Another year’s end is approaching at neck-breaking pace. Instead of sunscreen we put on before heading out the door, it’s sweater weather all over again, even in Southern California. Fortunately, some great news have just come along to warm my days, and I’m thrilled to share them with you now.

First off, my collection of short stories In the Shadow of Green Bamboos has recently been named a Finalist in the Independent Author Network 2021 Book of the Year Awards, in the Short Story Collection category. This award came almost one year after Green Bamboos won the 2020 Best Indie Book Award in the same category.

Also, I’m very grateful for a couple of wonderful reviews that the book has received earlier this year:

The first one was from Midwest Book Review (Feb 2021):
Deftly crafted, thought-provoking, and inherently engaging, “In the Shadow of Green Bamboos” is a compelling literary experience that will be especially appreciated and recommended for community, college, and university library Asian American Literature & Fiction, Cultural Heritage Fiction, and War Fiction collections.

The second review was posted on the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) Books in Review webpage, by Bill McCloud in April 2021:
. . . Hoang’s method of storytelling makes his words come alive, consistently—almost like watching a movie. All of my senses were engaged. . . . As I prepared to begin to read the final story, “A Cup of Love,” I wished there were a dozen more in this book. Then this one begins with an older Vietnamese woman saying to her young granddaughter, “Do you want to hear a story?” And the voice in my mind drowned out the voice of the young girl as I may even have said out loud, “Yes, Mr. Hoang, another story, please.” But what I really want is another book full of stories by C.L. Hoang.
You can read this review in its entirety HERE.

In some ways, In the Shadow of Green Bamboos could be seen as a sequel to my first book, Once upon a Mulberry Field, though in a totally different format (short story vs. novel). And so it was with great pleasure that I learned that Mulberry Field had also been designated a Finalist in the Independent Author Network 2021 Book of the Year Awards, in the First Novel With Over 80,000 Words category—seven years after its publication.

I’m delighted that the book has continued to gain new readers, some of whom were kind enough to leave a review on my Amazon book page. One such review, by Thomas J. Ryan who served in Vietnam on three separate assignments over a period of 20 years, especially touched me.  Of Mulberry Field, Mr. Ryan, who is an award-winning scholar on the American Civil War, said this:

Words cannot describe the brilliance of this rendition of the mixing of cultures in a wartime setting. Of infatuation, love, heartbreak, and reconciliation all wrapped up in one enchanting story that stirs emotional reaction and remembrance of unforgettable experiences during America’s Vietnam nightmare. . . . This chronicle provides for the Vietnam era the equivalent of Gone With the Wind for the Civil War and Madam Butterfly for WWII, and, in my mind, displaces Miss Saigon as the symbolic portrayal of the cultural awakening during a period of conflict involving the remote Southeast Asian country of Vietnam. . . . If Hollywood has not discovered this beautiful rendering of survival in an environment where death and destruction proliferates unabated, they are missing what predictably would become a classic film.

Thanksgiving is mere days away, and Christmas, just over a month. I wish all of you a Happy Holiday Season with plenty of great food and joyful times with your loved ones, and filled with blessings and good tidings.