Thomas Kichi

My real name is Thomas Broderick. When first starting out as an author, I discovered there were already two other Thomas Brodericks writing and publishing with that name. So I came up with a pen-name to submit under.

Thomas Kichi comes from Tamekichi, a Japanese nickname that can be written with the characters 為 (good) and 吉 (luck). I placed in a contest and got a story published under the name, so I've kept using it.

I wanted to call the emails I send regularly something to help remind me of the reasons behind it.

There's a story I love called "The Kangaroo Communiqué" by Haruki Murakami. You can read Philip Gabriel's translation of it online at Zyzzyva. In it, a young man's response to a woman's complaint letter sent to his company (d)evolves into a strange, rambling personal confession committed to cassette tape. In it I see an isolated person reaching out and attempting to connect while lacking the "right" words.

At the end of the story, the narrator says:

At any rate, I’ve been aspiring to incompleteness, so I guess I should go along with it without any qualms. What supports it all are you and the four kangaroos.

I've made it a goal of mine to reach out more, recognizing I won't always get the words "right," and asking for your understanding of my trying.

What supports it all is you.