world. Already working on second fiction book, in the same historical period. Meiji Japan was one of the most interesting periods of Japanese history - - sort of a combination of America in 1776 and in the 1960's.
The Girl with the Face of the Moon