Acquired Book By: Whilst my path crossed originally with Mr. Tag through my participation of his blog tour via Cedar Fort Publishing & Media (on behalf of “How Much Do You Love Me?”), we have continued to stay in touch since the tour ended. What I found most fascinating about his historical fiction debut is how soul stirring the narrative was depicted against the backdrop of war and the timelessness of his approach to etch a story out of our collective emotional hearts. I was very moved by his multi-cultural characters and of a story taken straight out of history and World War II. Thus, when I was approached to receive his Science Thrillers Trilogy in exchange for an honest review, I was most delighted indeed! To be honoured with the chance to read his science fiction based on science fact thrillers would enable me to see a new dimension of his writing style and voice!
I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author Paul Mark Tag, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Dr. Victor Mark Silverstein is a Jewish African-American whose background is as unusual as his personality. He lives a privileged life as the Naval Research Laboratory's preeminent meteorologist and scientist. But beneath the facade of a self-centered, arrogant personality lies a seething, vulnerable man whose secrets have plagued his sleep since 1982. That's when he discovered the truth about what happened to his girlfriend, Sylvia.
In the year 2007, his nightmares become a reality when weather satellites detect an environmental aberration. Memories from college at Penn State -- and their accompanying heartbreak -- push their way back into Silverstein's life. Only he knows the root cause of the phenomenon and its scientific basis -- and the mastermind behind it all.
This fast-paced thriller spans the globe: from the Suez Canal and Christmas Island to Istanbul, Turkey; to Monterey, California and Washington, DC; and finally to Bermuda. Silverstein and his feisty female assistant, Dr. Linda Kipling, begin a desparate and harrowing pursuit for the truth and for those responsible. With time running out and the environmental catastrophe unfolding, they must survive a terrifying ride through the eyewall of a hurricane. The final showdown pits good against evil and intellect against loyalty. Along the way, Silverstein finds peace and becomes reacquainted with a faith he abandoned long ago.
Paul Mark Tag graduated with degrees in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University and worked for the Naval Research Laboratory as a research scientist for over thirty years before retiring to write fiction. For years prior to retirement, and the following year exclusively, he honed his skills writing short stories. These have been published in StoryBytes, Potpourri, Green’s Magazine, and The Storyteller, as well as The Errant Ricochet: Max Raeburn’s Legacy.
In 2005, Tag published his first thriller, Category 5, which took advantage of his knowledge of meteorology and weather modification. Prophecy and White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy followed Category 5, with White Thaw tackling global climate change, a topical subject these days. With his historical novel How Much Do You Love Me? Tag has switched genres. He lives with his wife, Becky, in Monterey, California.
I have oft wondered why there isn’t more talk about modifications and protocols to augment the severity of natural disasters as we have seen played in science fiction modules. Weather modification has been a hearty subject for a long time, but I was always drawn to the natural disaster films which attempted to either clarify the issue in layman’s terms or give a plausible example of what could happen if we start to monk about with natural systems we have no business altering by artificial means. The theory within the novel Category 5 is hugged close to my own thoughts and musings on the topic at large; if you could find a way to interject a change of severity and course of a storm whilst it is already in-progress and growing in strength. It is plausible because anyone who has stood outside during a severe weather occurrence starts to denote a few things in the atmosphere; the least of which is the changing colours of the sky itself, but moreso, the change of ambiance of the time of the occurrence itself.
I have observed there is a stillness when your outside observing weather as it occurs; hurricanes by far have the worst calm within the eye whereas the calm center of a tornado is daunting on a different level completely. Both the eye and the center of both storms do have one particular thing in common: they are fair warning of what is coming next. If we start to use science to control what is naturally occurring and thereby has it’s own cycle of influence on the natural world, are we then able to justify the results if the outcome is less than equal to the projected end results? Sometimes what you beg trouble for is far worse than living through what has already arrived.
Part of me is curious of what is not understood and cannot be explained; climate and meteorology have always held strong influences on me (where I live notwithstanding) and a part of this might stem from my great-grandfather whose fascination with electricity was directly linked to his curiosity about lightning. If only I could travel back in time to speak to him about his own observations and what he gleamed by staring down the bolts of pure electricity as they lit up the evening skies and gave a shuddering start to the extreme weather of his era.
When they started to talk about ocean temperatures I nearly chuckled to myself — I still remember flying over the Gulf for the first time and noticing the differences in both density and colourations of the ocean’s surface. Part of me mused if the variations had anything to do with temperatures as much as the depth of the particular portions I was flying over; as that is one observation you cannot gleam standing on the ground. Flying reveals a lot about our world as the juxtaposition increases the mind to accept the larger view more to scale than when we are looking down rather than sideways or up. The ocean sciences (from oceanography to geophysics to geothermal plate tectonics) were a keen interest of mine whilst growing up. Naturally I would evolve into appreciating every sub-field inter-related to Environmental Science, Climatology, Meteorology and Natural Weather or Disasters such as Snow Science, Vulcanology, and Glaciology. Tag has written a novel a science geek like me is overjoyed to have found existing in science fiction! It is a thread of theory combined with real-life plausible scenarios which have the most direct impact on mass causality and aftermath; a warning of a tale about the temptations of where science can lead man to technology that can offset the balance of order and chaos.
There is a point in the story where Silverstein is mentioned as studying forensic meteorologist – giving me a bit of pause as I was most intrigued at that designation. (the forensic sciences are another thread of interest of mine) I was curious if this is what Paleoclimatology was originally called or if the forensic side of meteorology is a sub-field exploring a completely different branch of data. Considering climate and weather are generally studied separately, I found it quite fascinating to see this inside the novel. Read More
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
I am proud to welcome Mr. Paul Mark Tag to my blog today, as his debut historical fiction novel How Much Do You Love Me? truly spoke to my heart and the spirit of humanity lived through love; I wanted to interview him after having read the story, and blessedly he worked with me to bring this conversation to you a few short weeks after his tour stop arrived for my book review! I encourage you to not only read this Interview but to stay afterwards and read my ruminations on behalf of his novel! He is not a debut novelist per se, as he started writing science thrillers before he entered into the historical fiction realm; however, in this conversation I learnt that the foundation for How Much Do You Love Me? is actually rooted inside his thrillers!
What captured me the most about his story, is how it is tethered to a part of our own country’s history that is not our best moment to reflect upon, but within its darkened pages, we can find the true spirit of overcoming both adversity and prejudicial hardship at a point in time where the world was struggling to recover and heal from war. Tag has a convicting way of sharing a narrative voice that not only honours the time and era of his story, but the people who are at the foremost center of how the war was changing lives on the homefront.
Grab a cuppa tea or java, and read how our conversation evolved:
Book Synopsis:
Keiko Tanaka, along with her twin sister, Misaki, and two other siblings are first generation children of parents who emigrated from Japan in the early 1900s. Born in the US, they are American citizens. Nonetheless, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in December of 1941, politicians whip anti-Japanese rhetoric into a frenzy, claiming that anyone who looks Japanese should be suspected of being an enemy agent of the Japanese emperor, Hirohito. Although government officials (including FBI head, J. Edgar Hoover) report no evidence supporting such suspicion, public opinion turns against the Japanese. Consequently, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signs Executive Order No. 9066, sealing the fate of 120,000 West Coast Japanese—including the Tanaka family of Bellevue, Washington—sending them to internment camps.
Prior to the tumult of this anti-Japanese hysteria, Keiko falls in love with a Caucasian, James Armstrong. Contrary to their families’ wishes, they decide to marry before Keiko leaves for the camps and James goes to war. At Tule Lake, the Tanaka’s internment camp in northern California, Keiko’s and James’s daughter, Kazuko, is born.
Nearly sixty years later, Keiko has a stroke and lies near death, while James suffers from Alzheimer’s. Coincidentally, a chance occurrence makes Kazuko suspect that her mother has been hiding a secret from the internment. Fighting the clock before her mother’s death, she races to unearth the mystery. What she uncovers represents nothing short of the epitome of human love and self-sacrifice. But, beyond Kazuko’s realization, only the reader knows that is only half the story.
Author Biography:
Paul Mark Tag made a career as a research scientist before switching gears to write fiction. In the late 1990s, in preparation for a career in writing, he wrote short stories only. Author/Publisher Arline Chase was his mentor. In 2001, when he made his career change permanent, he spent a year writing short stories only. These have been published in StoryBytes, Potpourri, Greens Magazine, and The Storyteller.
In 2002, Tag began his first novel, a thriller entitled Category 5, which took advantage of his knowledge of meteorology and weather modification. Prophecy, a sequel, followed in July of 2007. White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy, is the third in the trilogy. With How Much Do You Love Me? Tag has switched genres, trying his hand at historical fiction. He lives with his wife, Becky, in Monterey, California.
First, thank you for allowing me this interview.
I really appreciate the opportunity.
You’re quite welcome, Mr. Tag! It was an honour to interview you after having read a story that not only touched my heart, but gave me the opportunity to understand a part of our country’s history that was always on the outside of my peripheral vision.
What was the original impetus to create a story centered around the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II? Did you personally have a connection to one of the families who had relatives who had survived the ordeal or was it one part of history that is rarely spoken about and deserved a light shined on it?
Tag responds: It is the latter. I do live in California from which many of the internees originated. Here in our local newspaper, the Monterey Herald, it happens frequently that you see someone in an obituary who had been interned in a camp. It’s been so long ago that we are losing many of the internees. So your comment is accurate: I wanted to shine a light on this period of history and the injustice done to the Japanese Americans.
Your story is very profound on a lot of different levels, but it is how you honoured the history of the internees and the legacy of what they went through in the way in which you depicted their journey through World War II, that I believe will be what resonates the most with each reader who chooses to pick up this novel. For me, it was a way to pull back the veil, and take an honest look back at a war where choices were made that never should have been and it was the strength of the people who were affected which proved how strong all of us have to be when faced with such a difficult path to walk.
The natural way in which the interracial / multicultural relationship knits Keiko & James together was eloquent and beautiful for celebrating the youth of love. I appreciated how you had written their parents inside the story, lending not only sensitivity but a truer sense of how both were coming to terms with the relationship. Did you write these sections by heart alone, or did you interview blended families of Japanese & American backgrounds?
Tag responds: No, I wrote them from heart alone. One thing I recognized was how difficult a row to hoe an interracial marriage was back then. One of the research tidbits that I integrated into the story was that only four states then even considered legal a marriage between a Caucasian and an Asian: Washington, New Mexico, Kansas, and Iowa.
You heart deserves a lot of credit! You wrote such a beautiful love story, and gave such a credit to their cultural backgrounds, including avoiding being cliche in how their families presented their reactions. I had not realised this myself, as I reflected in my review, how difficult multicultural marriage was back in the 1940s. Sometimes we grow so used to how we are living in today’s world, that it is hard to recognise and realise that not that long ago life was lived quite differently. I celebrated the fortitude of progressive insight for those four states to rise above the others, and lead the way towards equality.
You have a very scientific background (in Meteorology), yet when you write a historically enriched novel such as How Much Do You Love Me? I found that you’re artfully intrinsic to the creative side of writing. Did you always find yourself having a duality of passion for both fiction and non-fiction writings? It is a rare gift as generally it is hard to fuse a solid voice in both mediums; personally I always struggled with expository writing not ‘sounding’ creatively infused.
Tag responds: I was a research scientist for most of my career. Accordingly, I wrote technical papers that are not exactly fun things to read. Three years before I retired, I decided that I wanted to write fiction. And so I studied by reading writing magazines and self-help books. Importantly, I teamed up with a mentor, author/publisher Arline Chase who taught me a lot of what I know. To learn fiction, I wrote short stories only for about four years. The first year after retiring, I wrote one a month, covering all genres, including thriller, romance, humor, esoteric, etc. At book signings, when I’m asked, I tell people that if they want to learn to write fiction, to write short stories. Short stories are “bite size,” and you don’t have much time invested in each one.
What a clever way to segue from expository to creative writing styles – I myself, have found the short story a bit of a complicated bedfellow; my personal style is longer in length, shorts make me feel short-changed. However, what I do appreciate in knowing this insight into your own path towards embracing the craft of story-telling is how it was an exercise to re-approach how you set everything to paper and how the words could re-fuse together in a creative way that was completely different from your research papers. That in of itself proves a lot of insight because somewhere in those four years you’ve developed a keen sense for not only characters and dialogue, but the heart of giving a spirit to your stories. I write in different genres myself, and sometimes I think that is what breathes the most diversity into our novels; different ways of seeing how a story evolves helps nurture your own voice.
As you are penning serial science thrillers (Category 5, Prophecy, & White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy) alongside this historical piece, do you think you might re-explore a historical in the future?
Tag responds: I’ve been asked that question a lot recently. I love to write thrillers, but if How Much? is at all successful, I think I’ll continue in that genre. Incidentally, even though How Much? is an historical fiction novel, toward the end I couldn’t help myself and reverted to my thriller instinct. When Kazuko learns that her mother has had a second stroke and will die soon, the clock starts ticking, adding suspense to the story.
Yes, I did denote that bit of suspense myself as I read the story, I was half afraid Kazuko might not receive the information she needed before her mother passed; I personally know how little time you can have at the end of a loved one’s life, and therefore, my heart felt dearly for Kazuko. I felt it could have gone either way, and she would have had the peace in knowing what she did whilst Keiko was crossing over would have meant just as much in the end, if she had returned back in time. I had to smile when I read your heart lies with your thrillers; I cannot claim I was surprised, but I think the historicals give you a unique position to craft a different side of your own writing voice that knits a lot of heart into your stories without relying solely on suspense, but rather the arc of a person’s spirit living through their life and pulling in the audience as if we were inside their shoes with them.
What originally led you to soak into the historical fiction genre to such a passionate level and know that it is a niche you want to explore further!?
Tag responds: I think that just sort of arose from all of the research I did on the internment of the Japanese during World War II. Reading all of the touching experiences of people who got caught up in that debacle, I couldn’t help but get excited about writing a book that has the internment as its centerpiece. The mystery/love story aspect of the book followed naturally.
I always love finding out what the impetus is for a writer to approach a particular story, especially one that I personally enjoyed reading! This is such a classic response because I think we each find ourselves nestled into our research to such a gratifying level of encouragement when we stumble across certain key moments that engage our curiosity and our mind. From there, the story simply evolves out of our passion for the subject and our kinetic connection to the story itself. Yes, but the mystery within the love story was quite a stellar layer to knit inside your debut as a historical fiction novelist!
What do you find more difficult to write: the historical past based on real-life events or science thrillers based on emerging science which might out-date the story your penning? At the same time, what do you feel is the hardest part about writing convincing historical fiction whose heart of story is rooted in a remembered part of our combined past?
Tag responds: Truth be told, I don’t think that I find one more difficult than the other. And, coming full circle, each of my thrillers has an historical aspect to it. For example, Category 5 (referring to the strongest hurricane) begins during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. Prophecy, the second in the series, starts during the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889, when 2200 people died from a poorly maintained dam that gave way (one of the biggest environmental disasters to ever befall our country). White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy begins in Hitler’s bunker at the end of World War II.
In terms of emerging science, that isn’t a problem either. Similar to the dinosaur DNA from amber premise of Jurassic Park, each of my thrillers is based on an incredible premise that is unlikely to occur. And, even if it does, that might even prove the better for me.
Regarding “the hardest part about writing convincing historical fiction,” I think that it’s mostly a matter of getting inside the minds and experiences of those who experienced it for real. What gave me a real edge in writing How Much? is an online database called Densho (you can Google it). This database is all about the internment and includes hundreds of interviews with internees. Better yet, these interviews are digitized so that one can search those records. Further, the Densho site includes copies of the camp newspapers (in my case the Tulean Dispatch from the Tule Lake camp). Without this resource, I would never have been able to create the historical richness of the internment experience in my book.
Yes, being that I happen to live in a state within the Gulf Coast, I know quite well about the strength and brutality of hurricanes; I grew up whilst having tornadoes and hurricanes always finding a way to ‘knock’ on the door so to speak. One hurricane in the early 1980s presented my entire family inside my living room with winds howling and rain pushing through the door. A tornado took down a palm tree which nearly took down half the house — so you could say, I’ve had a close and personal experience with natural disasters since I was a young child. These are simply two out of many experiences, but even outside the home I’ve been on the tail end and/or the front end of tornadoes; I never take any weather phenomena lightly. What gulls me to be passionate about natural disaster fiction (both in novels and motion pictures) is a wonderment to me! Laughs. I think it is partially in trying to understand the unstoppable and respect the power of nature herself. I’m also the one who watches the Weather Channel as though it is in vogue to do so. I can see now that your historical fiction actually originated inside your thrillers, and gave you the freedom to put down the science and explore humanity from a different angle of insight. What a beautiful literary legacy to have as a writer.
Singularly that is one of my favourite ‘science’ aspects of Jurassic Park, outside of Chaos Theory (as I appreciated Ian Malcolm’s character the most), and I do agree; if science in our world catches up to the science inside fictional stories it is definitely a win-win for all involved. And, this has happened previously so how wicked if it were to happen for you? In regards to how you gained your historical perspective for How Much? I found it fascinating they created the historical database; but then again, as a family historian alongside my Mum, I am always celebrating ‘new databases’ as the work Family Search & The Church of Latter-Day Saints has been providing all of us is incredible. I am thankful you had a database in which to read real-life testimonies and letters; there was such a clarity to your novel, I knew you must have come across real living histories of those affected. You brought out their souls.
Outside of the 20th Century, is there a moment in the folds of the historical past you might be curious to explore?
Tag responds: I haven’t given this much thought, but I suppose I’d prefer to stay within the 20th century, only because it is a period close enough that I could imagine being there. If you go back too far, you really have to do a lot of research to immerse yourself in the period. There are those who specialize in that, and I admire them for it.
I agree with you on how far back in history to alight when writing; the only time I disagree with my opinion on this is when I align during a specific section of history to cross-sect and then, endeavour to go back further than I felt I should or could. The novel I started during NanoWrimo 2008 for instance falls inside this category, but I will say, we all have to choose what is easy to imagine inside our own mind and therefore it will give us the catalyst to continue the story. I look forward to seeing what you create next and where your heart led you to go!
You gave your secondary characters a lot of depth and presence, which I appreciate as oft-times characters outside the main protagonists are not fully fleshed out. In particular, I was curious if your research led you to photographers from the World Wars era, especially in how it was revealed about how a photographer archives his stock of commissioned works. Photography has always been a keen interest of mine, and this section was an interesting one to read.
Tag responds: Part of the credit related to your first sentence has to go to my Cedar Fort editor, Alissa Voss. She told me that she wanted more details and richness regarding all characters so that the reader could better identify with, and understand, them. And so, there were several characters that I “beefed up.”
With respect to the photography part, I made it all up. Sorry. That said, I did ask a photographer friend of mine if there was a time limit beyond which he would not save negatives from his jobs. He told me that most photographers would keep their negatives forever. Of course, now that digital photography has superseded film photography, it’s a different era.
Your Editor is a very, very insightful woman because she is quite right in giving you that advice! I loved how each of your characters gave us so much as a reader; they endeared us because of what they could share and how they were presented heightened the story for me. Your Editor brought up what I sometimes bring up after reading a novel – if there isn’t enough written to find that tangible connection, it takes me out of the story. I want to feel emotionally connected to the stories and characters I read. Yes, I had a feeling part of the photography sections could have been made up, but you did such a clever way of fooling the facts that I am not sure anyone outside of the field would notice! Although, I have embraced digital photography (I’m a self-taught nature & wildlife photographer), my heart is still tethered to still photography and 35mm with traditional development practices. I do agree that we live in a different era, but photography for me will always be a bridge between both worlds. Digital will always fall a bit short for me in some ways, even if it has given me the ability to capture wildlife in ways that would be harder with still photography. I think an SLR that works with 35mm and one that works with digital is in my future; to sort out for myself where on the bridge I want to work the most. Ironically or not, I still approach digital photography as I do still photography: instead of negatives, I keep the digital cards. Otherwise as a digital photographer you do not have an archive of your work (on hard copy).
The close relationship you gave Keiko and Misaki (the twins of the story) felt as though I was walking back through my own past, as I had a close friend who was a twin. I was curious how you approached such a mindfulness of intuitive insight into knowing how twins inter-relate and connect?
Tag responds: Again, I hope that my answer doesn’t disappoint you. I simply extrapolated from stories I’ve heard regarding the closeness that twins can experience. I can’t say much more because it would give away the story.
Your answers haven’t disappointed me at all — in fact, I would think they would inspire and give credence to any aspiring author who finds that if a writer can extract out such a convicting and emotional story such as How Much?, than they in turn can write one from their own heart that leads them to a similar connection with their readership as well! I think it conveys a proper sense of the depth of a writer’s intuitiveness and ingenuity of writing through heart and imagination. And, that is always something worth celebrating, I think! I can personally say due to my interactions and friendships with twins, you nailed this relationship arc!
There is such a strong undercurrent passion for genealogical research and ancestral histories of families within the pages of “How Much Do You Love Me?”, are you a historian for your family? And, if so, where has your research taken you?
Tag responds: I wouldn’t consider myself an historian by any means. But I did do some research for my mom’s side of the family. My grandparents on my mother’s side came from what was then Russia (although they considered themselves German) in 1913. They emigrated to Pennsylvania and were farmers. I went to the Ellis Island online site and was able to locate a copy of the original manifest that documented their arrival there—along with their daughter, my Aunt Susie who (three months old at the time), remarkably, passed away just last year at the age of 100. Interestingly, Aunt Susie never wanted to talk about this background in her life, although I found it fascinating. Another relative told me that Aunt Susie considered it embarrassing. To me, her family history was nothing to be embarrassed about; to imagine what my grandparents went through, sailing across a big ocean to a new home far away, knowing that they would never return, represented a daunting decision. I don’t know that I could have been that brave.
Your family history and mine are a bit similar in the fact that my grandmother sailed from Scotland and emigrated to the United States when she was a teenager. She never shared a lot of stories with me about her life in the Highlands, as I know part of her always wished she had not left. I think what is hard about being the descendants from immigrants, is that we always want to encourage the stories forward to honour the past and to celebrate the journey; whereas those who lived the life we are attempting to learn more about simply want to either forget the story in part or in whole. I think it is simply the difference in time and how each of us reflects back on our own family history and how each experience we live whilst we’re here knits into our tapestry. I, too, want to dig further into Ellis Island’s records, as my own ancestors came through Ellis when they came here. I think we are all able to be called ‘everyday historians’ or even ‘family historians’ who take the time to seek out our own ancestral roots. I always would hope that if a day came and a ship needed to be boarded, I would have taken that step.
We live in a culturally diverse country with readers I know would appreciate the way in which you told this story, as you honoured the characters by giving them the full freedoms to be who they were whilst their experiences were laid bare on the page. Do you find that the internment for Japanese Americans is a topic that is being turnt away from shame and more towards an empathy for our prejudicial past. To start a conversation on how blessed we have all become by the families who have always dared to start a new life as an immigrant to our country? As we all have stories of where our families originated? War can bring out the worst of our humanity but it can also bring us forward into a place of peace.
Tag responds: I certainly hope so—that the topic has evolved from shame into empathy. I can’t imagine anyone reading my book (and all of the reviews so far have alluded to this) and not feeling sorry for what happened to the Japanese. But now, of course, we need to be careful that unfounded prejudices don’t arise again. It’s an interesting psychological subject—when people are fearful of whatever—a race of people, a religion, etc.—they tend to become prejudiced. I would hope that my book gives us pause when we’re tempted to act unfairly or unjustly toward our neighbors.
I completely agree with your response and it is my own personal hope that this novel will help change the perspective of how to react or rather how to not to react when presented with a difference that needs compassion not prejudicial judgement.
What was the initiating factor which led you to be passionate for crafting stories rather than staying in academia? And, when did this occur? Who was your best cheerleader?
Tag responds: I had been a research scientist my entire career. In fact, when I retired, I was doing some of the most exciting research I had ever done. However, I realized that unless I acted then (I was fifty-five years old), I would likely never delve into my desire to write fiction. At various stages when I was younger, I had tried writing fiction but hadn’t gotten very far. My wife, Becky, was and is my best cheerleader. She supports my efforts any way she can.
Wow. That was not what I was expecting to learn — and how fascinating!! You were a budding writer all along, and being a research scientist nearly took over your own dream to write. I celebrate the fact you championed your own dream and found a way to manifest itself onto your path! And, top cheers for your wife, who not only stood by your dreams but has been such a sounding board of encouragement!
What were your early influences and wanderings in literature!? Which authors spoke to you as far as a style of story-telling endeared itself to you ahead of creating your own stories? Are there any titles you could share which are still brought forward to mind in fond affection?
Tag responds: I can’t say that, during my research career, I was ever an avid reader. I remember reading the entire James Bond series and the same for Tom Clancy. I supposed that gives you a clue as to why I preferred writing thrillers initially. Interestingly, looking back to grade school, I read a lot back then. Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth comes to mind. I also remember reading a lot of adventure-style books and books about animals. I remember loving books by Jim Kjelgaard: for example, Big Red, about an Irish Setter and a boy who grow up together. At the time I lived in the country, away from town, and could identify with those characters.
I had to smile; James Bond novels were always on my “next reads list” growing up, but I wanted to find copies that I could be proud to place on my shelf, and back then, only used copies that felt like they had had hundreds of readers discover their text before me were available. Not that I’m against used copies, but if I want to collect a particular author, I do like to collect copies though previously loved still have a look and feel of being honoured for their grace. I’m so careful when I read novels myself, narry a spine is even hardly touched or bent! Cheekily I can agree with your sentiments — Clancy was one of the authors I soaked into as a teenager, and who turnt me onto military fiction. My favourite during that time was “Red Storm Rising” due to the duality of languages and where it was set. My favourite film, however, is “Hunt for Red October” which I have seen more times than I generally admit.
I have Verne on my list for The Classics Club – an author I was always curious about but have yet to read. And, I never heard of the story of “Big Red” but I think that would have been one I would have appreciated myself. I grew up in the city and the country, so I had this beautiful gift to see life from both perspectives. In many ways, my connection to the natural world heightened faster by being in the country, although my heart was never far from nature in the city. It is interesting what we gravitate towards simply by where we live or grew up. I went through a reading rut from my late teens to late twenties; my book blog is not only a celebration of reading again but of resuming where I once left off.
What are your favourite tools to use whilst writing? And, where do you write to gain the most inspiration?
Tag responds: My favorite tool for writing: my laptop computer for sure. Other than that, the Internet has made fact-finding so easy compared to the days when you had to scour a library for information. The Internet has so revolutionized our lives. Where do I write? We have a small guesthouse, and I’ve written my last couple of books at a table there by the window. I don’t think it would matter much where I wrote as long as it was quiet.
Alas, I am always curious if I will come across a writer who wants to forsake modern technology and get back to yesteryear’s — yes, I do agree the internet helps loads for research, but I am more of a traditionalist, I want to get back into research at University libraries and their beautiful gift of inter-library loans for subject specific enquiries. I think its quite lovely that you have a separate space to write – away from distraction. I yearn for that myself, as I used to have a writer’s study where I had my personal library, my computer, and my writing desks. One for letters and correspondences and one for writing. I like writing in long-hand but also by typewriter.
Outside the realms of writing, research, and science, what enriches your spirit the most? Where do you find your serenity?
Tag responds: Unfortunately, my wife, Becky, will tell you that there isn’t much serenity in my life. I’m an obsessive Virgo who is always on the go. The passion that I feel for my writing is part of that. Is that bad? I don’t think so. I’ve seen too many folks retire from their jobs and do nothing. They may have a lot of serenity, but not much else.
I’m always fascinated by how each writer approaches this question, as it is one question I like to include in most of the Interviews I give. Most respond as you do, that serenity is for other people, however, for me I feel renewed in nature and when I pause to pursue a bit of artistic creativity through mixed media collage. Of course, it applies to each of us differently, and I am always intrigued by the answers. Yes, I realise that some of us would rather be in motion more than at rest, but even in retirement there are times to just breathe and relax to. I know this as my father retired, and was constantly ‘on the go’ prior to retiring, yet is finding new joy in just being able to enjoy his hours rather than always being taxed for time.
I think you found your second joy in writing, and seeing where you take your stories next will be a delight for this reader!
I would like to take a moment and thank Mr. Tag for being gracious with his time and for giving such wonderful responses to my questions! I have been appreciating the journey of discovery with the novels published by Cedar Fort, and his novel is one of my top favourites by far. There will always be stories that stitch themselves into our heart and set alive characters who give us such a level of depth that their stories will remain with us long after we stop reading where their story left off. For me, How Much Do You Love Me? is a true testament of faith, love, and the hope of overcoming a moment of adversity to get through to the other side where life breathes a renewing sense of calm. At its core it is a novel of how love can be self-sacrificing and a celebration of close-connective bonds of family.
I enjoyed getting to know Mr. Tag a bit better through this conversation, and I am very much looking forward to reading his thrillers grounded in science as it will be a way of getting back to my roots of the genre! I always wanted to continue reading science thrillers ever since I first picked up Michael Crichton’s novels, but time and life swept me into different literary avenues and it simply is one of my literary adventures put on hold at the moment. I appreciated his frankness about creating some of the most emotionally stirring passages of this novel by heart and imagination, as much as I found it quite wicked to know the realism of the internment camps was based on actual letters and words left behind by those who survived.
Virtual Road Map of “How Much Do You Love Me?” Blog Tour can be found here:
Previously I reviewed How Much Do You Love Me? a war drama set in the United States during a period of our history that I did not know a lot about prior to reading the novel, and will forevermore leave footprints on my heart due to how compelling of a narrative Mr. Tag wrote into his debut historical war drama.
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Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.
Reader Interactive Question:
What do you personally look for as a reader inside of a war drama? What have you learnt through this interview that compels you to pick up a copy of “How Much Do You Love Me?”? Do you find yourself reading stories set during WWI or WWII the most and why?
{SOURCES: Author photograph, Author Biography, Book Synopsis and Book Cover of “How Much Do You Love Me?” were provided by the author Paul Mark Tag and used with permission. The Cedar Fort badge was provided by Cedar Fort, Inc. and used by permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}
Acquired Book By:I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort whereupon I am thankful to have such a diverse amount of novels and non-fiction titles to choose amongst to host. I received a complimentary copy of “How Much Do You Love Me?” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I have always been inspired by stories from the World Wars, the lives in which were altered by circumstances no one could control and how the human spirit survived against harrowing odds. I studied the World Wars in school but we never studied the Internment camps in the United States which displaced the lives of the Japanese who were either living here or already bonefide citizens. It is one part of my country’s history as the author himself mentions in his Preface that does not put our best foot forward. I grew up learning about Japanese culture, with a strong empathise on their fine art and musical traditions as my maternal grandparents had a fondness for their heritage. I had the kind blessing of cultivating friends from Japan in my teen and twenties, of whom introduced new layers of their heritage to me and also gave me the blessing of knowing that some parts of the past are forgiven, as one of my dearest friends was from Hiroshima. Her light of kindness and acceptance of me as a friend has not left me even though her path and mine led apart when she married. A close friend of mine from Okinawa gave me the gift of understanding multicultural families up close and personal as she married an American Marine.
Whilst knowing of the darker hues of our history are difficult to process and read through, there are enlightening moments of true heroism and strength of the will of man to not only survive but overcome injustice. I felt compelled to read this story whilst I read the synopsis as a window back through time into one family’s journey through an experience that is inconceivable. I appreciated the extras include with this novel, as the Preface delve into why Tag was inspired to relay this story as much as the Appendixes in the back are warranted to become introduced to the characters ahead of their presence and a knowledge of the terminology threaded into the story.
Book Synopsis:
Keiko Tanaka, along with her twin sister, Misaki, and two other siblings are first generation children of parents who emigrated from Japan in the early 1900s. Born in the US, they are American citizens. Nonetheless, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in December of 1941, politicians whip anti-Japanese rhetoric into a frenzy, claiming that anyone who looks Japanese should be suspected of being an enemy agent of the Japanese emperor, Hirohito. Although government officials (including FBI head, J. Edgar Hoover) report no evidence supporting such suspicion, public opinion turns against the Japanese. Consequently, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signs Executive Order No. 9066, sealing the fate of 120,000 West Coast Japanese—including the Tanaka family of Bellevue, Washington—sending them to internment camps.
Prior to the tumult of this anti-Japanese hysteria, Keiko falls in love with a Caucasian, James Armstrong. Contrary to their families’ wishes, they decide to marry before Keiko leaves for the camps and James goes to war. At Tule Lake, the Tanaka’s internment camp in northern California, Keiko’s and James’s daughter, Kazuko, is born.
Nearly sixty years later, Keiko has a stroke and lies near death, while James suffers from Alzheimer’s. Coincidentally, a chance occurrence makes Kazuko suspect that her mother has been hiding a secret from the internment. Fighting the clock before her mother’s death, she races to unearth the mystery. What she uncovers represents nothing short of the epitome of human love and self-sacrifice. But, beyond Kazuko’s realization, only the reader knows that is only half the story.
Author Biography:
Paul Mark Tag made a career as a research scientist before switching gears to write fiction. In the late 1990s, in preparation for a career in writing, he wrote short stories only. Author/Publisher Arline Chase was his mentor. In 2001, when he made his career change permanent, he spent a year writing short stories only. These have been published in StoryBytes, Potpourri, Greens Magazine, and The Storyteller.
In 2002, Tag began his first novel, a thriller entitled Category 5, which took advantage of his knowledge of meteorology and weather modification. Prophecy, a sequel, followed in July of 2007. White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy, is the third in the trilogy. With How Much Do You Love Me? Tag has switched genres, trying his hand at historical fiction. He lives with his wife, Becky, in Monterey, California.
Multicultural heritage, marriage, and blended families:
What I appreciated the most about Tag’s presentation of the romance blooming between Keiko and James, is that he did not make any part of their lives cliche or expected. Keiko grew up in the Methodist faith whereas James was a Unitarian; two separate worlds of thought on faith and at the time they were living in the 1940s neither denominations understood each other as well as they do today. The fact that they were both American citizens, one of Anglo-Saxon heritage and one of Japanese is what put them at the greatest risk on the fringes of war with Japan. James was given a strong countenance for a man of his young years but determination to be with the love of his life endeared him to me on the spot. They each saw past their own differences and how those differences were viewed by others inside their own community to forge a life together that was rooted in love and faith. Keiko might be nineteen at the opening of How Much Do You Love Me? but her spirit of self-awareness and knowledge of the current events slowing turning the tides against her make her mature beyond her years.
The manner in which their love story unfolds is a slow arc towards their union, as we know in the beginning that they were able to be wed, but it is how the story revealed their path towards their wedding and the life after the war ended that proved to be the most special. Especially considering the fact they were breaking tradition, not only for the culture of Keiko’s heritage but for James to marry an Asian at that point in time was nearly not able to be done legally. I had not realised it myself, as to when multicultural marriages had been approved but I silently cheered that four states led the way forward for all relationships to become equal. (Washington was one of the four)
Category 5
