Patch Xiong publishes first novel

Dead Promise

Author: Patch Xiong

Infinity Publishing: $12.95

Inspired by a Hmong folktale, Dead Promise, the first novel from St. Paul resident Patch Xiong is a tragic love story about a young couple torn by family and war.

Xiong learned a tragic love story from his late father, about a young couple during the Vietnam War. An orphan, Cheng, is determined to be with the girl of his dreams, PaNou, the daughter from a wealthy family and outside of his social standing. Their story is of love and pain – two faces of one coin.

Dead Promise follows their budding romance as their world and their lives crumble around them as the Hmong people fight in the Secret CIA War. Cheng must decide to whether to fight or to stay with the love of his life.

Xiong states that as a boy, his father would coax him to massage his calves with stories of Hmong folklore. After he was gone, Xiong said it was his obligation to document this story as his legacy. His father’s stories were what kept him going during his own darkest moments, he adds.

Patch Xiong was born in Laos, and at two months his family escaped to Thailand where they lived at Ban Vinai Refugee Camp until coming to Minnesota as refugees when he was 4 years old. He studied computer programming until his family moved to Alaska following the sudden loss of his father in 2001, where he completed a business degree from Alaska Pacific University.

Xiong is a founding member of Alaska Writer’s Guild, an organization dedicated to helping published and unpublished writers. He returned to St. Paul in 2008, and is currently working on three upcoming novels, Rainflower; ILLUME: Land of Light; and Sweet Toothpaste.

Dead Promise is available online at infinitypublishing.com, bbotw.com and amazon.com.

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