FOUR DAYS A WEEK. At Our Fingertips. An Unexpected Place.

FEATURED STORY.
FAMILY PASSAGE by Mia T. Starr 

A daughter returns to her father's village in Viet Nam ... remembering no matter how dark the morning, the sun always rises.

by Mia T. Starr

On one of my visits home to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2001, I asked my seventy-year-old father to write a journal about his life and days in Viet Nam.

I said to him in English and part Vietnamese:

"Write whatever comes to mind. Don't worry about time and having things in order. Write from the heart. Write in Vietnamese. Don't worry about the language, or the form. I will figure it out later."

My father did not ask questions or why. He simply nodded and said, "Okay."

Two years later my father gave me his seventy-five page, handwritten journal and said, "My memory is good ... sometimes too good that it can be bad. My writing is not so good. It can be better."

I thanked my father for giving me what will later become the voice and inspiration to MORNING SUN, a historical fiction set in Viet Nam.

_This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'not at this address.' Just keep looking for the right address. -Barbara Kingsolver