Deep Roots review: “Modern complications in family succession”

Another review for Deep Roots, but this one has quite a few spoilers, so you might not want to read it until you’ve finished the book. 🙂 Thank you, Korean Quarterly, for covering my second Siobhan novel! I should also thank them for using a photo of mine that dates back a decade and change. Nary a single gray hair to be found back in those youthful days…

Shepherd: The best mysterious classic novels that take place in a grand manor house

In celebration of Deep Roots, I’ve composed a list on Shepherd — The best mysterious classic novels that take place in a grand manor house. I list five novels — check out which ones I chose.

Publication Day for Deep Roots!

“Why has this food-providing human placed this non-edible object between us?”

Today is the official publication day for Deep Roots, my fourth novel. Friends and family have told me they have already received their pre-ordered copies over the weekend, so I guess the publication day is actually kind of useless. But hey, it’s still the official day, and it got me in a thinking mood, or more accurately, a calculating mood:

14 years
4 novels
1,249 pages
360,726 words

That’s my career so far as a novelist, in strictly numerical terms. The word count is suspect, of course, since I used Microsoft Word’s Word Count feature from the final drafts and added them up. But what’s a few hundred words here and there?

A few positive bits worth mentioning:

  1. got nice pre-publication reviews from Shelf Awareness and Booklist
  2. audiobooks will be made of both Deep Roots and Skin Deep

I’m quite excited about #2. The actress Jennifer Sun Bell will be narrating; she read Min Jin Lee’s Free Food for Millionaires, so I’m fortunate to have such a professional lending her voice. The audiobooks will be widely available (via OrangeSky Audio, a subsidiary of Spotify) next month.

Amazon | B&N | Bookshop

Deep Roots – First Review

It’s a good one! Check it out.

Sung J. Woo (Love, Love) is one of those agile writers able seamlessly to insert detailed backstories mid-series: reading his second Siobhan O’Brien mystery, Deep Roots, without benefit of the inaugural Skin Deep is no less absorbing.

People often do a double-take when meeting Siobhan in person: “I was adopted by an Irish father and a Norwegian mother,” she’s forced to explain about her ethnic Korean heritage, which strangers have decided doesn’t match her name. Now 40, she finally seems at peace with who she is. She’s settled into running the detective agency she inherited when her boss died suddenly. She’s hired college student Beaker as her intern–and just in time, because she needs someone to check her e-mail while her new assignment takes her to a private island in the Pacific Northwest.

[read the rest of the review at Shelf Awareness]

Sunday, 12/4/2022 11am: Flash Fiction/NonFiction Writing Workshop on Ekphrasis @ West Windsor Arts (Princeton area)

For those in the Princeton area, if you have the time and the inclination, please join me as I run a flash writing workshop at the West Windsor Arts Center. Info below!

[info/signup]

Sunday: Flash Fiction/NonFiction Writing Workshop on Ekphrasis [Adult]
12/04/2022 11:00 AM – 01:30 PM ET

Location
West Windsor Arts Center
952 Alexander Rd.
West Windsor, NJ 08540

Description
The definition of ekphrasis is “the use of detailed description of a work of visual art as a literary device.” Writers should bring in a meaningful photo of someone they will write about in the workshop. It can be a family member, a historical person, or even a photo of themselves. This is a flash writing workshop, so writers will be creating a 500 word or less piece by the end of the workshop, which will be critiqued and shared in the class.

October 1, 2022: Collingswood Book Festival!

Super excited to take part in the Collingswood Book Festival on Saturday, 10/1/2022!

I’ll be on a panel with NYT bestselling author Riley Sager that day at 1pm. The festival folks were kind enough to write up a profile for both Riley and myself, so please check it out!

THE STORY FORGE – EPISODE 36 – SEASON 2 – Into the Fold – Novelist, Sung Woo

It’s not every day that I get to talk to a former work colleague who just happens to be quite the communicator. Lyle Smith has a podcast called The Story Forge, and he was kind enough to let me be on it. I haven’t talked to Lyle in decades, but you’d never know from how easily we chatted. Actually, I think it’s all because Lyle is just really good at this. Please have a listen!