Kristin Bair O'Keeffe: Writer. Mom. Teacher. Traveler.

Project Kindle, Post #6 (The FINAL Episode)

This...is...it. 

Do I love my Kindle? Can I read books on my Kindle?

Watch and see.

Women Rock Wednesday: Kathryn Stockett, Author of "THE HELP" (Have you read it?)

This week, author Kathryn Stockett rocks my Wednesday.

According to my Kindle, I'm 29% of the way through Stockett's first novel THE HELP. Yes, yes, I know it's dangerous to tout a novel too loudly before being 100% of the way through, but even if the rest of THE HELP turns out to be the worst drivel ever written (and of course, it wont'),this book deserves to be touted.

Kathryn Stockett has wowed me...with a story that winds tighter and tighter the further I read, with three female characters who make me cringe and laugh out loud at the same time, and with language and images that stick with me.

Listen to this...

"The houses all be small, but every front yard's different--some scrubby and grassless like a baldheaded old man." (Kindle location 363-64)

"There are ten rooms downstairs and one with a stuffed grizzly bear that looks like it ate up the last maid and is biding for the next one." (Kindle location 679-80)

"If I'd played Mammy [in "Gone With the Wind"], I'd of told Scarlet to stick those green draperies up her white little pooper." (Kindle location 1022-23)

See what I mean? I'm laughing out loud all over again just typing up the quotes.

Have you read THE HELP? What do you think?

Travel Tuesday: Writing the Far-Flung Life (Me + New Place = ?)

Okay, all you far-flung writers, need a jumping off point for a new essay? Here goes:

When you:

• are transplanted in a new country
• are launched out of your comfort zone
• are separated from those you love by expansive oceans and thousands of miles
• are incapable of communicating with those around you because you don't speak the language
• spend minutes/hours/days pantomiming even the simplest nouns (and feel like a cross between an intrepid explorer and a complete ass every time you do it)
• struggle to interpret new cultural cues

you inevitably ask the question...

Me + (New Place) = ?

You can't help it. It's human nature. We're driven to define ourselves in relation to our surroundings. Especially those of us who are writers.

The first time I asked myself this question was back in October 2006, about six months after I'd moved from the United States to Shanghai, China. I was back in the U.S. on my first trip home and was feeling completely overwhelmed by the number of choices I faced in the cereal aisle at the grocery store and a number of other things. I wrote about it here (at my old blog).

Since then, I've mulled over this very question again and again...verbally and in my head...but I haven't yet (re-)tackled it on the page. It's time...I feel it coming. The distillation of who I am in China.

And you? Have you tackled this question in your writing?

Me + (New Place) = ?

If not, give it a shot. It has all the makings of a great essay.

If so, what was your answer?

Project Kindle, Post #5 (...Ah, Competition)

Can a writer/book lover read books on a Kindle...and enjoy it? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Every Friday, I post a vlog (video blog) right here about my Kindle experiences during the week.

This week?

Note-taking on the Kindle, and of course...the new competition. Enter...iPad.

Women Rock Wednesday: Eve Ensler (Who's Your Hero?)

Eve Ensler makes me stand up & cheer.

Do you know her? Of her?

She's this amazingly energetic, creative force who advocates all over the world for an end to violence against women & girls. She's a visionary who empowers other people with her actions, choices, and relentless campaigning. She says the word vagina (out loud! in public! on tv!) without flinching. She says the word cunt as if it's not poisonous. Didn't I tell you? This woman kicks ass!

(See what I mean? Standing up and cheering already...let me continue.)

Ensler is the brilliant playwright who wrote and created THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, this crazily honest, heartbreaking, make-you-wince-and-laugh-out-loud-at-the-same-time play about women's sexuality. (If you haven't seen it / heard of it / read it, check your local listings for an upcoming performance; it's performed every year between February 1 and April 1 in communities all over the world.)

Here's a peek at Eve & glamorous pals getting ready for the 10th anniversary performance of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES. One of the things I love is that although Ensler's life is so wrapped up in dealing with violence against women & girls, she is bubbly and light. Yes, she can be sharp, direct, and serious, but she isn't swallowed by the sadness she encounters. Instead she counters it (and all the forces that create & support it) with her unflagging determination and belief in all things woman. Watch...you'll see what I mean.

I could go on and on about Ensler (and here's one more link for you), but instead I want to know, What woman makes you stand up and cheer? Why?

* * *

*Ensler's new book I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World will be released on February 9, 2010. It's a collection of over 30 fictional monologues of girls all over the world (including a Masai girl from Kenya unwilling to endure female genital mutilation; a Bulgarian sex slave, no more than fifteen, a Chinese factory worker making Barbies).

Project Kindle, Post #4 (...Getting Dangerously Close to Love)

Wow...I didn't know I could do THAT with my Kindle!!!! Watch out...I'm dangerously close to falling in love.

Women Rock Wednesday: Joyce Carol Oates, Author & (Now) Adventurer

In recent weeks, I've been struck by the fact that after almost 50 years of marriage, her husband's death, and an excruciating widowhood, author Joyce Carol Oates fell in love, remarried, and is now enjoying a new, much more adventurous life.

Why am I so struck by this?

Simple. I'm excited for her. I mean, here's one of the U.S.'s most talented, most prolific authors rediscovering the world at 71 (yep, she's 71 years old). How cool is that?

Whether by choice or necessity, Oates is out of her comfort zone...looking at the world and herself in new ways. What a great reminder to women that we're never too old or too set in our ways to forge new paths.

If you Twitter with me, you've probably seen me link to the January 15, 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal that elucidates Oates's transformation. Here's a bit:

Since then, she [Oates] says, her writing habits, hobbies and outlook on life have changed. She has started going on mountain hikes with Mr. Gross, who loves the outdoors. Last year, the newlyweds moved into a large two-story home filled with colorful contemporary paintings, mobile sculptures and Mr. Gross's photographs of African fauna and temples and palaces in Tibet. Ms. Oates, a confessed homebody who hasn't traveled widely overseas, said she plans to join her husband on some of his adventures.

Sure, some may ask, "Why does she need a man to rediscover the world? After 50 years with one husband, couldn't she have done some discovering on her own?"

My response?

Who gives a hoot? Whatever leads us to new places in both our interior worlds and the exterior one is worth the ride. If it's love, great. If it's tacos, great. If it's some crazy urge to scale the highest mountain in the world, great.

Bravo to Oates. Enjoy.

Extra Tidbit for Writers: Oates has just finished writing a 400-page memoir that deals with her husband's death (February 2008). From what I read, this was not an easy book for her to write, and she says (which I love and agree with wholeheartedly), "It's very clear to me now—as I'd always supposed—that we can't really choose what we write about in any passionate way: the material chooses us."

Travel Tuesday: Writing the Far-Flung Life (Finding Your Own Chicken Man)

When you're writing about a far-flung life, your job is to get readers to see what you see. Remember, many readers have never been to the place or had the experience you are describing...and many never will. So...lure them in. 

How?

The #1 Way to Lure Readers In...

• Write About The Things That Interest You: Don't worry about trying to figure out what readers want to know. Follow your own heart...your own eye. If you're intrigued, your readers will be intrigued. If you're not intrigued, readers will close your book/article/essay halfway through and not pick it up again. Horror of all horrors.

(Example: If you're traveling in Milan, Italy, you may be captivated by the spires on the Duomo. Lots of folks are. If so, dig in and have at it. But maybe you don't give two hoots about the spires [or anything else] on the Duomo. Maybe you're more intrigued by the wacky folks who like to get the 1.22 million pigeons in the piazza to land on their heads for photo opps or the cranky old woman who sold you a strawberry tart. If that's the case, write about the pigeon people or the cranky old woman. Forget the Duomo and its spires.)

As for me, I'm rarely intrigued by the "big stuff." Sure, Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower is cool and interesting, and yup, the World Expo is coming to our fair city in May, but I'm drawn to smaller moments. Like the Chicken Man! He's one of my favorite characters in my neighborhood, and just this morning, my daughter and I ran into him on our street. (Okay, okay, I admit it, we were out looking for him...as we often are.) We were lucky enough to happen upon him just as a customer was picking out his chicken. Check it out.

The Chicken Man on the left. A discerning customer on the right.

"How about this chicken?" says the Chicken Man.

"No, I like this chicken," says customer, taking matters (and a chicken) into his own hands.

"Why does this crazy laowai (me) follow me around Shanghai taking pictures of me?" says the Chicken Man. "She must have thousands of pictures of me now."

And the Chicken Man kills and defeathers the chicken right there and then.

I tell ya what...he's good at it, too. He can kill and defeather a chicken faster than I can pick out a package of drumsticks at the grocery store.

This is the hard part...friends looking on.

Ta-da! Dinner!

WRITERS CHALLENGE: I haven't yet written a formal piece about the Chicken Man, but I know that eventually he will work his way into an essay or memoir. Your challenge this week? Find your own Chicken Man. In whatever place you're writing about, choose a person who intrigues you. Then write about him/her. A paragraph...a page...whatever it takes to see him/her clearly.

Project Kindle, Post #3: Infatuation

Spent lots of time this week hanging out with my Kindle in Shanghai. We went to a meeting on the Bund, had tea at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, cuddled in bed, and lots more. People are talking and the tabloids are asking, "Are you becoming a couple?"

Not quite yet, but...

Women Rock Wednesday: Kiran Bir Sethi Teaches "I Can"

I love when someone takes a simple concept and turns it into an incredible teaching tool...one that leads to empowerment.

Ever heard of Kiran Bir Sethi?

No?

I hadn't either until a friend shared a link to Sethi's recent TED talk (video below). Once I watched, I was smitten. This woman gets it...and is sharing it.

Who is she?

She's the director of a school in Ahmedabad, India, and yowza, she's doing great things for and with the students. This woman rocks our Wednesday.

The philosophy of Riverside School (taken from the website) is:

"COMMON SENSE IS COMMON PRACTICE Riverside is the amalgamation of an approach to learning that is embedded in common sense. It is a vibrant research center for school education, where insights from cutting-edge research are turned into working models of pedagogical practices with a single-minded focus: student wellbeing. Over the last 9 years, Riverside has developed, implemented and shared a unique curriculum that is proving to be the benchmark for providing a no-compromise school education of the highest quality. By developing and sharing such a research-based, practical curriculum, Riverside is providing schools with an alternative model which focuses on excellence and still works in different economic and cultural contexts which make it possible for children all around the country to have access to a true education."

Broke down, it looks like this:

AWARE                ENABLE             EMPOWER

It's a hands-on, get-dirty, express-your-thoughts, get-involved, turn-those-thoughts-into-action kind of practice. When considering how to improve education in the United States (especially in inner-city schools), we should pay attention to this.

Want to learn more? Visit Riverside School.

As Sethi says, "Get infected!"