As we approach the end of the year, I wanted to wish everyone a very safe, healthy and happy holiday season. One thing I’m truly looking forward to in 2022 is the release of Rosa’s Song. I wanted you–my lovely website subscribers–to be among the first to see the final cover. Here it is!
FINAL COVER — courtesy of Pascal Campion & Penguin Random House
[Quick note: for those who aren’t yet subscribers to my website, please subscribe here to be among the first to receive (infrequent) news + post alerts. Plus, you’ll get a free Dreams-to-Reality Workbook that I put together to achieve my writing goals, and that you can use for whatever dream you’d like to turn into reality.]
The illustrator Pascal did such a beautiful job of capturing the warmth between the two main characters, Rosa and Jae (Jae is my dad’s name). Pollito is the little parrot to the left, and he’s Rosa’s lovable sidekick. The story is about a friendship between two kids from completely different backgrounds, and it’s loosely based on my childhood, when I lived in a building near downtown L.A. It was a place of transition, with people constantly moving in and out, so you can imagine how intense the friendships were since you never knew how long you had with each other.
One of the prior cover designs looked like this – can you spot the differences?
PRIOR VERSION — courtesy of Pascal Campion & Penguin Random House
The book is expected to release on June 7, 2022, and you can read more about it here. And if you pre-order a copy or two using any of the retailer links I’ll be forever grateful and will consider you an angel sent directly from heaven 😉 Pre-ordering is helpful to authors because it gives publishers and retailers an early indication of how the book will do. (Btw, I’ll likely announce a pre-order giveaway closer to the release date, so save your receipts!)
As for SORA’S SEASHELLS, the release date has been pushed to 2023 — the watercolor illustrations are looking fabulous, and I’ll save the detailed update (along with sneak peeks) for another day (I’m trying to learn the art of writing short & snappy posts!).
Oh! Here are some Korean dramas I recently enjoyed on Netflix:
- Hometown Cha Cha Cha — It’s a romantic comedy that really does a good job of portraying small-town life in South Korea. I experienced this warmth (and extreme nosiness) when I lived in a small Korean town for a year after college. I love the lead actress, Shin Min-a.
- Squid Game — I almost stopped watching after the first episode because there’s A LOT of violence. But friends kept telling me that I needed to watch it, and so after a few episodes, I became super attached to a few of the characters. And by episode #6, I found myself sobbing. It’s really well done (high tension, great characters, excellent pacing), if you can stomach the many bloody scenes.
We also recently watched the movie House of Gucci by Ridley Scott, which we thought was quite riveting. Such a tragic story. The acting was fantastic, and Jared Leto is always a hoot!
Sherwin sends along some holiday cheer in his studly sweater. It really shows off his broad shoulders! (This was taken last year, so he’s packed on a few extra pounds since then…haven’t we all??)
I’ll leave you with an inspiring Ted talk by a seventeen-year-old beautiful soul. May he rest in peace.
I wish you lots of warmth and good health, and I’ll be back with more updates in 2022!
