I’ve been getting quite a few new readers visiting my web site after having read Hokkaido Green, my story on Strange Horizons.

I visited Hokkaido in the summer in 2007.   It has some really beautiful places.  Otaru and Sapporo are both nice cities and Arashiyama has a great zoo.

The hot spring waterfall I described in the story is a real place.  It’s in Shiretoko, in the north-east of Hokkaido.

The five lakes is a popular place to go for a walk.alk.

When I visited some of the trails were closed due to bear sightings.

I didn’t encounter any bears offering secrets though.

Japan Guide Shiretoko Travel Guide

There’s a discussion (mainly in Japanese) going on about Hokkaido Green and Salary Ninja (two of my stories set in Japan) on Twitter.

http://togetter.com/li/66026

Most people enjoyed the story and said I captured the atmosphere of Japan well.

A couple of people said the bear in the story reminded them of Totoro.

Some people are translating some of their favorite phrases of the story into Japanese.

I even got compared to the creators of Doraemon.

A lot of the discussion talks about where to get good ramen.

Reflection’s Edge recently announced they are ceasing publication.

It is always sad when a publication closes.  Both as a reader and a writer.

Because We Liked It: A Heavily Biased List of the Stories That Stayed With Us

I submitted to the magazine quite a few times and they published two of my stories:

Blue Cherry Sky

How To Be A Good Citizen

The staff have written a long article about the ups and downs of running an online publication.

Inside Reflection’s Edge: How We Built, Ran, and Learned from Our Magazine

Hokkaido Green, my story of a Japanese businessman who quits his job and walks to the hot spring waterfall at the end of the world, has just been published at Strange Horizons.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20101101/hokkaido-f.shtml

Some feedback on Stone Flowers, my short story that was published in Fantasy last month.

Lois Tilton in Locus:

A poignant short tale about the loneliness of immortality. The author speaks of the significant of the gods’ flesh becoming solid and visible again, but I must admit it evades me. Are they becoming corporeal and mortal? Or withering away like the cherry blossoms?

–RECOMMENDED

Aidan Doyle “Stone Flowers”  - 掌編。日本が舞台なんで思わず読んでしまった（作者は日本に4年住んでいたオーストラリア人）。かつて神として祀られ、今では忘れられた男の話。雰囲気はすごくいいのだが、雰囲気だけかも。

http://twilog.org/wishigame/date-100906

He liked the story’s setting.

And LiveJournal user Anachred had these really nice things to say:

Here are some stories that are just gorgeous, and made me love webzines that can publish stories of the kind I like. Fantasy Magazine, for example…

Stone Flowers by Aidan Doyle which is sad and luminescent and…well, smells right. The description put me square in a place I know, but told me a story I didn’t.

http://anachred.livejournal.com/140571.html