Today I'm happy to bring back an author who's become a favorite. Her novels are a mix of fantasy and realism and all have taken me to faraway exotic places. The Witch's Market is no different, it's fun, fantastical and genuine.
Please enjoy Mingmei's guest post where she gives a bit more insight into the inspiration and the experience of The Witch's Market. Then I'll give my review.
From the author of Secret of a Thousand Beauties and Peach Blossom Pavilion comes a beautifully written novel of self-discovery and intrigue. Chinese-American assistant professor Eileen Chen specializes in folk religion at her San Francisco college. Though her grandmother made her living as a shamaness, Eileen publicly dismisses witchcraft as mere superstition. Yet privately, the subject intrigues her. When a research project takes her to the Canary Islands—long rumored to be home to real witches—Eileen is struck by the lush beauty of Tenerife and its blend of Spanish and Moroccan culture. A stranger invites her to a local market where women sell amulets, charms, and love spells. Gradually Eileen immerses herself in her exotic surroundings, finding romance with a handsome young furniture maker. But as she learns more about the lives of these self-proclaimed witches, Eileen must choose how much trust to place in this new and seductive world, where love, greed, and vengeance can be as powerful, or as destructive, as any magic.
From the Publisher
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF MINGMEI YIP “Inspiring, courageous story...Yip's prose is simple yet descriptive, immersing the reader in the sights, sounds and smells of rural and urban China.” —Booklist on Secret of a Thousand Beauties “A unique and enthralling style…flawless.” –Baltimore Books Examiner on The Nine Fold Heaven “Surprising and often funny….Part epic, part coming-of-age story, part modern fairy tale.” —Publishers Weekly on Song of the Silk Road
Today I'm welcoming back award winning author Mingmei Yip who is here to talk about her new release, Secrets of a Thousand Beauties. Her historical novels are rich with folklore and facts about the period she writes about and this novel is the same with beautiful scenes and wonderful characters.
ISBN-13: 9781617733215
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication date: 11/25/2014
Pages: 320
OVERVIEW: Set against the vibrant and intrigue-laden backdrop of 1930s China, Mingmei Yip's enthralling novel explores one woman's defiant pursuit of independence.
Spring Swallow was promised in marriage while still in her mother's belly. When the groom dies before a wedding can take place, seventeen-year-old Spring Swallow is ordered to become a ghost bride to appease his spirit. Under her in-laws' protection, she will be little more than a servant, unable to know real love or bear children. Refusing to accept her fate as a "bad-luck woman," Spring Swallow flees on her wedding day.
Read an Excerpt:
PROLOGUE
It was my wedding day. I was horrified.
Because my soon-to-be-lawful—and awful—husband was not even a man.
He was a ghost.
Well, a man, but a dead one! A sinister being, his cold hands reaching toward me from the yinworld....
When we were engaged, in accord with tradition, I'd never met him. In fact, no one had ever met him, because my ghost husband-to-be and I had been engaged long before we were even born. My mother and her best friend, my ghost husband's mother, lived in the same village and happened to get pregnant around the same time. Following the ancient tradition zhifu weihun, they pointed to each other's protruding bellies, and proclaimed, "If we give birth to a boy and a girl, they'll be husband and wife when they turn seventeen."
So, because of our extremely old and extremely unfortunate tradition, my fate had been decided even before I was born. I was going to marry a man I could never know, not even see, because he'd died before he could make it outside his mother's belly. Like a snake, her umbilical cord wound around his tiny neck and squeezed the tiny breath out of him.
"But, Spring Swallow," said my mean aunt, addressing me by name, "a promise is a promise."
It was my misfortune to have been raised by this very mean woman because both of my parents had died in a bus accident not long after their future son-in-law's failure to enter this life. It was whispered around the village that because the baby could not lure his parents to join him in hell, he dragged down his intended parents-in-law instead.
My heartless aunt went on. "You know, failing to keep a promise not only shames your ancestors, but will bring your husband's ghost back to haunt you. So, you have no choice but to marry him, dead or alive. Also, because not only your future husband but your parents also died, no man will marry you."
Before I had a chance to ask why, she cast me a malicious glance. "No man wants to marry a bad-luck woman!"
But I knew the real reason that Mean Aunt was so eager for me to marry a ghost. Not because I was bad luck, but because I would be good luck for her. My ghost husband's family was one of the richest in the village. Though the wedding would bring me no husband, it would bring her a bundle of cash and a heap of expensive gifts. But, of course, rich people do not give away their money just because they are nice. Once married to their ghost son, I would be obligated to take care of my mother-in-law until she died!
My aunt went on to threaten me. "You think any man would want to marry you? Born under an all-destroying star? Spring Swallow, you really have no choice. So don't even think of escaping. I won't let you destroy my reputation and ruin my life!"
Escape. That was exactly what I had in mind all along. I didn't care about my aunt's reputation and life. Because living in our remote village and being an old maid, she didn't have much of a life to begin with anyway.
Overview: "A unique and
enthralling style. . .flawless." —Baltimore Books Examiner In this mesmerizing new novel, Mingmei Yip draws readers deeper into the exotic world of 1930s Shanghai first explored in Skeleton Women, and into the lives of the unforgettable Camilla, Shadow, and Rainbow Chang.
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Hi Mingmei welcome back to The Reading Frenzy, I hosted you when your last novel Skeleton Women came out a year ago. (click link
for interview)
Thank you Debbie for having me back!
Tell us a little about your new novel The Nine Fold Heaven,
I loved it by the way.
I am pleased that you liked it! As you know, The Nine Fold Heaven is about three femmes fatales – referred to as “skeleton women,” in Chinese. They are the singer spy Camilla, the magician Shadow, and the gossip columnist Rainbow Chang. But the journey is mainly Camilla’s. She undertakes an emotional and dangerous trip
back to Shanghai to reunite with her lost lovers, to find the baby she was told was stillborn, and to discover
the secret of her parents’ murder.
Nine Fold Heaven is part of a series of Skeleton Women (femmes fatales) but can be read as a stand alone book.
This is a sequel to your last novel Skeleton Women staring
Camilla the spy.
Camilla is a rather dark or noir heroine and she doesn’t make many excuses for how she goes about her business. Why did you decide to paint her in this light?
As a woman writer, I am extremely intrigued by beautiful,
talented and scheming women. One may not want them as friends but as
characters, they are exciting. So I decided to explore this character type by
writing about them. Camilla the nightclub singer was trained to be a spy by her
gangster boss. Her mission: to seduce, then assassinate his arch rival,
gangster head Master Lung.
But there are obstacles on Camilla’s path to completing her assignment. She falls in love! Not only with Master Lung’s Harvard educated lawyer son, but also Lung’s rough, but loyal, bodyguard Gao. Worse, her arch rival, the magician Shadow, whose repertoire of tricks including jumping to her own disappearance and making a castle vanish, schemes for the heart of Camilla’s lover, Master Lung. Both women, however, realizing that they are both helpless women struggling to survive at the margins of society, decide to join to help each other.
Although
I am fortunate to have a far easier life than my characters, I can feel these
marginal women’s sufferings. Perhaps it is because I grew up in Hong Kong, a
city of great wealth, but also of many human tragedies. So I can see the
helplessness, and vulnerability behind thepretty faces and ruthless schemes. But despite their desperate
expediencies, my main characters also, have some good that shine through in the
ends.
If you had to describe Camilla in one word for our audience
what would it be?
self-reliant.
1930’s Shanghai is represented as a lawless and corrupt
time.
Is this the way it really was?
Why did you choose this particular time?
I love history, because it is like a mirror
reflecting all that’sgood and bad
in humanity. I think the 1930’s Shanghai is one of the sexiest eras in world
history, populated with larger than life characters: glamorous women, , cynical
politicians, and corrupt police. But also with idealists trying to help China
find its way in the modern world.
It was a
time of extremes – from sybaritic luxury to abject poverty. I have tried to
describe both from the indulgences of the rich to the miseries of the poor. But
even for the rich, life was full of dangers.
Few of the
rich came by their wealth honestly. There were always many ready to usurp their
place, by guile if possible, or by murder if necessary. Those without money
were expendable, particularly parentless children abandoned to orphanages. This
had been Camilla’s fate, and also two of my actually virtuous characters -- the
little blind girl and the baby she takes care of.
Nine Fold Heaven is a beautiful mix of cultures and traditions and it’s a true sequel to Skeleton Women.
As the author do you think it is beneficial to read the novels in order?
I wrote The Nine Fold Heaven in a way that it can be read as a stand alone book. But if readers like the three femmes fatales and want to learn more about them, then they will enjoyreading Skeleton Women as a prequel.Also, anyone out there who wants to know how a magician can make an
entire building disappear will learn how in this novel.
The illustrations in your children’s books are beautiful, are they your own
illustrations?
Yes. I have written and
illustrated two children’s book, Chinese Children’s
Favorite Stories which
is one of Tuttle Publishing’s bestsellers and the new Grandma Panda’s China Storybook,
which has just come out this year.
Illustrations from my new children’s book Grandma Panda’s
China Storybook:
Grandma Panda teaching her grandchildren to write Chinese
Home coming celebration for Mulan the woman warrior
Here
are some samples of my other paintings:
White and green-robed Guanyin, Goddess of Compassion
Xiang Xiang, protagonist of my debut novel Peach Blossom
Pavilion, playing the qin.
Me doing calligraphy
My calligraphy workshop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
2012
Do you have any art showings in the near future?
I teach calligraphy workshops
quite regularly. This year’s was at Lincoln Center, sponsored by the New York
Philharmonic, last year I did one for the lunar new year at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
Are you working on another novel?
Yes, my next and sixth novel is Needle of a Thousand Beauties, to be
published by Kensington Books in 2014.
It is about a young woman who escapes a ghost marriage to join a community of celebrate embroiderers. Soon, stifled by the rigid routines of the group, she helps herself to one of their treasures – an imperial robe. Chased by agents of a secret society, she makes her way to Beijing. There she finds work in an embroidery shop, only to be tricked into marrying the boss’ son. Escaping again, she falls in love with a revolutionary and lives an even more dangerous life. Despite all these distractions, she continues with her needlework and earns fame and respect.
Mingmei, many authors belong to writing or critique groups.
Do you?
I used to have a writing group but since it has dissolved I am now on my own. I rely on my husband Geoffrey Redmond, a medical doctor, butalso an excellent writer himself with six books to his credit and two
more on the way. He is the first one to read everything I write and always has
helpful feedback.
What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
I’m embarrassed to say that I
am a little crazy about containers, especially purses, wallets, thermos, and
boxes – tin biscuit boxes, lunch boxes, metal or ceramic tea boxes. So when I
take breaks from writing, I’ll go online to search for these. Somehow just
looking at them makes me very happy.
Here is a purse I bought in
San Francisco’s China Town, I added the jade myself.
Another prized possession is
a thermos that was a gift from the West Point Military Academy, after I gave a
lecture on Sunzi’s Art of War to their cadets in 2008. My great uncle studied
at West Point – he was a famous general in China. For myself, however, I have
noliking for military matters,
just mild curiosity.
Mingmei’s lecture at West Point Military Academy
Mingmei do you have any signings or events celebrating the release of Nine Fold Heaven?
I am planning to do a signing
at the Barnes and Noble in Honolulu this November and another one at the CUNY
Asian Asian American Research Institute in New York. Other venues are in the
works.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us about
your new novel, your art and your children’s books. Good luck with all your
endeavors.
The Songbird/spy Camilla’s escaped to Hong Kong after
successfully fulfilling her lifelong mission for her gangland boss. She’s left
behind her son, JinJin, who she was told was stillborn but who’s visits to her
dreams tell her otherwise and her son’s father, JinYing, whom she loves the
best. She has no choice but to return to Shanghai to try to solve the mysteries
of her son and lover but to do this she’ll need to resort to her “Skeleton
Woman” spy ways of manipulation and exploitation to get the information she
needs. She also must be wary of her enemies who still search for her and even
those she now befriends must be watched for they could turn on her at any
moment.
Mingmei brings us the sequel to her novel Skeleton Women
about the unscrupulous yet loveable spy Camilla. Camilla is a noir heroine who
readers will love to hate or hate to love. The author makes it clear she’s a
product of her environment and never apologizes for her behavior which she
shouldn’t. The narrative is colorful and an exotic mix of cultures and
traditions and will bring the sounds and flavors of a troubled lawless past
society to life. For ultimate understanding and enjoyment the two books should
be read in order.
