I had a wonderful time on the Opening Night of the 2018 LiterASIAN Festival. The highlight was meeting in person the lovely Madeleine Thien, prize-winning author of "Do Not Say We Have Nothing", which I loved and would highly recommend, and chatting with her for a bit. I also found out from Winnipeg author Michael Kaan (author of the new novel "The Water Beetles") that his father used to live in Happy Valley, Hong Kong! His novel is based on his father's memoirs about the 1941 Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. And I got him to sign my copy, which I bought from the Festival Bookshop.
At the Sunday Panel, which was near full-house, I enjoyed the stimulating discussion with fellow panelists about our favorite Asian Canadian authors and their works. Later that day, my Workshop ran fairly well with lots of thought-provoking questions from the audience about my novel "The Green Phoenix" and about the craft of writing historical fiction. I was thrilled to find my Goodreads friend Rowena Monde in the audience! It was so wonderful to finally meet her in person! One interesting episode was that one of the attendees happened to be a lady of Manchu ethnicity who adores Empress Xiaozhuang, and she kept asking if there's a Chinese version of "The Green Phoenix"! But she bought a copy of the book any way from the Festival Bookshop! So sweet of her!
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