Transitioning from The Dragon to The Snake Year!

Looking back and looking forward

Concluding the Year of the Wood Dragon and starting the Year of the Wood Snake, this newsletter contains last year’s highlights and future year’s prospects.

The Wood Dragon Year

(2024-02-10 ~ 2025-01-28)

The dragon is a majestic and mythical creature that represents leadership, courage, and fortune in Chinese culture. Personally, though, the year has been more challenging than other years for me. The magnitude of the positives and negatives in my life felt tenfold larger this year than usual. I won’t bore you on all aspects of my life but just focus on a few writing-related positive items.

28 Voices Published in June

After 6 years of taking creative writing courses and workshops at YMCA’s Downtown Writers Center (DWC, now called Writers Voice) that led to the publication of my debut book, Las Crosses in 2023, I wanted to find a way to pay back and pay forward for the benefits I received. Georgia A. Popoff was on board immediately when I approached her with the idea of an anthology to publish the fine writings of fellow students from DWC. The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. A few months into collective labor, 28 Voices was published in June.

Check out the pictures from one of the readings.

Mother of Red Mountains Published in December

Totally unexpected and started from a few pages that were an appendix of an unpublished memoir, this book found its own right to be a must-told story.

Based on true events and real people, Mother of Red Mountains is historical fiction that depicts people’s lives in the shadows of the tumultuous mid-20th century in China. It highlights one woman’s journey to fight off a male-dominated and politically charged society to become a successful civil engineer, only to find her motherly instinct overrides all her ambitions and challenges.

I dedicated this book to my mother and all loving mothers. Check out some (draft) excerpts in AABB’s Mother section. By the way, here are the real people the book is based on.

From left to right: Xia and Xiaojun (Chifeng, 1955)

From left to right: Shan, Jun, and Lian (Hohhot, 1966)

The book is in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats and is available anywhere books are sold. At one time, the ebook was the #1 new release on Amazon. As of today, it has a rating of 4.8/5 at Amazon and 4.25/5 at Goodreads.

5in29: 5 (or 7) States in 29 Days in a Campervan

I consider this trip to be a trip of a lifetime. It checks off several of my bucket list items: (1) visit and revisit several southwest states including NV, CA, AZ, NM, and TX, (2) revisit New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces, NM I attended 35 years ago and the location of my memoir Las Crosses to give a talk and/or book signing, and (3) travel by an RV, a trailer, or a camper van for a new experience.

I created and posted the 5in29 Travelogue for the trip that highlighted everyday attractions, special moments, special events, Eureka moments, and life in a van. I continuously revise and enrich the travelogue - it may become something larger in the future.

I promised to post a summary of the trip. It is quite long and you can indulge the 5in29 Summary here. Writing the travelogue forced me to learn more, remember more, and reflect more. As a result, I learned so much from the trip. I hope you learned something too while traveling with me!

Here is just one piece of the summary:

The Wood Snake Year

(2025-01-29 ~ 2026-02-16)

In the Chinese zodiac, the snake is associated with wisdom, charm, elegance, and transformation. The Wood Snake Year emphasizes themes of renewal, optimism, and prosperity.

I have a full plate for the Year of the Snake. Here are a few relevant items to list.

Vol. 2 of Voices Anthology in the Making

What a positive outcome 28 Voices brought! It was heartwarming to see the reactions from the contributors and their families and friends and to read the reviews posted by strangers.

How about we make the anthology a series? How about we call it “Voices Anthology?” There are many writers and many existing and new pieces that are worth to be heard of.

Georgia and I are working on the 2nd volume. We anticipate the book to be published in the summer.

Daughter of Blue City in the Making

Jun risked everything for the two baby girls, Lian and Shan, in Mother of Red Mountains. What happened to the girls? What happened to Jun?

Although a standalone book, this next historical fiction builds on where Mother of Red Mountains left at the beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution in 1966. It traces the lives of many people in the first novel. It highlights the life of a young girl, Lian, who faces the brutal reality of poverty, domestic violence, and relentless bullying while growing up in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. With few options for life after her parents' divorce, Lian is determined to forge a better future by clinging to a single hope after China’s Cultural Revolution ended.

The title is tentative. There are so many factors to consider when finding a book title. I wanted to mirror “mother” with “daughter” and mirror “red mountains” (Jun’s hometown) with “blue city” (where Jun built her family and where Lian and Shan grew up). But other factors can derail many great initial ideas. We’ll see.

The publishing date is unset but the book will carry a 2025 copyright. It is a goal I set for myself a few years ago: one book per calendar year. As you can imagine, 2026 will have another historical novel out.

~~~~

I wish you all a peaceful and prosperous Year of the Wood Snake. May you and your loved ones be happy, healthy, and well in every way!