No doubt about it, she's Asian

The cover for Malinda Lo's upcoming novel, Huntress, has just been revealed.  Her publisher, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers did her, and her work, right.  This is no is-she-or-isn't-she-Asian? person on her cover.  This person is unapologetically, 100% bonafide Asian.  After all the recent controversy about POC and book covers, this is a refreshing change.

Booklist Top 10 First Novels

Crossing was selected by Booklist magazine as a Top 10 First Novel for 2010.  I'm truly honored; when I look at the list and see, among others, Amy Greene's Bloodroot and Heidi Durrow's The Girl Who Fell From The Sky, I can barely believe I'm in such esteemed company.  Check out the complete Top 10 here.

Booklist also interviewed me for the October 15, 2010 issue.  It's here.

I'm also particularly happy for Paul Yoon who was selected as a 5 Under 35 Fiction.  His collection of short stories in Once the Shore was one of my favorite reads this year.

Weirdest Craigslist listing

Ever since I put my name on Google Alert, I've been getting some pretty strange alerts.  I don't think anything tops this one though, recently on Craigslist.  Apparently, two people had a James-Blunt-You're-Beautiful moment on the subway...around Crossing. Weirdness.  Here's the Craigslist post in full:

On the Brooklyn-Bound N Train (Monday or Tuesday), you were reading "Crossing" by Andrew Xia Fukuda. You stood by the train doors during the first part of your ride. The seat I was in faced you. We were gently admiring each other. When a seat opened up next to me, you sat there. This pleased me. I was curious about the book you were reading. It seemed you held the book up so that I could read the back of it. Then you opened the book wide enough for me to see and you moved a little closer. I read with you during the remainder of my ride. Thank you. I would like to see you again.

You: Asian. (I cannot guess where you are from. You are beautiful, nonetheless.)
Me: Brown-skinned female with curly hair. (I, regrettably, got off at Canal Street.)

photo recap of the Hong Kong Book Fair

It was a flurry of activity over the few days I was there, filled with books, food, books, food, books...  it was the best of times.  Here's a brief photo recap:

Day/Night view from my hotel room:

Interview with NHK World:

Interview with the South China Morning Post and the Monocle Magazine:

I was featured in Time Out Hong Kong magazine:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The venue for my presentation at the Book Fair was classy.

Before the presentation, the moderator (Peter Gordon) and I discussed a game plan; in the VIP room collecting my thoughts.

Book signing afterward.

Two souvenirs from the presentation:

The Book Fair was like nothing I'd been to before: one week, thousands of books, 920,000 visitors:

I squeezed in a radio interview on the Morning Brew at RTHK (listen here):

 

 

 

 

And last, but certainly not least, the food in Hong Kong!  Oh, how I miss the incredible food:

a timeout in hong kong

In Hong Kong.  Jet-lagged.  But had a great time late last night:  checked in to hotel, quick video interview with NHK, strolled around Tsim Sha Tsui, and ate a fab bowl of soup noodles.  Then grabbed a copy of TimeOut Hong Kong magazine from a street vendor and found the piece they did on me  (forgive the poor quality of the photo, a blackberry was all we had).  I was so ecstatic about seeing my mug in the mag that I pointed it out to the vendor.  He didn't get it, not even after I kept pointing at myself.  But he did give me his toothless smile, strangely charming.

Hong Kong Book Fair

Some weeks ago, I was invited to the Hong Kong Book Fair as one of their international authors.  I jumped at the opportunity: nearly a million visitors attend this mega-event, I'd have a chance to rub shoulders with fellow-invitees Frederick Forsyth, Stephen Fry and Andrew Roberts, and it's in Hong Kong, my beloved city I grew up in.

The Hong Kong Book Fair organizers recently interviewed me regarding my upcoming visit.  Here it is.

a great time was had by all!

Flushing library asked me to do an event for their Teen Author Talk series, so this past Saturday I had the pleasure of going down to their library.  I was expecting a low turnout (like 2), but I was surprised to see about 20 teens there.  I loved every minute I spent there.  These were teens who were there because they wanted to be there - nobody forced them, nobody even asked them.  Fact is, they could have been home playing on their PS3 or Wii or on Facebook or any number of non-literary activities.  But they were there on their own.  And they were simply thrilled to listen to me! It was such a pleasure to be in their company, and to speak to them about the joys of reading, writing, and Crossing. Really, I was preaching to the choir.

It was such a wonderful time of back-and-forth discussion and sharing, I couldn't have asked for a better time.  A few of them had already read Crossing and hearing their thoughts and impressions of the book was priceless.  When one girl told me (shyly, eyes turned down) that she was so moved by the book that it had made her cry, it was the perfect kind of compliment.

An hour and a half breezed by in no time.  I was such a fan of these youth who so love books and seemed so interested in Crossing that I couldn't help but just give away all the copies of the book I had on me.  Check out the photos below, low res, but hi fun.  Favorite book event so far!