At this time last year, I was celebrating the publication of my novel THIRSTY. I was still living in China, but was in the U.S. promoting the book...joyfully running from event to event. It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by.
I had big plans for this anniversary (balloons, giveaways, blog posts, etc.), but instead I've spent the month of October repatriating to the United States after almost 5 years in China. There's been little time for anything else.
But in the few moments between plane rides and packing and trying to get our two-year-old settled into a routine, I've been quietly re-celebrating the fact that my novel THIRSTY is out in the world for readers to find.
If you've found it and read it, thanks. If not, check it out here or here.
Now...back to the repatriation thing.
You know what I'm thinking after re-reading my blog posts from the last 4.5 years? Good gracious Mavis...I've been in China for a good long time. I've seen a lot. I've done a lot. I've explored a lot. And now? Some days I feel like I know something about China; other days I'm pretty sure I don't have a clue.
Either way, here are 10 of my favorite posts from 2009. (If you haven't read my favorite posts from 2006, 2007, or 2008, check them out.)
I've only got three days left in Shanghai...the clock is a'ticking. The house is packed up and our things are (almost) on a boat headed for the United States. Life is changing, and as it does, I'm looking back over my time here in China.
Here are 10 of my favorite posts from 2008. (If you haven't read my favorites from 2006 and 2007, click here and here.)
When I posted on Facebook that I was working on the 1-sentence pitch for my next novel, two friends came up with great suggestions:
Good god, I wish it were that easy.
Instead I've been holed up in my tiny office for the past six days rolling sentence after sentence around in my noggin, on a piece of scratch paper, and on the computer screen. I've written possible 1-sentence pitches on receipts from City Shop, my left hand, yellow stickies, a menu (while out to dinner), the inside cover of The Best American Travel Writing 2009, and other sundries.
For all you non-writers out there, the 1-sentence pitch is your "elevator pitch." You know, you find yourself in an elevator with a top editor at a top publishing house who can make or break your career and you've got, oh, 15 seconds or so to pitch your book. (Of course, this is an absurd and highly unlikely scenario in today's publishing world, but go with me.)
You can also think of the 1-sentence pitch as what you tell a fellow mom you meet at the playground and with whom you have a quick conversation while your kids are climbing the monkey-bars. As her two-year-old runs off in the direction of the street, she hollers over her shoulder, "What's your book about?" and you've got about 15 seconds before she's out of earshot.
Soooooooooo...how's it all going?
Well, while being tortured by the 1-sentence pitch, I've also written a 1-paragraph pitch and a 2-paragraph pitch (getting it all done in one fell swoop). According to my husband, the 2-paragraph pitch is (hee hee) "pitch-perfect."
Whoo-hoo!
But, he went on to tell me, the 1-sentence pitch isn't.
UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I wish he were wrong, but I know he's right.
So it's back to the scribbling pad.
Wish me luck. Cause you know, since I am going to moving halfway around the world in about five weeks, there are just few other things I should be doing.
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Pencil Photo Credit: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Film Clip Photo Credit: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
So I'm there. At that critical place. Deciding on a title for the novel I've been working on since 2006.
Exciting?
Yep.
Challenging?
Yep.
Overwhelming?
A little.
This morning I dreamed I was back in Shanghai emceeing a writing event at a club. The event? A quiz of sorts about the ranch I lived on in New Mexico back in the late 1990s.
There I was in China facing a big crowd of expectant writers trying to remember all the details of the NM ranch. I had a list of places on the ranch (Castle Rock, Costilla, Crazy Woman Creek, etc.) that I had to describe in luscious detail in order to "win" the writing event.
Then suddenly, I was no longer in the club in Shanghai; the audience was gone (poof); and I was in a truck on the ranch (still gripping the writing "quiz" in my hand).
Whoa.
Time travel.
Life travel.
My lovely (jetlagged) subconscious working like hell to stitch it all together into some semblance of order. (Good luck, brain.)
For a while in the dream, I drove through the mountains, sighed when I saw the glacier lakes, got a little woozy in the switchbacks, and waxed nostalgic. I think I even had an altitude headache. God, I loved this ranch when I lived there...what I discovered about myself on this ranch...and yes, I still love this ranch and New Mexico in general.
Then whoosh! I was back in that Shanghai club with my audience. They were cheering. I must have been doing well on the quiz.
Whoop! Whoop!
Then back on the ranch...on a mountain peak overlooking the vega. I saw two bears, a herd of elk, and an eagle.
Then zwoop! In da club in Shanghai...writing furiously, reading to the audience, showing slides of a wild stallion I ran into on a hike on time, guiding them on a virtual tour of the ranch.
It was exhilarating.
And exhausting.
When I woke, I was longing...for New Mexico...for China...for the kind of comfort I feel when I'm home (like now) in the U.S. eating ice cream sandwiches and Oreo cookies.
My first "thought" after the dream?
I have had and continue to have a pretty cool life. I'm a writer inspired by place and wow...I've lived in some amazing places.
My next "thought"?
I don't dream this way when I'm in China. I've had vivid dreams all my life, but I don't often dream in China. What does that mean? Why is this?
And my last "thought" before my two-year-old hollered "Mumma!" from the next room?
I need to write.
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Thanks to Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net for the mountain photo.
Those are my 5 happy things of today. What are yours?
