Sheng-Shih Lin's Blog

Due to a technical issue. I trust that Goodreads members had sufficient time to download copies.

Congratulations!

I just made the bookmarks that are to be enclosed as keepsakes with each copy.

The bookmark is a simple strip of heavy stock watercolor paper with the Chinese character karma "yuan" written on it in brush calligraphy. I used a blue watercolor for the brushwork.

In case you are interested, the calligraphy is done in the "slender gold" style from the Song Dynasty.

I am mailing the books tomorrow. Thank you for participating in the giveaway.

The dust is not quite settled yet.

Gave away 14,300 downloads during the past three days.

Not too sure how many Goodreads members participated. Not too many judging from the number of views of my post.

"Daughter of the Bamboo Forest" went as high as #12 in Kindle Free bookstore and #2 in the historical fiction category, right behind the very strong Historical Romance Boxset.

I am not sure whether "historical fiction" is the right category for this book after seeing all the book covers with damsels in Victorian dresses and flowing hair in the category. Maybe "literary fiction" is a better fit.

and #35 in all free ebooks in Amazon.com.
Please go and download your copy. One more day to go! 4/5 is the last day.

Thank you for your support!

4/4 and 4/5 two days giveaway of ebooks. Read the reviews and pick up a free book! Thank you for your support. (Enter the goodreads giveaway to win a paperback edition.)

Received my first review at Amazon.co.uk today. Five stars no less! Amazon.co.uk recently added reviews from the U.S. Amazon site to books on the UK site. This should help all the authors on Amazon.

Received two reviews for the excerpt (first 5000 words) of Daughter of the Bamboo Forest:

First ABNA Expert Reviewer
What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?
I was thoroughly immersed into the life of Little Jade. My heart goes out to her and I felt her emotional turmoil. The author does an amazing job making sure her characters are unique, authentic and realistic.

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?
I loved every line! This story is amazing and I would like very much to find out how this story unfolds. The author has a talent that needs to be shared with the world. Bravo!

Second ABNA Expert Reviewer
What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?
The setting. The time period as well as the place the story occurs in are extremely interesting.
The writing. The author has done an excellent job in bringing the countryside alive as well as introducing each character and showing the reader just a little about each of the adults. The story of Little Jade's mother and where her father was for the first six years of her life catch the reader's interest quickly. The figure of the father and grandmother are well drawn with the love of the grandmother for the little child coming through without being overtly communicated. The sadness of the father and the oblivious nature of Little Jade to the turmoil is well depicted.
When Silver Pearl is introduced it takes only a few skillfully placed hints for the reader to have some idea of the personality of the woman.

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?
Fascinating excerpt. I enjoyed the historical period chosen as well as the author's handling of it. The author has a good ability to make characters and their motivations come alive without being too obvious.

"Lin’s engrossing historical novel, set in 1940s China, vividly intertwines the tumultuous childhood of a young girl with the social and political events leading up to the Chinese Revolution.

As the daughter of a wealthy landowning family, Little Jade spends her early life in a large, luxurious compound in the Chinese countryside. Though she has everything she could ever want materially and a staff of servants waiting on her every need, Little Jade is unfulfilled. She has no memories of her mother and rarely sees her father. Her paternal grandmother has lovingly raised her since her parents left to study at university shortly after she was born. When Little Jade’s father returns home to marry a much younger woman—his first wife, Little Jade’s mother, disappeared after the Japanese invasion—the story then follows the turbulent path of the richly drawn characters as they navigate their own personal turmoil through the instability of living in China in the years before revolution. Lin effortlessly weaves together the painful histories of Little Jade’s mother, grandmother, stepmother and father into the child’s own ordeals, which include being shipped off to live in a convent on the eve of civil war and a plague that decimates an entire village. Though at times their actions are appalling—particularly Little Jade’s father—Lin paints the characters in such a way to elicit sympathy as they confront changing family traditions and the immense unrest sweeping the country; their reactions are convincingly authentic. Lin’s deft, graceful prose builds ominous tension for the novel.

Lin succeeds in creating both an absorbing historical chronicle and the moving story of a family’s unbreakable bond."