After my brief writing binge in Taiwan, I took a step back and realized that because I had such an active childhood and adolescence, I never got around to doing much reading. I never read the classic books that many young people read. Thus I do not have a basis of knowing what others wrote or how they wrote, making it highly unlikely that I would have the groundwork necessary to produce something truly enjoyable that is also unique. Moreover, I have watched very few movies. Such classics as Godfather, Sawshank Redemption etc I’ve never seen and only recall bits and pieces of maybe one Star Wars episode. In fact I watched so little of it I get it confused with Star Trek of which I’ve seen a snippet here and there as well. Yes, now you can cry for me, poor illiterate and/or deprived soul that i clearly am! (lol) The real tragedy is, here I am trying to develop something that needs to become a hit film. Oops. So I went out and bought a mound of DVDs and downloaded enough books to fill a library and after killing all the viruses and spyware I got from downloading  [ Read More ]

Question: Where is one of the best places to get inspiration to write? Answer: 35,000 feet in the air. Somewhere between LA and Taipei I happened to watch Thor and a spark flared, ignited by the similarity of that movie’s transitioning between worlds to my night-time experience. The flaming match found nearby combustible material in the form of this gasoline-soaked vision, this screaming, longing, impassioned compulsion to share with the world the wonder that was given to me in that near-out-of-body experience so many years ago. And the inferno, long dormant, roared within demanding release. The only avenue of release: WRITE! Upon reaching my hotel I prayed then plunged in. Within about 5 days, interspersed with speaking engagements and other necessary activities such as consuming some of the most delectable and also revolting food imaginable and experiencing a bit of this beautiful and exotic land, I produced 27,000 words of what I dare say seems to be better quality material than I’ve probably ever achieved in one sitting. And for the first time, my characters were writing their own story. This means my characters are now coming alive. I was so excited. When your characters live, they start to do  [ Read More ]

When I was nine Dad taught me to fly. No, I don’t mean he took me for a ride, I actually learned to fly the plane – taxi, take off, fly, and land. One of the most important lessons he taught me was how to get out of a tailspin. Though I don’t remember anymore exactly the coordination of rudder and throttle, I remember that a tailspin is quite a hair-raising experience and had I not possessed complete unquestioning trust in the incredible aeronautical skill of this WWII fighter pilot, I might have been scared. But now I feel like I’m in a tailspin of a different kind – a writer’s tailspin. The book has taken so many hits from so many different directions I think it is on a downward spiral. But it isn’t a spiral unto crash, because I do know how to get out of it, just it might not happen immediately. Last post I was telling how the forums shredded the title. Now I’ve found another forum which seems to be more active and possibly more helpful. It’s standards are higher too (you’re supposed to rack up 50 posts to other people’s threads before starting one  [ Read More ]

So because the title isn’t confirmed I can’t move ahead with a cover, and because I don’t have a cover I can’t start preparing marketing materials, and meanwhile all this is taking me away from what I really need to be doing which is continue to improve the manuscript. So being just enough artist to get myself in trouble I took the title that some have commented favorably on and the picture that was whirling around in my head and made the rudiments of a cover… check it out on the right. Then I got so excited about it that I lost my head and put it on the website (like I said, there it is on the right) and on the synopsis that I’m sending out to some people. But the hard fact is that the title isn’t confirmed yet so it’s damming up the flow of my progress. So I thought “maybe I’ll pay somebody to help me with the title” but I couldn’t find anybody I thought would actually invest the time necessary to understand the book. I asked the media kit folks and they kept saying get a writer’s group to critique the title. So finally  [ Read More ]

Christmas this year was extra fun due to a big distribution enabled by a ministry partner. We were able to provide warm clothes, school books, backpacks and other items to needy children in many cities and villages. Dec. 24-25th I spent with our children’s home kids including a day at the largest park in Asia which just opened up. That evening we swamped KFC with a total group of about 45 – the childrens home plus some of our core ministry team members. It was a wonderful time. Some of the older kids by one of the many bronze animal statues On Dec. 26th I set out for the South India vacation with my (informally) adopted son Lakshman and Dolma from our children’s home. Out of all the children I chose Dolma to come along because she has only recently recovered from a year-long battle with TB and suffered a lot during that time. Neither Dolma nor Lakshman had ever traveled beyond north India. Neither had ever seen the ocean, or experienced a different language, culture, climate or food. Dolma had never ridden on an airplane nor on the AC class train and Lakshman had only had one airplane ride  [ Read More ]

If you want to do it right, I am finding out that self-publishing is a whole learning curve, a new skill to be developed all together. From a year or more ago when I sent $2,000 to IUniverse and then backed out of the contract (thankfully they had a 30 day grace period or something like that) I have been on an incredible journey that I never dreamed I would go on. First I realized that I needed to do genuine POD (Print on Demand) rather than going with a “Vanity” publisher like IUniverse, Authorhouse or others that try to sell you alot of services but really don’t care about your book quality or how many you sell. Then thanks to a very generous friend who is also a scathing literary critic, I realized that the manuscript needed a great deal of improvement. That has proven to be the biggest journey. My life as a writer began in highschool where I kept copious journals and was in Honors English. Now 24 years later I’ve written countless thesis papers, a dissertation, and grant proposals that result in significant funding for the nonprofit I direct. All that made me think I knew  [ Read More ]

I arrived in India early in the morning of June 4th. Friends Ashley and Chris had arrived the night before and we immediately set off on the five hour drive to see the Taj Mahal. After a wonderful time there along with David Gilford and Lakshman, the next day we headed back to Delhi intending to catch our train to the Himalayas which had been booked over a month earlier. Photo: Ashley, David Gilford, Chris, Lakshman and Leanna at the Taj. However our berths were still not confirmed. Butts beginning to feel somewhat conformed to the shape of the car and airplane seats, we nevertheless were determined to make it to the Himalayas. A few phone calls and I had arranged a taxi to take us on the overnight trek. Though the train ticket did get confirmed at the last minute, it was too late for us to get to the station. Extremely tired, we set out on into the night, Ashley and Chris laid back as far as possible in the bucket seats and me curled up in the back. Each of us securing about three hours of precious sleep, we arrived at the base of the Himalayas at  [ Read More ]