From: Lisa See's Mailing List [writersee@aol.com]
Sent: 5/20/2011 8:47:29 AM
Subject: Book Tour and Event Information for Dreams of Joy
DREAMS OF JOY, the sequel to SHANGHAI GIRLS, will come out on May 31. I'm about to start one of my marathon book tours. I'm doing 43 events in 15 states! (And that's not including the tour I'll be doing in Canada. I don't have the details for those events yet, so please look for them on my web site.) I'm so excited about DREAMS OF JOY. I loved getting to follow Joy and Pearl into China. I loved all the surprises—some good, some bad—that they encounter. So scroll down, find an event near you, and then please come out to say hi and cheer me on.
You know I'm not terribly computer savvy, so forgive me if you receive more than one of these. If you want to be removed from my mailing list, please let me know. And of course, write and tell me what you think of the new book. You know I'll write back!
Happy Reading!
Lisa
Saturday, May 21 – Irvine, CA
11:30 A.M.
Lunch speaker
"Family Matters "
WOMAN SAGE
Doubetree Guest Suites Anaheim Resort
2085 S. Harbor Blvd.
Anaheim, CA 92802
Tickets: $55 per person
For registration information: www.Womansage.org
Tuesday, May 31 – Cerritos, CA
7:00 PM
Talk and signing
CERRITOS LIBRARY
18025 Bloomfield Avenue
Cerritos, CA 90703
For information: (562) 916-1350 or library.ci.cerritos.ca.us
Wednesday, June 1 – Century City, CA
7:30 PM
In Conversation with Nina Revoyer
WRITERS BLOC
MGM Theatre
10250 Constellation Blvd
Los Angeles CA
*Tickets are $20, not including book.
For information: writersblocpresents.com
For reservations:
reservations@writersblocpresents.com
I just attended a talk at the Cerritos Library with Lisa See. This was the kickoff event to her tour -- 45 events in 15 states and cities in Canada. The sequel to "Shanghai Girls" is called "Dreams of Joy" and was just released today.
It turns out that "Snowflower and the Secret Fan " is being released in theaters July 15. I saw a trailer for it tonight and it looks really interesting. She said there are really two parts to that movie. The first part stays very true to the book. In fact, she says it's like the screen writers just lifted pages from the book without doing a re-write. The second half is a modern story that is founded in the storyline of the book. She says she was pretty please with it. She says she really "cut to the bone" with this book. She was able to delve really deep with this because everyone (family, friends, the publisher, etc.) said the book was never going to sell many copies. As a matter of fact, she said she started off as an "acclaimed writer" (meaning she writes good books but nobody reads). She only printed 5,000 copies of this book, but it started getting buzz and they had to print more copies. As a result! of that and the success of "Shanghai Girls", they went back and took her first two mystery novels and re-printed them with new jacket covers. She joked that if they had used these as the original jacket covers the books might have sold more. She went back and re-read those two books because she didn't really remember the characters that well, but she said in any of her books she can open up to a certain page and a memory of what was happening in her life will jump out at her (i.e. her son got into an argument with the teacher and a note was sent home and there was a family discussion about it and her husband was upset with her over something she said about it, etc.).
She mentioned her novels are not autobiographical, but the emotions she feels and puts into the books are right out of her own life. She says there are certain lines in the books that are quotes from people in her own life. She also says her books are primarily about relationships.
She does all of her own research because she feels that is half the fun in writing the books and you never know what you're going to find that will strike you as interesting and will want to include that in the book.
When she wrote "Shanghai Girls" she was originally not planning on writing a sequel. She was happy with the ending and so was the publisher. What was old became new again and what was the ending became a new beginning. However, people at her book signings kept asking her if there was going to be a sequel. When she pitched her three ideas for her next book, her publisher said they sounded good and she would write them eventually, but they wanted her to write the sequel first. She said was an obedient Chinese daughter and did the research and wrote it, but was very reluctant at first. She said if she had known she was going to write a sequel, she would have changed some things about "Shanghai Girls". So, while she's not planning on writing a sequel to "Dreams of Joy", she has strategically placed some things in the book just in case.
Her books were originally written in the past tense, but as she would come to the close of her day (1,000 words written), she would somehow end up writing the end of the day's work in the present tense. So after the first 3 chapters were done, she decided that this was becoming a pattern and went back and re-wrote it in the first person, present tense. She said she thinks this was how Pearl (the main character in "Shanghai Girls") was talking to her. It was Pearl's English through Chinese language structure because in Chinese, there is no such thing as verb tenses. All verbs are written in the present tense with only time markers to indicate tense. Example: I go to the store. I go to the store yesterday. I go to the store next week.
She is currently working on her next novel which is a Chinese version of "The Cotton Club". She has started doing the research and writing notes for the book unless the publisher suddenly shelves it and asks her to work on a sequel to "Dreams of Joy".
She said "On Gold Mountain" is a very special book because it was about her family. Since most of them are now gone, she can open up the book and be with her family and that's quite an amazing thing.
It would be great if you would pass this along to everyone else.
Thanks,
Tom
She mentioned that her grandfather was married 5 times and had a new baby at age 69. He was depressed until he read a porno novel and then decided to write one of his own. He said he always wanted to write the great American novel but, like most men, got distracted by women and booze. By the time he died he wrote 15 hard core pornographic novels. Her mother was a Ph.D. in English and became an expert witness testifying in pornography cases. One side would say pornography was crude and immoral and her mother would say that a certain word dates back to Shakespearean times and was used in his works so it really isn't. haha
