I almost can’t believe I’m typing these words, but folks, I’ll be at the Jersey City Free Public Library next Saturday, 5/22/2021, at 2pm. Like physically. Like I will drive and park and walk over to Hamilton Park! I will not be sitting in front of a laptop. Me, human Sung, will be at the park to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month. If you are in the area, please stop by! They have a few more programs after me, so stick around. Check it out!
AAPI Heritage Month Celebration at Hamilton Park: Author Discussion with Sung J. Woo
May 22 @ 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm EDT
Sung J. Woo, author of Everything Asian (2009), Love Love (2015), and Skin Deep (2020) will talk about his experience growing up Korean American and his journey as a writer.
Join us for this event at Hamilton Park! Meet us by the gazebo (center of park) for some library fun.
Masks are required for all participants above the age of 2. Social distancing will be respected.
Please join me and four other debut authors (I may have two books before Skin Deep, but this is my first mystery!), a week from today, Thursday 4/22/2021 at 7PM ET. You can sign up for it on Crowdcast:
…one of six people! That’s right, folks — next Saturday, the winner will be announced the nominees will be presented. I think it’s quite likely that the Lefty Award Ceremony this year will resemble the Oscars themselves — that is, the nominees will be inside their own personal, socially-distanced rectangles and the awards will be given out equally remotely. (To be announced in April.)
I’ll be on for sure — and you can watch, if you feel like it! Here’s how.
Is it too late for me to add my two cents (maybe more like half a cent) about shopping, my mother, and the pandemic? I hope not. Please enjoy my little essay on Medium. Happy Lunar New Year!
Exciting news! Skin Deep, my first mystery, has just been nominated for the 2021 Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel, by Left Coast Crime. How cool is that? Now for the rest of my life, I can refer to myself as the “Lefty-Nominated Mystery Writer.” I’m gonna put that on my business card, if I had business cards.
Seriously — this is really super kind of these folks, because to be nominated in the same category with the likes of Carl Hiaasen and Ellen Byron is nothing short of amazing. Huge congrats to the rest of my awesome fellow nominees, Jennifer J. Chow, Cynthia Kuhn, and J. Michael Orenduff.
Ever have a dream you wish would never end? That’s what I experienced last night, when I was at some kind of a party with the actors of Search Party.
Search Party, if you didn’t know, is a TV show about to start its fourth season. I came to it very late, but a few weeks ago I got caught up. And because of the new season, the show’s been on my mind quite a bit. It’s one of the funniest shows out there, though as the seasons have gone on, the comedy has had company with a bit of the macabre. Which sometimes makes it even funnier? Anyway, I adore it, and I wish more people would see it.
I guess the dream took place at a restaurant, though I’m not really sure. All I know is that Dory, played by Alia Shawkat, was the one I spoke to first, and we sat down at a table. I told her how much I loved the show, and she gracefully accepted my praise with total sincerity, so this is more like the first-season Dory. Then Drew, played by John Reynolds, moped in – and he looked tired and didn’t look like he wanted to talk to anyone. Then Elliott, played by John Early, sat right down, and every time I tried to say something, he’d talk right over me! Initially this frustrated me greatly, but then I realized he was just being Elliott and then I was okay. And now here’s the strange part – Portia, played by Meredith Hagner, was not there and instead it was Anna Chlumsky, looking very much like her intense, brittle Veep character. Now Portia is my favorite character on Search Party so I just couldn’t quite understand why this was happening – like I knew I was dreaming and wanted Portia there, but no, I couldn’t make her appear.
And then we were all in a different restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, and everyone had a proper dish in front of them except for Drew, who had like a Lean Cuisine-type of meal, except it was way bigger, black and white, and had the insignia of the restaurant, so I guess it was more like a pre-packaged meal that they sold?
I’ll never know, as I woke up then (but not before Drew, hangdog as ever, let out a massive sigh of disappointment). But wow, it was so nice hanging out with my favorite foursome (even though Portia wasn’t there, she was, in spirit!).
Here’s a list of my top songs for this year, in an order that might be surprisingly mixable. These are not necessarily from 2020; I just happened to have heard them in the last twelve months.
Horses, by Tomo Nakayama on Music from Touchy Feely August, by Taylor Swift on Folklore Conversations in the Dark, by John Legend on Bigger Love Husavik, by My Marianne feat. Will Ferrell on Eurovision Song Contest Now I’m in It, by Haim on Women in Music Pt. III That Feeling, by Young London on Laggies I Hate Everybody, by Halsey on Manic Scared To Live (SNL Live), by The Weeknd on After Hours (Deluxe) This Is Everything, by Grouplove on Healer Delete Forever, by Grimes on Miss Anthropocene
Playing Dead, by Breathe Owl Breathe on Your Sister’s Sister This Summer, by Loren Allred on This Summer Bad Decisions, by The Strokes on The New Abnormal Inner Child, by BTS on Map of the Soul: 7 Retrospect, by Vistas on Everything Changes in the End Nothing at All, by Perfume Genius on Set My Heart on Fire Immediately Death Stranding, by Chvrches on Death Stranding Empress, by Snow Patrol on Wildness Spring, by Angel Olsen on All Mirrors
We lost an excellent filmmaker this year, Lynn Shelton. Three of the songs featured on this list are from her movies — Touchy Feely (Horses), Laggies (That Feeling), and Your Sister’s Sister (Playing Dead). Touchy Feely is my favorite film of hers, but really, they’re all excellent.
