Tag Archives: Mochizuki Chiyome

Risuko, My Father, and Toxic Masculinity

I tell yeh, Bright Eyes. Men and women? A bloody mess. Every time. — Kee Sun on sex and gender, Risuko

Is “toxic masculinity” just a way of saying men are toxic?

I get asked a lot about why I decided to write about young women in my Seasons of the Sword novels. There are lots of reasons.

But an online conversation I was part of recently made one of them very clear to me.

In the conversation, someone argued that “toxic masculinity” was feminist code for the assertion that all men are bad/toxic.

No. No. No.

Masculinity ≠ Men Continue reading Risuko, My Father, and Toxic Masculinity

Gender, Risuko, and Granny Weatherwax

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about gender.

Woman Combing Her Hair by Goyo Hashiguchi, c. 1920
Woman Combing Her Hair by Goyo Hashiguchi, c. 1920

I’ve been thinking about gender because I’m writing a series of books in which it plays an important role. But it’s also on my mind because it’s very much a part of the global conversation these days. Issues of women’s rights in general and transsexual men and women’s rights in particular flare regularly in my morning news feed. My wife is teaching an online class in theater and gender that looks at these subjects in depth. The subjects comes up frequently in my conversations with my daughters and with my friends.

Sex=Gender

I’m just old enough that when I was young we didn’t make any distinction between sex (as defined by one’s physical appearance) and gender (one’s identification and behavior). Certain toys were girl toys and others were boy toys. Some boys were girly and some girls were tomboys. When I reached high school, we were taught that people with XX chromosomes were female while people with XY chromosomes were male.

That’s just the way it was.

Continue reading Gender, Risuko, and Granny Weatherwax

Pre-order White Robes now! (Risuko prequel)

White Robes - A Kunoichi Companion TaleWhite Robes, the first of the Kunoichi Companion Tales series of prequel stories to Risuko, is now available to pre-order on Amazon’s Kindle Store!

“White Robes” introduces Lady Mochizuke Chiyome, a recent war widow who is mired in grief. She has become tired of mourning, tired of wearing the white robes that are the traditional Japanese garb of the grieving. On the road, she encounters two young women who open her eyes to a whole new purpose in life — and a new way to end Japan’s century-old civil war.

There are six planned stories: Continue reading Pre-order White Robes now! (Risuko prequel)

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Kunoichi Companion Tales covers

Kunoichi Companion Tales introduce characters and themes from the Seasons of the Sword novels, and are currently available free exclusively to Risuko subscribers, along with news, blog posts, and other exclusive gifts!

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Kunoichi Companion Tales

This series of short stories, set before and between the novels of the Seasons of the Sword series, is available exclusively to our subscribers and to our Kickstarter supporters.

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