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?

LOVE AT THE SPEED OF EMAIL by Lisa McKay

THE GIST:

A psychologist/aid worker who's been too busy trotting the globe to find love strikes up a long distance relationship with a man she's never met.

THE VERDICT:

LOVE AT THE SPEED OF EMAIL is a reflection on the nature of home wrapped up in a long distance love story. The memoir follows the relationship of Lisa, a psychologist who works with aid and development workers around the world, and Mike, a man she meets through email. A lifelong wanderer, Lisa shares her struggles to figure out where home is as she reaches a point in her life where she wants to forge a home with someone. She and Mike get to know each other from afar, hoping that they might one day find home together. Much of their correspondence is included in the book.

Hanging over the burgeoning relationship is the constant danger that Lisa and Mike won't actually like each other when they finally meet. They have the added challenge of being in isolating, emotionally draining professions. They are hesitant to pour too much into each other, knowing that they could be creating an ideal person who won't be able to live up to their expectations. However, they understand each other better because they both know what it's like to tackle suffering and injustice, often without being able to see the difference they are making in the world. It is this shared experience and passion that creates such a bond between them from afar.

As many of you know, I'm a veteran of a long distance relationship (New York/London - Arizona/Hong Kong - Hong Kong/London). I know what it feels like to wonder whether you'll still get along with someone when you finally live in the same country (it took us 3 1/2 years to manage it). Although this memoir was slow-moving at times, Lisa's approach to the situation shows a balance between practicality, romance and caution that's right on target. Throughout the book, she opens up about her worries, hopes and thoughts about home in a way that will speak to people in long distance relationships as well as expats around the world.

THE LINK:

Lisa McKay's blog

THE COST:

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. The Kindle version is $9.99.

THE QUESTION:

Have you been in a long distance relationship before? How about an internet relationship with someone you hadn't met in person? Would you do it again?

Bookspotting: Return to Hong Kong

After a lovely month of holiday that included a visit to San Francisco with one of my best friends from Colgate University...

...two and half weeks in beautiful Bandon, Oregon...

...and two weeks with my family in Arizona (that's Wenlock the Olympics mascot at the Grand Canyon), I'm back in Hong Kong. 

Yesterday I returned to work to begin my third year as an English teacher in a local primary school. Jet lag has been waking me up early, so this morning I got to watch the sun rise above the familiar skyscrapers outside my window. 

Now that the Olympics are over, I'll be getting back to my normal book blogging schedule. If you want a recap of all the guest posts and articles I wrote while promoting my mini travel memoir, they are available at my writing website.

On my way from Phoenix to HK via San Francisco, I spotted a satisfying number of books. A woman waiting in the check-in line had a copy of 50 Shades of Grey. There was a man reading The Green Book by Muammar Al Qathafi in First Class. A couple by one of the gates sat reading paperbacks side-by-side. I couldn't see the titles, but he was on chapter 3 and she was on chapter 8. I saw two young men carrying paperbacks by Michael Crichton (one of his books with a red cover) and John Grisham (The Testament). A young woman on one of the planes had a dog-eared copy of The Secret Life of Plants. Finally, I spotted what I'm sure was a Game of Thrones book as I passed a seating area on a moving sidewalk.

How was your summer? What did you read? What books did you spot?

My catch after deep sea fishing in Bandon

Olympics Withdrawal

Last night, I watched the Closing Ceremonies of the London Olympics. The rock concert (mixed with a preview of Rio) marked the end of the first Olympics I have not attended in person since Sydney in 2000. Although it was fun to follow the action on social media, I knew we were never getting the full story. I already miss the Olympics, but my withdrawal started early this year because I couldn't be there in the thick of things.

Sadly, the coverage of the Olympics on American TV was very disappointing. (I'm visiting my family at the moment, so I don't know how the HK coverage was.) NBC chose not to show the Opening and Closing Ceremonies on live television even though the Closing took place on a Sunday afternoon our time. I watched the Opening first on a live BBC feed and the commentary was infinitely better than the abbreviated prime time version I watched on NBC later that day. All of the popular Olympics events were squished between long commercial breaks in the evening. There were frequent stops for reality TV-like segments about the athletes and a History Channel documentary about WW2, meaning there was even less time for the actual sports. The result was that we only saw the performances of some of the American athletes and whatever competitors also ended up on the medal stand.

This is a dangerous game to play because it creates a subjective picture of the Olympics. One example is that the team gymnastics coverage did not include a bad fall by one of the Russian gymnasts, a fall that gave the US team the gold medal. We saw every match of the star US beach volleyball team of Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor, only to discover that another US beach volleyball team was also undefeated. We didn't even hear about them until their gold medal match against Misty and Kerri.

When I was in China for the Beijing Olympics, it felt important that we were seeing the Games without the bias of either the American or the Chinese media. That was why I felt compelled to write The Olympics Beat about being a spectator at the Games. There are so many filters on our knowledge about what is going on in the world. Now more than ever, it's vital for us to tell our own stories about the things we've witnessed. I'm thankful for my social media friends around the world who helped me experience the full impact of the London Games.

By all accounts, London did an excellent job hosting the event. I hear it was an Olympics to remember. However, the American viewers and the athletes were short-changed by NBC's dedication to its advertising revenue. Unfortunately, this network that doesn't understand Olympics viewers has purchased the rights to keep a chokehold on Olympics coverage until 2020. With any luck, I'll be watching Rio 2016 in Asia, or in person.

Inside the fencing venue at the Beijing Olympics (Dad's t-shirt is from the Athens Games)

The Olympics Beat featured in my hometown paper

It's been a little quiet on A Kindle in Hong Kong lately because I'm on holiday in the US. I spent a few weeks at my grandparents' farm on the Oregon coast (above), and now I'm at home with my family in Gilbert, Arizona. Most of my time has been spent hanging out with my siblings and watching the London Olympics on TV with my dad and fiance. This morning, my mom woke me up early to tell me that my e-book The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing is on NBC local news for Phoenix and The East Valley Tribune. The article also appears in the print version of The East Valley Tribune which showed up in our driveway this morning!

What are you up to this summer? What's your favorite Olympic sport to watch?

London Opening Ceremony

So, what did you think of the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics? Unlike for the Beijing Games, my dad and I watched the whole thing live on the computer in my grandparents' home in Oregon. Just for good measure, we watched much of it a second time when NBC finally got around to broadcasting it that evening. 

I've shared my impressions of the production in a guest post for The Displaced Nation. Please take a look and let me know in the comments what you thought of the show! 

I've been watching as many Olympic events as possible this weekend, but I've discovered that it's very frustrating to look at the news or check Facebook because everyone keeps giving away the results!

Are you watching the Games? What's your favorite event?

It's Olympics Time!

It's finally time for the London Olympics! I've been eating, sleeping and breathing the Olympics over the past two months as I've been spreading the word about my mini travel memoir The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing. Now it's finally time to sit back and watch the Opening Ceremonies on TV. I'll be watching from my grandparents' farm in Oregon and tweeting my thoughts @ShannonYoungHK. Let me know what you think!

I also have two new guest posts on some cool book blogs today. 

The first is about what it feels like to be at the Olympics at To Read or Not To Read.

The second is about storytelling and the Olympics at Read That Also.