Holly Thompson (www.hatbooks.com) is a longtime resident of Japan and author of the young adult verse novelOrchards(Delacorte/Random House, 2011), which was nominated for a 2012 YALSA/ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults award. She is also the author of the picture bookThe Wakame Gatherers(Shen’s Books, 2007) and the novelAsh(Stone Bridge Press, 2001). She is a regular contributor to the Double Take column of All Nippon Airway’sWingspanmagazine, and serves as Regional Advisor for the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She has taught creative and academic writing at Yokohama City University for many years and often gives presentations on… writing craft. Visit her Hatbooks blog (http://hatbooks.blogspot.com) on writing, teaching, living and learning, mostly in Japan.