Happy New Year! The holidays are over, and a new year is beginning to take shape. My second novel, RED SEAL, is scheduled to launch this October and I’ve been busy with developmental edits and completing tasks on my end to move the manuscript to the next phase of production. As I look back at my newsletters from this time two years ago, I was just starting this journey for my debut, WHITE MULBERRY. Back then, I didn’t know what was ahead. This time around, I know what’s coming, but it still feels new.
How It’s Different
I’m two years older. Ha! Now that I’m almost 62, I feel I’ve entered a different season of my life and my writing career. This time, the writing seemed harder, and the edits more physically and mentally grueling. Much of the heavy lifting for RED SEAL came over the holidays, and I was pulled in many directions at once. Now that I have a book under my belt, I felt pressure to meet my own expectations as a published author and not let readers down.
Our world has also changed dramatically in these two short years. Anti-immigrant violence and hate crimes have escalated everywhere, especially in the US. Stories of immigrants are more important than ever in our current times. This motivated me to keep writing on these long days.
My writing process was different too. Since I have a two-book contract for this second book, I had to keep going. I had good and bad days, but I pushed through to meet my publisher’s deadlines. I trusted the process and kept writing, even during my pre-planned vacations and holiday gatherings. It wasn’t like my first book, which took ten years to write! For three months during the developmental edit phase, I worked from 6 am to sometimes 11 pm and welcomed Joey jumping on my lap for furry companionship.
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My daughter gifted me a knee cushion for Christmas so I could read drafts on the bed in my office (formerly my son’s bedroom, redecorated!). My husband made me coffee in the morning, and smoothies before he left for work. He also read my early and later drafts of RED SEAL, whereas I didn’t ask him for feedback for WHITE MULBERRY until the very end. I don’t think I had the confidence to share my work with my family before I thought it was ready. This time, it was a family affair from the beginning and I’m so grateful!
How It’s the Same
I still write because I believe in the power of family stories, and the importance of preserving them for future generations. I think the lessons we learn from the past can better help us live more meaningful lives today. My first and second books share themes of identity, culture, and belonging, which are vital to understanding our common humanity. These pictures from Christmas capture the magic of intergenerational and multicultural bonds in our family!
This is the short description I’ve come up with for RED SEAL so far.
RED SEAL follows the journey of a single Korean mother and her son over four decades as they struggle to build a life together in Manchuria, Soviet-occupied North Korea, and a newly democratic South Korea, even as war, displacement, and family secrets threaten to tear them apart. The novel explores identity, the bonds of parent and child, and the meaning of home.
I think this graphic accurately represents the editing process. It’s a long journey to get a book to publication!
Upcoming Events
2026 promises to be another busy year with book clubs, events, and conferences. I have numerous book club appearances for WHITE MULBERRY coming up throughout the spring. I love these intimate gatherings where I can enjoy reader questions and comments in the comfort of a host’s home while eating a delicious meal. This one was a Greek-themed dinner!
I’ll be traveling to Palm Springs for a book club discussion in February, then to NYC where someone is hosting me for a private book event at a French beauty spa. Readers are so creative and generous!
In March, I’ll be headed to the AWP writers conference in Baltimore to be part of a panel titled “After the Debut: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst.” Five authors will be talking about publishing our first books and how we navigated the process. Please join me if you’re at AWP! Check out all my upcoming events on my Events Page.
Soon I will be immersed in copyedits, cover design rounds, and audiobook narrator selection for RED SEAL. Currently, I’m seeking endorsements for my book from other authors, which is always a difficult ask because it requires so much of the author’s time. I’m doing one myself right now for another writer, so I know!
What are you up to this spring? Please comment below and let me know! I always love hearing from you. Thank you for following along!
What I’m Reading, Watching, Listening To
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.
When a 13-year-old is accused of the murder of a classmate, his family, therapist and the detective in charge are all left asking: what really happened?
Heart of a Stranger by Angela Buchdahl
Angela Buchdahl was born in Seoul, the daughter of a Korean Buddhist mother and Jewish American father. Profoundly spiritual from a young age, by sixteen she felt the first stirrings to become a rabbi. Despite the naysayers and periods of self-doubt—Would a mixed-race woman ever be seen as authentically Jewish or chosen to lead a congregation?—she stayed the course, which took her first to Yale, then to rabbinical school, and finally to the pulpit of one of the largest, most influential congregations in the world.
Today, Angela Buchdahl inspires Jews and non-Jews alike with her invigorating, joyful approach to worship and her belief in the power of faith, gratitude, and responsibility for one another, regardless of religion. She does not shy away from difficult topics, from racism within the Jewish community and the sexism she confronted when she aspired to the top job to rising antisemitism today. Buchdahl teaches how these challenges, which can make one feel like a stranger, can ultimately be the source of our greatest empathy and strength.
