We’re confronted with choices every day: “What should I have for breakfast?” “Do I really want to go to exercises class?” Should I have that second brownie now or save it for later?” As much as we might groan about them, those kinds of decisions are relatively easy to make because there’s not too much at stake if we opt for one over the other. It’s the really tough ones—the life-changing ones—that lie at the heart of my just-released novel, The Price of Compassion. Tom Justice, the ... VIEW POST
Musings on the Depth of Beauty V-W-X-Y-Z
Today I'm wrapping up my "alphabet soup" of interesting tidbits related to my novel The Depth of Beauty: V is for violence …and vitality Imagine up to thirty thousand people, living in a ramshackle neighborhood no larger than fifteen city blocks. Population estimates vary, but generally, that was the case in San Francisco’s Chinatown around 1900. Why was it so crowded? Because of anti-Chinese laws and attitudes, many immigrants faced hatred and violence if they tried to live in other parts ... VIEW POST
Musings on the Depth of Beauty S-T-U
S is for Sieh King King It’s hard to imagine a braver young woman at the turn of the twentieth century than Sieh King King, who at seventeen, traveled from her hometown of Shanghai to further her education in the West. At eighteen, in 1902, she spoke at a theater in San Francisco. She had found her true calling as an activist for Chinese women’s rights. China at that time was sick and tired of losing to Western imperialists, and Sieh King King made ... VIEW POST
Musings on the Depth of Beauty P-Q-R
P is for Paper Son No matter the time in history or place of origin, immigrants in search of a better life will go to almost any lengths to secure it—even if it means circumventing the law. To protect American jobs during a slumping economy, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which meant that only certain groups of Chinese immigrants and their family members could be allowed in or granted U.S. citizenship. Chinese merchants were acceptable because they didn’t replace American ... VIEW POST
Musings on the Depth of Beauty M-N-O
During the course of researching my historical novel The Depth of Beauty, I came across scads of fascinating facts that I've been sharing over time. Here are a few more relating to Chinatown: M is for Mornay Sauce To illustrate the shallow world in which Will Firestone lives, I begin the novel with his wealthy mother’s complaints about her chef’s rendition of a mornay sauce, which is really just a basic cheese sauce. It’s variation of a bechamel, or white sauce, one of the standard ... VIEW POST
Musings on The Depth of Beauty G-H-I
G is for Guandong In the Depth of Beauty, most of the Chinese immigrants hail from Guandong province, and the novel touches upon the stirrings of revolution in China. Guandong province lies on the coast of the South China Sea in the People’s Republic of China. Its capital, Guanzhou, (known to westerners at one point as “Canton”) was an important trading port for rice, opium and silk, among other goods, which meant that the Chinese people who lived there were more accustomed to westerners than ... VIEW POST
