I've had a complete rethink about how to publish ebooks and organize this website. From now on I have decided to make all of the stories published by Little J Books (where the original copyright has expired*) available for free on the Little J Books website. Hopefully one day, fingers crossed, this website can become a place where people come to read all kinds of Japanese stories for free (not just ones translated by Little J Books) and to purchase the same books as a hard copy. I figure this is the best way to introduce new readers to Japanese literature.

* The copyright for the original (in Japan) expires approximately 50 years after the death of the author. Length of copyright varies from country to country.

  Last week was a busy one. I've completely reorganized all of the titles from Kenji Miyazawa and Nankichi Niimi into a series: Tales From a Japanese Dreamland. Since I started translating these stories I've been wondering about the best way to present them in a way that people interested in them would be able to find them. Of course, people who already know the authors will just search by author name, but I really would like to introduce these guys to a new audience, so I feel the title of the series is really quite important.  
  After trialling all sorts of different series titles, I decided to go with this one because it best conveys a sense of the fantasy world that these authors created, without  restricting their audience to just children. I also thought about using fairytales or folk tales but the word fairytale tends to bring to mind Hansel & Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood, which are great stories, but mostly for children, while folk tales brings to mind stories like Robin Hood that have been handed down for generations, so it is not really suitable to these stories.

Paul