What's New With My Book??
Well, hopefully you’ve been following along enough to know I have a book coming out. In the Garden Behind the Moon: a Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic, was seeded right here on this blog, but has become something so much more than what was ever here. It is coming out worldwide in May, 2024, from Flashpoint Books. The ancestors are dancing with me.
What’s the scoop? I signed with Flashpoint in July and although May of next year might sound like a long time away to you, I can assure you, from signing to publication in under a year? That’s fast. So what’s this book all about? Read the back copy below. What do you think? Would you grab a book like this from the shelf and run for the checkout counter? Maybe with two, one to keep, one to give? And propose it at your local book club?
In the Garden Behind the Moon: A Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic. Alexandra Chan thinks she has life figured out until, in the Year of the Ram, the death of her father—her last parent—brings her to her knees, an event seemingly foretold in Chinese mythology. A left-brained archaeologist and successful tiger daughter, Chan finds her logical approach to life utterly fails her in the face of this profound grief. Unable to find a way forward, she must either burn to ash or forge herself anew.
Slowly, painfully, wondrously, she discovers that her father and her ancestors have left threads of renewal in the artifacts and stories of their lives. In a long-lost interview conducted by Roosevelt’s Federal Writers’ Project, a basket of war letters written from the Burmese jungle, a box of photographs, her world travels, and a deepening relationship to her own art, the archaeologist and lifelong rationalist makes her greatest discovery to date: the healing power of enchantment.
In an epic story that travels from prerevolution China to the South under Jim Crow, from the Pacific theater of WWII to the black sands of Reynisfjara, Iceland, and beyond, Chan takes us on a universal journey to meaning in the wake of devastating loss, sharing the insights and tools that allowed her to rebuild her life and resurrect her spirit. Part memoir, part lyrical invitation to new ways of seeing and better ways of being in dark times, the book includes beautiful full-color original Chinese brush paintings by the author and fascinating vintage photographs of an unforgettable cast of characters. In the Garden Behind the Moon is a captivating family portrait and an urgent call to awaken to the magic and wonder of daily life.
Cheers, friends! This is real and it’s happening. I can’t wait to bring some of that Old Chan Magic out into the world.
P.S. I’ve been designing custom bookplates for book signings and giveaways. What do you think of my design? It has several key symbols from the book: a snail (who is a thinly veiled animal familiar for myself), who is never lost or afraid because she takes her home (her shell) with her wherever she goes; the moon for reasons you will have to wait and read about; peonies as the “King of Flowers” in Chinese culture, and a bouquet from the ancestors. “You have done well. You have not bowed your head, and have walked like a Chan through this, your most challenging chapter.” And then a butterfly for metamorphosis and lightness of being, rising above even your worst trials, and that…sooner than you think.
