Giveaway & Guest Post With Mingmei Yip, Author Of Skeleton Women

Writing About Skeleton Women

I love to write about women, especially heroines who are on the verge of drastic transformation -- their courage, struggles, and triumphs. As the Chinese say that water, the softest element, is the most powerful. My heroines use their flexible, water-like yin nature to overcome whatever perils they face.

Skeleton Women, my new novel, is the story about three of these femmes fatales - a nightclub singer who has been forced to become a spy, a magician who jumps naked off a tall building, and a gender-ambiguous gossip columnist. All must scheme in order to survive the gang wars in lawless 1930ies Shanghai.

  

Camilla, the protagonist in Skeleton Women, is an orphan rescued by a gangster head only to be trained as a spy to lure another crime lord to his ruin and death. As a spy, Camilla cannot allow herself to open to her feelings for other people. Her only mission is to turn the crime lord into a skeleton by using her beauty, heavenly voice, knife-throwing and contortion.

Despite her dire situation, Camilla has nevertheless gained wisdom from her years of studying the Art of War, the Thirty-Six Stratagems, and other ancient guides to survival amidst adversity. She knows that to have a chance at a happy life, she must somehow escape her bondage to gangsters and the violence that surrounds her. So she uses the wisdom of the ancient Chinese sages to plan her escape. Unexpectedly, before she has a chance to accomplish her mission, she falls for the crime lord’s son and his hunky bodyguard.

The ability of women to rise above their oppressive circumstances is celebrated in all my novels Skeleton Women, Song of the Silk Road, Petals from the Sky, and Peach Blossom Pavilion. While I was writing them, these women – the singer spy, the adventurer, the would-be nun, the celebrated courtesan -- often visited me in my dreams, making me wonder: Was I one of them in some of my countless past lives? I always sensed that these women want me to tell their stories by re-living their lives.

Visit Mingmei Yip's website to find out more about this author and her work.

GIVEAWAY: 

Thanks to Mingmei for guest posting on my blog. If you'd like to win a copy of Mingmei Yip's new novel, SKELETON WOMEN just leave a comment with your email address. 

US ONLY sorry international peeps. 

EXTRA ENTRIES:
+2 tweet giveaway and leave a link

Giveaway ends 21st June and the winner will be announced on my blog. Good luck everyone :)