The Sharwa Bazaar
I’m back with one of the many Deleted Scenes. This one is something of a hybrid — parts of it show up at a later time in the book. But here’s the original description of this amazing place, the … Read More
Chickens, Run (and other exciting news)
We interrupt our regularly scheduled post to bring you this special, late-breaking announcement. MY BOOK IS LIVE! AT HOME ON THE KAZAKH STEPPE has launched, left the doorsill, flown the coop, left the nest. (are there others?) A Book Launch Party — for … Read More
Raw Herring and Other Peace Corps Dangers
This past Friday, the New York Times ran two stories on the Peace Corps. The first article I saw, Peace Corps Volunteers in Their Own Words by Michael Roston, is a collection of short first-person accounts from recent volunteers (more … Read More
Sitting on the Doorsill
A month ago we picked up thirty baby chicks (sex yet unknown): 10 meat birds (pale yellow) and 10 each of two types of layers (one black & white, one gold & brown). The pale yellow meat birds are off in their own pen … Read More
The Richness of Cross Cultural Experience – Ten Lessons One Learns
My guest today is Ian Mathie. I first met Ian just a little over a year ago on Belinda Nichol’s blog, My Rite of Passage. I was struck immediately by this sentence of his: “But there are stories about people … Read More
Killing Our Darlings
How often have we memoirists heard that phrase? “Killing our darlings” sounded stark to me, when I first heard it, nearly five years ago now. Yet, over the ensuing years I’ve come to recognize that this is exactly what … Read More
Finding Your Roots and Keeping Them
I’m thrilled to welcome Linda Austin for this month’s guest blog. As with all my guests so far this year, I first met Linda through the web of social media. I was immediately smitten by her story of … Read More
A 60th Jubilee in Kazakhstan
For weeks Gulzhahan had been reminding me of the “Sixtieth Jubilee” to which Woody and I were invited. Invitations, if offered at all, usually came a day or two ahead. Since hers had come weeks ahead, I knew it … Read More
Transportation – The path between worlds: Carol Bodensteiner
I’m pleased to have Carol Bodensteiner join us this month. But, in the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that for nearly the first year that I was active in social media, I got Carol confused with … Read More