As part of my research for the Old Testament romance I am writing, I am watching foreign films located in places similar to the Sinai Desert. These films reflect the lives of women in a patriarchal society where females have little or no perceivable power. Living this way is especially painful for the women […]
I spent about an hour and a half yesterday reading two books: This Must Be My Brother by Leann Thieman and Carol Dey and The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975–1992 by Nghia M. Vo . I vaguely remember the first story, so I either read the book when I was younger or watched a show on television […]
As part of writing Hieu’s memoir, I have been researching Vietnam’s history, especially the Vietnam war because those events shaped Hieu’s life directly until he was twelve and indirectly after that. Yesterday, a friend and I watched “We Were Soldiers.” My friend commented that the hardest part of watching it was knowing that the men […]
Dr. Seuss was rejected 27 times before his first book was accepted by publishers. I was turned down again for a short story I submitted. (Karen, this is not the Library one or the Dog one. I am not sure you have read this one. I will check with you.) And, once again, I thought […]
Writing Hieu Tran’s memoir is an intimidating project for me as a writer. In order to truly write a book about a child who leaves Vietnam alone in search of a place called “America,” I need to understand the Vietnamese people and how the Vietnam war affected the people of Vietnam, especially after the war. […]
This announcement really belongs more to Hieu Tran than to me. He and I are collaborating on his memoir. Hieu escaped Vietnam, alone, when he was twelve and came to live in the United States. His book is about his life, especially his experience getting to the United States and what happened after he got […]
I have a big announcement to make about a project. I will be posting about it on Monday.
I am hooked on this book series. It has really dark humor. I have laughed out loud a few times while reading the first book–and I don’t generally laugh out loud when I am reading. It is a great adventure story for kids 6th grade and up.
A friend’s post on Facebook caught my eye. Actually, what caught my eye was the picture. It was of a large egg with something obviously pecking its way out. Although the egg looked too large to be a natural egg, the woman’s post said something about waiting for it to hatch, so I wasn’t sure. […]
If you haven’t seen Stranger Things on Netflix, stop reading this, go get yourself some popcorn and some soda pop and watch it. You might as well schedule some pizza delivery and prepare to sit in front of the tele for the next 8 hours because once you start, you will not want to stop. (There are […]