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Celebrate!

Mar 4, 2010 | | 24 Comments

Today is a day to celebrate! When I celebrate, there is always lots of chocolate and Starbucks lattes.

I finished my first drafted of my next novel! WOW! I can’t believe it. I really can’t. I think every time I write something new, it seems to get easier. Although, my next novel I’d like to tackle, isn’t going to be so easy. But I’m going to wait a while to write that one.

A special thank you to Amber Lough who gave me an award. Thank you Amber! Passing back the love your way!

I’m supposed to write 7 things about myself:
1. I love, Love, LOVE! chocolate (bet you hadn’t guessed that one)
2. I make divine chocolate chip cheesecake
3. I danced for Disney once upon a time
4. Drawing simple objects like stick men is way out of my ability range
5. Jane Austen rocks
6. Friday night fun consists of a thick history book (okay, I won’t pass up dancing and a movie)
7. I can’t decide which movie I like better- Star Wars or Lord of the Rings
And to top my fun day, Wordswimmer has posted an interview with me and my brilliant critique partners from MiG Writers. Check it out!

Picture by Carolina K. Smith

Naughty Muse!

Mar 3, 2010 | | 8 Comments

Has your muse ever been on vacation? Mine was gone for a while. Check out this post I wrote on MiG Writers on what I did while she was gone.

What about you? What do you do while your inspiration is gone? (Other than eat chocolate of course.)

Picture illustrated by Debbie Oh

Samil Day- A Day to Celebrate Freedom

Mar 1, 2010 | , | 11 Comments

Today, Korean flags wave high along the streets across Seoul. Why? Because they can. And it’s all in thanks to a day in 1919 that began the movement to free the Koreans from oppression.

Another name for Samil Day is The March 1st Movement and its literal translation is “Three-One Movement“. This is the day when Koreans stood together on March 1, 1919 against the Japanese police. 7,000 Koreans were killed, but this was the beginning of the stand against the Japanese control.

A group of Korean nationalist gathered in a private spot, so as to not cause a riot, and crafted this letter and sent it to the Japanese Governor General:

“We herewith proclaim the independence of Korea and the liberty of the Korean people. We tell it to the world in witness of the equality of all nations and we pass it on to our posterity as their inherent right.


We make this proclamation, having back of us 5,000 year of history, and 20,000,000 of a united loyal people. We take this step to insure to our children for all time to come, personal liberty in accord with the awakening consciousness of this new era. This is the clear leading of God, the moving principle of the present age, the whole human race’s just claim. It is something that cannot be stamped out, or stifled, or gagged, or suppressed by any means.”

The results of this movement brought serious repercussions for the Koreans, including death and torture. But ultimately, many of the big issues that Koreans had with the Japanese rule were removed. A civilian force replaced the military police and some freedom of press was given.

True, it wasn’t until after Japan withdrew their troops after World War II that Koreans regained total freedom from the Japanese rule, but it was a beginning.

Picture used from Seoulite.com

Bologna Children’s Book Fair Comes to Korea!

Feb 25, 2010 | , | 13 Comments

Every year, writers and illustrators from all over the world come together to Bologna, Italy to showcase their work. The Bologna Book Fair and the SCBWI Bologna Symposium are held in conjunction with each other.

And each year, Korea was the Guest of Honour. This exhibit was titled Round and Round in a Circle. As the guest of honour, the Bologna exhibit came to Seoul and our SCBWI group took a field trip out to see it!

There was so much talent at the fair. Overwhelming! My head was spinning though I’m not an artist, I was inspired.

Here’s a recap of some of the fun stuff that I saw:

Past year highlights

The Chusok Harvest Moon created by Ho Jang from Korea.

Created by Igor Olenynikov from Russia

Alireza Goldouzian from Iran uses fingerprints and cut paper.

Ji-Yee Jung from Korea created an unusal illustration with fabric.

Jai-hee Han- Korea

Puss and Boots by Ayano Imai with watercolors and pencils

The End!

Olympics Addiction

Feb 24, 2010 | | 5 Comments

I have been neglecting my blogging of late. Partly due to fast drafting my latest novel. But I have to say, the Olympics haven’t been helping me out either. Who wants to write when Kim Yu-Na is performing?

We were pretty excited over here in Seoul to see Yu-Na shatter her own world record in her James Bond routine. It was said she even slowed traffic!

How about you? What is your favorite Winter Olympic sport?

Link Fest!

Feb 16, 2010 | | 9 Comments

Lots of great stuff happening in the writing world that you don’t want to miss.

Check out Shelli’s blog, Market My Words all week long for some absolutely incredible prizes. (i.e. agent critiques and marketing advice!)

Then on Elana’s blog, Navigating the Publishing World with a Real Splash of Life, she’s having a Pay it Forward Contest with more cool agent critique rewards.

Shannon O’Donnell on her Book Dreaming blog, is giving away Elana’s book and a gift card.

And if your still bored, check out my blog post on MiG Writers on how to bring multiculturalism into your writing.

Special thanks to my hubby for taking the picture. It’s a palace from the Shilla Dynasty in Kyongju.

Celebrate Lunar New Year!

Feb 14, 2010 | , | 11 Comments


Happy Lunar New Year! Today, Feb. 15th is Lunar New Year here in Korea. While many of you might be celebrating Valentines’s Day, at our house, we’re having a dual hoiday. Lunar and Valentines.

Last year, I did a little post on the holiday, so for more details, check it out.

Here in Korea, they celebrate both the solar new year’s day on Jan. 1st and the Seollal, which generally falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice.

For Lunar this year, we made the cute paper lanterns that you see in the picture. Check out this link to make one for yourself.

We also passed out Valentines to each other, too, along with lots of hugs and kisses.

And I made a Valentine for you too! I love my fellow bloggers! Click on this link to make one of your own.

Writing is Like Kimchi

Feb 9, 2010 | , | 18 Comments

For those of you who don’t know, kimchi is the most famous Korean dish. There are different types of kimchi depending on the season. Baechu kimchi is the most common type and it’s made in the fall. The picture here was taken one fall when we went to a village and happened to catch the ladies making their kimchi.

Key Ingredients

You’ll often see huge groups of ladies working together, sitting on the ground amidst massive piles of cabbage. To make kimchi, cut up salted Chinese cabbage leaves and stuff them with sok (literally meaning inside), a chili paste. Other ingredients include broccoli, fruit, cucumber or scallions.

In writing, key ingredients also prove to make delicious writing: unique characters, vivid settings, action-packed plots, and a strong voice. But don’t forget to ‘cook’ with your own special ingredients by pouring your own magic into the story.

They say when making kimchi, you should be able to taste the salt. When your cabbage “zings”, you’ve got the perfect balance. Same with your manuscript.

Fermentation

The sea salt not only adds good taste, it ferments the kimchi, too. After the kimchi is made, it needs minimal oxygen and a cool place. To make this work, Koreans put their kimchi in large pots, often in a cool place, with a tight lid to keep pressure at the top.

The same goes with your manuscript. Give your story time to ferment. Put it aside and work on something else. Later, take it out and you’ll see your manuscript in a whole new life. I just pulled out Chosen Warrior again after setting it aside for nearly a year. I knew I had some major cutting to do, but a year ago, the thought of cutting those precious words was too hard. It wasn’t so hard this time since I wasn’t as close to the work. I ended up cutting 14,000 words!

So now maybe you can see why kimchi kind of reminds me of the writing process.

And out of curiosity, have you ever eaten kimchi before?

Movie Star!

Feb 5, 2010 | | 6 Comments


Is your manuscript a Movie Star!? I did a blog post on my trip to an elephant park and how that made me think of making my manuscript Movie Star! material. Can’t you see the connection?

If not, check it out at MiGWriters.com.

Debbie Ridpath Oh did the cartoon. She is brillant, isn’t she?

Scrapbook Your Characters

Jan 31, 2010 | | 23 Comments

I needed to get inside my main character’s head. I did the usual, the character lists and questions, filling out a character sketch and daydreaming. But I wanted something more.

So when I saw the idea to scrapbook a character from Author 2 Author blog, I was inspired.

Now, I’m not very artistic so I stuck to basics. Like cutting and gluing. I can do those.

The library was giving away some old magazines, which was perfect for my project. I cut out all the pictures and words from those magazines that pertained to my main character. Then I glued them onto a large piece of paper. I hung it by my writing space.

So now when I’m pondering what my character might do, I stare at the collage and it focus’ me.

How about you? How do you get into your character’s head?

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