The Next Big Thing

Posted on December 12, 2012 by admin

Today’s post is part of The Next Big Thing blog hop that’s been going on among writers for a few weeks now (I’m a little late to the game, been kind of busy with Thanksgiving and work and getting engaged and all). I was invited to participate by a Twitter friend and author, Kendra C. Highley, who I met through the fundraiser Crits for Water. Kendra’s Matt Archer: Monster Hunter is a fast-paced, action-filled, spooky adventure, and I’m looking forward to her Next Big Thing, the sequel Matt Archer: Blade’s Edge, at the end of the month.

My own Next Big Thing is the upcoming release in March 2013 of my first novel. My first novel. That sounds fantastic.

What is the working title of your book? From the Tea Village

Where did you get the idea for the book? A few years back, after reading Twilight in a 24-hour period and lamenting the loss of a day of my life reading such a poorly written book (sorry, Twilight fanatics, facts are facts), it occured to me that I could write YA lit just as well as some of the best-selling authors out there. I’m embarrassed to admit such an exceedingly arrogant yet naive sentiment now, though at the time it was just the impetus I needed to start writing a longer work than a blog post. Around the same time, I began interviewing my friend Lydia about her childhood in a Bulang village, and the idea for a series of books with her as the main character was born.

What genre does your book fall under? Young Adult (middle grade) multi-cultural set in Yunnan, China

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Well, the book takes place in rural Yunnan, so the actors would need to be Southeast Asian for the characters who are Bulang or other ethnic groups, with a few Chinese actors for the Han characters. I don’t watch a lot of Asian film, but I’ve admired Chow Yun Fat in a couple of movies — he would make a good Jiang Lao Shi. Beyond that, I’m at a loss!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? A Bulang girl, Ye Sun, struggles to reconcile her village background with the desire of her heart to study at a Chinese school, where she learns both her academic subjects and the depth of friendship in the face of tragic circumstances.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Self-published, baby!

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? I interviewed Lydia and transcribed and organized the notes of her biography from October 2009 to March 2010. I wrote the outline for this one-year segment of her story and began writing the first draft in July 2010 and finished it in October 2010.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I’m nervous about comparing Tea Village to other books, but before and during the writing and revising process, I read and was inspired by Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins, Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher Staples, and Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl’s Story by Pegi Deitz Shea.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? My main inspiration was Lydia, the Bulang girl who lived in my home during her senior year of high school and became my dearest friend in China. As I wrote, I had young American girls in mind as readers, in particular my nieces Patience and Haley.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? This isn’t the book for someone looking for intense action or romance. It’s a glimpse into the heart of a girl in a land so different from the U.S. and other places in the Western world, yet the people of Yunnan have the same goals and desires of anyone anywhere in the world.

The point of this blog hop was to tag other authors who have upcoming book projects that they’d like to promote, but I honestly don’t know anyone else to tag who hasn’t already been tagged. Instead, I’m going to mention a few of my blog-writing friends who I love dearly and believe could write books of their own that would be well worth the read. These bloggers might not have any books in the works right now, but each of us has our own Next Big Thing — and I just want to acknowledge a few ladies who inspire me with their writing.

My good friend Jen Anderson blogged throughout last year on Jen’s Journey to 40 about her pursuit of a healthier lifestyle leading up to a milestone birthday, but lately she’s written more for the website Single Roots than for her own blog. I particularly enjoyed her recent article about transitioning into her new life as the single foster mother of four teenagers (and foster grandmother to a one-year-old!).

Roxie McCutcheon (who I met working in Yunnan many years back) started a fantastic new blog called Crunchy in the Panhandle where she shares tips with folks in her corner of West Virginia who are trying to eat local, organic, and whole foods. I like to call Roxie my whole foods guru — I call and text her with random questions about coconut oil and gluten-free recipes, and she’s always able to answer right away like the pro that she is, or at the very least point me to an online resource where I can find answers. Even though I live in Texas, her West Virgina blog has been a help to me.

Another Yunnan friend, Erin Kimsey, recently began blogging about her experiences transitioning from non-profit work in a small border town to working for the U.S. Foreign Service in Shanghai — what a change! Erin is insightful and intelligent, and I appreciate her perspective on a variety of subjects.

Last but not least, Gillian Schweighardt is a friend I met in Washington who is now living in Vienna. I absolutely love reading about her family’s adventures and her thoughts on life. Her stories and reflections challenge and encourage me while making me chuckle — a great combination.

So, there you have it. Thanks for playing along and letting me ramble about my Next Big Thing.

In Writer Mode

Posted on May 23, 2012 by admin

I’m not blogging much these days, and I honestly didn’t realize it until just a couple of days ago. I’ve been blogging regularly since June 2008 (according to the notification on my calendar app), and since that time it’s like there’s been a blog writing program constantly running in the background of my mind, always thinking of new things to blog about, always composing a post or coming up with a title. I mean it, I really like to work on my blog. At times, I’ve had to ground myself from it in order to stay on top of my bill-paying work.

About six weeks ago I started working on page 1, chapter 1 of the manuscript for West Texas Interlude, after six months of preliminary research. Finally. Writing. I jumped in headlong and have thrilled at the process of putting this manuscript together. I don’t know how to explain it to someone who doesn’t do creative work and doesn’t get to pursue their passion each day — but it’s fun, it doesn’t seem like work, and I’ve gotten lost in it over the last few weeks. I wrote an earlier post about how different the process is this time around from when I was writing the Middle Grade novel about a young girl in Yunnan — that post was written only a week after I started, and I can only say that the differences have become even more pronounced. Unlike when I wrote the MG novel, I don’t have to force myself to sit down and write each day. I don’t look at the word count at the bottom of the screen every 45 seconds. I can’t wait to get started writing each day, and some days I’ve kept writing past my usual stopping point (otherwise known as lunch). Two days last week I threw out all my afternoon tasks so I could keep working on the manuscript a few hours longer. At times I’m writing twice as many words per day as I did for the first book, in the same amount of time. I’m well on track to meet my goal of having a first draft by the first of August. I just love working on this project.

Also unlike writing the MG novel, I didn’t ground myself from blogging before I started. I told myself I would just see how it goes, I’d blog when the ideas strike, but I wouldn’t make any restrictions on myself. And thus…two blog posts this whole month. It didn’t occur to me until a day or so ago that I should probably post something, just to let people know I’m still around and this URL still functions. So, here you are. It’s all I’ve got, people, nothing more than a promise that one day I’ll get back to regularly blogging again. I know already that I’ll have a couple of things to talk about in June (one is another trip to Oregon and the other is my post-West Texas project idea), so at least there’s that to look forward to!

Until then, please forgive me for pouring all of my energy into West Texas Interlude. I’ll return shortly.

State of the Blog

Posted on October 25, 2011 by admin

Last week I took an unexpected break from the blog, as some may have noticed. I have several topics lined up, several posts in various phases of almost-writtenness, but I have found myself caught up in the midst of other tasks. At times it’s easy for a self-employed writer to let the time during the day drift off into all sorts of good projects — volunteer work, small writing assignments to help out others, marketing and all the mundane aspects of trying to keep a freelance business (and life in general) afloat. All of these are good projects to be working on, yet they are not writing for my work-in-progress.

As this has happened in the last couple of weeks, I decided that the blog needed to pause for a week or so. I don’t make any income from this blog, and so there are times when I can’t justify spending a few hours a week working on it instead of working on things that will pay the bills or are directly related to my book projects. It makes me sad to pause, because I love the writing I get to do here, but I can’t work on it in good conscience when I should be sending out query letters or doing research instead.

Hopefully things will settle down in the next couple of days, and I will be able to start posting regularly again. I’m eager to flesh out a few topics I’ve been pondering, and I’m also eager to get this done before I begin traveling in mid-November. Look for posts over the next few weeks about giving and sharing, an update on what I’m learning through West Texas Interlude research, my reflections on Jane Eyre, a Quinault Community Garden update, and my plans for travel this fall to Texas for research and to China to visit friends (I’m going to China!!!!).

And now, back to work.

The Facebook Status I Didn’t Post

Posted on August 23, 2011 by admin

I ate a piece of chocolate cake made by a 90-year-old lady who baked the 6-tier wedding cake for Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

No kidding. A few weeks ago, several friends and I were hanging out on a lazy Saturday morning, and the subject of grandparents came up. And one of my friends says, “I haven’t visited my grandpa and his wife in a while.”

“How far away do they live?” I asked.

“About an hour.”

“Oh, you should definitely go.” Pause. “I’d go with you.”

Pause. “Would you?” My friend brightened up a bit. “Yeah, you should meet Ruby. She’s a great cook — she baked Elvis’s wedding cake.”

Excuse me, what? And why haven’t you told me before now that the lady who baked Elvis’s wedding cake lives an hour from here, and she’s married to your grandfather? But I guess these things don’t always come up in normal conversation.

So, we called up Grandpa and Ruby and drove out to their house for a nice Saturday afternoon visit.

Ruby happened to have made a chocolate cake earlier in the day. Maybe it’s because we called to let her know we were coming. Or maybe she just loves baking cakes that much that there’s always one around. Either way, Elvis was right to have hired her as his wedding cake baker.

Ruby is a talker, and she’s got 90 years worth of experiences to talk about. I didn’t think it would be polite to pull out my notebook and take notes, but man, I wish I had. Or even better, wish I had brought along my voice recorder. Another day.

The best part of the afternoon was that it came during my social media fast. Any other time, I would have sat there on the couch, crumbs from Ruby’s chocolate cake still on the plate in my hands, one ear half listening to her fascinating stories of working as a chef in Las Vegas hotels, the other half of my brain composing a Facebook status to be posted 30 seconds after I got home and got on the computer.

Instead, I knew I wouldn’t be posting on Facebook any time soon, so what would be the point in silently composing a status? Rather than obsessing over the cleverest way to write a line that would gain me the most “likes” or comments of “no way! that’s so cool!” — I was able to be in the moment. To enjoy hearing Ruby’s story. And to think in bigger writerly ways than just a throw-away Facebook status. I could enjoy Ruby, and I could pay attention to her intonation, to how she would say things like, “Oh Janie, now this will stop your clock” before she launched into another story. To how she lowered her voice to say sweet things about Grandpa when he stepped out of the room. I walked away from the afternoon having enjoyed the day for what it was, not for the opportunity to get a one sentence post out of the experience.

That’s the reason I stayed off social media for a couple of weeks — to see if I could retrain my mind to think in the bigger picture, to get out of the habit of thinking in 140 character blurbs that are designed to draw attention. I don’t think Facebook and Twitter are bad, but I don’t want to lose my ability to think and write and express ideas that can’t be reduced to one sentence, ideas that will last beyond the next 48 hours worth of newsfeed.

And really, if you’re going to eat cake baked by Elvis’s favorite baker, it’s much better to blog about it than post a Facebook status.

Ode to the Joys of Scrivener

Posted on August 11, 2011 by admin

Simply put, Scrivener is my favorite application on my MacBook.

I have a distinct memory of sitting in the Mountain Cafe in Yunnan in 2009, some time during what passes for fall in the tropics, telling a couple of friends that I needed something software-ish to organize my research and writing. I was in the deepest throes of research for what has turned into my first novel, and if I wasn’t careful, my notes were about to become too chaotic. Both of my desktops — on my Mac and in my office — were covered with scraps of paper, sticky notes, and files with snippets of info. It was an avalanche waiting to happen.

“If only I could find something where I could have these little notecards on my computer, you know, and I could move them around and arrange them as I go further into the project — something that would let me get rid of my actual 3×5 cards,” I told my friends.

Shortly afterwards, I stumbled across Scrivener on the downloads page on Apple’s site and soon knew that I had found the program I had described to my friends, except even better.

I’ve been using Scrivener for almost two years now, and I’ve come darn close to working in it every day of those two years. It’s just that wonderful and useful.

“Why?” you may ask. Well, here’s why.

* It was love at first sight for me and Scrivener because of the corkboard view mode. Scrivener lets me make notecards with a brief synopsis and arrange them on a corkboard with cute little pushpins and customizable background colors. I keep mine looking like lined white 3x5s, a traditionalist, I suppose. You can also mark the notecards with stamps that tell you the status of that part of your project.

* Soon, I got over my infatuation with Scrivener’s looks and realized that it’s super useful for organization beyond simple arrangement of my ideas in a certain order on a corkboard. I can click on each of those synopsis cards and go to a full document. The documents can be arranged in folders and the folders in a project binder that’s divided into sections for my research and for my draft. Way more levels of organization than I ever dreamed of. And I use them all.

* So, now that I had Scrivener up and running, what was I supposed to do with all my notes in Word docs? Import them! Super easy. Equally as easy to export when I want to go the other direction, too, and with several handy options for how I want the imports and exports divided or combined.

* Even cooler than importing from Word, though, is the fact that I can import web pages. I used the web page import feature a bunch when I was doing research about the persecution of the Chin people in Burma. I was reading through page after page of reports on human rights violations, and rather than going back and forth from my web browser to Scrivener to take notes, I could import the web page as a file and stay in Scrivener to take notes on a split screen.

* Same with photos — I can import photos onto those cute little notecards and arrange and rearrange to my heart’s content. I did this with scanned photos of Lydia’s family during research for my novel, and I’m doing it again with the photos for my West Texas project.

* But the biggest time saver for me has been Scrivener’s ability to import audio files. I recorded dozens of hours of interviews with Lydia and was then able to import the audio into Scrivener and transcribe my notes without having to leave Scrivener. Before, when I had ethnographic interviews that I needed to transcribe or translate, I would listen to the file in iTunes or on my iPod while I typed, which is a huge pain. Every few seconds I would have to take my hands away from the keyboard to click the pause button in iTunes or mess with my iPod. But Scrivener has a function that allows me to start and stop audio files with a keystroke, so that I can keep typing fluidly without taking my hands off the keyboard. So very, very awesome. Seriously, I would have gone crazy trying to do all those hours of transcription without it.

* There are tons of other features that I hardly ever use, mostly because I haven’t taken the time to learn them well. Notes and meta-data and keywords and comment tracking and referencing and footnotes that export nicely into Word. Scrivener is just a delight for writerly people who have large projects to manage. I have several binders going at any given time — including one for this blog, as I mentioned a few weeks back.

When I wrote that post about how I blog, I intended to follow up in further detail about why I love Scrivener. Since that time, I learned that I could become an affiliate seller of Scrivener through my website. So if you’re interested in trying out this super handy tool, whether it’s for class notes or writing projects or whatever, I’d love it if you would use my referral. Thanks!

Buy Scrivener 2.x for Mac OS X (Regular Licence)

Revitalized

Posted on August 9, 2011 by admin

When I last posted two-and-a-half weeks ago, I was taking a break from social media and blogging, in order to focus on starting my new writing project off on the right foot. It has been a wonderfully creative time for me, and I’m trying to make the benefits of it continue into the future by not going back to the same place as before — namely, the place where I am spending way too much time each day trying to keep up with Facebook and blog reading. I don’t hang out on Twitter all day anyway, and I think the benefits of my writing two or three regular blog posts per week outweigh any time constraints I feel from them. But reading blogs had begun to eat away at my mornings, and Facebook was something I found myself turning to several times throughout the day, when I had two or three minutes here or there, which always drags out to ten or fifteen minutes. Not good.

Honestly, I haven’t missed most of the blogs I stopped reading these past two weeks. A very select few (I’m talking less than five) still pique my curiosity enough that I check them every couple of days. But I am not missing the 25 or 30 others that I’ve taken off my regular reading schedule. Most of those are related to publishing, writing, freelancing, etc. I know it’s considered good practice to stay up on industry news through blogs, but I just can’t do it any more, not every day, not in those numbers.

So, what have I been up to in all the wonderful and glorious time I’ve inherited by making this decision?

* I’ve been on a lot of long runs. Running is one way that I am able to get my mind loose and relaxed so that I can think through things — and this past couple of weeks I can really tell that it’s helped me feel healthier (both mentally and physically), which also helps me feel more creative. On a side note, all this extra running has led me to start training for a half-marathon at the end of September.

* I have stared at the living room ceiling a lot. No kidding, this is a great way for me to come up with ideas, lying on the floor, being still and quiet and just thinking. Last week I came up with a name for my new project by lying on the floor for about twenty minutes — and titles are one of the more difficult things for me to write. It sounds crazy, I know, and if I ever get a roommate she’ll probably think I’m nuts when I explain that this method can be part of what I mean when I say “I work at home.”

* I’ve read a lot of books, particularly ones from the publisher I’m interested in for my young adult novel. Reading is the best thing I can do to improve my writing. (Note how I cut down on reading blogs in order to read more books. A good trade off, I firmly believe.)

* I made first contact with above-mentioned publisher. A big step for me. And now the waiting begins.

* I’ve done a ton of research on successful Kickstarter campaigns. I’ve read articles, looked through successful project descriptions, watched sample videos, analyzed successful reward offers. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right.

* And I guess I’m going to do it, because my project was approved by Kickstarter. Now I’m writing my project’s narrative, editing my video, planning rewards for my backers. More to come on this in the next couple of weeks. Lots more to come.

* I froze the blueberries I picked at Bill’s Berry Farm, and I picked a bunch of peaches at Ray French Orchard. Fresh fruit in season is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

* I bought a gorgeous hanging basket with verbena and petunias and ivy from Selph Landing Nursery. Flowers on my patio are another of life’s greatest pleasures. I bask in that pleasure each day now, as I water and snip at and admire my huge basket of flowers. It’s equally as relaxing as running.

New Project and Social Media Fast

Posted on July 22, 2011 by admin

Last November and December when I was in Texas before moving to Washington, I spent some time with my grandmother, learning to make the cream pies she’s been bringing to family events for as long as I can remember. Part of my goal for the time was to learn to make the pies — part of my goal was to hear her tell stories. Man, does she love to tell stories (you can read some of those stories in Passing Down Pie Heritage, a new article I recently had published at Texas Cooking).

I’ve heard quite a few stories from her over the years, some of them related to the time she and my grandfather spent in West Texas during their early years of marriage. I’ve also heard quite a bit about that time from my dad and my aunt, especially in preparation for my West Texas camping trip with friends last October. And especially since my aunt and her husband had been diligently scanning and labeling the 800+ family slides from the 1950s, many of them taken in West Texas.

West Texas and those slides have hovered in the background of my imagination for months. I’ve looked at the photos, mesmerized by the scenes they depict. Cowboys and wide open landscapes.

My dad and his siblings as shiny faced kids in 1950s clothes and hair styles.

My grandmother sitting on a swing in a park, the background opening wide behind her.

My grandfather working out in the oil field with his survey crew buddies. (The colors on this photo haven’t been altered — that’s what the slide looked like when they scanned it!)

Those slides are precious to me because they hold family — and they hold the land that made us who we are, the land that captivated me last October. The slides are also precious as a glimpse into that era and that place. West Texas in the 1950s is the same time and place that shaped George W. and Laura Bush, and I was also captivated by Laura Bush’s descriptions of it in her autobiography.

And so, I’ve felt the stirring to do more with the slides and with my family’s stories than let them sit and simmer under the surface of my imagination. My grandparents, well, they’re not young, and if I’m going to document their stories of that time period and put them together with the images they made, I believe the time is now. Funny how this idea took full shape once I moved across the country to the opposite border, but I also believe this scenario isn’t a mistake. It will take some careful planning, careful budgeting, and most likely an upcoming project fundraising campaign on Kickstarter, but I think it can all come together to do the research, organizing, and writing of my first nonfiction book here in the Tri-Cities area, with a few trips back to Texas.

Another thing I’m sure of as I type out this idea on this blog (making something public is so very scary!) is that I need to spend some focused time making sure I’m headed in the right direction with this project. First, I want to seek God deliberately on this issue — I’ve been doing that all along, but I want to step back and make absolutely sure. Also, I want to spend some deliberate creative time on the first stages of the project, including what the scope of it will be and what it will take to get the funding. I’m at the point of wrapping up my novel revisions and sending that book out in search of a publisher — now I’m figuring out how to move forward with the next project.

In order to do that, I feel like I need to take a social media break. A bit of a fast, if you will. I’m not throwing off social media for good, just for a while. I want to use the time that I normally spend each day (and it’s spread throughout the day, not just in one blob) to be quiet, to be creative, to pray, to make sure I’m hearing things correctly. I feel so inundated with information from the internet most days, and I contribute my own voice to share in that cacophony. I need to step away for a while and not post or read blogs, Facebook, or twitter. I don’t know how long I will do this, at least a week or two. And hopefully when I come back, I’ll have great news to share with you about the next big project and how you can be involved!

Until then, email me if you need me…

Break While in Canada

Posted on June 30, 2011 by admin

My mom flew into the Tri-Cities this week, and we’re leaving on Friday to drive to Calgary. It’s an 11+ hour drive, and Banff National Park is between here and there — so of course we’re not driving straight through in one day!

Once we get to Calgary, we’ll be joining a group from Texas to help at a kids’ summer program with a local church planter who is a long time friend, and then we’ll help with the children’s program at the Canadian National Baptist Convention’s annual meeting.

I’m taking a break from the blog until we get back to Washington. Everyone needs a summer break, right?

In the meantime, here are a few links to past entries you might enjoy:

Most popular in terms of hits: Thoughts on “Love Tells the Story”

Most popular in terms of comments: Refugee Mentoring and End of the Year of Spare Bedrooms

A favorite essay on glorifying God in our work: Whether I eat or drink

A favorite quote about writing: Other People’s Thoughts: Gilead

A favorite essay from Alaska: Berry Picking and Life

A favorite story about Lydia: Bat and Lydia’s Version

A description of a favorite spot in the U.S.: Guadalupe Mountains

How I Blog

Posted on June 28, 2011 by admin

Since it was my third bloggiversary last week, I thought I would take the opportunity to say a few things about the way that I go about writing and posting on the blog. Sometimes I get questions about it — a while back, a friend asked me, “Are you getting up at like 3am to write and post your blog?” The time stamp on the entries makes it look like that, but it’s not the case. If she wondered that, I figured others might be curious too.

When I first started the blog, I would write a story and post it immediately. Somewhere along the line (I think it was in early 2010) I started using Scrivener to organize my writing, including blog entries. Around that time, I began developing my own editorial calendar for the blog. Within Scrivener, I keep a list of ideas for potential future blogs. Sometimes I just write two or three words, and that’s the entire document — I have a document that says “West Texas slides” that has been in my idea queue for months. Other times, I jot down a few more notes than that. Or a more detailed outline. Or a full post. It just depends on how fully formed the idea is when I get it — and how likely I am to forget it.

I don’t always plan ahead, though. Sometimes I get an idea, and I need to post it within a day or two because it’s so fresh and important to me (like Badger Mountain Sunrise). Sometimes I need to get the conversation out there, get some feedback from others, just let others know what is on my mind and heart that day.

Rarely, though, do I write an entry and post it immediately anymore, for a couple of reasons. One, I think it’s good to let things sit a while before broadcasting them. I don’t have an editor, just me, so sometimes I need the distance of time to help me realize that certain sentences need to be rephrased — or that entire entries need to be scrapped.

The other reason is purely practical. I’ve read in several places (and I’ve seen from the evidence of my own blog stats) that people read blogs, check Facebook, do online stuff in general at certain times of the day more than others and on certain days of the week more than others. So, I typically write a post in Scrivener, get it all formatted and nice in WordPress, and then I schedule it to post automatically on the day I want it to post, usually every Tuesday and Thursday. I schedule it to post on the website between 5 and 6am Pacific time, and then I try to be online to post a link to the entry on Facebook between 8 and 9am Central time. That way, the link is up when people are checking Facebook during the morning in Texas or on the east coast. My blog stats tell me that 50-70% of my traffic comes through Facebook on the days when I make new posts, so those links are important. Because, after all, my point in posting these blog entries is to get people to read them.

Rebecca Henderson

writing, reading, living

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