This might be the moment to unveil why I divided my activities, identities and thus my websites into two: one for Vanessa Araya and one for Joyce Shintani. There was a primary reason and a secondary reason.

I began writing fiction in 2008, after finishing my dissertation and falling into a grave depression. After some time I decided to assume a nom de plume for my literary attempts. The primary reason was to hide my writing and the ‘family name’ from any relatives who might feel offended by it. And there was the off-chance that my mother might discover my publications and find in them something to brag about. (Since it seems that one of my main functions as daughter was to provide bragging material.) She now being dead, in addition to the fact that I have informed most all my cousins who could care about my writing activities, that reason is now moot.

My secondary reason for choosing a nom de plume was to separate my fiction identity from my musicological writing. However, that reason alone would not necessitate a strict division between the two identities.

In the last months – since my mother’s death and my hospitalization – my goal of integrating my personalities has gained even more importance to me. And so I will now try to unify identities, build bridges between them and, symbolically, between the two websites.

Why I chose the name Vanessa Araya? To be elaborated in a future posting...