Sushi, Hush Puppies on the Side?

Big news! The first novel in my funny, Southern-fried mystery series just hit the shelves .... in JAPAN! My U.S. publisher, Midnight Ink, nicely mailed me a couple of copies so I could add them to my collection of international volumes. (Right now, it's a pretty meager ''collection,'' consisting of ... the Japanese edition.)

I love the anime-style, cartoony cover. A Japanese friend says they've translated the title as ''Don't Look in Mama's Trunk.'' Pretty good advice, since a corpse lurks inside.

I'd wondered how in the world they'd handle the colloquial ''Mama Does Time'' title, not to mention all the Southernisms sprinkled throughout the book. I hope someone who reads Japanese will tell me how they translated what the owner of Hair Today, Dyed Tomorrow Beauty Parlor says in Chapter 7: "Honey, why don't you sit right down and relax? You look like a pair of pantyhose been put through the spin cycle.''

I was pleased to see they show an alligator on the Japanese cover (or, his head at least), as there are PLENTY of 'gators in Himmarshee, Fla. They also have Mace's eyes as blue, and Mama's convertible as turquoise, both correct.

Pretty cool, huh?

Now, since I was raised up right, I'm going to give a little *bow* here and say: Domo Arrigato, Hayakawa. That's ''Thank you, (Japanese publisher) Hayakawa.''

Y'all come back now, hear? Remember, there are three more titles in the Mace Bauer Mystery series, just itching to be translated!