Kao Kalia Yang

"Because our stories are worth writing and reading" - Kao Kalia Yang

After a hurried lunch with friends yesterday I rushed to attend the reading of "The Latehomecomer." Through the efforts of a local neighborhood book club in Allen, the Allen Public Library sponsored Kalia to fly to Texas and discuss her book, a memoir of a Hmong family.

When I came through the door, an Asian lady greeted me and asked if I am a Hmong. I simply said no, not clarifying that I am Filipino because I assumed she was only trying to see if I was a Hmong like her. She had on a perfectly blended make-up matching her beautiful, evenly tanned skin with a spikey haircut. So that's how Hmong's look like. I know she wasn't Kalia, but I thought she was a Hmong and not a Filipino. Her name is Minvi a member of the book club who's helping Laura, the lady responsible for bringing Kalia in to town.

Kalia spoke in a seductive tone - yet sad, but forceful and affirming. I thought: How do you do that? Can I buy some of that? I think it's the poetry in her tongue and the passion from her heart. To see poetry in wars, it had to be both. During the question and answer session I wanted to ask her what the writing process was like because the book is full of gripping and heartbreaking scenes, but I held my tongue because right at the beginning when she started talking, I got a lump in my throat. I'm telling you, it's that Kalia voice.

At the reception and book signing, which by the way, they ran out of books, I noticed that she not only signed her name but also included some inspiring lines. She hardly looked up because the line was long and she had to catch a flight back to her home in Minnesota.
Watching Kalia signing nervously I thought of my friend June who is now negotiating on publishing her book Gungnir's Sister (mystery suspense fiction). She asked me Friday if I would travel and do book signing with her. Note that I'm not a fiction fan but I have read and reread her manuscript and it's still riveting.

But I have a lot of respect for fiction writers because of the creativity involved (or just about any writer who finish their work) because mine has been sitting inside my computer untouched for several months now. I started my memoir at the behest of Chat (for posterity) and my writing teacher's assurance that it will (financially) allow me to quit my real job.
When people ask why it's taking so long for me to finish it, I jokingly say -"I don't want to finish it because I don't want to do book signing" of which Chat is quick to say, "Mom, you're assuming people will buy it."

Ok, here's a new excuse, "I'm still practicing the Kalia voice." Or, maybe because it's not easy to reinvent the truth?

http://www.kaokaliayang.com/