Retelling and Reprinting Q&A

Original questions are great, but the repeat questions, the ones that keep coming up, are great at showing me where there are gaps in successfully conveying information. I have been asked repeatedly, mostly author-editor-types, “who is the publisher, who printed it, is it on Amazon.com”…

Small Flight

A photo of us and the plane we took from Lukla to Phaplu. The runway is just behind the plane – yup gravel strip at 7800 feet. Pilots are in the photo and the only other thing missing is Numbur Himal. No, wait –…

Names in My Head

Are you one of those readers that likes to know what a foreign word sounds like before you read it in a book? I am. I’ll stop reading in the middle, pay attention and repeat it out loud to  myself until I can say it right….

Essence of Voice

One of the things I really enjoyed in writing the book, was using words to describe sound. Music is, by definition, an aural experience. The challenge of conveying that in words was a fun one to undertake. But I also brought back video, which…

Over East Asia

On occasion I think of a description or passage that existed in one of my early drafts, and I don’t remember if it made the final cut. Then I sprint to my nearest copy and flip through pages until I find the answer. Here…

A Thousand Words

Larger version of the photo here   I have studied many of my photos over and over. This is one. It tells a million stories just in itself. For me anyway. I’ll try to encapsulate a few of them here.   Visually this appeals…

One Off the Cutting Room Floor

Some of my early drafts had stories that I later cut for various reasons. Most were cut because I felt they didn’t add to the story or to anyone’s character. But I forgot that I cut this one. And in retrospect I probably should…

One That Got Away

Not all the stories that I brought home made it into the book. Some were just not complete enough or interesting enough to put in. Some were interesting, like this one, but really didn’t fit in any specific place without disrupting the overall story flow. Others…

Release Redux

Yesterday was the official book release party. It was an emotional, fun, energetic, soulful way to kick off a book. I am pretty sure it was unique as book releases go. You can see the live stream here. Then skip the first 10 minutes. The stream started on…

Reconstruction

There are several stories in the book that were inconsequential when I first heard them in Nepal. Once I was home, I could reflect differently on the experiences and this helped fill out the skeleton of notes in my journals. Much of the time I spent…