Exciting Times and An Empty Nest: My Book Launch
So reads the official launch announcement my publisher put together for me. It is exciting. I am excited. Truly. My rocket book is launched. For the past seven years my singular … 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
Acknowledging My Villagers
On that trip it was my good fortune to be wrong; being mistaken is the essence of the traveler’s tale. Paul Theroux (1941- ) Riding the Iron Rooster. Isn’t that a great quote? It’s going in my book. In … 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
Choosing One’s Profile Picture
This is not as easy as it sounds. I’ve know for a few months that one of my goals for 2014 was “updating my Profile Picture.” My current one will be ten years old in late August. So, channelling my … 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