Today is the launch day for my middle-grade novel, Dogtag Summer. It's a wonderful moment, when the characters who've lived in my head get to step out into the real world.

Many, many people helped me with the research -- I had to know about the Vietnam War, about the pacifists at home and those who fought in Vietnam, and the villagers who just tried to survive. I really wanted to know what it was like years later for those who'd been caught in the fighting, or loved people who'd been in the war.

One person I interviewed was Donna Tauscher, who shared memories of her ex-husband's Vietnam was service, how it changed him, their marriage, and the fabric of her life.

I recently did a bookstore appearance and Donna showed up. In her quiet way, she handed me a gift: this small Li Xi, a red lucky money envelope with a 100 đồng note in it. Her husband had brought it back from Vietnam when he returned from the fighting. "I've had it a long time," was all she said as she slipped it into my hand.

What stories this beautiful old 100 đồng note could tell of being passed from hand to hand before it reached mine. And what a tender, cherished gift.

Arrrgh! Who did I loan that book to?

Did you ever have a book you loaned out to someone, and you wanted to read it again and you just couldn’t remember who you loaned it to? I’ve done it lots of times. I love it when I think of a good person-book match. I want to pass along the pleasure of a good book. And I love it when people loan me a book they think I’ll like. Just so you don’t think I’m a saint, I’ve got a couple of them sitting reproachfully on my shelves right now.

I went to get The Slaves of the Cool Mountains off my shelf. Gone. Loaned out. Because I’m writing a book partially set in Vietnam, I’ve read lots of books about Vietnam and the surrounding area. Slaves was calling out to me for a reread. I even tried ABE books to buy another copy, but being a very old and very English book (published in 1959), it was hugely expensive.

It came back to me, miraculously – my father gave me a bag of books after clearing off a bookshelf, and there it was. I’d loaned it to him.

It had been his book before mine, and before him, it had been owned by Felix Greene. He must have been the first owner, because the author, Alan Winnington, inscribed it to him. Both Englishmen, reporting on the changes being made by Communists in China.

Slaves is Winnington’s travels into the mountainous southwest corner of China where the Norsu people were forced to free their slaves. He goes into amazing detail about the social conditions and the changes people were trying to absorb. Fascinating reading about a culture long since gone. Great black and white photos.

Try a library search. I’d love to have you read it!