Mark McClure, writer

Now Updated on 2026-08-31 Sunday from Tokyo, Japan Spent a month in Ireland, the longest time I’ve ever been outside Japan since moving here eons ago.

Now Updated on 2026-06-28 Sunday from Tokyo, Japan It’s been a cooler and wetter June this year, although we and the data centers can always do with more water, I suppose.

The Title Before me sit eight rows of students at identical desks, sixty-four in all, and each working on the same set of problems.

Now Updated on 2026-05-26 Tuesday from Tokyo, Japan May in Tokyo is usually a transition time between a cool spring and a hotter, muggier June.

Now Updated on 2026-04-27 Monday from Tokyo, Japan It’s raining cats and dogs on this cool Monday morning, but the rain’s welcome as it’s been a dry winter.

Now Updated on 2026-03-31 Tuesday from Tokyo, Japan Cherry blossoms are everywhere in Tokyo this week and there’s no need to trip over the hordes thronging the better-known viewing spots.

Now Updated on 2026-03-03 Tuesday from Tokyo, Japan Way too busy with work and life planning in February to get even much reading, let alone writing, done.

“I suppose you’ll be leaving me now,” he said.

< Transmission Begins > I stared up at the isolation room’s steel gray ceiling and fumed in frustration.

Now Updated on 2026-01-27 Tuesday from Tokyo, Japan That promise of crisp, sunny days for the Kanto area I wrote about in November has been fulfilled and how!

Not Kicking up the Daisies Today’s the second of December and another day above ground, as my father used to say when things weren’t going his way.

Thirteen Books Read in 2025.

A Poem for Christmas Eve Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve and another year is almost over.

A lightheaded Look Within I published this poem last year on my now defunct web3 site at markmcclure.xyz.

Now Updated on 2025-11-30 Sunday from Tokyo, Japan Well, here we are at the end of November.

Proctoring Lifeology 101 I wrote this method writing journal entry in a Campus pocket notebook with a Pentel Energel pen.

Now Updated on 2025-10-28 Tuesday from Tokyo, Japan Not much in the way of October sunshine for Tokyo this year, and it’s looking like autumn will be squashed into November at best.

Now Updated on 2025-09-28 Sunday from Tokyo, Japan Today (it was the 23rd when I wrote this paragraph) is ‘autumnal equinox day’ and a(nother) national holiday.

Death is but a Tick in a Box I’m right chuffed about my latest time management strategy.

Now Updated on 2025-08-30 Thursday from Tokyo, Japan I’m surviving Tokyo’s August heatwave by going out as little as possible when the sun’s up.

Piles of Practice I am practising method writing (at least I hope that’s what I’m doing.)

Now Updated on 2025-07-30 Wednesday from Tokyo, Japan I passed on writing June’s entry because of, well, life stuff.

Now Updated on 2025-05-28 Wednesday from Tokyo, Japan Here’s a selection of May’s NOW moments.

Now Updated on 2025-04-28 Monday from Tokyo, Japan Here’s a selection of April’s NOW moments.

Now Updated on 2025-03-28 Friday from Tokyo, Japan Here’s a selection of March’s NOW moments..

Clock Watching What is WIBBOW?

東北大震災 Fourteen years!

Now Updated on 2025-02-28 Friday from Tokyo, Japan Tokyo had a few cold sunny days but almost no snow.

microfiction from a method writing journal entry I’m a mental maestro in disguise.

Now Updated on 2025-01-28 Tuesday from Tokyo, Japan Back in the writing saddle again after a pleasant Christmas/New Year (Japanese style) that included a short trip to Nagasaki, the city where the second atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.

Side-Stepping Writer’s Block According to “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way”, an eBook about Kaizen and self-improvement by Robert Maurier, I need only write a measly ten words or so to begin laying down neuronal grooves in my prefrontal

- Eighteen Books Devoured in 2024.

Now Updated on 2024-12-02 Monday from Tokyo, Japan Missed my end of November target date but better late than never

The Breakout Room This flash fiction (aka microfiction) started out as a journal entry inspired by Jack Grapes’s book on ‘Method Writing’.

Now Updated on 2024-10-28 Monday from Tokyo, Japan Wearing a light fleece today; now I know summer’s behind us and winter’s on the way.

Thinking About Rain Years ago rain like this made me feel glad to be alive.

Now Updated on 2024-09-28 Saturday from Tokyo, Japan Cooler temperatures (that means daytime highs of less than thirty Celsius) have at last reached the Tokyo area.

September Mourn “My father loved September Morn,” Sadako said, her voice almost a whisper.

Now Updated on 2024-08-28 Wednesday from Tokyo, Japan I’m getting up earlier than ever on weekdays.

Now Updated on 2024-06-28 Friday from Tokyo, Japan I’m getting up earlier than ever on weekdays.

Now Updated on 2024-05-28 Tuesday from Tokyo, Japan Japan’s first typhoon of the year is moving slowly up the archipelago’s Pacific coast.

Old is my Middle Name Fiction writer’s job description: sit in a room and make things up.

Newsletter Update: 2025-03-16 Update: I wrote a monthly email newsletter here for a couple of years.

Now Updated on 2024-04-28 Sunday from Tokyo, Japan The weather’s warm and Japan’s “golden week” holiday has begun.

Four More Pages And here I am again; four more pages.

rAIn - Flash Fiction This flash fiction was inspired by rainy weather last week and by my interest in what the generative A.

Now Updated on 2024-03-29 Friday from Tokyo, Japan A day late publishing this NOW update but better late than never.

Now Updated on 2024-02-28 Wednesday from Tokyo, Japan The first two weeks were warm, way too warm for winter clothes; perhaps a portent of the summer ahead.

Mark McClure and JFR Publishing Present… Click on the links inside this post for details of individual books or series, including buy links.

Now Updated on 2024-01-28 Thursday from Tokyo, Japan Whatever happened to January?