The Lady Dragon of Chinatown

 

 

The Lady Dragon of Chinatown

by Noel Plaugher

GENRE:   Action /Martial arts Fiction /Urban Fiction

Maggie Long has only ever wanted to study martial arts, but it was forbidden. She found a teacher, Sifu Chang, to teach her in secret and she became a Kung Fu master.

After years in self-imposed exile, Maggie has returned to Chinatown to pursue her dream. The forces that govern Chinatown are working against her, and she'll have to fight for her school and her life. Is she strong enough to withstand all the forces against her?
A martial art story set in a neon-soaked Chinatown of the 1970's. The first book in a new series.

Excerpt:

“Maggie walked quickly toward home, she was late, and her mother would be worried. But then inexplicably, she stopped to look into the largest puddle in the street. She approached it as if creeping upon herself and expecting to see something else. To her eyes, it was a brilliant image. Her reflection was colored with the fading twilight giving her skin a hue of gold. She studied the image. It was magical.

Her face was unblemished, and her black hair hung long past her shoulders. The colored lights of the neon sign above her gave her a green and yellow halo. Moving slightly without looking up, gazing deep into the puddle, she saw that her halo came from the neon sign of the Jade Dragon restaurant behind her.

About the Author:

Noel Plaugher grew up in the San Francisco bay area of California. (1968- ) He planned on becoming a musician but things changed in 1990.

Noel was a victim of violent crime. He started studying martial arts in 1990 as a way of coping with the post-traumatic stress and as rehabilitation.

After attaining his black belt in Shou Shu Kung Fu he started studying various methods of Qigong and Xing Yi Quan. He completed his Xing Yi Quan certification in 2005.

"The power of the mind over the body is amazing and has always fascinated me. Xing Yi Quan is a deceptively simple style, and I have found that it benefits my health and martial arts."

Noel edited the book "How To Be A Champion" by world champion fighter Richard Trammell.

Noel's first book "Standing Qigong For Health and Martial Arts" was released in March 2015.

"This book has both martial and health postures. It is my hope that practitioners of other styles as well as those seeking an internal form of exercise will try it out. I think martial artists will be surprised by the great results they get from such a simple practice. If you are a Yoga practitioner, this will be a great addition to your current study."

Noel is an avid martial arts practitioner and writer, and lives in the USA in Atlanta, Georgia with his family.

“Noel has been studying martial arts since 1990 and writes about Qigong and martial arts-oriented material in both fiction and non-fiction.”

Q&A With the Author

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I really enjoyed playing in the world in which the story exists. I’ve always been a film buff, and it played like a movie in my head. Often, to start working on a scene, I would close my eyes and see it all happening. Hopefully, it translates for the reader as well. It was a great experience, and I’m looking forward to the next one. Previously, I had written short stories, so getting more time to work with the characters and the world of the story itself was a great thing to kind of plug into. One thing’s for sure, I definitely have ideas for the Netflix series or the HULU movie. Do you hear that streamers? I’ll wait patiently now…

Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about?

Yes, I have a few. The next book in the series is called “Revenge” and it is finished, and we will start on getting that up and ready early next year. There is a final book in “The Lady Dragon of Chinatown” series called “Legend” that I am working on now, as well as a very different book about the year 1977. It is a fictional story based loosely on life experiences during what I consider an incredible year to be a kid in America. It’s a lot to work on, but I enjoy all of the projects, and seeing them come to fruition is incredibly satisfying.

Can you tell us about what you have planned for the future?

The fiction projects that I mentioned are coming, but I am also working on a nonfiction book about recovery from violent trauma. Now, that may sound like an odd choice, but that was how I got into martial arts. In 1990, I was a victim of violent crime, and that experience was pivotal in my life. I ended up studying martial arts as a way to overcome the PTSD of the incident, and it sort of led me in another direction. One of the many lessons from that event was that you can’t control what happens to you, but you can control what you do with the experience. I learned a bit about how to deal with the often debilitating stress from such an event, and I think I have a perspective that others might be able to implement and use to recover from similar experiences.

How long have you been writing?

I started in 2014 when I wrote my first book about Qigong. (“Standing Qigong for Health and Martial Arts”) Before that, I had only written school papers. I took some college courses when I was in my thirties, and my English teacher encouraged me to pursue writing. I was flattered but wasn’t sure what to do about it. It wasn’t until about 15 years later that I wrote anything and it was my first book. Since then, I have written short stories, articles, magazine cover stories, reviews, blog posts, and everything else you can imagine. I figured I would treat it like being a musician. If you want to get good, you have to throw yourself into a lot of different situations and build those skills. I think everything is like that. Whether music, martial arts, or writing, you have to put yourself in challenging circumstances if you want to grow and get better. You also have to be willing to fail. I’ve had some spectacular failures, by the way. You hope you always have success, but if we’re honest, it’s the losses that teach us, not the wins.

Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?

It’s hard to say more than a profound thank you to everyone that takes the time to read anything I’ve written. I don’t think there is a higher compliment than that. I am always humbled when someone plunks down their hard-earned money and invests the time to read a collection of words I’ve put together. Because I take it so seriously, I will always try to give my very best and hopefully, they will enjoy reading them. 

                                

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Twitter: @shunshifu1990

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Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Noel-Plaugher/e/B00PSNS9OS?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1669321047&sr=8-1

GIVEAWAY

Noel Plaugher will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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