Ever since watching Sliding Doors back in the late 90s, I’ve been fascinated by forking narratives. I don’t know if I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love that “what-if” spark–what if I chose this job over that one? Who would I have met? Who would I have married? Who would I be? That last question, I believe, is the kicker–we all only get to live this one life, so our choices are our choices. Only in the realm of fiction can we really be in someone else’s head, and writing my fifth novel, Lines, and its twinned/entwined plots was doubling the fun.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “there are no second acts in American lives.” That may well be true, but you know what? There most certainly is a second act for an American book, or in my case, two books.
Skin Deep and Deep Roots, my series of mystery novels, was published through Polis Books. Skin Deep came out in 2020, during the pandemic — which made promotions difficult. Deep Roots was supposed to be published two years later, but it took another year, and by then, Polis was a shell of itself. This spring, its doors were officially shuttered, and I thought that was the unfortunate end-of-life for Siobhan O’Brien, my intrepid private eye.
Except that wasn’t the case at all. Jason Pinter, Polis’s publisher, was able to find a new home for my novels, and goodness, what a beautiful home it is. To really drive the point, the books themselves got a makeover. The new editions can even be preordered from Datura Books, an imprint of Angry Robot, a UK-based publisher who distributes through Penguin Random House. Voila!
The books won’t come out until June 2025, but they can already be pre-ordered:
Of course, they will be available via the usual outlets such as Bookshop, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble as we near the pub date.
You can read the official news in Publishers Weekly — there’s even a quote from me at the end of the article. Happiness and authorship are rare combos for me, but there are very bright days like this one that makes the struggle worthwhile.
As the piece below informs, May is indeed Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month — and how lucky am I to have a friend who also happens to be an avid reader at NHPR, New Hampshire Public Radio? Very lucky indeed. Huge thanks to Jim for including my first novel, Everything Asian, to this extremely storied list! To paraphrase Wayne and Garth, I am not worthy!
Everything Asian by Sung J. Woo
My friend Sung emigrated from South Korea to New Jersey as a young man. So has the protagonist of this novel. The funny moments and the sad ones will be familiar to anyone who’s no more than a remove or two away from the immigrant experience – which is most of us. And anybody who’s ever cringed at their parents’ behavior will see their teen years brought to life in this slyly serious picaresque.
Turns out there were a whole bunch of novels and short story collections by Korean American authors last year, quite likely the most ever — and I was one of them! Super cool news — read all about it.
A reminder that the Collingswood Book Festival is indeed happening tomorrow! The weather gods have thrown a little fit, so due to the rain, the festival will move to the high school. From the website:
Due to the weather forecast for this Saturday, October 1, the festival will be held at Collingswood High School, 424 Collings Avenue, Collingswood, NJ. Enter through the high school gym building on Eldridge Ave. If you’re not vaccinated for COVID, mask up!
Super excited to take part in the Collingswood Book Festival on Saturday, 10/1/2022!
I’ll be on a panel with NYT bestselling author Riley Sager that day at 1pm. The festival folks were kind enough to write up a profile for both Riley and myself, so please check it out!
Amazon Studios has adapted my Modern Love essay!!! (I feel three exclamation points are warranted for this bit of news.) It is episode 3 from Modern Love Mumbai, entitled “Mumbai Dragon.”
So of course I knew about the Modern Love series on Amazon Prime, but I didn’t know they have branched out to culturally specific versions of Modern Love. From Wikipedia:
In April 2022, Prime Video announced the Indian version of the series in three different languages — Modern Love Mumbai in Hindi, Modern Love Hyderabad in Telugu and Modern Love Chennai in Tamil. A Japanese version of the series, titled Modern Love Tokyo will premiere worldwide on October 21, 2022.
Can you guess which of these stills is my episode? If you guessed this one…
Me and Mom, TV-ized
…you are absolutely correct!
So for those with Amazon Prime, which seems to be just about everyone I know, you can watch this episode whenever you wish (turn on the English subtitles!). I would recommend you either read or listen to the essay beforehand, so you can see all the changes that took place in the adaptation:
This was released almost three months ago — how come you are just posting this now? That’s because I wasn’t made aware of it until this past Friday! The Modern Love folks at the Times were waiting to tell the authors until the financials were worked out. They were indeed worked out, so ergo, I was notified. 🙂 Frankly, I’m glad I wasn’t aware of this until now, because if I had come across it when it came out, I would’ve been very much in the mold of, “Now wait a minute…this sounds a little too familiar…”
I just saw the episode, but where was your name in the credits? Yeah, that’s just the way it goes. If you look at the first Modern Love series, you’ll notice that only the episodes that hew very closely to the original essay give credit to the author. Mostly those were the stories that were super popular/went viral. Mine did not, so the writing team made many, many changes to tell their own tale. I knew this before watching, so I was prepared for it to be a very different story — but I was absolutely thrilled with the way it turned out! Much of my essay did make it in the episode, and the theme/spirit of my piece is totally there. The director of the episode, Vishal Bhardwaj, is a legendary filmmaker in India, so I lucked out big time. And the performances are top notch, too. There were three people in my essay — my mother, my wife Dawn, and myself. The same trio stars in the episode, modified — mom the cook, son the singer (!), and sagacious girlfriend.
So long story short, no official credit. But hey, there can still be an unofficial credit, right? Thank you, IMDb!
Now that your essay has been turned into a podcast and a TV episode, what’s next? Isn’t it obvious? Broadway, of course! Somebody please write a musical, pronto…
Dawn and Mom, TV-ized
Lots of people loved the series and this episode in particular — check them out.
https://www.apotpourriofvestiges.com/2022/05/modern-love-mumbai-review-another.html “The third episode titled ‘Mumbai Dragon,’ directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, is perhaps the most interesting of the lot. Set against the backdrop of the Indian Chinese community, it tells the story of Sui, a single mother who overbearing love for her son gets threatened when he shares his portion of love with his girlfriend. The mother played by Yeo Yann Yann is easily the best thing about entire anthology.”
https://www.leisurebyte.com/modern-love-mumbai-review-warm-comfort/ “I perceived Mumbai Dragon as a story of how stubborn most Indians are when it comes to love. They want their children to marry someone from their community. More than the happiness of their children, what matters to them is their pride. Even though the ending is predictable, the delicious food, performances and tuneful music keep you going through the end.”
https://www.highonfilms.com/modern-love-mumbai-season-1-review/ “Vishal Bhardwaj is, to put it simply, eons ahead of anyone in the people in this anthology web series. His direction is so expressive, so vibrant, so lively, so dynamic that it’s unfair for everyone else. He brings out the best in Yeo Yann Yann, Meiyang Chang, Naseeruddin Shah, and Wamiqa Gabbi; giving them ample room to visualize their characters’ feelings with words and sometimes, without them.”
One last thing — this is an embarrassment of riches, but another artist on Instagram reached out to me with a third take on my essay this morning! Andrea can be found on Instagram and her website.
So many years ago, the Times published my Modern Love piece. That story was illustrated by Brian Rea, who’s been doing all the MLs for a while now.
Today I received a notification from an Instagrammer, Joyce (@paperie.pufferies), who is currently taking classes at the School of Visual Arts and chose my story for her own illustrative take. How cool is that?
