Musings from My Backyard and My Book Releases in Taiwan....

I've got lots of pots starting to percolate and bubble on the stove, and in the meantime a few earlier creations are now completely baked and ready to come out of the oven. Am I hungry or what?

I just got word that my book, Lessons from the Monk I Married, will be hitting bookstores in Taiwan on May 31st. It's very strange to see my book in Chinese characters. Here's what the cover looks like:

 I wonder what the response will be halfway around the world. I am seeing people reading it on subways and buses. I see a woman, dressed to the nines, on her lunch break, diving into it over a bowl of steamy noodle soup. Maybe it makes her question what she has been doing all this time? Maybe she will suddenly get an undeniable urge to hit the road?

After my book came out in Croatia, readers from this mysterious land began to contact me via email and blog comments. Suddenly I wanted to know every thing about this place and its people. I watched a Rick Steves's show on Croatia and started to get a bad case of wanderlust again.

But my backyard is really not that bad, to be honest.

Since I live here, I don't think too much about where I am. I'm currently reading Jack Keroauc's The Dhamma Bums. There's a reason for this. It's one of the pots on the stove at this very minute that's about to bubble over. I'll let you know the details soon in another post, perhaps.

So here's Ray in The Dhamma Bums, traveling here there and everywhere, and where should the finale, the final destination, the place of dreams, the much-sought-after holy land be?

My backyard.

My digs.

The place where I grew up.

The Great Pacific Northwest, but more precisely Washington State.

You don't think too much about where you live until it is glorified in some book. And then, where you live seems to take on a whole new look. It sure did for me.

Here's what Ray in The Dhamma Bums says about where I live:

"The Northwest was a great deal more than the little vision I had of it of Japhy in my mind. It was miles and miles of unbelievable mountains grooking on all horizons in the wild broken clouds, Mount Olympus and Mount Baker, a giant orange sash in the gloom over the Pacific-ward skies that led to the world."

And that's just the start of Kerouac's description of where I live. This suddenly made me take a good, hard look at my surroundings starting with my yard. Here are a few photos of my garden and street:

Rainbow on my street the other day and towering Evergreens

My front garden fence with Japanese maples

Purple Clematis we planted two years ago now climbing the fence

Irises blooming and my reading table in the background

Then, I began to explore my neighborhood. I had no idea that less than a mile from me was an old growth forest, a babbling creek and a place called Hidden Lake, so clean it made me want to swim with the little ducklings there.

Lupus and daisies with the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound

Little ducklings swimming on the crystal clear Hidden Lake

My husband in an old growth forest practically in our backyard

Living in the one of the most wonderful place in the world! This is right in Seattle.

I can't say I still don't have wanderlust, but I will admit that I am starting to fully recognize what a dream place I live in?

Do you like where you live? Do you ever take for granted the place you call home?

365 Inspirations—178: My Book in Other Languages

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”—F. Scott Fitzgerald

 Last night, I was surprised to see a message from a woman in Croatia on my Lessons from the Monk I  Married Facebook Fanpage. She wrote this:

"Today was the release of the Croatian edition of your book. I would just like to say that the book inspired me so much and that I couldn't stop reading it once I started it. Your story is so touching and beautiful. Thank you very much and I wish you all the best in life. Best regards from Zagreb, Croatia."

Well, that message made my day AND she even sent a photo of the copy of the book now on sale in Croatia. It's one thing to publish a book and it's quite another to start seeing it pop up in other countries. The fact that people will be able to read it in other languages makes me happy.

I feel that my book, Lessons from the Monk I Married, is not tied to one place. It is a book about love, life, spirituality and travel. It is about crossing borders and boundaries and realizing that we are all human. It's a universal story actually.

As an ESL teacher, it's exciting to see the first translation of my book. I'm happy that people in other countries are enjoying it. Getting this message from Croatia makes me what to visit this country someday!

Soon, a Chinese language edition of my book will be on sale in Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong. It will be fun to see what the cover will look like for this edition.

I've got two more books on the burner. I'm slowly developing these. Can't wait to share them with you, but it may take some time before they are ripe and ready for public view!

What's your favorite book from another country?

Foreign Book Sales Offers: Croatia, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong....Oh My!

I never expected Croatia, the country of a thousand islands, to be the first to make an offer on the foreign rights for Lessons from the Monk I Married. As a friend said on Facebook, "Leave it to the Eastern Europeans to be the first pioneers to take on a book like LFTMIM." Shortly after that, my agent let me know that a Taiwanese Publisher made an offer for Complex Chinese Rights!

Not to turn "Fifty Shades of Gray" on you, but all I could say at the time was "Oh, My!"

My book is selling in foreign markets! I can't believe it. I can't believe it will be translated into CHINESE! I'm imagining people in Hong Kong and Taiwan sitting on a bus reading my book. Maybe I'll go on an overseas book tour and have the chance to be on CPR (Croatian Public Radio).

Of course my mind started reeling a thousand days into the future.

And then I thought of the past....

I still remember when my book was just an idea in my head and then a rough outline on a yellow legal pad. I had no idea on earth how to publish a book at that time. But the book was burning inside me and I knew it would get out. It had to be published. I felt it from my core.

Step by sometimes agonizing, painful, uncertain steps, I got to here. I never gave up my focus. There were people who cheered me on from the start and others who told me to "hang up the towel" when the idea first sprang from my lips. I chose to stick close by the former group of friends and ignore the later.

What I learned is that when you have an idea burning inside you that is begging to come out and be born, it WILL HAPPEN. It may not happen how you planned, but it will.

Patience is key. It's the biggest key. Without patience, you will hang up the towel too soon and step back into a comfortable life.

I received news about the foreign sales a while ago, but it still feels like yesterday. I'm working on keeping my mind in the present and not getting too far ahead or behind myself.

Tomorrow I head off for a silent meditation course. I will not speak for several days. I look forward to being in silence and focusing on the present. December is such a busy time and I welcome several days of silence to reflect on all that I'm grateful for. I am particularly grateful for this blog and all the wonderful people I have met here over the years.

If you haven't left a comment here before, please leave one. I love to hear from readers and I'd love to hear from you!