I've created a log of the wonderful opportunities that I've had to meet and talk to organizations all over the country about my research on Chinese American history.

How does one plan the writing and promoting of a book? Try as you might, many aspects are totally unplanned and just a matter of good luck. In creating a map or guide covering the past year and a half, I identify the key events and people behind my journey to record a part of Chinese American and Southern history. Hopefully, this record may be helpful to others who attempt to write and promote their own stories.

Dec. 2, 2006 I had the opportunity to talk about Southern Fried Rice to a receptive audience at San Diego's beautiful Chinese Historical Museum. By coincidence, they still had their excellent exhibit on San Diego's Chinese laundries. It was a pleasure to meet many audience members afterwards at a nice reception held in the lovely Museum patio.

What an experience! The Georgia Literary Festival was held in Macon, my home town and site of the story in Southern Fried Rice. On Nov. 4, I got to talk about SFR to an audience about the history of Chinese in their town. I got to give two other talks over the next two days. The response was warm and congenial, and I met many people who showed genuine interest. Also I even met people I had gone to junior high school with over 50 years ago, so it was an incredible experience. Needless to add, much had changed for the better since I left Macon in 1952 before the rise of the Civil rights movement. And while the city had reinvented itself, trying to promote cultural-historical and tourist events, it still retained a sense of the slower pace of life I remember about the Southern way of life.

A popular columnist, Ed Grisamore, for my hometown paper, The Macon Telegraph learned about Southern Fried Rice and called to interview me. He had been researching some other topic in the library when the historian showed him SFR which led him to write an article about the story of our family. Suddenly, several boyhood friends who read the article popped out of the blue and contacted me, and invited me to come back to Macon for a visit. It was an unexpected pleasure! Isn't it amazing the power of a printed newspaper article .