With the first novel, I was concerned I would be pigeon-holed as an Asian-American writer, and the book would be labeled for Asian-Americans only.
I was freelance proof-reading, freelance editing, creating illustrated slides for doctors' presentations - just so I'd have enough money to take the time to write. That's how I got by.
Spend enough time wrangling a toddler, and you get good at being kind but firm. Like your child, you must be doggedly single-minded when it matters.
Comparing Asian writers mainly to other Asian writers implies that we're all telling the same story - a disappointingly reductive view.
Somewhere in the Commandments of Reviewing must be written, 'Thou shalt not compare Asians to non-Asians.'
What I remember about race relations in the 1990s is that you showed your awareness by saying you didn't see race, that you were colour-blind.
