Twelve Moon Tales
It is an interwar mystery series about the adventures of businesswoman and socialite Nyla Nguyễn and her faithful majordomo Sven Andréasson as they travel the globe.
The Saigon Wedding Bookcover

The Series

Twelve Moon Tales

The series' name comes from the twelve animals of the Vietnamese Lunar Zodiac. Each animal in the Zodiac will represent one book. The first book in the series belongs to the Rat and begins in Saigon.

Why the Zodiac? Because both Nyla and I are Vietnamese, the lunar Zodiac and calendar have a significant role in the culture of Vietnam and my own life despite our Catholic religion.

I invented Nyla and Sven from the idea of two unlikely characters traveling together in the nineteen twenties and thirties. It was a time when it would be uncommon for a European gentleman in service to be working for an Asian socialite.

The first mystery "The Saigon Wedding" starts with the first animal in the lunar Zodiac, the Rat.

More about "The Saigon Wedding"

The Vietnamese Lunar Zodiac

I am both fascinated and repelled by astrologies and zodiacs. I am not a fatalist. I do not believe the future is predestined but rather a set of opportunities. It is determined by our actions and the actions of those around us.

But my disbelief in the system doesn't keep me from occasionally reading my horoscope or making parallels about someone's character because I know their sign. I find the system interesting and sometimes uplifting like when the character trait is flattering, or there is an optimistic prediction.

Wise fortune tellers can provide warnings without being doomsday predictors. Or over-promising in the good tidings of the future. Instead, they suggest what to look out for and promising opportunities.

The same goes for astrological profiles. We can read what we want in them—identifying what would apply to ourselves and what doesn't. Or to the people whose fortunes we are looking up.

The decision to use the lunar Zodiac for my theme was to incorporate a fundamental aspect of Vietnamese culture into my series. The personalities assigned to each animal would be a good jumping-off point for the plot and characters.

Another reason I liked the Zodiac as a theme was that there were only twelve animals, and that would limit me to a maximum of twelve books.

The Twelve Animals of the Vietnamese Zodiac

Image of a Rat looking right
1 - The Rat
Image of a Water Buffalo
2 - Buffalo
Image of a Tiger
3 - Tiger
Image of a Cat
4 - Cat
Image of a Dragon
5 - Dragon
Image of a Snake
6 - Snake
Image of a Horse
7 - Horse
Image of a Goat
8 - Goat
Image of a Monkey
9 - Monkey
Image of a Rooster
10 - Rooster
Image of a Dog
11 - The Dog
Image of a Pig
12 - Pig

The Chinese Zodiac & the Other Lunar Zodiacs

If the Lunar Zodiac seems so similar to the Chinese Zodiac. It's because it is. The relationship between China and Vietnam is long and complicated. For approximately a thousand years, Vietnam was a tribute state to the various Empires of China. Which left a significant impact on Vietnamese culture in the state, fashion, food, religion, language, and calendar.

There have been many lunar calendar systems across history and cultures. There are the Haida Calendar, the Islamic Hijiri, the Javanese Calendar, and the Celtic Calendar, to name a few. However, the Lunar calendar with the animal zodiac is shared in many countries, including China, Tibet, Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan, with some differences.

The calendar celebrated by these nations is technically a lunisolar calendar. A purely lunar calendar is different from the lunisolar calendar in that it does not have its month brought to align with the solar year.* But most people still call it a lunar calendar and apply leap months or days throughout the year to align with the solar year.

*Source: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar

Why the Moon?

My theory is that in ancient times, it was easier to measure or calculate the passing of days with the moon cycle. The changing moon phases were regular and cyclical. One could use the changing faces to know what day it was, making it a reliable time marker, especially in climates where there weren't a lot of changes in seasons or weather, like in the desert or the tropics.

Hence, the Moon in the series 'Twelve Moon Tales' refers to the Lunar calendar. The 'Twelve Tales' are that of the twelve animals of the Lunar Zodiac.

The selection of animals used in the Zodiac differs from country to country, with many similarities (see chart below). You will note that this differs from the Chinese Zodiac, which has the second position as the ox and the fourth position as the rabbit.

Source: www.chinahighlights.com

*Time cycle divided into 12 parts, Sexagenary cycle = 60 term cycle. Thus, 60 years in one cycle.

The Lunar Animals in by Country

Order China, Korea & Cambodia Japan Vietnam Thai
1 Rat Rat Rat Rat
2 Ox Ox Buffalo Ox
3 Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger
4 Rabbit Rabbit Cat Rabbit
5 Dragon Dragon Dragon Naga
6 Snake Snake Snake Snake
7 Horse Horse Horse Horse
8 Goat Goat Goat Goat
9 Monkey Monkey Monkey Monkey
10 Rooster Rooster Rooster Rooster
11 Dog Dog Dog Dog
12 Pig Pig Pig Pig

Sources and Further Reading

If you want to learn more about the lunar astrology. Here are some resources you can read at your leisure.

Vietnamese Astrology

Chinese Astrology