father's day -- June 20, 2021

My father taught me what selflessness means.
My father conducted his life living for others and thought of himself last. His devotion to his family was absolute, as his perfectionist character. I still see his practice to this day because I see them in my brothers and nephews as they become fathers.
When my mind was in some imaginative clouds, others told me to be practical. But my father asked me what I saw in those clouds because dream and vision are elements that quietly sustain realism.
In October of 2020, I received a surprise phone call offering a writing contract, but the story that I was going to write had to be based on Anchorless. She said the book spoke to her, but it was too short. I thought with Anchorless, my father literally travelled the world and landed on this editor’s desk. My nieces and nephews also told me that they wanted to know more. After reading Anchorless, they said a huge unknown part was missing. 
Then I remembered my father encouraged me to dream higher and broader so that some days, I would probably be able to catch a piece of that dream. 
So, I wrote more about my father, about his life, his ghost, his spiritual existence around me, about my youngest sister Lan Phuong, and about my mother …
The day June 15 of 2021, marks 36 years of his death and my youngest sister’s death. The day before that, the final edited version of the manuscript was completed and sent to the printer to produce Advance Reader Copies.
Then I realized the deeper meaning of selflessness. In his physical absence, my father  taught me that words have the power to heal. 
Three Funerals for my Father – Love, Loss and Escape from Vietnam will be launched in October 2021, published by Tidewater Press. The genre of the book is non-fiction with magical realism.​