My audience

From the beginning, agents, editors, and publishers have asked me who my "reader" would be. They told me to visualize and write for that person.

Well, I learned, almost every time I have a book signing, that there is a flaw to approaching it like this. Because there are always one or two people who are so far away from that reader profile that you'd never think this person would read a book like mine. Now, one or two people out of 3 to 14 is a lot.

So, I'd like to concentrate on just writing well. Write what I love. Write what I find interesting. And I pray and hope that my reader will find me. It's such a pleasant surprise and a learning experience to encounter these outliers.


I had a book signing today. And I sold out! But before I get too excited, I sold out three books. Between employee transitions and a book order glitch, no one noticed that my books weren't there until...this morning. However, they were able to gather three books from surrounding stores and I signed those. I handed out my business cards, but I don't know how many of those would convert to book orders.

A flip side to this is that they are holding two book fairs with local high schools, and the community relations manager is trying to tie me in with those book fairs (I'm in the process of scheduling book talks at a high school in Hayward and a couple of ESL classes in the same area). So, it was ying yang kind of day, but aren't all our days like that?

I think it's all a matter of perspective. Half full or half empty. I'd like to think mine is always half full. I overwhelmingly choose to be happy (on most days when I'm not confronted with the dismal realities of trying to make money writing).

I guess I am digging myself out of my funk, at least a little.

Hazards of Research

I knew I shouldn't have done it, but I wanted to be able to describe the Japanese militray uniforms more in detail. So, with great hesitation and trepidation, I opened a book which I promised never to read again - The Rape on Nanking by Iris Chang.

This is not a particularly a well-written book, but it is a very important book. Especially with the denials of these events ever taking place from the Japanese government (at least some parts of the government and no real owning up to it as a nation like Germany) I think everyone who has the constitution should read it. Once should be enough. It's not even really the words, but the pictures that leave a series of disturbing and searing images that keep you awake at nights.

Now, why did I do this? I'm working on another book and the feedback was - need more history to anchor the story. And since my book spans from early 20th century to Korean war, this research definitely was required. But having said that, I'm going to need weeks of light, happy readings to make up for this one.