Ray Hecht's Blog, page 27
October 14, 2015
Author Interview With Ray Hecht
Originally posted on Accidental Bohemian:
Hello Readers,
I am very excited for my latest author interview with China-based writer, Ray Hecht whom I was introduced to here on wordpress. Besides his impressive talent, I am delighted to interview him.
1. When did you start putting pen to paper?
I started writing a few short stories for fun in high school, although at that time I was far more interested in drawing and comics. I remember the age of 23 I officially told myself I want to start writing novels and haven’t looked back since.
2. What’s your literary poison – prose, poetry, etc.?
As in producing or consuming? I am primarily a fan of comics and novels. No offense to short stories and poetry. I read all manner of comics from superhero to indie to Vertigo-esque fantasy to manga. With novels I highly respect the sort of “neo-Beat” aesthetic epitomized by Irvine Welsh and Bret…
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October 13, 2015
Book Release!
Last night was a big night for me. After all this time, my novel South China Morning Blues has finally been published!
So I crossed the border to go the offices of Blacksmith Books in Hong Kong to get some books. Always enjoy visiting there. I now have dozens and dozens of hard copies, which I took with me across the border to Shenzhen in the mainland (so heavy that the wheels on my suitcase broke!) and a new era of promotion begins.
There’s a sort of book tour in the PRD on, with books to be available at various events in Shenzhen, as well as Guangzhou. You kind of have to do it all yourself in China. Eventually I’ll make it up to Shanghai and Beijing. Down in Hong Kong, it’s more official at proper bookstores…
With my dream coming true, and it is rather surreal, just thought I’d share some pictures:
And that’s that. Now on to encouraging people to actually read it and get something literary out of these stories!
October 11, 2015
Monkey Vid
Hi all. I’ve been back from South Africa for several days, and busy with getting my China life back on track.
There are also some great new developments with the book and I will happily share soon enough…
Please be patient on my South Africa blog post updates. I have a lot to write about. (Coming up in two parts.) Currently drafting!
For now, enjoy this very short video I made about seeing monkeys at the Kruger Park campsite:
October 7, 2015
South China Morning Blues
Originally posted on I lost my heart in Japan:
Next week on October 15th the new book from author Ray Hecht will be published by Blacksmith Books and I was lucky enough to get an early copy.
Ray Hecht has been living in Shenzen, China, since 2008 and has written several books about life in China – including “Pearl River Drama: Dating in China – A Memoir” – in which he writes about his own life and dating experiences. His newest book “South China Morning Blues” is seperated into three parts, that are named after three chinese cities; Shenzen, Guangzhou and Hongkong.
Ray Hecht
What I found most unusal about the book, is, that the reader learns the names of all the protagonists from the beginning, just like in a play. Even more interesting is the assignment of the 12 chinese signs, one for each character. Throughout the book the characters are identified by their…
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October 5, 2015
Book of the week – South China Morning Blues
(The following review was posted on Susan Bloomberg-Kason’s website, author of the engaging tell-all memoir Good Chinese Wife. I am honored that she appreciated my novel, and in several weeks we will be participating in a panel at the Hong Kong literary festival. Please see her website and the links below for more.)
http://www.susanbkason.com/2015/10/04/book-of-the-week-south-china-morning-blues/
For almost a year, I’d been hearing about Ray Hecht’s forthcoming novel, South China Morning Blues (Blacksmith Books, 2015), which comes out from the publisher on October 15 and on Amazon later this year. When the author sent me a review copy, I found myself pausing at every break during the day and evening to get in more reading. This is not one to miss!
Most China novels and memoirs take place in other regions besides the Pearl River Delta. Hecht’s book is different in that it’s separated into three sections named after cities: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. I haven’t been to Shenzhen in 17 years and Guangzhou in 19, but felt like I was being transported back to a place I once knew well and one I’d visited a couple times, respectively. And I think I know Hong Kong well, so was excited he kept that one for the end.
Through his writing, Hecht shows he’s an adept observer of life in southern China and Hong Kong, capturing the spirit of each place he writes about and the issues that define these places. His twelve characters appear throughout the book and each brings a different perspective. There are English teachers, a journalist, artist, businessman, and a young woman who marries an old Taiwanese sugar daddy, to name some.
The format of the book is quite clever. As I mentioned above, it’s broken into three sections according to locale. But within each section, the chapters are arranged according to one of the twelve characters. Hecht doesn’t label the chapters with the characters’ names, but rather by the Chinese character of their zodiac animal. My short-term memory is not the greatest, but I found I had no trouble keeping up with which character was which.
It was fascinating for me to read about dating in Shenzhen and Guangzhou since I had heard some stories from my ex-husband’s friends who moved south to Shenzhen for better working opportunities. But I never knew foreigners who lived in Guangzhou back then, so that part was new to me. And the Hong Kong section was fun and completely realistic with many of the characters ending up at a rave on Lamma Island.
This is a dense book, yet a quick read. If you have trouble keeping the characters straight–which you shouldn’t have since I seemed to manage all right–you can always flip back to the list of characters and their zodiac animal at the front of the book. The stories are not always happy (in fact, more often than not they are pretty depressing), but they are realistic and tackle issues that many young people–expats, locals, and those who relocate from other parts of China–face every day.
The book is available for a GoodReads raffle until October 14. Click here to enter. I’ll be appearing with Ray at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival on Sunday, November 8 at 3:30pm. For more tickets and more information, click here.
October 2, 2015
Goodreads Giveaway
Dear Readers,
Hope you are on Goodreads.com. If you aren’t you’ve been missing out. I’ve enjoyed starring my graphic novels and organizing bookshelves for years now, even before I became an official “Goodreads Author.”
My novel South China Morning Blues is currently up as a giveaway. Please sign up for your chance to be one of ten winners to receive a free hard copy of the book!
Less than two weeks left…
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/156199-south-china-morning-blues
Goodreads Book Giveaway
South China Morning Blues
by Ray Hecht
Giveaway ends October 14, 2015.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Official Blacksmith Books page
September 27, 2015
Weekend Chinglish Part II
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Enjoy moon cakes, whether they have nuts or egg yolk (well, I suspect you may not really enjoy the egg yolk flavor…)
I’m actually not in China right now. I’m in South Africa, if you can believe that. So busy. No time to get into that now. Later an epic post on all I’ve seen here.
For now here’s the beginnings of a motherload of Chinglish I found at a garden in Meilin, Shenzhen. So many signs. Take a peak–
September 25, 2015
Weekend Chinglish Part I
It’s been a while and the Chinglish has been packing up!
This weekend, not much but a bit of a multi-part super post…
September 22, 2015
About to go to South Africa
Apologies for no good blog post so far this week.
Actually, I have a whole lot to write about. I have many Chinglish pictures lined up for your amusement, some new interviews with brilliant young writers waiting to be posted for posterity, and of course the latest news on the promotion of my forthcoming novel South China Morning Blues.
(Please do check out the official new web page: http://www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/south-china-morning-blues)
But I am a bit busy lately, because I’m preparing to fly out for a big trip tomorrow: I’m going to South Africa
Shall be there for two weeks. Never been to that continent before. Should prove interesting.
More on that soon.
— And let me say that as a couple of white people going to Africa, this song has been stuck in my head! :)
September 16, 2015
An old vid
Recently, an acquaintance online pointed out this old video from the year 2007. They were to delete that YouTube page, so I decided to save it on my own seldom-used channel and now post a blog in my seldom-used Vids category. (Do feel free to click on “Vids” to see a few more)
This one from back in my student film days in Southern California; I must have volunteered to act in someone’s short film. I can’t even remember the details. Anyway, here is a random blast from the past as it were. Short, cheesey music, with me as a young man.
Presenting: “The Connection”
What do you think? Should I get back into acting?! Should I at least make some new videos to share on occasion…?
