The Lotus Monster Book

A Note from the Writer:
It may be presumptuous to write an afterward to a children’s
book; however this book had a unique beginning, and
that beginning goes back to a theater in Los Angeles called
the Toho La Brea a long long time ago. When I had just broken
into writing for Hollywood, a good friend, Tag, suggested
that Star Trek’s Mr. Spock was cast in the mold of a samurai.
He was stoic, wise, and he could fell the enemy with a single
blow (or pinch). . Since I knew almost nothing of Japanese
culture and less about Japanese warriors, I asked what a samurai
was. In reply she took me to see my first samurai film
at the Toho La Brea which was near the famous La Brea Tar
Pits and the Farmers Market. For that I am forever grateful.
Soon I was carting my youngest sister, Margien, sixty
miles from home to Hollywood every weekend to watch Japanese
men and women (and even babies) slash their way
through epics like “Seven Samurai” and “Lone Wolf with Baby
Carriage”. It was there I fell in love with Akira Kurosawa, Hiroshi
Inagaki, Toshiro Mifune, and Japanese food. Above the
theater was the Cherry Blossom restaurant where you could
sit on tatami mats, try your hand at hashi (chopsticks) and
sample the wonders of sukiyaki, tempura, and of course sushi.
It wasn’t more than a year after becoming enamored
of Japanese historical dramas (or jidai-geki) that I made my
first trip to Japan as a tourist. That trip will be remembered
forever as the trip where my newly acquired samurai swords
were stolen at the airport. What could not be stolen were
the countless memories of children in yellow raincoats visiting
great temples filled with giant buddhas and Torii-gated
Zen Shrines with their rows of granite foxes wearing bright