Daniel Robert Epstein: The Ring and Dark Water author Koji Suzuki

He didn't really use the name Samara, did he?

It seemed a little strange to me, because I would've thought that as the original Japanese author he would've referred to the character by her original name, which was Sadako.

Other than that, cool interview.

wow, that's a really great, informative, fun interview, man - i'm especially impressed since it was done through a translator, usually that leads to some stiffness.

i am excited for Loop - i recently tore through Ring and Spiral, and Grady1 just lent me his copy of Dark Water. really great stuff.

incidentally, Vertical Press is putting out a lot of incredibly cool Japanese writing beyond Suzuki's books.

he may very well have said, "samara." the american ring movies were also big hits in Japan, and Japanese kids (and adults) love to adopt English words that they think sound cool. Then again, sometimes words get changed, like when it took me 10 minutes to figure out that "Shwa-chan" was in fact Arnold Schwarzeneger. really hope i spelled that right.

the translator kept switching back and forth between samara and the other name so i just picked one and kept it that wat

This was a great interview.

All interviews by Epstein are great.