Happy Tuesday and welcome to my book release party! Sorry for not sending out invitations in advance, but it was hard to round up any snails on such short notice. 😉 I was hoping to do this in two parts (cover reveal and then book release), but it all came together at once this week. So without further ado …
Cue the fireworks!
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net
I’m thrilled to share my first short story with you, a sweet romance titled The More the Merrier! Here’s the book cover (designed by the amazing Deborah Bradseth of Tugboat Designs)!
Now, people say never judge a book by its cover, but I think there’s a lot of information you can gather from this one. Fuzzy white sweaters? Red sparkly font? Asian faces? Hmm… If you guessed this is a story about an Asian couple at Christmastime, you’re right. 🙂
Here’s the gist of the book (aka. back cover blurb):
Fed up with a string of bad blind dates, health blogger Alyssa Wu just wants to drown her sorrows in ice cream. But there’s one more evening she must endure – a fake date with her best friend Barry Chang. They must convince her family they are in love, an act which may (or may not) be easy to pull off, thanks to the magic of some mistletoe.
This 10,000 word short story is perfect for your lunch break, workout or while you wait in line on Black Friday. Read it today to get in the Christmas spirit any time of the year!
This story was so much fun to write, especially given the fact that I had to think about wintery things in the middle of an August heat wave. That’s where Alyssa’s love of ice cream came in. 😉 The male character’s name comes from two people whom I adore; one fictional and one real. Barry is of course for Barry Allen of The Flash, someone who is sweet, genuine and courageous. Chang is my dear maternal grandfather’s surname. This book is dedicated in loving memory to him, a man so rich in love and compassion.
After I wrote my last book, True To You, with a Chinese main character and her family, I decided to tackle writing about my culture again in this book. I find a lot of humor in stereotypes and boy, are there a lot of funny things that Chinese parents do. LOL. 🙂
I hope you enjoy The More the Merrier! You can read an excerpt on my blog under the “Seasons of Love Series” tab (click here). And yup, this is book #1 in a new series. There will be three more short stories coming next year for the seasons of spring, summer and fall (along with book #3 in my “Taking Chances Series“)!
You can purchase The More the Merrier at Amazon.com: Kindle format. It’s available for $0.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited.
And take a listen to the song featured in the book, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You”. It’ll get you in the Christmas spirit for sure!