Tori Eldridge
The Ninja’s Oath
DOSSIER: Your popular Lily Wong series about a Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja came out of a story you wrote in the Suspense Magazine called “Call Me Dumpling.” That was almost ten years ago. How do you think Lily would respond to someone today if she was walking down the street and someone called her Dumpling? Like, “Hey, what’s up, Dumpling?”
ELDRIDGE: That’s hilarious. Well, Lily would probably give them “the look.” You know, the one that says “Excuse you?” I employed that look many times myself while training and teaching the ninja martial arts, usually when some rambunctious black belt stud was trying to prove himself on my time. Trust me. It never ended well for them. And anyone who has read The Ninja Daughter (book one) knows characters should run like hell if Lily ever decides to share her father’s pet name for her with them.
DOSSIER: When you transitioned from Broadway, film and TV into being a fulltime writer, you bravely jumped in with both feet. Most writers struggle with story challenges, but was there ever a time when you thought that publishing wasn’t going to happen for you?
ELDRIDGE: If only it had been as clean as that! When I left Cats and The Love Boat, I actually transitioned into a full-time mom and ninja. During motherhood and my martial arts obsession, I also picked up TV and film gigs I was invited to do, wrote several unproduced screenplays, expanded one of them into a novel, taught in preschools, and even co-directed a high school drumline. Only after my sons were grown did I end my ninja career and commit my full attention and intention to pursuing my novelist dream—which for me, felt like a damn long road. Although I published short stories fairly quickly, it took eight years before my first novel debuted. The six months before I landed that two-book deal had me questioning my sanity. Did I think it wouldn’t happen? Absolutely. But I had invested too much time and energy to quit.
DOSSIER: You often have a cup of tea going at your desk, but when you write, what kind of atmosphere do you need? (Music/silence/an amazing view?)
ELDRIDGE: I need a place where I can stand and write in the morning, followed by comfy seats or nooks for the rest of the day. As a kinetic person and life-long athlete, my body cramps if I remain in one position for too long.
DOSSIER: Your website is great, and right on the splash page you have a personal quote: “When in doubt, choose the most empowering perspective.” With that in mind, what’s the career move you made that really stands out as a moment that sent you into a great direction?
ELDRIDGE: That’s a tough question since every career shift I’ve made has propelled me in a new direction that ultimately brought me to where I am today. That said, my decision to leave the performing arts and train in the ninja arts changed the trajectory of my life in all aspects—body, mind, and spirit. I never dreamed I would one day write a thriller series about a modern-day ninja heroine. But with one novel in submission and another in the works, Lily Wong popped into my head while writing that short story you mentioned earlier. Once she made her presence known, I had to follow her path.
DOSSIER: With as much as writers can often be stuck within our own heads, how has martial arts and meditation helped you “calm the voices” of doubt that sometimes arise to keep us down?
ELDRIDGE: Hmm… Doubt and rejection have been ever-present in my life from childhood and up through everyone one of my careers. Although writers face rejection during times of submission and query, as a performer, I auditioned (and was rejected) several times every week. My family was wise to introduce me to meditation when I was twelve. The Tendai Buddhism practices embedded into our To-Shin Do training led me to take refuge and establish the daily practice I continue today. All of these experiences and tools help calm the turbulence in my mind.
Unfortunately, it’s not a one and done kind of thing. As with mindfulness or the path to enlightenment, maintaining a calm mind requires constant recognition and adjustment to keep the seeker on track.
When I lose my center and slide into anxiety, I remind myself of all the times I have pulled myself out and the techniques and activities that have worked countless times before. We all have helpful strategies in our lives, but when turbulence hits, it’s challenging to believe they will still work. This is why it’s so important to acknowledge the empowering things we think, speak, and do so we can remind ourselves later of who and what we can be.
DOSSIER: Way back before you were an award-winning bestselling author of the wildly popular Lily Wong series, and someone was shortsighted enough to turn down one of your book ideas, was the first thing you wondered … ninjato or katana blade? Or did you handle rejection in a different way?
ELDRIDGE: Nah. By then, rejection had become a familiar and expected tool toward success. Although some of them stung more than others, I harvested any insights or epiphanies I could find and moved on, either to rewrite that project or continuing writing the next.
Website: Author Page | Amazon author page
Jeff Circle 