Tag Archives: lisa see

I solemnly swear…

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…that I did not in any way bribe, cajole, court, or exercise voodoo upon a certain someone at Dear Author.

I may, however, need to name my first child after her. Jane if it’s a girl and Jayne if it’s a boy.

I would then have to name my second child after the Harlequin art department. Jane and Harlequin Art Lin. I think they’ll be very popular in school.

You must be wondering what I’m rambling about. Dear Author has set up a page to invite anyone to submit reviews of Butterfly Swords to the Dear Author site. I learned of it from Twitter and was completely blown away.

jane_l: I made up a page where anyone can submit a review of @JeannieLin’s Butterfly Swords http://bit.ly/bjug54 to be posted at Dear Author

Actually, it’s not just DA. Many other reviewers have been so supportive by reading ARCs and getting the word out. Whether the reviews end up being good or bad, I’ll be forever grateful. And then I have to mention the amazing support from Harlequin and my editors, putting Butterfly Swords up on NetGalley and making it available because they were getting so many requests for reviews.

I believe the buzz all started with the Harlequin Art Department who came up with the bold and beautiful cover. The most common thing I heard at conference was, “You’re the author with that gorgeous cover!” Yes, I am my book. My book is me. At least for a little while — and I’m okay with that. 🙂

That cover still makes my heart beat faster. The promo page for Butterfly Swords says it all: http://www.butterfly-swords.com. Kimberly Killion, author and owner of HotDamn Designs, created the design. When she showed it to me, I couldn’t stop staring.

“That’s AWESOME!” I gushed. “I’d buy that. Wouldn’t you?”

And finally, in all this hub-bub, I’m blogging today at Unusual Historicals. I work harder for the Unusual Historicals posts than any other site because my fellow contributors are such conscientious researchers and accomplished writers. I always try to make sure my posts are up to the high quality of the rest of the site. That being said, I’m quite proud of this one in which I discuss a little history of women and literary discourse in China and how Lisa See’s Peony in Love brought that to light for me. Unusual Historicals Blog – Tragic Tales: The Lovesick Maidens of Hangzhou (Link live at 6:00 am)

Whatcha Get?

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christmas_chick

A bit material, I know, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t all about the goodies!

I was nursing a cold which I took as license to sit around sipping tea and eating butter cookies all day in my PJs. Hubby surprised me with a couple of adorable gifts. First of all, this chickie was waiting among my gifts. Umm…we like chickens. It’s a family thing.

Second, he also gained a bunch of brownie points with a ruby-slippered cookie cutter. Now I’m on the hook for baking cookies for RWA National conference next year.

My big score would have to be a copy of Lisa See’s Peony In Love from my Little Sis. I’ve been eyeing this for a while. At first I found it to be less accessible than Snow Flower since it takes a journey into the spirit world and touches on very deeply cultural beliefs about life, death and family as well as the ties between the living and our ancestors. On top of that, the story centers around the fall of the Ming dynasty, the role of women during the upheaval, and the literary culture of that time. Let me qualify the “less accessible” comment by saying I read it in one sitting.

But I keep on thinking of the story and the power of it. Lisa See takes a 17th century text and the lives of three women who wrote it and turns it into a haunting and compelling retelling that brings the women and their work back to the light. It was overwhelming for me to discover these works — you can’t help but feel this connection between the past and the present, within the story and then beyond it in your own mind even once you’ve stopped reading.

It’s a story that’s bigger on the inside than on the outside. (I’ve been watching Dr. Who. Can you tell?) In any case, I’ll be thinking of it for a long time.