What's Next?

Several weeks ago I had received a delightful fan letter sent as a private message on my Facebook account.   This fan is from Arlington, Texas named Jennifer had two questions that she had wanted me to answer.  Here is what Jennifer had written to me in the fan letter.  And by the way, thanks, Jennifer, for such kind words!

Dear Thien Phu,

Hi!  I just wanted to tell you that you are a great singer.  I really love the way you sing in French. I've seen you perform live a couple of times when you came to Dallas a long time ago and had bought one of your CDs with your autograph at the show.  Lately I've been reading your blogs.  I really enjoy all of your stories.  You are a terrific writer.  Some of  your stories have even made me cry, especially the ones you wrote about Ngoc Lan and Anh Tu.  I do have a couple questions for you. Don't worry, these are not questions about your personal love life.  LOL I am sure many of your fans and readers have been wanting to ask you these same questions.  You have my permission to post this message in its entirety on your blog for other readers to see.  Actually, please do so and be sure to include your answers to my two questions in the posting.  

Sincerely your fan, 

Jennifer H. Tran Woolworth
Arlington, Texas

First Question:  What's next for Thien Phu the singer? 

Like you said on your blog, after the long break from the music business, you have finally now come back.  I'm very happy to hear that, Thien Phu.  So back to my question again, what's next?  Do you have any plans of recording another CD soon?  I love French music.  Your pronunciation in French is perfect.  If you are making another CD, I hope that it will include some French songs.  Please let us know.

2nd Question:  What's next for Thien Phu the writer?

After reading the stories you had written for your blogs, I was wondering if you are paid to do so.  Do you make any money with these blogs?  Or do you do it just as a hobby for fun?  I think you should set up a website of your own.  Who knows?  You could become the Vietnamese-American Huffington Post.  

I guess you can see why I've decided to make the title of this post, What's Next?, after reading Jennifer's message.  Here are my answers to Jennifer's questions.  When I had replied to Jennifer's message, my answer to the first question was that I didn't have an answer.  I didn't have any plans to do anything in music almost two months ago.  But now, I am happy to announce that I am currently working on my next album.  You must be psychic, Jennifer.  For years, I've heard from so many of my friends and fans tell me how I should one day record an album of French love songs.  Well, I thought I had done that already when I recorded Tiec Nho for Bien Tinh Productions.  I guess what these fans were trying to tell me for the longest time was that they would like me to do a solo album which would consist of a collection of French love songs.  That is what I have planned for my next album.  I must clarify one thing though.  All 10 tracks that are going to be featured on this next album are not just exclusively French love songs. There will also be a few Vietnamese songs to be featured, as well as one to two songs that had been originally sung with English lyrics. My next album won't be the male singer's version of Ngoc Lan's L'amour Tinh Ta released back in the 1980s.  I'm well aware of how successful that album was and how it had boosted her into a superstar among Vietnamese singers.  But she's Ngoc Lan.  And I'm Thien Phu.  Also, L'amour Tinh Ta had been released out in the market in 1988, a different time and even a different place than what is here and now.

I'm very excited about this new project.  I don't know exactly when this project will be completed and ready to be released.  I'm not so concerned with giving myself a deadline here.  My intentions behind making this album is not to keep with the times or to race against it.  That is why the selection of songs this time around consist of what I call, "evergreen" songs, which are timeless classics.

To answer Jennifer's second question, at first, this did start out as a hobby.  I am passionate about what I write.  I never write about anything that does not pertain to me or my interests.  Since this blog is about me, finding something to write about never is a problem.  The same goes for my writings on my other blogs, NgocLanRemembered.BlogSpot.com, VietCeleb.BlogSpot.com, and ClubLai.BlogSpot.com.  I do not get paid by anyone to write whatever I write about.  But what earns me a little bit of money, just like my YouTube channel and my articles on HubPages, is I've monetized my blogs with Google Adsense.  The more readers I get through time might result in more advertisement clicks which will earn me more money.  I'm sure, you know how that goes.

As for turning any of my blogs into a website of my own, I've thought about it.  It will happen, not now, but just a matter of time.

Thien Phu