Launch Day!

Wow,it's almost March 1st and launch day for Bless the Bride. I'm no longer nervous but I'm always excited before a launch party. I've bought enough champagne and shamrock cookies, almond cookies and fortune cookies. I only hope they have good fortunes inside. If I'd thought ahead I could have had special ones made with facts about my books in them. Too bad. I always have my best ideas too late.

And a day before launch I got a piece of good news--Bless the Bride has already gone into a second printing. Everyone at Minotaur is pleased as most hardcover sales are slumping due to e-books and the economy. So let's keep our fingers crossed that it continues to sell well.

I've got lots of great facts to talk about at my various signings. New York's Chinatown, where much of the book takes place, was a place that held fascination even at the time I'm writing about. A man called Chuck Connors used to lead what he called slumming tours. He'd take people on a tour of Chinatown, emphasizing the depravity. He'd show them an opium den (a fake one) and the young ladies would swoon into the arms of their escorts. In fact Chinatown was a peaceful place when the tongs weren't at war. It was composed almost entirely of young men and all they did was work eat and sleep, hoping to save enough money to go home again. Of course Molly has heard all the rumors about Chinatown and is worried when she has to go there. With good reason, as it turns out. Will she singlehandedly rekindle the tong wars? Will she survive for her own wedding? You'll have to read the book to find out.