In her meditations, Susan Scharfman can still visualize the many beautiful places she frequented while working as a foreign affairs officer for the government for 25 years.She spent time in Europe, Australia, North America, and Asia and made countless of connections along the way. Her job was to write press releases about her encounters with the locals she would meet at various countries. She’d send them to American embassy officials or her bosses in Washington. She admits it was a dream job. She got to travel and write.
Among the places she visited, Japan truly captured her attention. It was her favorite place to work. The country’s culture and traditions sparked her imagination.
"While I was stationed in Tokyo, I learned a lot about the people and the Zen culture," Scharfman said.
When her duties with the government were over, Scharfman continued to write essays and short stories in her home in downtown Jersey City. Writing is what "makes me feel alive. It’s my purpose," she says.
Eight years ago she began writing a novel about a 17th century upper-class Japanese girl who feuds with her father over her family’s status-driven lifestyle, and who also falls in love with a peasant boy who is training to become a Samurai warrior. The story is an ode to the country Scharfman learned to love and about a few demons she needed to confront, she said.
Years of research and editing resulted in the novel The Sword & the Chrysanthemum, Journey of the Heart, a self-published effort released on paperback this year and distributed by 1stBooks.
"With the publisher I used, when you see my book on the shelf, along with others, the quality is so good you cannot tell it from a Random House or Simon and Schuster," Scharfman said.
Since 2000, Scharfman relentlessly sought many firms in New York City to publish her novel. She came close several times, but the outcomes were never favorable. She decided to take matters into her own hands and last year she employed a print-on-demand publisher for the job.
She purchased several thousand copies, and on Sept. 5 she will read from her novel at the Symposia Bookstore on Willow Avenue in Hoboken at 8 p.m. In the fall, she will be reading at Barnes and Noble in New York City and North Jersey. Eventually she wants to take her book on the road for a mini-West Coast tour.
Scharfman’s novel is a spiritual quest and a romantic adventure about the search for identity and self-discovery. It’s intriguing and rich in detail. She proves she can describe 17th century Japan like a historian.
"It’s fiction based on facts and facts woven into fiction," she said.
The Sword & the chrysanthemum, Journey of the Heart is available at Barnes and Noble, Border’s, Amazon.com and 1stBooks.com. For information on the author visit www.mysticsword.com or email Scharfman at ezwriter5@aol.com. Symposia Bookstore is located at 511 Willow Ave. in Hoboken. q