"Island of Devils" Draft 1 Complete, "Daughter of the Seven Seas" coming out next month!

Today I successfully completed draft one of my Peace Corps autobiography, tentatively titled "Island of Devils." I am really happy that I reached this milestone and am taking a break before typing up it and my other handwritten manuscripts.

In other news, my short story, "Daughter of the Seven Seas", is due to be published by Mindflights magazine next month. I'm not giving away any plot details, but it takes place in the same world as "Heart of Flesh" and features Cassandra again. You can read "Heart of Flesh" by clicking on it under my links.

I've also been developing one of Cassandra's classmates, who plays a major role in the two sequels to "Fionnuala." I wrote one excerpt about her in which she came across much older than I intended. She was supposed to be twelve but came across as a jaded seventeen-year-old. I went ahead and edited it and made her fourteen, but changed her voice so that she sounded younger. Not only did she really come to life, but so did her older sister, who I plan to include in the series as well.

I'm going to update this blog weekly from now on. I fell a bit behind because I started a new job and had to take care of a lot of other things in my life, but now those are settled and I'm ready to "rock out with my blog out!" Wooooo!

Stay posted.

Writing Update 7: Host Family Wars-Eclipse of the Baptist

In my Peace Corps memoir, I've reached the month of February right before In-Service Training. At this point, I already decided to leave the Congregational church to join the Baptist church. I did anticipate problems with this, since life on Kosrae revolved around the Congregational church. However, I thought it would be along the lines of not being able to see my friends as much as I wanted because they would be busy at choir practice, etc.

In reality, what I did was the equivalent of converting to Christianity in Iran.

After I became a Baptist, my host family either ignored me completely, or looked for reasons to yell at me. They were passive-aggressive to the point of not even buying toilet paper anymore, in spite of being paid by Peace Corps for that and other basic necessities (I decided to pay out-of-pocket). They accused me of being antisocial and then brushed me off whenever I tried to talk to them. One event I remember is when they screamed at me in front of Gibon, my neighbor and one of my favorite students, because I asked them not to put Chef Boyardee noodles on top of my rice. I did not see a problem with this, because my host mother had said when I moved in that all I had to do was ask and she would prepare my food "any way I liked." Of course, that was a complete lie, and gave them another excuse to yell at me. The truth finally came out when, after I was accused of avoiding them yet again, I pointed out that I couldn't do it if I tried since they were never around the house.

"Do you know why we are never around the house?" My host mother bellowed, "Because we are out doing church stuff!"

To me the entire situation was ridiculous. I did sign up to integrate into another culture, but I never agreed to give up my faith to appease my host family. In fact, I'd already decided that if I had to choose between God and Peace Corps, I was going to choose God. It was a no-brainer. God had sent His Son to die for me, and it would have been the ultimate slap-in-the-face if I caved to family pressure. Not to mention that, with their behavior, my host family wasn't making a good case for their faith.

Anyway, I was getting sick of these stupid arguments at this point and was looking forward to In-Service Training, where I would get to spend three days at Tree Lodge, my favorite hotel on the island, with hot showers and the famous "Bully Burger", a delicious tuna burger that was only $5.50 for a meal. I would also get to hang out with my best friend on the island, Richard, as well as the World Teach Volunteers and the previous class of Peace Corps Volunteers, who were awesome. Sadly, I've fallen out of touch with a lot of them due to everyone working in different parts of the world. But I did just hear back from Emily, one of my closest friends on Kosrae, and am ecstatic that she finally got a job doing medical research, something she had wanted to do for years.

In other news, I've been doing a lot of work with my church's Mobile Evangelism Unit and yesterday, my friend, Mr. Charles, and I led three teenagers to Christ. It was amazing because I had never helped anyone get saved before. I love volunteering with that unit and can't wait until the next time we go out. I also hope that my Peace Corps memoir will lead people to Christ, once they see how he helped me through that experience.

That's it for now. Until next time, stay posted.

Writing Update 6: Winter Meltdown

This past week I got to the part in my Peace Corps autobiography where my first counterpart had a meltdown in the middle of class. It was over something really silly: all I did was ask the vice principal if an activity that we were doing in class was fine. The children were getting in and out of a large box. It was totally harmless, but, coming from a country where a parent can sue the school for any number of totally harmless things, I just wanted to make sure that this was alright. The vice principal said it was okay, so I just went back to class and forgot about the whole thing. Unfortunately, the clerk gossiped to my counterpart about my conversation with the vice principal and you can guess what happened after that. Suffice it to say that I was somewhat relieved when the principal said that I could work with someone else.

Thankfully, I got to work with Pomeroy, the best teacher in the school. I transferred to his class right when he was about to go into the Civil Rights Movement, so I got to give an excellent lesson about Rosa Parks. I got him and our students to reenact the story of how she bravely refused to give up her seat to a white man, the act that kicked off the Montgomery Bus Boycott. To date, that is still my favorite class. I look forward to writing about it in the upcoming weeks, as well as my students, who were my favorite people on the island.

I still jot down ideas for my "Fionnuala" series. In particular, I write down details about Max, Cassandra's closest friend, a mysterious and beautiful assassin who, when they were children at the hellish Nineveh Academy, stuck her neck out to keep Cassandra from being killed by the gang that ran the school. I look forward to developing her more as a character once I finish my autobiography.

That's it for now. Until next time, stay posted.

Writing Update 5: Focused Intensity, Islander Style

In an effort to complete my rough draft about my Peace Corps experience before I forget everything, I've temporarily suspended my other projects. Movie reviews have been postponed until further notice and "Fionnuala" is going to be set aside until July. It's really important to me that I write everything down while I still have the particular details clearly in mind. I still remember how I chose not to do that for my Spain trip. Now all I remember are the city names and the people I traveled with. Nothing is worse than not being able to remember an awesome experience abroad and I refuse to let that happen with this experience, which was a major landmark in my life.

I've reached the point where I make it on television yet again. The first time was on Armenian TV with my Peace Corps Georgia friends while we were waiting to cross the border. I'm sure they got some sweet footage of me playing catch in no-man's land and proving that I would have been a Superbowl champion in an alternate reality. The second time was Thanksgiving Day in 2008 on Kosrae, and my family still has the DVD. Like the majority of my adventures in life, this one was completely unintentional. I just volunteered to sing with my village because it seemed fun and reminded me of when I used to impress my friends by singing "West Side Story" songs in 8th grade. I had no idea it was being televised until a few days later, when random Kosraeans started talking to me.

Kosraean: Hey, I saw you on TV, Tulensa!
(Tulensa was my Kosraean name)
Me: Huh? I was on TV?
Kosraean: Yeah, for the Thanksgiving Day event in Lelu. Kom samat ke on! (You're good at singing!)
Me: Really? I got to check that out! Kuloh ma lalap! (Thank you very much!)

After twenty conversations like that, I finally did check it out, and indeed, my handsome young face was given a great deal of screentime. I was fairly decent too, considering I was with people who'd been singing since they were two years old. It was definitely one of my better memories of Kosrae.

I hope to be finished with my rough draft by June 30th. After that, I'm going to edit "Fionnuala" so that I can return to my Peace Corps Memoir with fresh eyes.

Stay posted!

Writing Update 4: Another One Bites The Dust

This past week, I made it to page 45 of my manuscript, during which I made the tough decision to remove Xia from the book. I decided to replace her with a different prophetess because, at this point, there are already many foreigners in the region of Yangvaad that Sandra is spying in and I want some natives to provide more "local flavor" to Part I of the novel. Additionally, I realized that I need to get a firmer grasp of the leadership in the area of the country that Sandra is in, to make sure the nefarious plot of the villain retains some sense of logic. I borrowed a book on famous gardens from the library, since one of Sandra's friends is a gardener and I want to have some realistic knowledge of the subject before I put a speculative twist on it. I went with this approach due to the success I had after researching Assyrian and Viking culture to flesh-out Yangvaad, and cannot wait to see what ideas I'll come up with after reading about the most famous gardens in the world.

In my Peace Corps memoir, I'm still in basic training on Pohnpei. Things were still rather quiet and pleasant at this point, so while it's fun to relive some of the memories, it's not nearly as exciting as Kosrae was when everything went downhill. If I continue to work steadily at two pages a day, I should reach my time in Kosrae within the next couple of weeks, and describe the surreal experience of being persecuted for going to a Baptist church.

In other news, some close friends of mine had my family and I over tonight and they absolutely loved the card game that I had developed while in Armenia, which features characters from my series. I want to get that game ready to show off to toy companies once I finish "Fionnuala" because everybody who's played it absolutely loves it.

Next post-Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes

Movie Review: The Blind Side

Abstract: Michael Oher, a homeless black teen, is adopted by the Tuohy family and goes on to become a football star.

Pros:
-The acting in the movie is spectacular and the characters are well-developed. The best performances are Quinton Aaron as Michael, Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, the mother who takes him in, and Jae Head as my favorite character, S.J. Tuohy, Michael's fun and energetic little brother.

-The film is an extremely accurate portrayal of the true story of the NFL star, including an investigation that occurs later in the plot that I thought was made up for dramatic effect.

-The movie includes a lot of humor with the gripping drama and uplifting message of the story, such as S.J. putting Michael through his own personal training camp.

-The Tuohy family is portrayed as selfless, loving, and genuine in their faith in Jesus. This is a refreshing change for an industry that normally depicts Christians (in particular white Southern ones) as stupid, bigoted, and racist. It's always refreshing to see a movie where the Christians are the good guys for a change.

-The use of "Ferdinand the Bull" as a motif for Michael's gentle nature was excellent, as well as the way in which Leigh Anne convinces him to be more aggressive in the field to protect his teammates.

Cons:
-There's a grammatical error in the Bible verse used in the archway of the school that completely changes its meaning. It should read "With man, this is impossible; With God, all things are possible" to be a proper quote, not "With man, this is possible, etc."
-One character says that another man is handsome in front of her husband and, prior to that, spanks a football coach. While the latter was funny and probably meant to show how much of a sports' enthusiast she was, it still came across as somewhat odd.
-One character who reaches out to help Michael early in the film simply vanishes from the movie.

Overall: Phenomenal-A touching story of what God can do through people who reach out to those who are in need.

(The image used is from moviemobsters.com. I claim no ownership whatsoever over this image.)

Writing Update 3: Filling in the Gaps

I have made a lot of progress on both "Fionnuala" and my Peace Corps memoirs. On the former I'm on page 30 of my latest edit and on the later I've made it to the part where I am welcomed by the host family I stayed with on Pohnpei, the Albert family. It's amazing how writing about an experience can bring back memories in such vivid detail. Today, in the library, I almost felt like I was back on their naas (an outdoor porch of sorts)playing on the Xbox with Alfred and Keith, listening to Kiped talk about his travels to Fiji and Japan, and eating Asipa's delicious food, as well as teaching Danya some martial arts moves. Those were good times, although sometimes I got too comfortable and fell asleep on the naas instead of on my bed.

That will be enough nostalgia for one post, haha! I noticed another issue in my "Fionnuala" manuscript. It's suffering from a major case of NEI (Not Enough Information). Basically, if you haven't read the "Heart of Flesh" short story trilogy, you won't have enough information to truly appreciate what is going on in Part I of the novel. Additionally, some events that did not occur in those stories, (but which are still important parts of the backstory) need to be added. I've made marks where I will add these things in the rewrite. Also, I will give a deeper understanding of how spellcasting works in her world so that my readers will understand just how truly powerful she is, as well as to set up some of the action sequences I will add in later parts of the book.

That's it for now. Until next time, stay posted!

Next Post: Movie Review-"The Blind Side."

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