"The Beauty of Aqua" available at the Internet Archive
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About two years ago I sat down to write a roughly thirty thousand word novella about Vietnamese food and a bit about my two years living in the country where that food was born. While I've been writing professionally and for my own edification on-and-off all my life I'd never written a single work of that size. At first it seemed like a daunting task but within a few days the words and plot started coming to me like a gentle rain: slow, sweet and constant. And that rain never stopped. Soon the gentle rain gave way to a flood of words and about three weeks later I'd written a one hundred and twenty thousand word manuscript. It was without a doubt the most rewarding experience of my life.
Many writers can write a manuscript that requires little editing and I'm not one of them by a long shot. My manuscript was more of a stream of consciousness requiring almost two months of very meticulous editing. The joy I felt writing that manuscript was equal to the pain I felt editing it but it had to be done. A few times I was tempted to stop and take a few days off but I feared once I put it down that's where it would stay. I saw my story as something with life and not publishing it would mean letting it die.
So why give away something I put so much in to for free? Simple: because it's alive and while I've sold some copies which has been nice it's time to let it be read by as many people as possible. Part of the reason I wrote it was to encourage others to explore a country and a cuisine I love very much. To share with them what I've learned. Another reason was to give Vietnamese college students something interesting to read while studying English. So many of the books they're required to read simply have no appeal to them but this should. The vast majority of the story takes place in my former home of Đà Nẵng and much of the story is about a favorite subject of those that live there: Vietnamese food. So why not have them just buy the book? Because most can't afford it. I knew students that would regularly for go a meal that cost $.90 USD for a meal that cost $.60 USD because they had so little money. My book would be a huge luxury that most couldn't afford or justify.
It also contains another interest of mine which is existentialism. While America is a wealthy nation we are suffering an epidemic of chronic depression and "deaths of despair" including death by drug abuse and suicide. It seems odd that a nation awash in so much wealth and material items would be in a drought of this one precious commodity. While there are many reasons I look to the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre and put the blame squarely on capitalism. My novel explores the relationship between living with lots of wealth and little happiness like us in the West and the inverse like those in Vietnam. It also explores how the military actions of the US have had a lasting affect on the people of Việt Nam.
So there it is. How and why I wrote "The Beauty of Aqua" and why I'm releasing it for free. I hope you enjoy it.
Cảm ơn nhiều.
Brian
10/2020: I've uploaded to the Internet Archive the second edition with some formatting corrections. This edition is presented in print format, ebook, html and plain text. I highly recommend downloading this update.
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This novel is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The noncommercial redistribution of this novel unchanged in any way, shape or form is both allowed and encouraged.
Image: The first five copies of "The beauty of Aqua" printed.
