People sometimes ask what I write about. The word that always comes to mind is family, because it’s the closest thing to my heart. I’ve spent most of my existence blaming my parents for the things that were wrong in my life. That only made me a victim, and I’m tired of making excuses. Blame will never take me to where I want to go.

So I decided to look for the fabric of truth in my family, and I found it in stories. In a story I contributed to “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom,” I wrote about a journey to visit my grandparents’ gravesite in China. The experience helped me realize how much courage it took for my mom to come to America in 1968 as an immigrant. She had no money and knew little English, yet she risked everything for a chance to build a better life.

In a story I published in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad,” I recalled a Christmas with my stepfather -- a deeply wounded man who showed me his caring by teaching me how to ride my first bike.

In a recent issue of “USA Today,” I wrote an op-ed about my father who recently passed away in Hong Kong http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-06-18-column18_ST2_N.htm. One of my goals is to publish a memoir about a trip to Hong Kong and Mainland China in which I discovered the truth about my family. I’m working on finding a publisher for the memoir, and I won’t stop until I see the book in print. You can read the prologue on this website.

I also created a column called “Family Matters” that appears in newspapers. If you know a publication that might be interested in carrying a regular family column, please shoot me an e-mail at ray@raywong.info.

If you know someone in our community worthy of recognition, let me know. I write for a number of newspapers and magazines, and I specialize in people who are making a difference.

I do speaking engagements related to the themes of family, blame, forgiveness, gratitude, culture, and writing. If you know a venue that’s a good fit, I’d appreciate a heads up. Check out my events page for the locations where I’ll be speaking. Thanks, and I hope to see you there!

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                                                               Good Customer Service

                                                                  By Ray M. Wong

   Recently, I wrote a column about a nightmare property refinance initiated through Wells Fargo. The short end of the story is that the loan originator made a mistake on our application and could not follow through on an interest rate we had locked in. I contacted a supervisor at Wells Fargo to ask for the rate we were quoted on our application and a second-level supervisor came through to accommodate this request. Due to a number of mistakes, the loan ended up taking over five months to complete.