L.H. Draken's Blog

Podcast Discussion with Chris Smit

I’ve had so many readers message and contact me over the last couple weeks and say something along the lines of, “I feel like I’ve been spookily haunted by your book! Everything I read brings your story to mind, and makes me feel like you predicted some version of this crisis!”

At least in my book, the crisis is somewhat contained to the metropolis of Beijing — even if that’s not exactly the end of the story.

It’s made me wonder if I just didn’t have the imagination to take the story all the way to a global pandemic. For sure, that went far beyond what I wanted to accomplish with the book. The story I wanted to write wasn’t ‘what happens when crazy scientists in China bring the world’s economy to a crashing halt’. So, in this respect, my book is only partly predictive of the viral outbreak we’re currently living through.

That being said, if all the news out of China has made you feel like you’re really not understanding what’s actually going on in that monster asian country — you know, the one that is rivaling the US for world economic leader, and flexing it’s power in Africa and east Asia…. that one? Well, if you’re still curious how things in China work, specifically how things are going with the Corona outbreak, come over to an interview I just did yesterday with Chris Smit. 

Chris hosts the “Culture Matters” Podcast which centers around culture and business. Our conversation was specifically about how China has been dealing with the Corona Virus epidemic and how the Chinese mentality in this situation is specifically different than that of Germans or Americans. 

 

Culture Matters Podcast on International Business

If you’d like to hear what we talked about, click here. And let me know what you think!

 

 

If you’re curious about further general reading about China, I’d recommend a couple great books.

1st. “The Party: The Secret world of China’s Communist Rulers“
The truth of the matter is, no one really knows how China’s government works. Who decides the next Party Secretary, and with what process does that decision happen? How are the nine members of the Politiburo elected? No one knows!
McGregor does an impressive job of hunting down what there is to know about the structure of China’s political system through exhaustive interviews and research. He discusses the history of the Party and the politics that characterize it currently.
Note : I really wish he would publish a follow up, because things have developed in the last ten years, and it would be more than interesting to know what his thoughts are.

2nd. “Age of Ambition: Chasing fame and fortune in New China” – Evan Osnos.
This is a series of essays along a similar non-fiction line as the above, but focused more on the social structure of China. The struggles of the people, the ideas that form how they think and act, and the issues that pervade daily life. Again, the book is now more than five years old, and with Xi Jinping, China has definitely entered a new age. So — I’d love to read a follow up.

Also, aside from reading suggestions,

Entering the World of Sound

When I was fifteen I read a fiction story in The New Yorker where the mentor figure says to the naive young lead,

‘…fads in literature come and go, but the Russians will always be with us.’

That phrase stuck with me and I decided that it was high time I educate myself in the wisdom of the Russians. And being quite realistic about what I would sit down and read, page for page, I asked my long-suffering father to purchase Crime and Punishment on Audible. 

My dad has had an Audible subscription since the late ’90’s and lucky for me, we share much of the same reading preferences. I’ve been listening to books on his account for over twenty years now. I’m not sure why, of all the Russians, I decided Crime and Punishment was the work I’d start with — but it was.

This was still years before the iPod, and most CD players back then didn’t play MP3 files, so my dad, the saint that he is, burned C&P to some 40 million CD’s.

I delved into that great work while running around Minnesotan lakes, CD player in hand—skipping when jostled too much—or stripping wood for my mom’s living room remodel.  I know that in my youth I was oblivious to much of Dostoyevsky’s genius. But not all of it. And I’ve since gone on to love more of his and other great Russians, to the point where I can honestly agree with that first statement I read so many years ago — the Russians will, indeed, always be with us. 

Bandwidth issues have essentially disappeared. Downloading, listening and acquiring books via audio has never been easier, cheaper or more accessible to everyone  — no more CD’s, no more high productions costs, no more skipping CD players. People who might otherwise never have felt comfortable picking up a book are reading books with their earbuds. Audio is by far the fastest growing sector of book consumption, I suspect because listening is our most natural way to participate in the art of story. I find it quite exciting — we’ve come full circle, back to the origins of storytelling itself — to when stories were first heard and spoken. We are listening to a stories, just as families and tribes first did, gathered around a campfire, where a master craftsman would tell a story directly to his audience. 

All this preamble is to say… 

I’m officially launching my very first audiobook!
I never thought, as a teenager listening to Crime and Punishment, that I’d every say this, but you can now go online and use your subscription or purchase outright, a copy of The Year of the Rabid Dragon in audio format. 

Click here to Download from Audible

I’m so pleased, after making it through the production process myself, to add my book to to Audio Library. (Available wherever fine audio is downloaded).

Alex Knox

The production was read and mastered by Alex Knox.  I think he did a great job. It wasn’t an easy project, considering all the languages and foreign language aspects!

And realize, if you haven’t listened to an Audio book yet, or don’t have an Audible subscription, you can

listen to Rabid Dragon for free with a one-month trial

Click Here for Free Audible Trial

I’d love to hear what you think! — let me know if you give it a listen!  

Nathan’s Backstory – The Year of the Toxic Rat

What motivated Nathan to up and move to Beijing? Curious about his back story?

The Months of the Toxic Rat [working title] flushes out the incident that spurred him to China.

If you sign up for the mailing list if you will receive a link to download it in the format of your choosing (kindle app/Apple iBooks/  Android or pdf for print, if you prefer).

And don’t forget to let me know what you think! I always take feedback very seriously.

 

**This isn’t a crime/thriller short — more general-fiction.

Nathan’s Backstory – The Months of the Toxic Rat

What motivated Nathan to up and move to Beijing? Curious about his back story?

The Months of the Toxic Rat [working title] flushes out the incident that spurred him to China.

If you sign up for the mailing list if you will receive a link to download it in the format of your choosing (kindle app/Apple iBooks/  Android or pdf for print, if you prefer).

And don’t forget to let me know what you think! I always take feedback very seriously.

 

**This isn’t a crime/thriller short — more general-fiction.

CRISPR – End of Humanity as we know it or Solution to all our Problems?

In August I had the pleasure of giving a talk on CRISPR technology at the Lead, SD chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center.

It was a real pleasure to get to share some of the things that have been happening in genetic engineering and discuss some of the implications of what might come in the future.  Of course no one knows what might happen, but nearly every day something is announced about a new breakthrough achieved or milestone blown over. I think it’s incredibly important to know what’s happening with this tool as scientists around the world apply CRISPR gene engineering to solve a new problems, or how it might be used long term. I guarantee it will affect each of our lives drastically, and understanding what’s happening is the first step to keeping oversight on how it is used.

 

The talk was filmed and is now available to see on Youtube if you didn’t have the pleasure of being there that evening.

The discussion starts at about minute 2:00

 

My Very First Book Launch

It may sound completely cheesy – and I know I’m the writer so should not be the one using cliches – but I feel so wonderfully overwhelmed by the group of amazing friends that came out for my book launch party. It was so special to share this project that has been so important to me over the last four years with people who seemed so genuinely interested and excited about it with me. Of course, it isn’t about the numbers – my goal for the evening wasn’t that it be a huge media frenzy, but to have such a full and diverse group of people come out to support me made me feel absolutely blessed.

I can’t be a writer without readers – and I’m finding the early development of this dynamic so satisfying. Getting feedback from those who have read the Advanced Reader copies and taken the time to respond with the parts they liked or felt drawn in by or learned something from has been so much fun. It is a really amazing relationship.

ok. I’ll be honest – I’m a little brain-fried after everything – I’ve let a lot of the little things go this weekend as I recovered from all the house-guests and social paraphernalia this weekend. But I’m feeling equally so energized to get on with the sequel. Let’s keep writing!

Talking Shop

I had a lovely revelation today.

I was listening to a new favorite publishing podcast (The Self Publishing Formula with Mark Dawson, look it up if you’re in the industry)*. Anyway, I was listening to this podcast and the host, who is a pretty successful indie publisher mentioned in passing how at this conference he met up with some of his listeners and had a great time talking shop around publishing and the business.

And I remembered something else I’d heard in another podcast I love (not publishing/writing related, at least not directly, but also fantastic — ‘the Happiness Project with Gretchen Rubin’), and she said that a good ‘know yourself better’ is whether or not you like talking shop about your job. It’s not a perfect indicator, but it can be a tool to help realize if you’re in the right field.

I remember listing to her talk about this, and remembering when I was working at Volkswagen as an engine engineer, planning the Chinese fleet, which, was an interesting job and challenging etc, but I hated talking shop. I dreaded when we would have work lunches together or business trips and people would want to start talking shop spontaneously. I always felt like I had so little to add to the discussion (although I was good at my job), and I just didn’t enjoy the time. I found myself heading more towards how people were spending their weekends or basically anything else. What they were reading, how the wife was doing. anything.

But now that I’m trying to get myself established in publishing and writing, I love talking shop. I love learning day and night new strategies and tips to be successful at this as a career, and how people do their work and how to improve my productivity. I love learning strategies to sell on amazon and how to make ads on Facebook work. I could talk shop all the time, and if anything, am feeling sometimes the lack of people with whom to talk shop with!

It was a good realization though, because it reinforced for me how I feel like I’ve really found a great place for me – and one that I think if I continue to work and focus on, I can succeed in. It’s a good place to be.

In contrast, in my last job, I felt like I really could have succeeded — my boss and others seemed to see me as having a bright corporate career in front of me — but I felt so uninspired.

* This podcast will always be special to me because I was binge listening to it over the last two weeks before my son was born when I had that pregnancy insomnia — which is really only just a slightly more intense version of my normal night-owlishness. I was listening to maybe three episodes a night till two or three in the morning (they’re an hour long so… it was a fair bit of binging

First ARC Review

I got the most delightful set of texts from one of my pre-readers. It really made my day and encouraged me to continue pushing ahead with getting marketing set up and really ‘launching’ this book instead of just listing it on Amazon and letting it go.

well, to preface, I read at 2:30am (while nursing), that said simply, “Torture scene, *nauseated face*. Have to put it down now to sleep”. I realized I hoped I hadn’t overdone the ‘realness’ of one or two scenes as I’m not really writing for a thriller market, but more the cultural-crime scene (if that exists). I don’t want my ideal readers to put it down because they all of a sudden think it’s a lot more gruesome than it is.

I wrote her a text back early this morning, “Don’t worry, the scene is mostly talking, and hardly anything happens before the camera pans away”.

Later in my day she texted back, “ok, good :p” and then, “My kindle says I’m more than 50% through, and I’m loving it! I can’t put it down!”

For reference — this book printed is 609 pages, so to be over half-way in is already 300 pages. In a weekend! I was thrilled. One can do a lot for friends because one feels obligated to. But reading 300 pages in a weekend feels authentic, even if she does know me. Completely unbidden by me, she said that she loved how I explained the daily/current cultural aspects of China and being in Beijing, and how I wove that into the story.

Which was great to hear. I wanted it to be a crime and exciting read, but my purpose to write it was rooted also in the desire to make something that brought China to outsiders – to people who don’t get to live there or who have no personal experience with it. It is a fiercely interesting country, and there is so much about it that really is story worthy. So that she enjoyed that, especially as someone who ostensibly has no particular fore-interest in Asia, was great to hear.

“Is there a sequel coming??” — again, just what a good author wants to hear, unbidden.

“I’m starting work on the sequel, whose plot is IMO, even stronger than this one.”

“*happy dance*”

What a boost to a modest writers day. So much of my work has been in my little cave, with at most collaboration from my editor. To finally emerge into the sunlight and allow other people to see what I’ve been doing, and to have them give such honest feeling feedback, is a huge boost.  *glasses of champagne clinking*

Americans Got Got

I’m close to publishing a book, and in the late stages of this process, I recently released the manuscript to my pre-readers. Some are sending screenshots back with small typos to correct, (always helpful!), but one person in particular, a retired Englishman who worked as a copy editor earlier in his career, has given me a bit of feedback on vocabulary choice which I’d not expected.

I’ve always enjoyed language; learning languages, understanding how the structure of language affects our psychology, realizing how the vocabulary of language changes our ideas and thoughts. But also the culture of language. How languages morph and change, and how the words we use change in acceptability over generations and time and what they say about the society of the people who use it.

In this vein, the difference between American and British English has always been especially interesting. It’s not just the quirkiness of the varying intonation, (that song, ‘you say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to, po-tay-to, po-tah-to’ comes to mind), or the different choice of vocabulary (marmalade vs. jelly and Jelly vs. Jello). But the culture of class that’s different between the two languages.

‘The Queen’s English’ is a famous turn of phrase for those who speak the most proper, high society version of British English. There is no ‘Queen’s English’ in the American version of the language, not least because we haven’t a queen, but also because American English is famously egalitarian. We may turn up our noses at bad grammar, and of course you get an indication of a person’s education from the vocabulary they choose, but American English doesn’t have a ‘high’ English (as in German) or a ‘queen’s English’, because aside from using correct grammar, there is no clear class distinction. Modern (American) English is known for its speed of change as it accepts and creates words from other languages or on demand for new needs, and in such a world, the culture of class has a hard time keeping relevant.

This all leads to precisely why I was curious what my lovely English friend would find when he got a pre-read copy of my manuscript. I wasn’t disappointed. When he gave me the pages back, he had highlighted one particular word, multiple times, in different forms.

At first I was puzzled.

I’d used the word correctly.

It wasn’t misspelt.

It was in the correct tense.

I’ll give you a sample sentence.

“When Nathan had gotten sick, he’d found it difficult to carry on his normal responsibilities.”

or

“Mr. Li got home and turned on all the lights of his apartment.”

‘What was wrong with these sentences?’ I texted him. I am University educated and I consider myself a well read and critical person. It’s true I couldn’t spell myself into a barista job at Starbucks (‘triple shot mocha for Tohm?’), but I’m a technically advanced millennial with a paid subscription to Grammarly. How had I gone wrong?

Got.

I just learned a new American-British point of bifurcation. The word ‘got’.

In American English, (or American, as I’ll refer to it from here on because it seems at once a tautology and an oxymoron to say ‘American English’), ‘got’ is a perfectly accepted past tense form of the verb, ‘to get’.

When I looked the word up on my google-device I learned two things. First, to ‘get back’ is listed as an idiom (as in, ‘when will you get back’), and also, ‘the get’ is a term used for the offspring of a male animal, as in ‘the get of a stallion’. (am I the only one who didn’t know that?). Obviously the second is irrelevant for our purposes. But who knew that ‘get back’ is considered an idiom, by anyone?

Even more to the point, according to my high-standard, Oxford-educated retiree, in British, ‘got’ has been so misused it’s relegated to the words to be avoided, even when it could be used correctly as the predicate of ‘to get’.

I can understand why. ‘I got me some grub’ not only sounds archaic but makes the back of my neck twitch with its grammatic error. When he pointed it out, I realized that ‘I gotta get going’ does, somehow, sound … rough. ‘I need to be going’ sounds much smoother — even if more Queen-like.

I’m an equal-opportunity sort of person. I personally love how Americans have taken a language and allowed it to change quickly according to the needs of its users. I may have a degree in French, but I can see how the snobbish resistance to evolution that French thought-leaders take to their language is holding them back. It is convenient, of course, that most of the world learns English as their second language, and that it has become the lingua-franca of most of the world. But more than taking any ill-gotten pride in the fact that it happens to be my mother tongue, I’m proud of the way that means the language is daily changing and evolving to meet the growing numbers of people using it. The depth and diversity of the language is much more rich, thanks to all the non-native speakers who add and develop it.

Results?

I do not speak the Queen’s English, as much as I do pride myself on using proper grammar and a full vocabulary. But I also don’t want readers to be unnecessarily turned off by my unintentional turn of phrase. As a result, I’ll admit that I might have search-replaced the word ‘got’ and ‘gotten’ in the first few chapters of my book. If I want to market it in Amazon.uk, there’s no need to turn off potential readers for something so paltry as this particular Americanism.

But hopefully, after chapter 10 they’ve gotten into the book enough to not notice my new-generation Americanisms.

*I recently read an article which made the claim that the American variants ‘color’ for ‘colour’, neighbour and neighbor, flavour and flavor etc. come from the printing tradition of charging per letter of print. Americans dropped certain ‘extra’ letters to save on printing costs (specifically for adverts where space was prime). Eventually the ‘misspelling’ of the economized words became normed. I’ve not verified that this is true — but it makes sense. If it is true, how very utilitarian of American-English. That being said, I can think of many more ways we could have improved on the economy of type. For now, I’ll appreciate that American tweets still have a one-up on their British cousins with the same content.

Article originally published at Medium.com.

Writing Update

For the last year – perhaps even two – I’ve had this frustrated feeling that I’m spending so much time editing my book and revising and doing work on the business of writing, but not actually writing (like setting up a webpage, and getting my book cover made etc etc). To my shame, I hadn’t been actually writing. Not new things, anyway. And what is a writer that doesn’t write? not much of a writer.

But at the same time, I couldn’t figure out how to get myself back into the game. I have a book in my head, but it’s the sort of book that I can’t just sit down and write – I need to finish a lot of research, I need to plot it out on paper and piece all the details together because as much as I’m excited about it, it needs a ton of planning to make it work. But that meant I couldn’t just start this sequel in the background while I spent most of my time getting the current book out. Somehow, I didn’t realize that I could work on other writing to keep the skill up, even if I wasn’t working on an actual book.

I realized too late that I could be doing articles and blogs and other short stories, to build my repertoire. When I did realize this I had been out of the routine of writing new stuff for so long that I felt somehow blocked from getting back in.

Over the last few weeks though, I’ve almost miraculously been given a feeling of refreshment. I’ve written a couple short stories, I’ve gotten ideas for new novellas that I could write in the background, I’ve started one and have ideas for more. And I’ve gotten ideas for op.ed type articles to start driving traffic as well. It’s the weirdest thing. I also had a baby four weeks ago, and in a weird way, it’s passing this new milestone has jumpstarted a new chapter and gotten me over an energy hump I needed to overcome to get back into the business.

I’m still not as disciplined as I need to be. It’s taking me a lot of time to get this novella going – even though I’ve a generally good idea of the body of it. I’m blaming that also on the sleep deprivation that comes with mothering a newborn. The words are for sure coming more slowly as my mind isn’t working quite as fast as it should. But I just wanted to say how pleased I am to get back into the game.

How do you guys hold yourself to your writing expectations? I’ve been thinking about live-writing on Twitch to force myself to stick to it for a set period of time. perhaps the live accountability is what I really need to start that momentum going strong.

Other ideas?