This agreement led to a brief period of cooperation between the two countries. However, the military provocations of the North and the conflicting superpowers’ goals for the region ended this era before any real progress was made. Today, tensions between the North and South—and between the superpowers with respect to the two Koreas—are higher than ever.
And so the people in the hotel room sit and wait to meet their loved ones. Although they can barely afford the fees and bribes for these meetings, they feel lucky to be here. When their loved ones finally come through that door, they will only have a precious few hours to be together. As they wait, they pray that the dangerous conflicts between the North and South, and the machinations of their superpower allies, don’t end these meetings. And like Queen Min, they dream that someday the two Koreas—and their families—will be permanently reunited in One Korea.
William Andrews
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A book like this is never a solo effort. I owe a debt of gratitude to my friends and family who have supported me over the years. A special shout-out to the good people at Lake Union Publishing who have helped make this book all it could be. And, of course, an extra special thank-you to my researcher, first editor, sounding board, encourager, and love of my life, my wife, Nancy.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
This is a work of fiction. As such, I took some liberties with history for dramatic purposes. Nevertheless, I did my best to portray Queen Min as I saw her and stay as true as possible to the history and culture of Korea in the late 1800s.
If you want to learn more about Korea’s extraordinary last queen and about the fascinating and often tragic history of the Land of the Morning Calm, below is a bibliography of books I found useful.
On Korean History
Breen, Michael. The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2004.
Cumings, Bruce. Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.
Eckert, Carter J., Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson, and Edward W. Wagner. Korea Old and New—A History. Cambridge: Korea Institute, Harvard University, 1990.
Oberdorfer, Don. The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History. New York: Basic Books, 2001.
Pratt, Keith. Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea. London: Reaktion Books, 2006.
Seth, Michael J. A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.
Two Fictional Accounts of Queen Min
Buck, Pearl S. The Living Reed. New York: Moyer Bell, 2004. Fourth printing.
Oh, Bonnie Bongwan Cho. Murder in the Palace. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.
AUTHOR Q & A
Q: What inspired you to write this book?
A: There is a reference to Queen Min in my first book about Korea, Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman’s Story, so I had to learn about her. When I did, I saw what a fascinating person she was and decided to write her story. She is widely considered the greatest monarch in Korean history since King Taejo, founder of the Chosŏn Dynasty. The Koreans worship her.
Q: What did you like about her story?
A: Her strength and intelligence. She is a hero among Koreans in the same way that Abraham Lincoln or Theodore Roosevelt is to Americans. She gave her life to make Korea independent and free.
Q: There’s a lot of history in this book. Is it accurate?
A: First, please know that I’m a storyteller, not a history expert. Still, I tried to make this book as historically accurate as possible. I did a ton of research and got help from several history experts. But I did take some liberties with history for the sake of storytelling.
Q: Just like Daughters of the Dragon, you seem to vilify the Japanese. Is this fair?
A: It’s different in The Dragon Queen. Daughters of the Dragon exposes the Imperial Japanese Army that raped hundreds of thousands of Asian women during World War II, an unforgivable atrocity that the Japanese have never really apologized for. In The Dragon Queen, the Japanese behave exactly like the rest of the modernized world, trying to colonize other, less modern nations.
Q: Do you think Queen Min’s vision of One Korea will ever be realized and North and South Korea will reunify?
A: See the Author’s Note. I don’t think it will happen without a lot of pain and suffering. I hope and pray for the people of both countries.
One last thing. I’d like to ask readers to please go to their online retailer and write a review of this book. Or, send me an e-mail at [email protected]. It’s the only way I can get feedback from my readers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photograph © 2013 Greg Thoen
For more than thirty years, William Andrews was a copywriter and a marketing/brand executive with several Fortune 500 companies. For fifteen years, he ran his own advertising agency. At night and on weekends (and sometimes during the workday!), Bill wrote fiction. His first novel, The Essential Truth, won first place in the 2008 Mayhaven Contest for fiction.
The Dragon Queen is Bill’s fourth novel and is the second book in his trilogy about Korea, which includes Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman’s Story and a planned third book, The Society of the Two-Headed Dragon.
Today, Bill is retired and focused on his writing. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, who’s been an inner-city schoolteacher for thirty-two years.
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