The date was Saturday, February 4, 2012. The place was New York City, Madison Square Garden—the most hallowed basketball arena on Earth. What seemed like an innocuous appearance in an NBA game turned into one of the biggest moments in sports, and ignited an international frenzy that the world had never seen before.

By now we all know the story of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, and the ensuing case of Linsanity that swept the globe—from the East Coast to the Far East in Asia.

Well, at least we think we know the story.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly all the pertinent details to this magnificent tale. After all, there are many layers to the Jeremy Lin the person, the player and the phenomenon. Who exactly is Jeremy Lin? Where did he come from? More ...

This issue of the A-Profiler, Nelson Wong interviews teacher, comic book artist, and author Gene Luen Yang. Find out how how Yang got his start writing and drawing, how he became the writer for the new Avatar: The Last Airbender comic series, and why he doesn't tell his students about his cartooning any longer.

When you were growing up, did you read a lot of comic books? As a youngster were you interested in writing stories and drawing? How did you get started with writing graphic novels?
I started reading comics in the fifth grade. I've been reading ever since, except for a short break in junior high. A popular friend of mine told me to give up comics so I could get a girlfriend, so I did. Once I realized that reading comics wasn't the reason I couldn't get a girlfriend (it had more to do with my Asian Urkel looks), I started collecting again.

I started drawing comics as an adult right after I graduated college. At that point, I thought to myself, "If I don't publish at least one comic before I die, I will die unfulfilled!" I've been making ...

Gene Luen Yang's latest book, “Level Up,” published by First Second explores the topic of immigrant generation Asian parents' expectations vs. first generation Asian American youth in a whole new way – cleverly mixing together video games, gastroenterology (the study of the digestive system), and some cute little angels with some serious attitude.

The book is structured in the vein of a video game. The player, Dennis Ouyang, is a teen who has shown an interest in video games since a very young age, only his parents never really allowed him to let video games get in the way of his studies to become a doctor. It isn't until Dennis' father dies suddenly that he buys a video game system and finds solace in video games, shunting away his studies at school. Leave it to 4 angels to enter Dennis' life and they encourage him to pursue his study of gastroenterology ...

We have a special interview with author Cindy Pon whose book Fury of the Phoenix is released on March 29, 2011. Find out more about this "pre-sequel" and also what Pon's project "Diversity in YA Fiction" is all about.

Tell us about the new book, Fury of the Phoenix. How does it fit in with the story in the first book, Silver Phoenix?
I wrote Silver Phoenix to stand alone, but knew after finishing the novel and many revisions that there definitely could be a sequel. I call Fury of the Phoenix a "pre-sequel". It ties two story lines together, one featuring Ai Ling and Chen Yong six months after the first novel ends, and the other three centuries earlier with Zhong Ye and Silver Phoenix.

In Fury of the Phoenix we get to find out more about the antagonist. Did you always know you were going to write about Zhong Ye as a sort of follow-up? Was there a different approach you used for this story compared to the first?
I didn't ...

This issue of the A-Profiler, Nelson Wong interviews children's book author Lisa Yee. Find out how Yee got started writing novels for kids, if she made a conscious decision to have Asian Americans be central characters in some of her books, and how an obsession with putting marshmallow Peeps into a microwave turned into a great way to meet famous authors. Her latest book, Warp Speed is available in bookstores starting March 1, 2011.

How did you get started writing children's books? What drew you to writing children's books?
I'd been almost every sort of writer before penning novels for kids. I was a journalist, a television writer, copywriter, jingle writer, you name it! However, I had always wanted to write children's books. It wasn't until I was a mom that I realized, how could I tell my kids they should pursue their dreams, if I wasn't pursuing mine?

Since I was working full time, I had to write late at night. I didn't have an agent when I first started, so I just sent something to Arthur Levine, the editor of the HARRY POTTER series. He pulled it out of the "slush ...

This issue of the A-Profiler, Nelson Wong interviews Ren Hanami, one of the creators of Ninja Mom entertainment franchise. Find out how Ninja Mom got started, how San Diego Comic Con was the launching ground for the project, and how the Little Mermaid started her dream of portraying a cartoon character.

How did Ninja Mom get started? What was the inspiration for creating Ninja Mom?
The dream of Ninja Mom started about 18 years ago when I began creating a female ninja action hero called Ninja Girl. I called her a She-ro -- who was a sexy crime fighter inspired by the comic book characters Shado from The Green Arrow series and She by Billy Tucci. Well, several years and outlines later Ninja Girl transformed into Ninja Mom, a do-gooder mom with some substantial secrets from her teenage daughter. Then I met the talented writer Darrah Cloud while acting in one of her original plays at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA. We began collaborating on a story merging my Ninja Mom™ characters and myth with ...

When the publisher of "Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose" by Tony Hsieh sent me a review copy of the book, I had no idea what it was about. I thought it would be another one of those self-help business books teaching you how grow your business idea and turn it into a successful business like Zappos.com. However, it was clear once I started reading the preface that this might be a book that is different.

"Delivering Happiness" is written by Tony Hsieh not so much as an autobiography but rather as a collection of recollections in short story form. Each short story chronicles experiences in his life which have lead him to where he is now, CEO of Zappos.com. The stories themselves often times focus on the mistakes made and how those mistakes often turned into opportunities ...