After many years of research and writing, Angela Davis Gardner has just completed her third book. Plum Wine is a Japanese history novel written with much detail about the experiences of a woman in Japan.

The novel entails a story about a woman named Barbara Jefferson, an American teaching in Tokyo. Her surrogate mother Michi dies, and Barbara, with the help of a man named Seiji Okada, uncovers Michi’s past. Gardner started writing Plum Wine after many experiences in her life led her to write the novel.

“I just got the idea for the book completely out of the blue,” Gardner said. It took Gardner the next 10 years to get the idea onto paper.

“This was the longest process I have ever been through,” Gardner said. “It’s very layered with a lot of detail and the main character reflects many parts of my life.”

Besides Gardner’s experiences in Tokyo, many other factors helped her write Plum Wine . The idea originally came from living in Tokyo. Gardner’s mother was a correspondent in Japan while she was a child. Gardner would eventually work in Tokyo and meet many people who were similar to characters in the novel. The main character, Barbara, was loosely based upon Gardner and her own life.

“She was very similar to me, but a lot of events in the book never actually happened to me but just came through my imagination,” Gardner said.

The other characters were also based upon people Gardner had met while living and working in Tokyo.

“There was a woman [who] worked in Tokyo [who] was very helpful to me and that is shown through the character of Seiji Okada,” Gardner said.

Gardner started writing as a child and eventually made it all the way to Duke University to major in English. After Gardner received her bachelor’s degree, she decided to pursue her masters in creative writing at UNC Greensboro. “I wrote a lot in college, but after I graduated I kind of just stopped,” Gardner said.

An old mentor, Doris Betts, a famous writer from the south, then influenced Gardner to write again. “I had turned in a small story to her one day to read and after she read it, she looked at me and said, ‘I smell a novel,'” Gardner said. “She really gave me back the confidence I needed to start writing again.” Now that Gardner has been writing for the past several decades, she finds “encouragement from a lot of different places like my family and friends.” Gardner has been a teacher at N.C. State since 1986 and she has had tenure since 1991. The experience she has received from her many years of work has driven her to the success she has today. Gardner has received many teaching awards throughout the years, including the Alumni Undergraduate Distinguished Teacher Award, of which she is the most proud.