Imagine Me and You ...

I seem to be having luck finding these book sites these days (thank you CBC).

This nifty little site is entitled Meet the Author. It contains 90 second video clips of authors old and new introducing their books. There does not seem to be many Science Fiction or Fantasy authors yet, but there are a few YA authors listed. The clips are not made by marketing departments or publishers.

So far, it is limited to U.S. and British authors, but it is only a matter of time before it comes to Canada. Then, we'll all have lots of Margaret Atwood clips to watch.

My Favorite Books Aren't In There ... Yet

Update

I made a new friend today, and its name is Library Thing.

Library Thing allows you to enter your entire library and share what you read with the world. I have been told it's like flickr for books. You can also hook up with other people who have similar book collections or libraries as you do. You can rate your books, write reviews and read reviews of books others own. I especially like the UnSuggestor ("if you like Book X, you will NOT like Book Y.").

It looks absolutely amazing. Here's the link to Library Thing so you can check it out for yourself. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to my cataloguing.

Update: If you look to the sidebar, you will notice a new section entitled "Books in My Library." You can find out information about these books if you wish, or click on the highlighted "My Library" to see what I have in my Library.

Read Different, Read Vertical

Vertical Books is a relatively new player on the book publishing scene. They translate contemporary Japanese books, graphic novels and nonfiction books into English and market them in North America. So far, I have read much of what they have to offer and can make recommendations if anyone asks.

You can find the link to Vertical Books in the column to your right.

You Can't Fix Stupid

I just returned from a noon hour seminar on humour in the workplace. Humour, as the speaker defined it, is "looking at something in a different way". She used pictures such as this one to illustrate her point. Every situation, just like this picture, can be seen in more than one way. If we can look at a situation differently, we might see the humour in it and thereby decrease our stress level as we attempt to deal with it. After all, we can only change how we react, we can't change other people.

Of course, I also liked her suggestion of imagining other people giving you grief, as vegetables - it takes all the power they have over you away.

Writing Contract

One of the reasons I joined Calgary's IFWA (Imaginative Fiction Writing Association) was to associate with a group of writers who may help me improve my writing and encourage me to write. I think I joined at the right time. IFWA has re-dedicated itself as a Writer's Group and as a part of that re-dedication, each member voluntarily wrote a Writing Contract - a contract you made with yourself. This is mine.

Why I want to be Published:

I want to be published so I can try and earn a living at writing and feel a sense of self worth doing something I enjoy.

Why I Write:

I write because I have always enjoyed telling stories that up until now, have been told primarily through pen and paper role-playing games.

What is Preventing Me from Reaching My Writing Goals:

1. Conflicting priorities
2. Daunting research in my chosen field of writing
3. Procrastination and time management problems

What Can I do to overcome these obstacles:

Set up a time and place to write. Write something every day. My goal is to write for a minimum of a half hour per day. Write even if all I get is a half a page.

New Year, New Blog

"A Writer writes ... always."

This quote comes from my favorite movie about writers block - Throw Momma From the Train starring Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito.

It also acts as my mantra pushing me forward as I begin my adventures in imaginative fiction that should have begun a lifetime ago.

So, what do I plan to write? Well, the short answer to this is: Asian Fiction - fiction with Asian protagonists, settings and themes.

Why Asian fiction? Well, it's the niche I am interested in and don't see much on bookstore shelves. Really. Especially in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. It's out there, but it is pretty hard to find. Look at some of the links for some of the authors I have read. Most of them are mysteries and a few are horror. Only a couple of them are fantasy. Some authors not even listed aren't even being published any more.

I noticed this trend in the 1980's when Dungeon's and Dragons was my Role Playing Game (RPG) of choice (you can throw the geek references at me here). Back then, there weren't many Asian themed RPG's and the majority were about Japan. And, I think it goes without saying, all of them were written by non-Asians. So when the Oriental Adventures supplement came out I lapped up each page as if I was learning long lost truths about my heritage. What opened my eyes was discovering how many inaccuracies, untruths and clichés riddled its complex text.

Then, I began noticing that there were next to zero fiction books with Asian themes on the bookshelves of major bookstores either. I suddenly had a need to find out about my own culture and I had very few resources to utilize to start looking.

You should know that I am half Chinese, half Japanese and all Canadian, so I know what growing up Asian-Canadian is all about. I still remember those Asian influences in my childhood. I remember going to my uncle's place in High Park and hearing kabuki music lilting from his record player. I remember eating sushi at an early age (and wondering what all the fuss was about when it became popular in the 1980's - after all I had been consuming it since the 1960's). I remember devouring my Uncle Jack's authentic Chinese meals which included fresh steamed fish with ginger, green onions and soy sauce. He cooked the fish in a wok and would pour hot oil over top of the fish to crisp the skin sending aromatic smells wafting throughout the house. I also remember ancestral shrines, Buddhist funerals and the odd red envelope filled with money on Chinese New Year.

But I hadn't learned much about Asian history. I knew a little. I knew about the Japanese internment in World War II, but my parents didn't discuss this much. And what about Chinese and Japanese history? The school curriculum didn't add much to my knowledge either. Everything I have learned about history I've learned on my own.

So I began my cultural exploration by seeking out books and RPG's with Asian characters, settings or themes. RPG's began changing as tastes changed. Things really took off when Asian cinema began to cross the Pacific and gain a foothold in mainstream movie theatres. Games such as Feng Shui and Legend of the Five Rings were published and became cult hits. Sure, they were still mostly inaccurate and cliché versions of Asia as seen through western-coloured glasses, but they were more accessible and a starting point to introduce people to Asian culture and history. So, I narrowed my focus in RPG's and began specializing in only running RPG's with an Asian focus.

As for books, slowly Asian fiction and even some Asian authors began appearing on bookstore shelves. As these books became more available, the internet and internet book sellers such as Amazon made finding the more obscure ones easier and less expensive and I was able to enjoy many excellent authors that may forever remain as niche writers.

By 2000, I had begun dabbling in writing, and what I wanted to write was what I had been seeking and reading about for over 15 years, Asian fiction.

So what can a Canadian-born descendent of Chinese/Japanese parents contribute? The area of Imaginative Genre Fiction such as Fantasy and Science Fiction remains relatively untapped and it is there I plan to stake my writing claim. Asian-style fiction can be just as fantastic as contemporary western fantasy. It has shape shifting foxes, horrendous demons, faceless apparitions, majestic dragons and spirit-talking shamans not to mention the odd talking monkey on a quest for enlightenment.

But as a Canadian-born descendent of Chinese/Japanese parents, I have a very different voice than those who might have been born, raised or lived in Asia. I have been raised in an Asian environment, tempered and formed by western ideas and sensibilities. Even my travel’s to these lands is limited. My voice, although my own, can only be an echo of an Asia that lives in my imagination. In those worlds, I have visited at length and never truly left.