Active Mind, Creative Spirit
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…
Related Tales
I was dropped off at SEA-TAC airport a couple hours early the day we flew out to Nepal. So I had a couple hours to kill after security and bag check. I decided to call my mom (bad decision) and let her know that today was…
Book Release Specifics
We’re getting close! The books are in motion, in a truck, making their way here! I am guessing you’d like to hear one more story before they arrive, but I don’t have a story today, so I’ll spell out my approximate plan for how…
As We Speak
(Actually as you read…) The book is uploading… being sent to the printer RIGHT NOW! Aak! If ever I deserved a freak out moment, this might be it. I have combed and scoured, looked and re-looked, had it checked and rechecked. I think it…
Final Dates
I am truly beside myself. I keep telling people that completing this book feels like I am standing outdoors naked (in this weather). I am overwhelmed by the support and positive response I’ve had to this project. It is unnerving… no, terrifying to think…
The Slow Reveal
Obviously it can’t be too slow, since I told you two days ago that we’re down to less than 10 days (eeks)! I spent a full day cussing at Word Press to remake my photography website and now I have a page or two that will…
A Book by Any Other Name
Once I had 30,000 words down, a title came to me. It jumped into my head, curled up in my lap and smiled at me like a big-pawed puppy. I liked it. It sounded big but not too big. Nothing to compete with Krakauer…
Last Thorns
I can actually feel the last days of this 9-month-long project ticking down. It’s refreshing and necessary and kind of sad. I can see the finish line, I just need to reach and claw a bit longer to get across it. Here is my…
Time to Go Live?
I redid the website 2 days ago. I have been futzing with it. It might be ready – poke around and see. Let me know if it’s broken anywhere. In the mean time, check out the info on my book!
Photo Prophecy
When I sat down on Christmas eve last year to interview AC about his seven summit climbs, I felt really honored. I was actually in disbelief that I had pulled off an interview with this guy. In the car on the way to the meeting, I kept…
Untold Dailies
When I was an art director, we created an animated product based on a feature film. Our product was to be released along with the movie. As such, we received “dailies” from the feature film production crew, meaning we got a VHS (yes it was a while ago) of all the film they shot in…
Six Thousand and a Sieve
Besides the writing itself, I have about 6000 photos in my arsenal to add imagery to the book. The hardest part isn’t what to include, it’s what not to include. There comes a point when the description that appears in the reader’s head is…
Character Creation
I am just sure that most novel writers spend the majority of their waking and sleeping hours developing characters. I was spared that since my book is NOT a novel – it’s non fiction. My characters were already developed and it was just my…
For You and for Me
For the record, I like hiding song lyrics and titles in my blog writing, so feel free to begin singing when you see a title, if it strikes you. I spent the first 2 months writing with reckless abandon. It was a purge, a way to…
So, What’s it About?
I spent the first 2 months that I was asked this question, trying like hell to answer it. It’s hard to encapsulate, and that is part of the reason a whole entire manuscript was warranted. If I could tell it in a Facebook post,…
The First Step on the Trail
My book is in its final stages. The writing portion is complete, save a couple thorns at the end, but we’ll get to those later. 220 pages of text have materialized after 7-ish months of driving my family mad. I have been on a…