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)

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.

3 Days Until the Olympics!

Hi Everyone! I'm writing from my grandparents' home in beautiful Bandon, Oregon. We've all gathered to celebrate my grandpa's 90th birthday. My family members have arrived from Arizona, Colorado, Alaska, Kenya, the Philippines, and of course, Hong Kong. We've gone crabbing, played at the beach, pulled weeds around the house, and eaten lots of big, happy meals together. Coming up on the agenda, we'll be watching the Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics together. I'm preparing for one final publicity push for my Olympics e-book, The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing. If you'd like to help, you can tweet, Facebook, or even blog one of the links to my book.

To learn more about my family history in Asia, check out this interview with Susan Blumberg-Kason.

To see all of my pictures from the Beijing Olympics, visit ShannonYoungWriter.com.

To read my travel memoir about the Olympics, you can find it for $0.99 on Amazon, Nook and Kobo. There are now 8 reviews on Amazon if you'd like to see what other readers think about it.

What are you doing this summer? Where will you be watching the Games?

Interview with a Hong Kong Book Blogger

This week I was interviewed by a fellow Hong Kong-based writer and book blogger, Laura Besley. She reviews great books, occasionally shares pictures and anecdotes from Hong Kong, and writes a cool flash fiction piece every Friday. If you like A Kindle in Hong Kong, you'll love her blog.

Today, Laura shares her thoughts on The Olympics Beat and asks some great questions, mostly about the writing life in Hong Kong. Here's a sample...

Have you always considered yourself a creative person?

Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?

What are you working on now? - I'm very excited about this answer :).

To read the rest, visit Living, Loving and Writing and follow the blog while you're at it!

It's only 15 days until the London Games begin! I'm in the midst of end-of-the-year activities at my school. These include cataloging every book in the English Room and preparing a group of seven-year-olds to perform The Ants Go Marching in the school variety show. I'm taking a red-eye to America on Saturday!

Fun with Amazon

Thank you to everyone who stuck around for the second round of my Olympics Beat blog tour. With less than a month to go until the London Olympics, I'll be popping up on a few more blogs and websites. Apart from that, I'll get back to my normal reviews, walking tours and bookspottings until the Games begin. If you missed any of the links, they're listed below and on the News page of my website.

Even if you personally are not into reading this sort of thing, you may be wondering what you can do to help. This is where "fun with Amazon" comes in.

A strong Amazon listing is a vital tool to help the right people discover the right books for them. So I have two requests for help, regardless of whether you yourself are interested in The Olympics Beat, and two calls to action for anyone who did buy the book.

Requests for Help (for everyone)

1) Go to the Amazon listing for The Olympics Beat and tag it with relevant key words. Some suggested tags: Olympics, Olympic Games, travel, memoir, travelogue, travel memoir, spectator, sports, China, Beijing. You can do this even if you don't care about the Olympics or China!

2) Go to the Amazon listing for The Olympics Beat and click the 'like' button just beneath the title. This has nothing to do with Facebook, but it could help boost my position in search results. 

Calls to Action (for Olympics Beat readers)

1) Write a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or your own blog. Every review helps, even if you didn't like the book!

2) Add your own images to the product page by clicking share your own customer images underneath the cover on the Amazon listing. This could be a picture of the book on your device, you with the book, or any other cool pictures you have that are related to China and/or the Olympics.

Thanks for all your support everyone!


Guest Posts
The Expat Writer's Connection on Adventures in Expat Land
Energy, Inspiration, Influence on Susan Blumberg-Kason
Olympic-size Optimism on Book Dilettante
Reading China on Reading the World

Interviews
Questions about my family history in Asia from Susan Blumberg-Kason
Podcast interview with Stuart Beaton

Reviews of The Olympics Beat
"thoroughly enjoyed the physical, emotional and cultural journey of a lifetime this father-daughter duo makes. It's a great read, one that speaks to that special bond between a father and his daughter, made more so by sharing the Olympics experience together." - Adventures in Expat Land

"this book allows us a vicarious experience of the craziness and overwhelming hospitality that marked the Beijing Olympics beyond the Birds Nest." - Reading the World

"It's been more than 20 years since I visited Beijing, but I felt like I was back there with them, hearing the cheers of the stadium, the beats of the drums, the lights from the opening ceremony. Then there was the food." - Susan Blumberg-Kason, Book of the Week

On Reading China

Today, I have a guest post over at the lovely Reading the World blog. I hope you have all added Sarah's "literary Grand Tour" to your regular reads by now. It's a great concept for a blog and I've enjoyed all her other posts so far. My article is on reading about China. Here's a taste...

The China of novels is a land of ancient traditions, elegant hills covered in mist, and communal courtyards betwixt peak-roofed houses. In the China of novels, at least all the novels I read before my first visit in 2008, women have bound feet and pale, lotus faces, and men toil in rice paddies with honor and duty on their shoulders. The history, the poetry, the very language is full of mystery and inscrutable beauty.

The China of newspapers is frightening. It owns our debt, our means of production, our competition. It’s a place of mystery too, dogged by a recent history of shattering need, death, and whispered oppression. The China of newspapers is a threat and a crutch.

Between the China of novels and the China of newspapers lies a third China. Read the rest...

Tomorrow, I'll wrap up this little blog tour for The Olympics Beat with a list of all the places I've hopped around the internet lately and a request for help.

Interview: The Hong Kong Connection

The next stop on my blog tour is over on my friend Susan Blumberg-Kason's blog. She asked some great questions, especially about my family connections to Hong Kong. Susan herself lived here for quite a few years. She has had many of the same experiences and we've connected over our mutual love for HK. Here are some of the questions to give a taste of what the interview is like:

1.      find it fascinating that your grandparents lived in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s, your father was born there, and you ended up there not entirely by your own doing. Given your family’s background, had you ever thought about a future in Asia, or in Hong Kong to be specific?

2.      When you decided to move to Hong Kong, do you think your parents were more understanding than the average American mother and father because your father’s family had a long history in Asia? Did your mother and father have different reactions to your decision? 

1.      Who are your favorite authors? 

2.       What books are in your Kindle waiting to be read?

Go to Susan's blog to see my answers!

If you're just tuning in, this is the blog tour for my $0.99 e-book about the 2008 Olympics called The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing. It's available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Olympics Beat Review

 It's Day Two of my little blog tour for The Olympics Beat and we're approaching one month until the London Games.

Today I have a review for you on a cool new blog called Reading the World (a literary Grand Tour). Sarah writes about travel, culture and books in a thorough, thoughtful style. I think her blog will appeal to many readers of A Kindle in Hong Kong. In her 4-star review of The Olympics Beat, she quotes extensively from the book and makes some spot-on critiques.

Don't forget that if you want to see more pictures from the Beijing Olympics, you can visit ShannonYoungWriter.com. While you're over there don't forget to join my email list!

Bookspotting and Guest Posting

This was quite a successful bookspotting week. First I walked beside a boy reading what looked like a typical middle grade chapter book. I couldn't see the title, but I looked over his shoulder and saw that there's a character named Galen in the story. Does anyone know what book it was? A few days ago, I saw a young man sitting outside a restaurant reading a huge book (I'm talking Robert Jordan hardback size) and smoking a big cigar. A woman in a bookstore was sitting on a bench reading Now You See Me. I saw a guy walking with his girlfriend on one arm and small pile of books in the other, one of which was called What Money Can't Buy. I spotted four Chinese books this week and one guidebook. How about you?

We just have one month to go before the London Olympics begin! This week I'll be hopping around to some different blogs to promote my e-book The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing. First up is a guest post about the inspiring nature of Hong Kong at Susan Blumberg-Kason's blog. Susan is a writer who reviews a new book on her blog each week, usually about China, and it's a great place to go for recommendations!

The blog tour continues tomorrow with a review on a great new literary/travel blog!

My Dad

My dad is the coolest guy. He was born right here in Hong Kong and spent his entire childhood living in various countries in Asia. He has taught me so much about how to travel and how to approach each new experience with abject enthusiasm.


He's also the only the person who is as excited about the Olympics as I am. He's the star character in The Olympics Beat if you want to get to know him.

My dad is a smart man, and he has inspired me to work hard and go for every opportunity. Even though he's far away in the USA right now, I'm thinking about him this Father's Day. Love you Dad!

Olympics Beat: 50 Days until London 2012

Beijing International Airport

There are just 50 days left until the London Olympics, and I can't wait. I'm a bit obsessed with the Olympics, enough to write an e-book about my experiences at the 2008 Beijing Games. The mounting excitement reminds me of the hype leading up to Beijing while the city was in the midst of making major infrastructure improvements. 

The Water Cube Aquatic Center

There were world-class sporting venues and new subway lines, but the most notable feature of Olympics Beijing was the absence of the city's legendary traffic.

Pearl Market sans traffic

I'm sure the streets look different today, but I'm having fun looking back on that singular moment. In the run-up to the London Games, I'll be sharing more of my Olympics pictures. You can check out my writing website, ShannonYoungWriter.com, for additional photos.

My mini travel memoir, The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $0.99.

Writing Video: Launch Week Thank You!

You guys are the best.

If you'd like to see the photos pages illustrating each chapter of my e-book, visit ShannonYoungWriter.com.

If you want to buy The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing, it's available here:
Amazon.com          Barnes & Noble

Amazon.co.uk        Amazon.fr

Amazon.de              Amazon.it

Olympics Beat: Adventures in Guest Posting

It's Day 4 of Launch Week for The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing. You can check out yesterday's post to find out what has been happening so far.

Over the last 24 hours, I've made appearances on a few more blogs.

First up, Harvee Lau at Book Dilettante has terrific taste in books and often reviews titles you don't see on every other book blog. I got to write a guest blog for Harvee on what I learned about China at the Olympics.

Next, I wrote about being an expat writer for Adventures in Expatland. Linda introduced my post with some absolutely lovely comments about my book. She's also hosting a giveaway, so get over there and leave a comment if you'd like to win a copy of The Olympics Beat.

The book is just $0.99, which meant that I got to appear on Man of la Book as a featured memoir in Zohar's Tightwad Tuesdays series.

I really appreciate all your help in spreading the word about my book release. If you'd like to see more of our pictures from Beijing, you can check out the photo pages on ShannonYoungWriter.com.

Olympics Beat Love

A few of my friends from Colgate University sent me a picture of their Kindle.

The lovely mother of one of my former students
took a picture of my book (on an iPad, I think).

It's Day Three of Launch Week for The Olympics Beat. I don't know about you, but I'm having a great time!

On Sunday I shared a podcast interview with Stuart Beaton in China.

Then, for over 24 hours on Monday, my friends and their friends stormed Facebook with dozens of links to the book.

Today, my book was featured on the blogs of two lovely, talented writers: Jane Cornelius in Shanghai and Susan Blumberg-Kason in Chicago. You should visit both of their blogs if you are interested in women who write about China and life!

Tomorrow, I'll be making guest appearances on a couple more blogs.

As of Tuesday evening, HK time, my e-book is #1 in the Beijing Travel categories on Amazon US and UK, #1 in China Travel on Amazon US, #12 in Asia Travel on Amazon UK, and #16 in Travel Memoirs & Bios on Amazon US. I am enjoying this while it lasts!

The coolest thing that has happened is that my friends have started sending me pictures of The Olympics Beat on their e-readers. I'm so grateful to have this kind of support and enthusiasm.

Some of my closest friends from Colgate are having
grand adventures in Peru right now,
but they took the time to send a pic.

This one might be my favorite because it comes from one of my former
students from the US who just graduated from high school this weekend.

The Olympics Beat is available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon in the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy. Thank you for helping me spread the word about this travel adventure!

For photos illustrating each chapter of The Olympics Beat, you can visit ShannonYoungWriter.com!

Olympics Beat Launch Week: Share Storm

It's Launch Week for The Olympics Beat here at A Kindle in Hong Kong. My mini travel memoir (only 80 pages) about the Beijing Olympics is climbing the charts at Amazon. The e-book is currently #2 in the China Travel category and #24 on the overall Biographies & Memoirs, Travel category. You should take a look while you have the chance!

The e-book is also available from Barnes & Noble if you're a NOOK reader.

The coolest thing happening right now is The Olympics Beat Share Storm. My Facebook friends and many of their friends are helping me spread the word to anyone who might be interested in this story by sharing the link to my book. If you'd like to join in, all you have to do is post the link to the book listing or the FB page.

Thank you so much for your help!

If you'd like to see more of my pictures from Beijing, visit ShannonYoungWriter.com.

The Olympics Beat Launch

It's official. Today, with exactly two months to go until the Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics, I am launching my e-book, a short, fun travel memoir about an incredible adventure. If you want to buy The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing, it's available on Amazon.com (and .co.uk, .co.de, .fr, and .it) for just $0.99 (or 0.77 GBP or 0.89 EUR). Updated: now available on the NOOK from Barnes & Noble.

To celebrate my launch this week, here's what's happening:

Sunday: Book launch! I was interviewed by writer Stuart Beaton in China on his very cool podcast. Here's the link if you'd like to hear my voice :).

Monday: I have a guest post about the Olympics on Book Dilettante.

Facebook Share Storm. I'm asking everyone I know, whether or not they want to buy the book, to post the link on Facebook. The goal is to get the word out to as many people as possible who might want to read it. It means I won't have to keep bothering my Facebook friends about the book because they'll all know about it. If you want to join The Olympics Beat Share Storm, just post a link to the book some time on Monday.

Tuesday: My book will appear on the blog of my lovely writing partner, Jane Cornelius.

Wednesday: I will have a guest post about being an expat writer on Adventures in Expatland.

Thursday: I will have a guest post on The Reading Life blog about the reading life in Asia.

Friday: I'll wrap up the launch week with a writing video about the experience.

Next week, I'll return to a normal Kindle in Hong Kong schedule of bookspotting, book reviews and walking tours.

Thank you to everyone for your support of my e-book! Here's the blurb one more time:

The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing
The drama, the variety, the spectacle - Shannon can't get enough of it. She is an American student who has always been fascinated by the Olympic Games; her father has a lifelong love affair with China. They team up for the Beijing games and the adventure of a lifetime. Without the filter of a small screen, Shannon and her father are hypnotized by the passion of a great nation unveiling itself to the world. This mini travel memoir is a picture of a new China and the experiences that would change one American girl's life forever.


Visit ShannonYoungWriter.com for original photos illustrating each chapter of this story.

Bookspotting: Olympics Story Week

Nearly four years ago, my dad and I took the trip of a lifetime. I had received a fellowship from my university (Colgate in New York) that allowed me to travel anywhere in the world to conduct a research project. Previously, I'd attended the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. At the time, the burning question on everyone's minds was: "Will Greece be ready for this?" There is so much work that goes into preparing a city for the Olympics, and I wanted to know how Beijing's preparations would compare. I decided to go to China to study the effect that the Games had on the city. What I saw blew any hope of comparison out of the water.

When I returned to school to write the research paper and presentation required by the fellowship, I found that there was only so much about what I'd experienced that I could express in an academic format. I handed in my paper feeling there was more to say about Beijing and the impact it had on me. 

Three years later, when I had moved to Asia and started writing a travel memoir about my Hong Kong experiences, I felt that I'd finally found the appropriate format to talk about Beijing. After thinking about it for years, Nanowrimo and the writing skills I'd been learning gave me the motivation to sit down and tell this story. The result is my upcoming e-book, The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing, an 88-page travel memoir about our adventures at the Games. I'm still pursuing traditional publication for my Hong Kong book, but I'm excited to launch this timely digital-only story on May 27th, exactly two months before the Opening Ceremonies of the London 2012 Games.

Now back to your regularly scheduled bookspotting...

This week I spotted a teenage girl on the MTR reading Twilight. The next day, I spotted a middle-aged man unabashedly reading Twilight in the train station. It seems Stephanie Meyer has finally made it to HK in force. Earlier in the week, a teenage boy on the MTR was reading Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Last night, I saw a woman reading a Kindle without a cover beneath the Escalator in Soho. On the other side of the street, I spotted a thick Eyewitness guidebook to China on a table by the window of a restaurant. I counted three Chinese books this week. Have you spotted any interesting books lately?

Bookspotting: Announcement Week!

This was definitely a week for bookspotting in Chinese. I counted nine Chinese books, mostly on the MTR. That's a lot more than normal, and included two textbooks. I also spotted one guidebook to Hong Kong and Macau and a Kindle in a coffee shop, but I didn't see any other English titles.

In last week's Bookspotting post, I announced the launch of my new author website: ShannonYoungWriter.com. Thank you to everyone who went over there for a visit and signed up for my email list. I also told you that I'd have a bigger announcement this week. I'm releasing an e-book! This is not my Hong Kong travel memoir, but a separate piece that is far too short to be a book and far too long to be a magazine article (88 print pages). The official launch will be on May 27th, exactly two months before the Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics. I'll tell you more about it in the coming weeks, but here's the blurb and the book cover by the amazing Joanna Suen.

The Olympics Beat: A Spectator’s Memoir of Beijing

The drama, the variety, the spectacle - Shannon can't get enough of it. She is an American student who has always been fascinated by the Olympic Games; her father has a lifelong love affair with China. They team up for the Beijing games and the adventure of a lifetime. Without the filter of a small screen, Shannon and her father are hypnotized by the passion of a great nation unveiling itself to the world. This mini travel memoir is a picture of a new China and the experiences that would change one American girl's life forever.

Coming soon to an e-book store near you!

Bookspotting: Author Website Week

My new author photo by the lovely and talented Joanna Suen

This week I spotted yet another Hunger Games reader on the MTR. She may have actually been reading Catching Fire, the second book in the series, but it was hard to tell. A man on the train was intently studying Love and Respect: The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs by Emerson Eggerichs. I spotted a teenager carrying a Nora Roberts book through Central and another woman reading an English paperback with a blue cover. I counted four Chinese books and one guidebook.

This week I also had the opportunity to meet Susan Blumberg-Kason, one of the most faithful readers of this blog. Susan is an American writer who lived in Hong Kong for much of the 1990s. She returned to the city for her first visit in years and I got to have lunch with her! She is blogging about her return to HK at her terrific site: SusanBKason.com.

In other news, I would like to announce the launch of my new writer's website: ShannonYoungWriter.com. This blog will continue to be about books and Hong Kong, but if you are interested in my other writing, you can check out the site and sign up for my email list. I have another exciting announcement coming up soon, so stay tuned!

Have you spotted any books this week?