Meeting Lisa See

If you've read my review of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (click here), you know I'm a fan of Lisa See. So I was happy to hear that she would be speaking at the Bookmarks Festival in Winston-Salem last weekend. There she is to the right during the event.

I'm not a stalker-fan when it comes to meeting favorite authors. I like to hear them speak, but I don't hang around at the foot of the stage with books clutched to my chest (okay, there was that one time with Elizabeth George, but I was younger then).
I was charmed by Lisa See, however. I knew she would be intelligent and hopefully entertaining. But who knew she would have such a wicked sense of humor?
She also agreed with my assessment that the movie edition of Snow Flower did not mesh with her book. Unlike other authors who have given interviews about how much they hated the filmed version of their works, Lisa See had a much more sanguine viewpoint. She said that her book was her vision as an artist, and that once the director took on the film project it then became his vision as an artist, so there was a part of her that respected that.
But she followed that with a quick comment that she had also learned a few lessons that will come in handy when filming begins later this year on the adaptation of her book Peony in Love. 
See also talked about her own laotong (or life friend), Amy Tan, and their interesting parallel lives. And she gave us some insights into the book she's working on now, tentatively titled China Dolls. It will tell the story of women on the "Chop Suey" entertainment circuit in the '30s and '40s, and how they straddled the line between American looseness and Asian cultural rules. Sounds great!
If you  live in the area, be sure to mark your calendars for the next Bookmarks event, held the second weekend in September. To tempt you, I'll post a couple more photos from this year's festival.