“Have you ever gotten a bad review, Master Huud?”
“Hundreds of them.”
“Do they hurt?”
“Of course. But you get over it. Critics are just people, lad. They’re entitled to their opinions. They’re not the enemy.”
“Who is the enemy?”
“Censors.”
– Katie Waitman, American science fiction writer, from The Merro Tree

On November 3rd, the San Francisco Book Review posted a review of my debut novel, A Village in the Fields. Authors published by independent publishers don’t get reviews as plentiful as well-known writers with traditional publishers. This same week, my publisher informed me that a review of my book will be included in the upcoming summer/fall issue of Amerasia Journal, published by the Center Press at the University of California at Los Angeles. As the Amerasia Journal is the leading interdisciplinary journal in Asian American Studies, I am looking forward to this review! And, of course, I will share.

Impassioned reading of an excerpt of my novel at the October 22nd book reading at the Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley.

Pondering a thoughtful question in the Q&A after my reading. My friend Lori took a ton of pictures – Maraming salamat po! – and I chose this one because it reminds me of a familiar look on my mother’s face, and I have been thinking a lot about her these last few months.