As readers, we have all experienced that mixed feeling of happy fulfillment and wishful regret when we get to the last paragraph of a great book. Wishing that the wonderful story didn’t have to end there and that we could hang out a little longer with our favorite characters. Some of us may even go back and read the book again after a while, much as moviegoers may sometimes watch a picture they loved more than once. Do you have such books or movies that left you wanting more? Please feel free to leave a comment and share them with the rest of us.

Speaking from experience, I’d say that a similar sentiment can also happen to a writer. I still remember the great elation, and huge relief, that I felt after typing up the final sentence in my novel, Once upon a Mulberry Field. At the same time, however, I was almost instantly filled with something akin to sad regret, at having to say goodbye to all those characters that I had lived/worked with almost every day over the six-year gestation of the book. I had been there with them at momentous events in their lives and had shared their fears and hopes, loves and losses. In the process, they had become very real to me, and more than just friends.

A short while ago, years after the publication of Mulberry Field, that feeling of nostalgia finally got the better of me. I set everything else aside, grabbed the book, and sat down to read it again in one (long) sitting. It was a tremendous experience, immersing myself once more among old friends, and reliving with them our shared adventures. It felt so good, in fact, that it has inspired me to start a new writing project which involves some of the familiar characters from Mulberry Field. I’m really excited about this new project and have been hard at work on it. Hopefully, I will have some great news to share with you soon (perhaps even before year’s end).

Meanwhile, I hope you’re all doing well and staying safe and healthy in these crazy times. In celebration of all moms out there, I’m making my Kindle books available for free (in addition to Kindle Unlimited) this coming Mother’s Day Weekend (Sat May 9 through Sun May 10):
“Once upon a Mulberry Field” (click here):  an award-winning novel about love, loss, and redemption set in Vietnam at the height of the war, and
“Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees” (click here): a travelogue of my return visit to Vietnam after a decades-long absence.
Please pass the word along. Enjoy, and happy reading!