This is Volume One of a planned trilogy. One morning in Han dynasty China (206 BC - 220 AD), a girl of eleven is waking up... The day Meike grew up started out like most. She woke to the songs of mockingbirds in the camellia tree. She could hear Ahmei, the cook, in the forecourt bang a pot over the stove. She could smell smoke from Ahmei's fire and from a hundred others in their crowded district. If she concentrated, she could smell other things too - earth still damp from last night's rain, peppers soaking in a vat, and something she couldn't quite name riding the breeze that stirred the bamboo in the courtyard and trickled in through her latticed window. The first light that peeked over the roof-tiles of the east wing of the family compound made the soft green of the spring bamboo almost glow. A softer light caressed the petals of the plum blossom sprig in the vase on the table beneath her window. Her name, Meike, with its soft "may" and harder "kuh," meant Plum Blossom - soft petals, hard branch - and every Spring, on Meike's birthday, her mother placed a cutting in her room. In a few minutes, Ahmei would call her name, then call again when Meike didn't hop out of bed as ordered. She knew that if she waited, her father would creep in, slowly lift her cover, then grab her belly in a tickling claw. But then, all of a sudden, she had this unsettling feeling that today would be different.
About the Author: MICHAEL NYLAN (Professor of History, University of California at Berkeley) is the author of many books and articles on early China and the modern reception of the distant past. Her two most recent books are Chang'an 26 BCE: an Augustan Age in China (on the Han capital city and its powerholders), and The Letter to Ren An and Sima Qian's Legacy (a study of the most famous letter ever written in classical Chinese). She was orphaned at age eleven, and books got her through then. For that reason, she has always wanted to write a book that will help get young people at a certain stage through a crisis, and this is her first attempt to do so, with ROBERT JOSEPH LITZ (1950-2012, ) a playwright whose work focused on social and political themes. He gained acclaim in 1983 for his play, "Great Divide," which was subsequently produced off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop in 1984. Bob Litz wrote seventeen produced plays for Off-, Off-off Broadway, the regional theatres, and for the Elephant Theatre Company where he was Playwright in Residence beginning in 2005. His plays include "Mobile Hymn" (Dramalogue Award, Best Play) and "Cycles" (Best of 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival). He wrote several television shows including the A&E Biographies "George Washington," "Benjamin Franklin," "Andrew Jackson" and Emmy-nominated "John Travolta." He wrote the original screenplay for "Twister," "House of Cards," "Medium Straight" and "Rappin'." He won the 2012 Burger Prize for writing on the theatre. He was a member of the Actors Studio (Playwrights/ Directors Unit), the WGAW, and LA Stage Alliance.