K. Lang-Slattery's Blog, page 4

A Reading Challenge for Travel Lovers

I have been aware of book-reading challenges for some time but I never thought I would join one.  My own bookshelves offer enough of a challenge. I am a book buying addict and my shelves overflow with books waiting to be read.

I love used book stores, Friends of the Library shops, and most of all, the shelves of college bookstores in the English literature section.  I have a weakness for YA fiction because of its edginess and always check out those shelves in bookstores. Even the neighborhood Little Free Library across the street from my home occasionally offers up treasures.  My Kindle library is almost as full as my actual book shelves. During the “stay at home days” of 2020, I, like many, read more than ever and made inroads into my stacks of unread books. And I have to admit I bought a few new books too.

The question of what 2021 will bring still lies behind a question mark. For me, keeping busy and reading are the best stress reducers. The work of publishing my memoir, Wherever the Road Leads, is done, but there is still publicity and marketing to occupy me. I spend hours perusing the internet, checking out sites that deal with van-life, travel, memoir, and reading.  That’s how I stumbled onto The Book Girls’ Guide, 2021 Reading Challenge, Book Voyage: Read Around the World.  Led by two women friends, Angela and Melissa, Book Girls’ Guide –,  brings an obvious love of reading to its followers.

Of course, the title of this particular reading challenge is what caught my eye.  Perhaps it would offer a place to share information about my book.  When I checked the details, I was thrilled. This challenge was perfect for me and for my book.

The Book Voyage challenge divides the world into segments, based on geography and cultural differences. I’m sure it was a tricky job, with no perfect way to do it. Continents are divided sensibly and the inclusion of “Islands” and “Multiple Continents” brought the options to the twelve needed to have one per month. January is dedicated to books about the Arctic and the Antarctic. In February participants will read books that feature western Europe, and so on.

Best of all, the suggested book list is high quality and varied.  The list of 20 books includes a classic (Call of the Wild, by Jack London) and the highly acclaimed new novel, Migrations, by Charlotte McConaghy.  Fiction and non-fiction, memoir and mystery, comedy and romance, historical and contemporary – there is a book that will appeal to almost any reader.  Challenge participants can also read books not on the list (perhaps one from their own stacks of waiting books) and they are encouraged to suggest other titles that fit the designated category.

To add to the fun, Angela and Melissa, supply a free printable tracker where readers can chart their choices on a colorful world map. There is also a Facebook group and an Instagram account associated with the Book Voyage challenge.

Totally impressed with The Book Girls’ Book Voyage, I signed up for my first official reading challenge. I started with Migrations a few days ago and I am already half-way through it. I’m looking forward to sharing the titles of some of my favorite books in the months ahead.   And, without a doubt, I will be suggesting Wherever the Road Leads for next December when books that span multiple continents will be featured.

If all this sounds like fun, check it out.  I’d love to have some of my readers join me. After a year of travel restrictions and with months yet to go before we can safely travel the world, this book challenge should help appease our unsatisfied wanderlust.

Read with the Book Girls | FacebookBook Girls’ Guide (@readwiththebookgirls) • Instagram photos and videosBook Girls’ Guide –

The post A Reading Challenge for Travel Lovers appeared first on Klang Slattery.

Resolutions

Happy New Year!  Have you made a 2021 resolution?

Years ago, I swore I would never again waste my resolution on “losing weight.”   Though I usually succeeded with a dozen pounds or more in the short term, by the time January rolled around again, the efforts I had made would be buried under the joys of eating and drinking.  That old “lose weight” goal was both self-perpetuating and boring! I am no slimmer (maybe heavier) these days, but at least I don’t dread the idea of making a New Year resolution.

In 2017, I resolved to write and complete the first draft of my travel memoir. The next year, I resolved to edit and perfect the manuscript to make it ready to send out to agents.  My 2019 goal was to try to land an agent and/or a publisher.  I did very well with the “trying” part, but fell short of landing serious interest.

On January 1, 2020 I resolved that I would self-publish my memoir as I had done my first book, Immigrant Soldier.  Real self-publishing, without the help of a company that does the work while you pay for the service, is a mammoth and complex project full of possible pitfalls, important details, team directing, and multi-tasking. It certainly kept me busy in a year that was difficult (to say the least) and supremely crazy-making (at most.) My 2020 resolution has been accomplished and Wherever the Road Leads is now available.

For 2021, my heart filled with the hope of a new administration and a vaccine, I have made two resolutions.   After all, there are still several months of lock-down to look forward to and keeping busy is the best way to help this restricted time slide by.

Complete the Virtual Book Launch project. In concert with my daughter, Erin, I will see that this project is ready for public release by early spring.  Entertaining and informative, “Around the World in 80 Minutes with Katie” will be an on-line webinar.  It will feature slides, narration, maps, video, a give-away, and live Q & A.   More on this in future blogs.
Start, complete, and publish the next Caitlin easy-reader. This third in the series will be an end of summer camp story based on of one of my earlier works (twice published in a children’s magazine and almost purchased by an Israeli publisher of children’s books). My partner and illustrator anticipates (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) studying the habits and activities of racoons. These ingenious critters will romp through the pages of Caitlin Helps , as lizards and squirrels have done in the two earlier Caitlin books.

As you can see, I am a practical and pragmatic thinker.  If you have read my memoir, you already know this. Of course, I hope for Peace and the end of hunger, but these things are far too big to achieve in one year and not for a single person to accomplish.    I also want to get in better shape (lose weight

Memories of Christmas Past or, So You Think this Holiday Season is Sad?

2020 has been a year to forget.  And now we are looking forward to a Holiday that is limited by a pandemic – a Christmas or Chanukah without our usual parties or family gatherings.  This got me thinking about other Christmases that were less than perfect.

There have been a few, but one stands out in my memory as the worst.

In December of 1969, I was teaching, living in Southern California, and busy falling in love with Tom who would later become my husband.  His career as a ship’s engineer took him away for long periods of time, and that year I expected him to be away.  Then late at night on December 22nd, I got an unexpected ship to shore radio phone call.

Tom was excited. “The ship is coming into San Francisco the day after tomorrow but instead of only one day, we’ll be in dry dock for about a week!”  He asked if I would drive up to the Bay area and spend the Holiday with him.

Of course, I said yes!   “I’ll be on the road first thing on the 24th,” I promised.  “I’ll see you on Christmas Eve.”

The next morning, I visited my parents to let them know I would be gone over Christmas.  My mother’s main objection was that she would worry if I drove my Volkswagen microbus. Though only four years old, it had seen many thousands of miles. “Why don’t you take my Karmann Ghia,” she offered. “It’s got fewer miles, and it will make the eight hour drive easier and quicker.”   I accepted her offer, not because I was worried about the safety of my van, but because I thought driving her little sports car would be fun.

Christmas Eve morning, I set off. On Tom’s advice, I took the newly completed Interstate 5 now linking L.A and San Francisco through the farm country of the California Central Valley. It would be much quicker than the old Hwy 101 and I expected to arrive in Tom’s arms before dark.

Somewhere in late afternoon, about 2 and a half hours south of the Bay Area, I heard an explosive sound from the rear of the Ghia. With all power lost, I pulled to the side of the road.  I was surrounded on all sides by flat farmland stretching off to the horizon.  Because the highway was so new, there were few off-ramps or gas services.

Now remember, this was 1969.  I did not have a credit card or a cell-phone. I did have an Auto Club membership card and, as it turned out, a savior.  A middle-aged gentleman had pulled up behind me and stopped.  He had seen a puff of smoke shoot from the rear of my car and stopped to offer help.  With the lack of fear many of us still had in the 60s, I accepted his offer of a lift into the nearest town to call a tow-truck and locate a Volkswagen dealer.  Luckily both were easy to find.   I arranged for my mother’s car to be towed to the VW dealership parking lot and I left a note for the service department on the wind-shield.  Now, I needed to get to Tom.

I asked my new friend if he would give me a lift to a nearby small, district airport. I hoped to find a car to rent but, when we got there, the terminal was totally dark and closed down.  My new friend, who was heading for Walnut Creek (just north and east of Oakland), offered to take me as far as the Oakland Bay Bridge.   He dropped me long after dark on the east side of bridge. There, I was able to find a taxi to take me across the bay and to the maritime dry-dock.

Imagine a worried Tom, striding back and forth near the shipyard gate, looking into the darkness and hoping that his girl-friend wasn’t lost or in an accident along the new, deserted Interstate.  Now enjoy his surprise as I exit from a taxi with my overnight bag.

Tom, on the advice of one of his shipmates, had booked us a motel room in Daly City, a place close to the shipyard but far from the delights of San Francisco.  The hotel was also far from romantic.  Plain and drab, it did have a surprise feature – a coin-operated, vibrating bed. We fell onto the mattress and fed the bed quarters.

The next day was December 25.  We rented a car and drove into San Francisco to look for Christmas dinner.  From past experience in the city, we had reason to anticipate celebrating with a gourmet meal.  We tramped the hills of Little Italy and Market Street in the Financial District. Every restaurant we passed was closed.  After hours of searching, we found Lefty O’Doul’s. Mainly a bar, for this special night they offered a steam table buffet. Tom and I supped on roast turkey, dry from hours under the heat lamp, accompanied by soggy stuffing and tasteless gravy.

For the next few days, we dealt with the issue of my mother’s car. This included a full day to drive south to pick it up and finally return the rental car.  Happy to have the Karmann Ghia to drive the hills of San Francisco, we spent much of the twenty-ninth enjoying Golden Gate Park and the rocky edge of the Pacific Ocean.  On our way back to Daly City for an afternoon nap on the vibrating fingers bed, Tom heard a strange and unpleasant noise from the Ghia’s engine.  He insisted on stopping by the Volkswagen dealer only a few blocks from the motel.  Next thing I knew, my mother’s car was again in line for a major repair. The service manager promised me it would be ready on the morning of December 31.

The next morning Tom’s ship sailed out under the Golden Gate Bridge.  I was left all alone with the vibrating bed, a bucket of fried Chicken, and the beginnings of a cold.

You would be within reason to assume that my drive home would be without incident.  I certainly couldn’t wait to crawl into my own bed, back in Laguna Beach.

Nursing my evolving cold, I entered the traffic of Los Angeles at dusk on New Year’s Eve.   I chose to take the new Interstate 5 route that ran close to Griffith Park, behind the new Dodger Stadium, and near Chavez Ravine. That year, on the evening of December 31, this historic Hispanic neighborhood suffered a devastating mud-slide. Tons of earth slid down the hill, carrying houses with it, and engulfed the nearby Interstate.

The highway was closed.  The California Highway Patrol redirected all the growing New Year’s Eve traffic, myself and my little sports car included, to the old Hollywood Freeway. Everyone seemed in a hurry to get somewhere, rushing forward when lanes were open, then screeching to a stop as jams inevitably occurred.

It happened very fast.  I saw the red lights up ahead and put on my brakes.  I had plenty of room to stop. Suddenly a pickup truck without enough space in his own lane veered in front of me. Still, I stopped just short of tapping his bumper. Then CRASH! A car smashed into my rear-ended with enough force to ram the Ghia into the truck.  I was sandwiched between two other vehicles.  Luckily, I seemed to be uninjured.  As I assessed my limbs and my situation, the traffic ahead opened for a moment. Without hesitation, the truck that had caused the accident sped off, leaving a track of rubber in his wake.

There were police to convince that I hadn’t caused the crash. There was the need to get my Mother’s car towed again.   And luckily there was another savior.  This time a young man about my own age who, finding himself alone on New Year’s Eve, offered to drive an unknown, young blond to her home 60 miles away.  I’m afraid he did not receive much of a reward beyond a cup of hot tea and a wave good-bye.

After this experience, I can enjoy a small, quiet Holiday like we will have this year. I am thankful that I will share the Holidays with my daughter and my partner, Ron, and I look forward to a zoom gathering with my family.  All our friends and family are well, we are sheltered in place around a decorated tree, and we have a duck for our Christmas table.  For 2020, it is more than enough.

Happy Holidays!  Merry Christmas!  Season’s Greetings!  Hanukkah Sameach!
¡Feliz Navidad!    Kwanzaa yenu iwe na heri!

The post Memories of Christmas Past or, So You Think this Holiday Season is Sad? appeared first on Klang Slattery.

Books for the Armchair Traveler

In early January of 2017, when I sat down at my computer to begin my memoir, I knew it would be of interest to armchair travelers.  But I never imagined, as I typed the first words of the first chapter, that the book would be released in the middle of a pandemic when travel was limited. Now many who would otherwise be roaming the globe are stuck at home.

The AAA membership magazine Westways (September /October 2020) featured an article titled “Transported by Armchair.” The authors, Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman, state, “Vicarious adventures can get us through tough times.” They point out that would-be travelers can adventure vicariously through movies, books, magazines, and on the internet.

I have always loved books and movies that take me to foreign places. Everything, from my favorite childhood book, Heidi, to the 2014 movie The Hundred Foot Journey about Indian food in a French village, has inspired my fascination with travel.  While I was still in high-school, my father took me to see The World of Apu, an acclaimed Bengali film that introduced me to an exotic land, an entirely different way of life, and the music of Ravi Shankar. My interest in China was sparked, at about the same time, when I read Pearl S. Buck’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Good Earth.  A love of all things European, an integral part of growing up with an immigrant father, accelerated during my first trip to Europe at the age of 17.

Since my earliest years, I have preferred books and movies that take me to distant lands and times.  They were the beginning of my wanderlust and, to this day, I am drawn to them over contemporary stories in US settings.

The process of writing and editing my travel memoir allowed me to relive the experience of a lifetime.   Luckily, I have a treasure-trove of memory enhancers to lead me back in time.   During the two years on the road, I wrote seventy-three journal-style letters home and dozens of postcards to friends and relatives, all with the request to keep them safe till my return.  To this day, I have those letters, most still accompanied by their stamped envelopes.  The handwritten letters on thin airmail paper often included sketches in the margins. As I reread my words from 50 years ago, pored over saved travel books and maps, and viewed long-unseen slides, I rediscovered forgotten incidents that sparked memories as fresh as the day they happened.

Now I have the joy of holding in my hands a copy of the finished book that tells the story of the best days of my life.  When I pick it up and allow the pages to fall open where they will, I am greeted by words that take me back to those days when love was new and the world we traveled was a different place.

******************************

Travels with Charlie meets Eat, Pray, Love. Mash these two well-known memoirs together and Voila! Wherever the Road Leads.  This movingly honest memoir tells the story of two lovers on a dream adventure in the early 1970s. The personal saga of a two-year long, 40,000 mile, international road trip in a VW van, Wherever the Road Leads describes culinary adventures, the inspiration of art and history, and lovemaking under the stars.  A pair of newlyweds (an artist and an engineer) meet the rigors of travel that includes an overland journey to India in a time before the internet or cell phones.  Each day brings challenges as the young couple experience the ups and downs of married life in a Volkswagen microbus that continually needs repair. Everything, from engine problems to personal sanitation, from running out of funds to primitive roads, affects their journey.  Will their relationship thrive or will it crumble under the pressure of living together 24/7 in a van?

As we spend more time at home during this year of Covid, we are all becoming armchair travelers. What books and movies have substituted for an actual journey for you?  Do travel stories comfort you or make you long to get on the road again?  Or both?

Here are 8 of my favorite travel memoirs. Several of them (with the *) also feature recipes.

Paris Letters, by Janice MacLeod

Without Reservations, by Alice Steinbach

A Pig in Provence, by Georgeanne Brennan*

West of Kabul, East of New York, by Tamim Ansary

Little Princes, by Connor Grennan

Apples Are from Kazakhstan: The Land that Disappeared, by Christopher Robbins

Lunch in Paris, by Elizabeth Bard*

An Embarrassment of Mangoes, by Ann Vanderhoof*

 

For interesting lists of travel books, check these two sites:

https://www.businessinsider.com/best-travel-books

Armchair Travel Books to Transport You to a New Destination | Condé Nast Traveler (cntraveler.com)

 

The post Books for the Armchair Traveler appeared first on Klang Slattery.

An Indie-author’s Quest for Book Reviews

As an indie-author/publisher, my work does not stop when a book is released. Unlike 4 years ago when I launched Immigrant Soldier, 2020, with its Covid-19 shut-downs, has made live visits to bookstores, libraries, and book groups impossible.  These days, my publicity efforts must center on social media and gathering book reviews.

Getting reviews is (and always has been) an integral part of publicity. However large media outlets and prestigious journals still practice a kind of “book snobbery.” They seldom review books that are independently published. What’s an Indie-author to do?

The process of getting reviews is far different than it was only a few years ago. The big journals, most of which now also have an on-line presence, (Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Foreword Reviews and the book sections of major newspapers like The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times) still attract librarians, publishers, bookstore buyers, and discerning readers. But these titans of literary judgement are very selective. They have limited space and prefer to review books released by the big, traditional publishers. They also often require a long lead time, as much as 6 months before a book is released, and that can be difficult for a small publisher. Still, an author can try.

A few of the big guys, notably Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Foreword Reviews, also offer reviews to authors willing to pay a fee. These fees can be high! A paid review with Publishers Weekly will set an author back $399, Clarion/Foreword charges $499, and a Kirkus review goes for $425 to start. In general, a paid review is not considered as creditable as one for which the author didn’t shell out money, though their reputation is gradually improving. So why would an author pay these high fees?

• A guaranteed review (though not guaranteed to be favorable).

• Control over publication (in case you don’t like what the reviewer wrote.)

• Full rights to use all or part of the review in your own publicity as long as you properly credit the reviewer.

• A well-known journal name may impress readers.

Link to my Kirkus review: kirkusreviews

The U.S. Review of Books offers professional reviews for a reasonable cost starting at $99 (extra publicity perks can be added for more money). I opted for the second tier up (called Plus) which included a link and a book cover image. I received a beautifully written RECOMMENDED review in a timely fashion. theusreview.com

Luckily, the internet has opened up the review climate making free-lance reviewers easier to find. Indie-authors can search a variety of sources including author sites, book blogs, and special interest blogs. GoodReads, a social platform for readers, blogs, review sites, and the reader reviews on Amazon have become go-to sources for many avid readers. In fact, more and more book lovers look to the recommendations of other readers like themselves that they find on https://www.goodreads.com.

Finding freelance reviewers is a grueling task. In the last 6 months, I have spent many hours at my computer, researching potential reviewers, local newspapers, and book review web-sites. I read dozens of travel memoirs and contacted their authors. I checked out travel, RV, and van-life web-sites and Instagram accounts. I contacted the editorial staff of local newspapers. I wrote countless email requests introducing my book and asking for the favor of a review or even a short, one paragraph blurb.

Some contacts sent polite declines, a few remained totally silent, but occasionally a response came that lifted my spirits. After a yes answer, I sent the prospective reviewer an advance reader copy of my book either in paperback or as a pdf. Of the half-dozen books I sent out, only one writer did not returned the promised review. Most returned  blurbs rather than full reviews, but all were positive and contained something quotable. Yea! And a few were really lovely!

A travel blogger from Australia, a total stranger, returned a review that captured the soul of my memoir:

“In the 1970s, for the first time, it became possible for responsible, middle-class 20-somethings to work for a few years and gather enough cash to spend the next few years wandering the world. In 1971, together with her newly acquired husband Tom, Katie Lang-Slattery hits the road in a Volkswagen microbus with no destination in mind other than somewhere farther down the road. . . Wherever the Road Leads is a fond and evocative recollection of a world that has changed beyond all recognition. It’s not all roses and gilded sunsets but a heartfelt and sinewy account, full of fragrant moments as they roam free, laying down a bed of memories to treasure and share half a century on.” –  Michael Gebicki, travel writer, photographer and columnist at www.traveller.com.au

In general, free-lance reviewers will post their review on Amazon and GoodReads and they all gave me permission to use their words in my publicity, on the back of my book, and on my web-site. GoodReads and Amazon feature reader reviews, so fans can become reviewers of any book they read.

The following are a few quotes from reviews for Wherever the Road Leads:

“Slattery is a good writer. Her smooth prose is injected with warmth, humor, and insightful observations of the many cultures she encountered. I enjoyed the sights, tastes, and details she relates experiencing on travels from Mexico to India, and many points between. . . . .Reading this book was experiencing a window of history, during a pivotal decade, pertaining to travel without the convenience of modern technology.” – Janilyn Kocher for Story Circle Book Reviews

“An unvarnished view of a massive trek from California to Central America to Europe, the Middle East and Asia, this book doesn’t skimp on detail but brings to life this astonishing adventure. Down to earth accounts of what the day to day life was, doing the laundry, bathing, buying food and cooking it in the very limited facilities of a Volkswagen van ground this account in the realities of travel-on-a-tiny budget so characteristic of the young of many countries in the early 1970s. It was a time of bravery, of a spirit of romance and adventure hardly seen since.” – Indie B.R.A.G. (Medallion Honoree)

“I loved reading this astonishing story – made more pleasurable for me by the frequent insertion of drawings, photos, and maps.” – Sue Boardman, reader

“If you’ve ever dreamed of a two-year camping honeymoon exploring the world, this book is a must-read. With Tom and Katie, you’ll camp and cook on the banks of the Tiber, sleep in a van under the Eiffel Tower, and discover markets from Marrakesh to Kathmandu.” – Georgeanne Brennan, author of A Pig in Provence-Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France.

“Delightful illustrations and vintage photos enhance the fascinating stories.” – Jill G. Hall, author of The Green Lace Corset.

“Youth does have its advantages and the skill and grit these two had was something beyond extraordinary. A delightful read, and one which you can thoroughly enjoy with gratitude—that you are simply reading and not having to tear that microbus apart one more time.” – Carole Bumpus, author of A Cup of Redemption and Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table.

“To travel the world in a Volkswagen van is a dream of many travelers. This account of a young couple who did just that will spark wanderlust and make you ponder the possibilities of hitting the open road. A remarkable adventure and a delightful read.” – Janice MacLeod, New York Times best selling author of Paris Letters.

“This rosy glow follows the couple throughout their escapades and encounters. Recreated dialogue and descriptions lend a ‘you are there’ feel to the story.” – D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

  *    *     *     *

Have you ever taken the time to write a review on Amazon or GoodReads? What makes you willing to take the extra time this takes?  If you do, we authors thank you.  Every honest review is welcomed!

The post An Indie-author’s Quest for Book Reviews appeared first on Klang Slattery.

Covid-19 Journals

Recently I spent a few hours looking through my dozens of travel journals. As I flipped through the pages, it occurred to me that now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, would be a good time to keep a diary.  Unlike many who love to write, I’ve never been a consistent journalist.  In fact, the only times I try to keep a daily account of my life is when I’m traveling.  Over the years, I’ve developed a personal style that works for keeping track of all the little frustrations and joys of being on the road.

With all that is going on in our world these days, everything from the upcoming election to Black Lives Matter, from the pandemic to the failing economy, from challenging personal demons to fighting for our endangered earth—this is a time that needs to be recorded by we who are living it.   As a dedicated reader of historical fiction and biography, I know that the best books of these genre are often inspired by, or at least improved by, the discovery and study of contemporaneous journals or letters. My own historical WWII novel, Immigrant Soldier, was aided by the letters my uncle Herman wrote to his mother, and my memoir, Wherever the Road Leads, would not have been possible without the saved, journal-style missives I wrote home to family.

from my sketchbook journal, 1960

My collection of travel journals includes a basic sketchbook done at the age of 17 during my first trip to Europe, almost two dozen small notebooks written longhand, and one more recent version which was tapped out on my laptop.

Travel is an extraordinary activity that takes us away from our everyday lives and thus is interesting to record. Now, most of us are unable to travel and many are unwilling to leave their homes without a good reason.  This unusual and disturbing year is turning into a journey that needs to be documented—and not only by political pundits and news journalists.

 

 

 

Here are 6 suggestions for tackling a journal in 2020:

Set your own schedule. A long journal isn’t necessary.  Travel journals only cover a specific time when you are on vacation. You may want to make entries every day for only a month or once a week until January 2021. Feel free to adjust your goal after you see what schedule works best for you.
Set a time-frame relevant to your own life. All my journals begin with a token that sets the narrative into a specific time. As a mom, I like to glue a picture of my children on the first page. The changing faces of my kids immediately identify the time in my life when I took any particular trip. For you, it might be a photo of your partner, your pet, your home, or a photocopy of your driver’s license or passport picture.  Even with a visual reminder, be sure to write down the full date you begin.
Think outside the box. A journal doesn’t need to be all interior monologues or a chronological recitation of what you do each day.  Try a creative format. You could write in the form of letters to different people, or start each entry with the day’s newspaper headlines. If you’re not into writing, why not create a “diary” scrapbook adding notes and explanations only if needed.  When I was in high school, I kept old-fashioned scrapbooks— the kind where you paste in mementos without any embellishments from the crafting supply store.  For four years, I glued every movie ticket, dance invitation, Chinese-cookie fortune, Valentine’s card from a boyfriend, and dried, crushed corsage onto those manilla pages.  How I wish I had kept those books!   They would have been a window into the 1950s.
Include the good and the bad—Your frustrations and the hurdles you surmounted AND happy or funny experiences. Let your feelings be your guide.  But don’t neglect facts, conversations, or interesting lists .   .   . like all your Zoom meetings in one week, the books you have read in one month, new recipes you have tried, or how many hours you spent volunteering or in the line at the food bank. No material is off limits unless you designate it as such.  This is your book and it’s yours to share or not.
Pictures add meaning. If you like to draw, sketch in the margins or fill an entire page with your art. At the age of 10, my sone traveled alone to visit his cousin in Denmark, a new journal packed in his suitcase.  Though a somewhat lazy writer, he added lots of funny drawings to his pages.  They continue to delight me whenever I see them. If you don’t draw, you can cut and paste all kinds of media into your journal, anything from timely magazine ads to a Sunday funnies comic strip that deals with current happenings. Or download your favorite meme from social media and import it into your document.
Make your journal timely. Twenty, thirty, fifty years from now, family or researchers will want to know what it was like to live in 2020. Don’t neglect the special aspects of your daily life that are different now from before.  This might be information about family or friends who contacted Covid-19 or experienced a natural, climate related disaster. Or you can describe the changes in the culture around you like the proliferation of different face-coverings displayed near every checkout stand or the greeters at the entrance to your doctor’s office checking the temperature of everyone who enters. These details will be of interest to those who come later. For you, writing about your experiences day to day, may help you process, evaluate, and come to terms with this year.  Are some changes for the better?  What did you learn about yourself during 2020? How do you think all the changes we have seen in 2020 will play out in the future? What will be our new normal?

 

If you are writing a 2020 journal, I’d love to hear from you with excerpts from your entries!

The post Covid-19 Journals appeared first on Klang Slattery.

Maps for a Travel Memoir

From the very beginning, I knew Wherever the Road Leads needed maps.  Once the early manuscript draft was sent to Beta Readers for feedback, I filled the waiting time working on the seven maps I envisioned.   I wanted them to show the journey’s route, major stops along the way, and display a few small drawings.

Years ago, I took 2 semesters at a local community college learning Adobe PageMaker, a desktop publishing program.  Over the years, I have used it many times.  I created news-letters, posters, invitations, and even the 50th reunion memory book for my High School class of ’61.   I felt confident working in PageMaker.

Using the internet, I located basic maps of the areas we traveled. First, I printed them and traced the outline of the section I wanted to use.  I included country borders, rivers, and a few city locations.  Freehand, I added in a line with direction arrows to show where Tom and I traveled.  I scanned the tracing into my computer and it became the foundation of my map.  After that, I dropped in art work, arrows, and text. I worked on the maps one at a time.  By the time the Beta Readers comments started to be returned, I had more or less completed 4 maps.  They still needed fine tuning and 3 maps remained to unstarted. But it was time to get back to writing and editing. I set the map project aside where it remained on hold for half a year.

Finally, I was ready to finish the maps. But when I tried to open my files, the PageMaker program simply flickered, then disappeared. Over and over I tried, but the same thing happened each time.  I was frustrated and worried.  The old program was no longer supported by Adobe, but I innocently thought the installed program was mine to keep using it as long as I didn’t need help with it. Happy working with the old program, I had not bothered to learn InDesign (Adobe’s replacement). What a mistake!

A call to technical help at Adobe revealed that they had eradicated PageMaker from my computer. It was simply no longer available to anyone. Needless to say, I was angry and frustrated.  I had no way to open my map files.  I looked into taking a class on InDesign at the local community college, but the classes offered covered all three of the current Adobe programs.  None of them dealt with only InDesign.  Besides, the cost of class and the new program, the learning curve would pose a scheduling  problem. I had writing and more editing to do and the search for an agent or a publisher to begin.

Just as I was beginning to feel at a dead-end, I remembered Cole Waidley, a young graphic designer who helps with my book covers, bookmarks, and other graphic needs.   He knows InDesign and uses it regularly.

Problem solved—and for the better.  Cole agreed to take over the maps.  InDesign allowed him to open my old files and convert them into the new program. From there he was able to fine-tune my maps and create the new ones using my selection of scanned files.  He was far better than I at inserting arrows, varying the size and quality of lines, text and images.  Using my original concept, Cole effortlessly executed the seven maps I needed and prepared the files so they were ready to upload to the book designer. He also helped me improve the illustration I had drawn to show the inside layout of our van.

In a way, the demise of PageMaker was a happy accident.   Cole is constantly ready to help with changes and new uploads as the final book is being proofed.  Most recently, he fixed a spelling error found on the van schematic during a final proof read.  Thank you, Cole!

https://colewaidley.crevado.com/

cwaidley@gmail.com

The post Maps for a Travel Memoir appeared first on Klang Slattery.

Readers Can Help Get the Word Out

Trying to launch a new book during the Covid-19 Pandemic calls for special tactics.   Normally, I would be setting up in-person author visits at bookstores and giving presentations and talks at libraries and to book groups.  Now, with personal appearances impossible, I’m trying to figure out new, digital ways to let readers know about my upcoming memoir, Wherever the Road Leads. I am in the midst of planning a fun, virtual Webinar-style launch party for the first week of December and I’m turning to you, my friends and readers, to ask a favor.

Yes, you can help!   I’ve put together a list of ways you can help get the word out about my new book.  I hope you will find something that fits your time and interests. Just a few minutes on line is all some of these suggestions will take—anything you can do will be appreciated. Of course, if you have other authors you love, these suggestions can be used to help them as well.

If you are an e-book reader, you may have already read Wherever the Road Leads and peer reviews are becoming ever more important!  Please leave a review of my memoir on your favorite platform:  Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Onlinebookclub.org.  If you have read my novel, Immigrant Soldier, The Story of a Ritchie Boy, it is never too late to help out with a review for that book as well.

Are you waiting to read my memoir in paperback? I have several advance reader copies available for FREE if you commit to posting a review on Amazon and Goodreads or any other book site you use. I can hand deliver if you live in south Orange County, California. The U.S. postal service is so slow right now that regular mail can take up to 6 weeks to arrive anywhere!  I know this from personal experience shipping books.  Thus I must give preference to local readers, but if you’re a fast and motivated reader, I’m open to mailing you a free paperback.

A few additional ideas:

If you read my blogs, please send comments via the comment form at the bottom. It’s fun for me to see what you think and your comments will encourage others. Interaction with “fans” is a great way for me to know what you enjoy reading.
If one of my blogs is a subject that might be of interest to a friend, please share with them. You can also encourage them to fill out the comment form or subscribe to my blog.
Would your book group enjoy reading Wherever the Road Leads?  I will be happy to Zoom with your group when you discuss the book. If you are a local south Orange County, California group and want to purchase autographed copies for your members directly from me, I can deliver the books.
Instagram – Maybe a picture of you holding up the book or your e-reader and saying how much you liked it. Please include the title in your comment. I can supply you with a book cover image if you prefer.
Post a comment about the book as a guest on my Facebook author page (Kathryn Lang-Slattery) and follow. Anything from “I can’t wait to read this” to a short blurb review and a picture of you holding the book. You could also post something on your own timeline.
Share to your Facebook timeline my posts from Kathryn Lang-Slattery about Wherever the Road Leads.
If you tweet, please say something about my book. Hashtags that link to things like van-life, travel, road trips, reading, and memoirs would work, I think. Other than that, you’re on your own because I am not a tweeter.
Best of all, if you are not already a member, join an on-line readers’ site.  I suggest are Goodreads and/or the Online book Club. Sign on and follow these step-by step suggestions:

https://www.goodreads.com/

Create an account or go to your existing account.
Go to your bookshelf and add Wherever the Road Leads, A Memoir of Love, Travel, and a Van to your “want to read” list.
When/if you read my memoir, please leave a review.
At that point you can also scroll down to “recommend to a friend” and send your recommendation to anyone on your friend list who you think will like the book.
When you are on the book’s page, look to the right side and you will see “about K. Lang-Slattery.” Click on that to go to my author page where you can (please) follow me.

https://onlinebookclub.org/ –

Create an account or go to your existing account.
Go to bookshelves (blue rectangles on top right of page). Dropdown menu will show “your shelves” – click on that and you will be sent to a page where you can add books you are reading or want to read.
At the top of this page in small print you will see Find A Book| Shelves FAQ | BOTM | Add A Book | Your Shelves.   Click on Add A Book.  You should be dropped to the bottom of the page to a large blue square where you can manually add books to your shelves.  
Add Wherever the Road Leads, A Memoir of Love, Travel, and a Van
Author should be K. Lang-Slattery
Be sure to add information about shelf (want to read or currently reading). If you have read the book, you can add a rating and a review.

 

AND Please leave a comment below in the comments section after this blog.   You can also receive automatic notice of all my blogs by filling in your email address and clicking on the blue SUBSCRIBE button.

Many thanks!  Looking forward to hearing from you!

The post Readers Can Help Get the Word Out appeared first on Klang Slattery.

Climbing the Mango Trees

I am at it again – reading memoirs. Recently I was lucky enough to find the delightful memoir, Climbing the Mango Trees, A Memoir of a Childhood in India, by Madhur Jaffrey.

I’ve always loved memoirs by chefs and cooks and food writers.  The recipes many include are a bonus, but I also enjoy them because I am constantly thinking about cooking. Its a relief to realize I’m not the only one.  A few of my food-writing favorites are Tender to the Bone by Ruth Reichl, A Pig in Provence by Georgeanne Brennan, Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard, Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper by Fuchia Dunlop, and Mastering the Art of French Eating by Ann Mah.

Though Climbing the Mango Trees has some recipes, it mainly tells a story of growing up in an upper-class Hindu family in Delhi from the 1930s through the early 1950s.  As a cookbook collector, I have known Madhur Jaffrey for her many works on Indian cooking, a few of which I own.   I also was familiar with her career as an actor who often appeared in films produced by Merchant Ivory, a movie company founded in India in 1961 to produce English language films there. Madhur’s memoir recounts growing up in a large extended family during the final years of British India, independence, and the tumultuous times of the 1947 Partition.

Having visited India twice (once during the time of my memoir Wherever the Road Leads and later in the 1990’s with my sister), its always fun to read about the places I’ve seen.   Though I was not invited to visit the home of wealthy Indians, I can easily picture Jaffrey’s family enclave on the fringes of the huge city of Delhi. She describes trips to the “Old City” where her mother allows the children to eat hot food from street vendors and visits with her father to the Red Fort.  Her memories bring back my own—the spicey and earthy flavors of potato samosas still hot from the kadai of boiling oil, the dusty streets, the beggars, the tiny shops with the owner sitting cross-legged on a platform outside selling terra-cotta bowls of creamy yogurt or cups of hot milky chai.

After Partition and the influx of refugees from western Punjab, Jaffrey describes her introduction to tandoor style cooking.  A new tandoori restaurant, Moti Mahal, became all the rage with the young adults in Jaffrey’s crowd of college students.  They would pick up tandoori roast chicken and naan to take home for late night snacks.  The Moti Mahal restaurant was still popular in 1973. Tom and I ate lunch there and took extras back to the van for dinner.

Madhur admits that as a young woman she did not cook, though she always loved to eat. Her memoir ends soon after her graduation from college and gives no clue how she learned to cook and became a world-class cookbook author.  This is a second memoir waiting to be written.

Still, she shares a selection of family recipes grouped at the end of the book. They are not fancy Mogul dishes, but real home-style recipes.  Jaffrey describes her family as Hindu with north-Indian Muslim and British influences. The men and all the children spoke both Hindi and English, but the women of Madhur’s mother’s generation and older spoke only Hindi.  The older women also tended to hold to their vegetarian traditions while the men, who had more contact with the power-players of government and business, loved meat. Some were even avid hunters.   The recipes presented run from Shami Kebab (lamb patties) and duck curry with coriander and cardamom to vegetarian staples such as chickpea-flour soup with dumplings and mung bean fritters in yogurt.

If you are interested in reading an excellent story of upper-middle-class life in India in the mid-twentieth century, a story that highlights love of family and food, I heartily recommend Climbing the Mango Trees.  For myself, I can’t wait to try Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe for Shami Kebab.

 

 

 

Vocabulary:

Chai – literally translates as “tea” in Hindi. In India plenty of hot milk and sugar are added to tea and often spices are blended in as well.  Chai shops can be found on almost every street.

 

 

 

Kadai – a round bottomed pan used for deep frying.

 

 

Samosas -deep fried pastries stuffed with various fillings such as spicey potatoes or minced lamb.

 

 

 

 

 

Tandoori style cooking – food cooked over an intense fire in a tandoor, a deep, cylindrical, clay oven.  Meat is usually cooked on long, metal skewers lowered into the oven. Flat-breads like naan and roti are slapped against the hot clay sides of the oven where they stick while cooking.

 

 

 

 

The post Climbing the Mango Trees appeared first on Klang Slattery.

Memory of a Beijing Market

March 2003.

Tom burst into the room as I finished my second cup of tea.  “I’ve found the market,” he announced.  “It’s just around the corner.”

We had arrived in Beijing the afternoon before.  After checking into the hotel, eating a Chinese meal in a dining room filled with western tourists, and wandering Tiananmen Square in the falling dusk, we fell into bed, heavy with travel fatigue. But our body clocks were not yet on Beijing time and we were both wide awake while the city still struggled to turn night into morning.  My husband, normally an early riser, decided to explore the neighborhood as dawn slowly crept through the alleyways. I opted for a quiet moment with hot tea and a guide book.

When Tom burst into the room an hour later, I grabbed my shoes, my camera, and my shopping bag. Local markets are my favorite way to get to know a new country.  Morning mist hovered in the air as we crossed a wide boulevard clogged with bicycles.

Thirty years before we had started our travels together with a two-year trip from California to Panama, to Spain, to Norway and finally to India and back–all in a Volkswagen camper equipped with a stove and a nested set of cookware.  Early in that trip we learned to judge a place by its markets.  These bustling sites of food and commerce were always a window onto the prosperity, culture, and friendliness of the land.  Though we had been to many other places on the Asian continent, this was our first time inside China.  We knew the market would offer a glimpse of the everyday people of China, a country famous for its cuisine and love of food.

We headed down a narrow lane that dead-ended at another alley to form a T shaped intersection.  This was where the world of food began.  On the sidewalk tiered aluminum steamers balanced over steel drums that contained cooking fires fueled by charcoal. The towering steamers emitted vapors redolent of garlic and ginger. Further on, the wide-open door of the market proper beckoned.  We worked our way past a clutter of parked bicycles, push-carts, and cages of live chickens and into a market dimly lit by incandescent bulbs hanging from the high ceiling. The aisles teemed with shoppers and sellers. Men pushed wagons of produce down narrow aisles and women lugged heavy bags and boxes into their stalls. Vendors bagged sales, made change, and gestured behind counters heaped with food stuffs of every rainbow hue.  Amidst all the activity, the market was clean and the floor was wet from a recent hosing down.

One side of the building was lined with banks of fruit rising almost to the ceiling.  It was early spring, yet we saw watermelon, bananas, mangos, papayas, bright red apples, citrus of all kinds, including tangerines wrapped in vivid orange tissue, and huge round Asian pears nested in Styrofoam netting.  Across the aisle, mounds of vegetables in all shades of green, white and yellow stood in towering displays–firm cabbages, leafy greens, snowy white giant Daikon radishes, thin Chinese long-beans, drooping Chinese chives, and the knobby green shapes of bitter melon.  Nearby stood tubs of bean sprouts and trays of tofu arranged to display great hunks of bean curd from creamy white to golden brown, fresh, smoked, baked, and pressed.  Across the bustling center aisle, dried and powdered things of all kinds filled small specialty shops–herbs, spices, dried shrimps and bottles of oyster sauce were stacked to the roof.

If only I had a wok and a single burner!  A frustrated cook, I used my camera to capture the essence of the market.  Vendors smiled with pride as I focused for a tight shot of bok-choy and snow peas.  They tried to talk to us and laughed along with our efforts to communicate our pleasure. Everyone was courteous and friendly, from the sweating men pushing loaded carts through the clogged aisles to the vendors and shoppers.   Though we were the only Caucasians in the entire market, there was no pushing, yelling or staring at the foreigners.

At the end of the produce section, the market widened and we entered a second shed, a more spacious area lined with glass fronted shops.  In one, live fish swam in tanks and glistening fillets of salmon and white fish lay on a clean marble counter. Nearby sides of lamb and beef hung from hooks and two men in the white caps of the Moslem minority turned them into shank, rib and loin cuts.  Across the shed, plucked birds were lined up, pressed wing to wing, waiting to be chopped for stir fry.  One narrow breasted and black skinned bird lay surrounded by other lighter chickens and we wondered, “What is he?” (I have since learned that these skinny, dark skinned fowl are prized for their flavor). At another stand two men and a woman were busy making fresh noodles and a kind of round flat bread.

 

We stood, our stomachs rumbling, and watched the bread being rolled out and cooked on a griddle. Both the bread and noodles were selling as fast as they were made. The yummy looking products were stuffed into bulging plastic bags and handed to shoppers who stood patiently in line.

The aromas and sights made me long to fill my shopping bag, but a prepaid breakfast waited for us at the hotel. Tom and I hesitated only a moment. We could not resist the sight of so much food.  We bought a few crisp, seed studded rolls and two Asian pears and stuffed them in my bag.  As we headed back toward the hotel, the aroma from the steamers on the lane wafted through the air. We looked at each other and then longingly at the row of dumpling sellers.

Suddenly neither of us had any interest in the breakfast in the hotel dining room.  Tom grabbed my hand and we shouldered into the queue near the steamers. We pointed to our choices, nodded and smiled.  Soon we stood at the edge of the road and savored each bite of our fluffy white steamed buns. Both were hot and succulent, the dough wrapping thin and light. The fillings–one chopped pork and onions, the other minced leeks and garlic–delighted our tastebuds.

I peeked into the brown paper bag of pastry.  “Shall we?” I asked and Tom nodded.  The flaky rolls were still warm, sweet and rich with a crust of sesame seeds.

The neighborhood Beijing market had fulfilled its promise and foretold many delectable experiences to come. After our first glimpse of the country at the morning market, we fell in love with China–the people were friendly, the towns and cities seemed on their way toward prosperity, and, best of all, the food was ample and delicious.

Do you share my love of food and markets when you travel?

The post Memory of a Beijing Market appeared first on Klang Slattery.