dear a surprisingly large amount of people,
wow.
ok.
my post about releasing the first chapter of the book has not even been live for 24 hours and it’s already been a shit-storm.
some of the stuff that’s going on I can talk about, some of it I can’t.
some of you have been emailing me incessantly since it came out, and some of you won’t return mine.
so – let’s make a few things absolutely clear:
1. as stated, I had no idea a] the original content I posted was readable and b] that it was from an earlier version of the novel. anyone who follows me on either Facebook or Twitter can attest to my earlier posts of ‘changing the names’ and even joking about it. it was always something I was going to do. a few names were leaked because of my oversight and I immediately took the photo down and replaced it with another. a few of you grabbed a screenshot before that was done and have been emailing it around your respective circles. while I can’t say anything about that, seeing how it was me who put it out there, trust that I want to.
2. people in the novel are not written badly, I made a point of that. even those of you who I don’t particularly like. the aim of this book was not to be a ‘tell-all’, but more of an early explanation of how things were getting for me in Shanghai, not you. this book wasn’t written out of spite for anyone, and if I hated you, I wouldn’t have given you the satisfaction of being named in print.
3. the ChinesePod backlash: yes, I talk briefly about the shows. no, you’re not part of this. the only person I wanted to talk about, but am respecting his privacy, was my mentor Ken Carroll. had it not been for his on-going support and constant encouragement in every project I tried, I would have not been in the position to write this book in the first place.
I can’t do anything about what happened earlier except apologize to the two people I needed to apologize to. anyone else who thinks that they too have a right to be angry are sadly misled. if you’ve gotten an email from me, then I was in the wrong and I am sorry. if you haven’t, then I have nothing to apologize to you for.
we’re talking about a chapter of life that happened more than 3 years ago.
a
