Li Bo

Who am I? Well, I just finished half a century as a professor of World History Dr. Steven

Leibo but as Li Bo I am focusing on my multi-volume family saga series, of the Downton

Abby or Gilded Age sort The Sino-American Tales. On a personal level I am a third

generation San Franciscan from a family like so many there of multi-ethnic background.

Author/Writer Interview:

1.What inspires you most to write?

What inspires me to write? I don’t have a choice. I was a born writer, submitted my first book manuscript when I was twelve and have kept a diary for more than fifty years. I could not stop writing any more than I could stop breathing.

2. What is your favorite genre?

As an author, these days historical fiction

3. Who is one author you admire if any and why?

Probably James Clavell, author of books from Shogun to Tai-Pan because of his focus on Asian Western Relations as well as Lisa See for the same reasons.

4. How do you overcome blank writing spells?

Mostly by reading non-fiction works of history that parallel my own historical fiction efforts. Such works always give me ideas about new avenues to explore.

5. What legal publishing advice can you give?

Nothing comes to mind, and I have published dozens of books.

6. How many books have you written, are any a bestseller yet?

Sad to say, there were no bestsellers but that is not something I care about. My only interest is in having a reasonable number of readers enjoy and learn from my efforts. As for the number of books I have published, it is dozens of books, both fiction and nonfiction either under the name Dr. Steven Leibo or Li Bo depending on the genre.

7. If you had the opportunity to rewrite one movie script, which would it be, why?

I am not sure I would rewrite any movie script but I do think my first novel in the Sino-American Tales series Tienkuo The Heavenly Kingdom would be fun to redo as a movie script but as it is set in the middle of the 19th century Chinese civil war fought between the forces of Confucian China and rebels who thought they were being led by the little brother of Jesus Christ so that might be rather expensive to film.

8. What are some difficulties you've experienced in your writing career; how do you handle book critiques/criticism?

How do I handle reviews? I look for ways to gather them and then, if successful, rarely read them. Yes, books need reviews, but as I am hurt more by critical reviews than pleased by good ones and all writers get both, I prefer to avoid reading them. On Amazon, for example, I only follow the rating and numbers as they grow and change.

9. What are your best experiences in your writing career?

Having the hundred-year-old relative of one of the real 19th century people I had fictionalized write to say how much she liked my depiction of her long dead relative.

10. Do you prefer to write in silence and or have some sort of sound in the background?

I always write in silence and for fiction very early in the morning.

11. What are some encouraging words you'd give to another author/writer?

Don’t even consider writing for publication unless you have no choice, it's so demanding and frustrating that it has to be a necessity or simply a joy putting pen to paper so to speak.

12. How did you decide the pricing of your material; how did you go about promotion/advertising and distribution of your work?

When I can set the price, it depends on how the book is produced — as cheaply as possible. I write for myself and my readers. Earning money is not a goal.

13. Why should anyone read your book?

The people who like my works, at least the works of historical fiction like dramatized works of history that are formally as accurate as a professional historian can make them and of course the topics themselves, multi-point of view deep dives into Sino-American Relations, Chinese and Chinese and Chinese American history.

14. Did you have a book coach?

No.

15. What was your favorite subject in school?

This will be a great surprise! History.

16. Are you self-published or have an established publishing contract elsewhere?

I have published a great many books from historical monographs, textbooks and novels to political commentary. Each project has been different.

Author Sino-American Tales

Tienkuo The Heavenly Kingdom

Beyond the Heavenly Kingdom

Under Heaven’s Watch. (Available this fall)