Have I succeeded, dear readers of my blog, in arousing your curiosity? Over the past ten months, have I been able to spark your interest in topics related to my novel? Have I stimulated your hunger for more? Because–I cannot lie–that’s exactly what I’ve been hoping to do.
First, I introduced you to my late husband Eugene, “the storyteller,” who was the inspiration for my novel.
Then, I described a trip we took to Gulangyu, the little island which is the setting for my novel, and I told about the Hotel for Overseas Chinese that didn’t want to allow a foreigner like me to check in.
Taking of Amoy, Aug. 26, 1841
I wrote about Gulangyu’s history, hoping to enrich the reading experience for future readers of my novel.
The tiger’s tail of my title actually does show up in the soup pot of my characters, so naturally, I wrote a post called “Tiger Love.”
The protagonist of my novel, An Lee, often wears a cheongsam, a dress that came into fashion in China more than a decade before the start of my novel. (I have a post coming up called “The Chinese Cheongsam: All Is Revealed.”)
photo courtesy of Dr. John C. Bullas
An Lee’s mother has bound feet, a fashion statement that is better described as a physical disability, so I wrote a little piece called “Fashion Torture.”
Over the months, I’ve written many other posts with topics related to my novel. I wrote about:
Chinese food in “Chinese Food Love,”
The attack on Pearl Harbor in “December 7, 1941,”
“Resistance Fighters and Collaborators,”
Wet nurses in “The Magic of Mothers’ Milk,”
“Live-in Maids,” and
The Chinese Civil Service exams in “Ace-ing the Test.”
So after all these months, I really do hope I’ve piqued your interest, because now you can buy my book, Tiger Tail Soup.
You can buy a paperback copy from the publisher, Dog Ear Publishing, Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. If you like to support your local independent bookstore, they can order it.
Or if you prefer an ebook, the Kindle, Nook, Apple iBook, and Google editions will be available in a few weeks.
This book, dedicated to my late husband, has been a long time in the making. I hope you’ll enjoy it. If you do, I would really appreciate it if you’d tell your friends. You could also write a review on Amazon or Goodreads or on your blog or Facebook page. That would be fantastic!
That image of the woman’s bound foot was incredible!
I found the image shocking too. Until I started reading about it, I imagined that the foot was just wrapped so tightly that it couldn’t grow big. I didn’t understand how the bones were broken and the toes turned back.
NIcki, How exciting to have your own novel out there for the masses! I printed your “Have I Piqued Your Interest Yet?” and I’m taking it to my Creative Writing group in the morning–that should stir-up some more interest in your book. Congrats–you can be sure WE (61’ers) are all proud of you!
Thank you, Veda. I really appreciate having you spread the word.
Congratulations, Nicki. I had the privilege of reading a few chapters of your book before publication. It is fascinating and now I need to know what else happens. You certainly know all about China and its people, customs, etc. Amazing detail… Your blogs are fascinating, loaded with interesting Chinese culture. Thanks for putting this out into the world. <3 Betty Dravis
Thank you, Betty. I can’t pretend that I’m an expert on China, but I did try to learn as much as I could about the time and place of the novel. It was really an interesting time.
Congratulations. I would love to buy the paperback copy however nothing really ends up in Finland (when I order it from the books stores it takes up to 16months…) so I will wait till autumn to order it in Germany as there everything is more “global”.
Of course I could try the ebook version but I just prefer to have a real book in my hands 🙂
Thanks, Timo. I hope you and your wife (and the baby too) will enjoy your move to Germany.
Congrats on publishing your book! How exciting! You’ve certainly picked my interest. I’m looking forward to reading the e-book version in a few weeks’ time.
Thank you. I’ll let you know when the e-book version comes out.
Nicki ~ I tried to share this on Facebook, but got a “database error” twice. And I’ve also clicked “like” twice without success.
I reloaded the page twice ~ still no luck.
Thank you, Nancy, for trying. I’ll try to figure it out, although I don’t know where to start when something that’s been working stops working.
To answer your question, yes, yes, yes! I am waiting for the Kindle edition. BTW totally grossed out by the bound foot thing. I can never understand how that custom got so entrenched. It crippled the women.
I’m with you, Kate. I don’t even have a tatoo. (I do have pierced ears.) But I can’t imagine how such a cruel custom as foot binding had such staying power.
Nicki, congrats on the publishing of your book. It is an amazing achievement and I look forward to reading it. Once again, Congratulations!
Thank you, Constance. I look forward to hearing what you think about it.