Over the past year, I have gone around and given presentations to introduce my book Once upon a Mulberry Field to the reading public, and to share some of the memories and stories that had inspired me to write it. Many friends and supporters have asked me what the responses from such live audiences … [Read more...]
A look back
Many thanks to John Wilkens at the San Diego Union-Tribune for his recent article on my book Once upon a Mulberry Field on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The picture in the article was taken by SDUT photographer Howard Lipin at my April 18 book discussion at the Poway … [Read more...]
40 Years After
Forty years ago, on the last day of April 1975, as the free world stood by and watched in disbelief, Saigon succumbed to the communist North Vietnamese, marking the end of the Vietnam War. Every year since, when April comes around, millions of people who had lived through those tumultuous … [Read more...]
Tết: the Vietnamese New Year’s
In 2015 the traditional Vietnamese New Year's, or Tết, which is based on the lunar calendar, fell on Thursday Feb. 19. It was the same New Year's date celebrated in many countries in the East such as China, Korea, Laos, and Singapore. I have so many fond memories associated with Tết from my … [Read more...]
Old Saigon in the movies
At some point in our lives, no matter how far we have wandered, most of us have probably felt the desire to look back at those long ago places where we grew up---where it had all begun for us. In my case, that special place is Saigon, Vietnam, just before and during the war, back in the late … [Read more...]
Memories of Summer
What comes to mind when you think of summer? Surf, sun and fun at the beaches? Hiking and camping in the mountains? Lazy days and balmy nights---and spontaneous road trips to unknown destinations? For me, though, summer evokes a particular image imprinted on my mind since my early childhood in … [Read more...]
Book Talk in Shangri-La
Earlier this week I did something fun. I drove three-and-a-half hours from San Diego to a remote spot northwest of LA but inland from Ventura---a small valley nestled against the mountains and named Ojai, from an old Indian word meaning "Moon." Residents of the quaint small town that bears the … [Read more...]
A Choice of Deadly Importance
When I first saw this May 24, 2014 article in the New York Times, my mind flashed back to the recent news of the two hundred schoolgirls kidnapped from their public school in Chibok, Nigeria, and to another related tragedy from a couple of years earlier---the near-death shooting of another … [Read more...]
Flight of Nostalgia
The Vietnam War played a crucial part in my younger life, directly resulting in my starting over in this new homeland in America. I sometimes relive it, in bits and pieces of memories that surface in my dreams and eventually ended up on the pages of my book Once upon a Mulberry Field. Likewise, … [Read more...]
A Wondrous Spot on Earth
With this post, I am going to break a couple of my own rules. First, I'm not attaching a picture to the post as usual, since nothing can compare to the breathtaking scenery you're about to behold. And then, with no adequate preamble except to say that Ha-Long means "Descending Dragon(s)" in … [Read more...]