Jeannie Lin – Guest Blog –West Meets East

Please help me welcome author Jeannie Lin to My Reading Room today, for her guest blog.  Thanks Jeannie for being a guest blogger today!


Butterfly Swords features a romance between a western hero and an Asian heroine. When the blurb started hitting the blogosphere, I noticed a few comments expressing excitement over an interracial romance while others expressed some wariness. Not another white guy goes to Asia story!

I do admit, I’m not exactly original in this premise. I’d have to say my fascination for this goes all the way back to when I first saw the miniseries Shogun with my parents. The series was based on a novel of the same name by James Clavell. In the series, an Englishman, John Blackthorne, is shipwrecked in 17^th century Japan. At first he’s taken prisoner, but gradually begins to learn the culture and earns a place of respect with the feudal warlords.

Within the story, a forbidden romance develops between Blackthorne and his translator, Lady Mariko. I was fascinated by that as well. Two people from different worlds; all the juicy tension and conflict!

There were many reasons that series had such an effect on me. First, it was really cool to see Asian faces on American television. More importantly, these were Asians and Caucasians together. We lived in Southern California. Most of my classmates were Caucasian and it meant something for me to have this mix of ethnicities portrayed.

The world of Shogun was so dramatic and exotic to me. I’m Vietnamese with some Chinese ancestry and didn’t know anything about Japan. I understood some aspects of the Japanese culture portrayed because I was Asian, but other parts were completely foreign. I identified with Lady Mariko because she was an Asian female, but I also identified with John Blackthorne, a westerner in a strange land.

I’ve been asked whether I put a white guy in China so Butterfly Swords would be accepted by mainstream publishers. Not at all. I can’t say I knew starting out what would make the story acceptable or not. Maybe having a multicultural romance on top of an unusual historical setting made it an even harder sell. I just don’t know.

I do know I wanted to create that same sense of discovery and conflict. I barely understood the plot of Shogun when I first watched it, but I still I remember specific scenes to this very day. Butterfly Swords was inspired by a lot of things. At the top of the list has to be the memory of watching Shogun on television and being sucked in by the swords, the honor, and the romance.

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Jeannie Lin writes historical romantic adventures set in Tang Dynasty China. Her short story, The Taming of Mei Lin from Harlequin Historical Undone is available September 1. Her Golden Heart award-winning novel, Butterfly Swords, will be released October 1 from Harlequin Historical and received 4-stars from Romantic Times Reviews—“The action never stops, the love story is strong and the historical backdrop is fascinating.”
Join the launch celebration at http://www.butterfly-swords.com for giveaways and special features. Visit Jeannie online at: http://www.jeannielin.com