Bookspotting and Plotting

The artists of Bandon, Oregon had a display of dragon-themed paintings along the boardwalk this summer. This was one of my favorites.

My daily commute has shown me an array of books this week, but all of them were Chinese. There was a child walking through the station with her nose in Chinese comic book, an elderly man sitting on the train with a white hardback on his knees, a fresh-faced young man in a suit with a stack of books under his arm. I also walked past a young woman carrying a Kindle on the steps of the gym I just joined (this may or may not have to do with all the Five Guys and BBQ I ate in America).

For the most part, my attention this week has been totally wrapped up in my Hong Kong travel memoir. You may remember that I've been working on it for a while. I finished what I believed was my final revision and began querying in January. I have fulls out with a few agents, but other than that the responses have been slow. On my way back to HK, I read the manuscript for the first time in eight months (on my Kindle, of course). Eight must have been the lucky number because I can suddenly see so many things I want to change to make it a much better book. As all memoirs must, it has a plot, but the central conflict was not clear and gripping enough from the beginning. I've totally revamped the first ten chapters and I'm working my way through the rest of it. I have two other writing projects I want to finish by the end of September, but this one is all I can think about right now. It seems like a good time to bring back my writing videos, so stay tuned!

Are you working on any projects that you're excited about right now? Have you spotted many books this week, English or otherwise?