Glimpse.org and Other Places to Publish Stories

My friend, Maggie, sent me a link to Glimpse.org awhile ago when I was trying to discover places to find other travel writers and ways to publish my stories.  Unfortunately I did not discover it and apply in time to apply and get accepted and funded for it (and really too bad, it is right up my ally), but it is still a great place to read about other travel stories and view their photography.  I'm still going to read others posts and comment in order to hopefully do some more connecting.

Also, remember Matador.com?  It is a similar site I have commented on and joined already.  Well, I found that they have a pretty awesome blog that I am now following.  I like it because it has a lot of other links for places where I can submit stories, etc. to try and get my writing out there.  I just read one post called "30 Skills for Writers" that I particularly enjoyed, especially as I am trying to do some drafting of my initial travel essays. Some of my favorite points were to be an active observer, be aware of how you look at a place, constructing scenes, and creating multi-level dialogues and descriptions. 


If you are also interested in travel writing, you should check it out. 

Consume: Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai

Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book as part of my directed readings course I'm taking here in India, but unlike the other books, this one was written by a women, and also unlike the other books, this one was much less focused on India and much more focused on family and everyday life.

In a way I found it kind of refreshing. Yes, it was about the Partition of India, but it was also about the partition of a family. It had a very Forest Gump feel to it. History happened, like the assassination of Gandhi, but it was mentioned as an event in these characters lives and not as some random event that shook history.

In reading this book I was reminded of just how important sibling relationship are in India (or at least, in traditional Indian values). If you stop and think about it, siblings are the ones who will know you the longest. Your parents will die, your spouse will have missed out on your childhood, and your children come much later. Siblings are the ones who are there for the longest, and yet it is not something we seem to emphasize in our own culture. Could you imagine planning your life around where your brother was going to live, or maintaining a good relationship so that marriage between your children was a possibility? This all seems very foreign to us.

Publishing?

I remember my painting teacher in Hawaii sitting on his bench, eating Cheetos with chopsticks, instructing us students to always remember that you cannot paint abstractly until you have mastered the tools of the realistic realm.  In other words, you cannot break rules until you know what they are.  For a moment I'd like to apply that to publishing.

Let's be honest.  I am an undergraduate student with just one pending publication, and I don't know the first thing about the publishing world.  I've been working on gathering material to write my travel essays that I can self publish in an eBook, but it was not until I talked to my new friend, Emily, that I realized that this might make regular publishing impossible.  The conventional publishing world may be dying, but do grad schools care about that?  Or am I expected to have some traditional something to slap onto my resume if I want to be taken seriously?  (I hate that). 

In Dr. Burton's last email (my field study faculty mentor), he gave me some links to some popular places online where you can self publish eBooks.  I've decided to do a quick review of these sites and where I might go from here:

Smashwords.com publishes and distributes eBooks where authors and publishers retain full control over how their words and published, sampled, priced, and solid.  If an author wants to charge (the site is free), they have that option to do that, or even change the price at will.  They claim to be the leading eBook publishing platform, and have over 45,000 eBooks published.  If you do decide to charge, Smashwords.com keeps a portion of the profit, but it is still much more than the author would get in a traditional publishing relationship.  They also say that some publishers can sweep up these eBooks and show that they are worth selling, but others have decided that they do not want to work with a mainstream publisher or wait around as their book languishes in obscurity.  They say it is a personal choice, and that Smashwords.com does not publish incomplete or unpolished books.  

Connecting: In the Field!

The internet is a great way to find people to connect with that you otherwise would not have, but I have also been able to connect with a few other people that I otherwise would not have had I not been in India!  Sometimes that immediate human interaction is just what the doctor ordered.

So here are a few of my new writer friends:

David is an emerging Bollywood actor from Singapore.  He is a former Black Hawk flier and is currently traveling around India with our mutual friend.  I was delighted to find that he is a photographer as well as a writer, and his blog can be found here.  He is looking for critical feedback if anyone is interested in reading some of his writing.  I enjoy his imagery and just the fact that he is able to write about places like Mumbai (Bombay) in a way that I can see and smell it since I unfortunately will not be able to get there in this trip.

Emily is a former student of Megan's host family who happened to stumble back into McLeod, and she was sort of absorbed into our group immediately.  We enjoyed hanging out and getting to know her on our mid-semester retreat and learning more about her experiences here.  She just left yesterday for some more traveling around India.  Emily is recently graduated and from Atlanta, and she has really interesting blog documenting her travels.  Talking to her a few days ago about publishing drafts/final copies of my essays made me realize that it is something I might want to think about in terms of publishing.  If I am going for my own eBook though, maybe I don't have to worry about it.  Either way I have decided to hold of posting my latest essay draft until I decide. 

Lobsang Wangyal was a random find (upstairs from the yoga studio, helping him edit a recent article).  He is Tibetan but he was born in India.  He is a journalist and editor for the news website, Tibet Sun, as well as the founder of the controversial,  annual Miss Tibet show.  He is quite a celebrity around McLeod Ganj in his vivid colored suits, and he can even be found on Wikipedia!  His reports are slanted towards the Tibetan cause, but it is still informative to read about recent issues in the Tibetan situation for those in exile.  There also writes about current world events.  While he has some colorful views on America (particularly on our visa system), he is always an interesting person to talk to. 

Anyways, just a few writers I've stumbled across that I thought were worth mentioning.  I really enjoy finding people out here who share some of my same interests, especially when I can read about their similar experiences through their unique perspectives. 

The Beginning of the End

Last week my group and I, along with around thirty other westerners, stuffed into the local, bootlegged basement movie theater in McLeod Ganj to watch the final Harry Potter movie for 130 rupees—a steal, except for the part where the Russian pirated copy failed to download the last 20 minutes (or maybe the recorder got kicked of the movie theater), leaving us hanging right at the part where Harry and Voldemort start fighting to the death.

Sure, I guess we saw most of it, but I feel like this is a great parallel to my own experience.  The end just might be the most important part of the story, or at the very least, something you would pay an additional 20 rupees for to have closure.  

So stay tuned.

Connect: Featured on SKJ Traveler's Website!

As part of the connecting aim of this blog, I have been able to interact with another writer, Shara, founder of SKJ Travler.  I've written about how we met and commented on some of her writing here. 

Well, now on her website she has now featured me as one of the other writers!  Check it out!

Email from Professor Burton: Some Direction on July 22, 2011

Here is another email from my field study faculty mentor giving me more direction for my project.

Rachel:

I'm somewhere in the middle of Illinois driving home right now. This morning, stopping at a tiny town in Indiana for gas, the store smelled of curry and I guessed the family of Indians behind the counter were from Gujarat. "Are you speaking Gujarati?" I asked. Stunned, they said yes.

India stays with you.

I've read all your recent blog posts, and I am very happy with how you have been writing and processing things. The visit from Ashley sounded very timely, and I second her advice about drafting. You seem nervous about this, and I don't want you to fall prey to this idea that you need months to process things first. Think of it this way: There are some things you can write or draft only while in the field, only while your legs are bunched up in that sari or you are wondering whether that bottle of water you bought had its seal broken. There is an authenticity to "in situ" composing. The press of time you feel in the field can be a great benefit to someone like you who has too many threads to weave.

Help

I know I proposed a lot of great things on this field study and for my recently approved honors thesis prospectus, but I have one itsy bitsy problem.

Drafting in the field is difficult.  I mean, really difficult.

Any ideas?  Do I just need to isolate myself and force it out of me?  Or does it need to simmer?

Geshe Yonten Coming to BYU?

About two weeks ago I mentioned a documentary film I watched by Geshe Yonten and his experiences trying to educate children in Zanskar.  Well, based on my blog post, his personal secretary just sent me this facebook message.  Anyone know who we would need to talk to in order to get Geshe to BYU during his tour of the states this fall!? I would like to get back to her soon.

• 
  

  July 17

  Laura Strohminger Roth

  • Geshe Yonten
    Hi Rachel -
    
    I am coordinating Geshe la's U.S. tour and would love to help you get him to BYU! My e-mail is lsroth1@gmail.com. He will be in Colorado and Montana so it is definitely possible! Probably the best timeframe would be mid-September or early November. Let me know what you think.
    
    Thanks!!
    Laura Roth
    
    
    

If you have not watched the trailer, click here!

My Honors Thesis Proposal Was Approved!

After working very hard on my honors thesis prospectus, I am pleased to announce that I was approved!  Here is a copy of my final prospectus.  This approval means they will help me out a little bit on the funding end.  I recommend that no one try to do revisions while they are actually in the field, but it did miraculously work out for me in the end.

Here is a copy of my approval letter:

Dear Rachel:

We are writing to inform you that your Honors thesis proposal, "A Portrait of Dharamsala: An Honors Creative Writing Thesis Prospectus Exploring the Universal Importance and Nature of Stories," was approved on 7/20/2011.  A scanned version of your approved thesis proposal is attached for your records. We are sending the HBLL Circulation Desk your name so you can now enjoy the extended library privilege awarded to an Honors student with an approved Honors thesis proposal.

(What privilege??!  I hope it means a grand tour of the not-so-secret tunnels under campus.)

Dr. Siegfried who reviewed your proposal made these comments: "An excellent proposal. Rachel's previous experience in the first field study program gave her a strong foundation to build on. Her background info and proposed questions are thorough and insightful, and her annotated bibliography demonstrates her familiarity with critical sources."

A Birthday in Amritsar, India

I turned 22 during our mid-semester retreat in Amritsar.  It was awesome, but completely unconventional.  I woke up to breakfast in bed provided by Kristen—a plastic bag of mangoes and bananas, with a bottle of mango juice to go with it.  I was ecstatic.

Later the group went to a great Indian restaurant where we shared fantastic Indian food all around—family style.  My group was sweet and paid for my meal.  On the way back to the hotel we wanted to do some shopping, and I serendipitously ended up buying a sari, a traditional Indian dress. 

                                    

After sifting through all of the materials (curse me and my indecisiveness, and thank you to Hailey who helped) I was able to finalize on a sari so we could rush back to the hotel in time to go to the Indian-Pakistan border. 

To get there we took a taxi with a funny driver named Uppal.  He kept saying, "Cholo Pakistan!" or "We go to Pakistan!"  His other favorite phrase was "shanti shanti," or "peace peace," after a moment of road rage.  Here is a picture of him.   You can read about my experience at the border and my thoughts there from my last post.

For dinner I decided to go to McDonalds.  Yes, I know, a bit stupid considering I am in Amritsar among some of the best Indian food around, and I don’t even like McDonalds back home, but I was dying to have a chicken burger and some real French fries. 

I feel like I could write an entire paper on the cultural experience of going to a McDonalds in India.  Not having any beef on the menu was only one small drop in the bucket for differences.  There were language barriers, personal space bubbles being popped left and right, intense stares (keep in mind I am wearing my sari), and the advertisements were of a completely different realm of humor.  The place was packed, but we were the only white people for once.

My Experience at the Indian-Pakistan Border, Etc. in Light of the Book Train to Pakistan

As part of the consume aim of this blog, I am combining both my personal experience (and photographs) of my mid-semester retreat to Amristar with a book review of Train to Pakistan.  This was definitely one of the most powerful experiences I have had yet in India.  I would love to hear what you think.  Am I the only one who had never heard of the Partition of India, this event that killed nearly a million people- Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims?  What are they teaching us in school?

Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book, particularly this version with photographs from Margaret Bourke-White (a pioneer in photojournalism) was fantastic. It is short but a powerful story about the Partition of India in 1947—an event I am sorry to say I had not known much about until coming on this field study to India. I began it on my own train ride to Pakistan.

Okay, so maybe not Pakistan, but a train to Amritsar and the Pakistan border. That has to count for something, right?

Reading this during that experience both impacted my experience and my reading. The Indian train system itself is something to marvel at. When this still functioning colonial train first pulled up to the station I just stared. People hanging out of windows, out of the open door frames, crammed to the roof. I think that Khushwant Singh’s description was remarkably parallel to my journey. Compartments made for fifty with “almost two hundred people, sitting on the floor, on seats, on luggage racks, on trunks, on bed rolls, and on each other,” the oppressive “heat and smell… tempers frayed [because] someone had spread himself out too much or had trod on another’s foot on the way to the lavatory” (59). All of the above happened on the short two hour crawl to Amritsar.

Photographs from Amritsar: The Golden Temple

Here are some photographs from my visits to the Sikh's Golden Temple I visited last week in Amritsar.  This was by far one of the best experiences I have had in India.  I've been trying to get more photographs up (and taken) as part of the create aim of this blog.  In addition I have created a flickr account.  I just joined, but if anyone has an account send me a friend invite.  Here is my new profile.  

Consume: Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French

As part of my consume goal I am including this review of an awesome book I just finished. I have a lot of updates coming, including my mid-semester retreat to Amristar! 

Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land by Patrick French

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This has been by far the most informational book I have read about Tibet. I’ve spent months preparing for my field study here in Mcleod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile, but this source has given me the most accurate portrayal of what actual happened and what the situation is currently in Tibet. French is an entertaining writer, with a nice blend of travel writing and history, and has clearly done his homework in putting this together. I’d recommend it to anyone who is genuinely interested in Tibet looking for some answers.

Reading this right after the autobiography of the Dalai Lama was an interesting experience. The two are strikingly different. In His Holiness’ autobiography he ends on a very optimistic note that he and his people will one day return. My Tibetan host sister is also very hopeful that this will happen one day. French, however, spends the entire book building up his ethos and gets to the end and concludes that “the Dalai Lama has lost the battle, and had probably missed the slender chances offered to him by China” (299).

In other words, Tibet is toast.

Connecting: An Email from Melissa

 I'm posting a copy of an email that Melissa, the previous filed facilitator, sent me.  Melissa has been a huge help to me from everything to talking travel logistics, answering my frantic phone calls from Walmart hours before I left, to emailing me now with some great insights.  I found them particularly helpful- especially what she says about being an "outsider," and maybe you might too. 

Rachel,

How are you?? From what I read on your blog you have been having quite the time in Dharamsala! I have really enjoyed reading your blog. It makes me miss McLeod a lot... but it makes me so happy to hear about the experiences you guys are having there!

So I have been meaning to write for a while because your blog a few weeks back made me think about my own experience so much... and I thought I'd share some thoughts with you. Now please keep in mind, this is not advice, but merely just a chance for me to share what my experience was because I had so many of the same thoughts you did. So I hope you don't mind me sharing a few thoughts. It was about your blog on french fries. Man, I totally knew that same feeling the first time I was there. My family was much the same- changing the channel when I was around, never letting me help with anything... It was frustrating and made me feel like not only a guest, but an outsider. Like a temporary visitor. And I remember feeling so much the same way. I felt like an outsider, despite my trying so hard to be a part of everything I could. So I left India the first time, still feeling like a frustrated outsider.

Project Update and Ashley's Visit to the Field

This week I was not able to post as much as I wanted to, but it was a important for my project development.  We had Ashley, the field studies coordinator, visit our group here in McLeod Ganj all week.  She gave some great feedback for all of the students, including me.  Unfortunately she ran out of time and we had to talk about my project as we meandered down the mountain, fighting off car sickness, in a taxi towards the Kangra Airport, but it was still really beneficial!  Here is what I learned from our conversation:

First, I have a lot of ideas for my collection of travel essays.  I think the general themes I am running into are ideals and disillusionment, displacement, something with life in transit, and I am particularly interested in sifting through my various motivations for traveling and why I do the things that I do, and how it has matured and developed throughout my various adventures-Hawaii to Ghana to now.  

So far I am thinking my first essay will be about my experience with the broken down bus to McLeod Ganj in the middle of the night.  I want to explore some of my frustrations and motivations for why I do what I do and try to represent it in a complex way.  

I think that this will give the following essays, dealing more with others stories and anthropological material, a focus if I am able to relate it back to some of these initial motivations and realizations (the personal essay part of my project).  I still have yet to figure out what the balance will be between the stories I gather and my personal experience, but that brings us to the next point.

Connecting: Writers Network

In an effort to do more social discovery and connecting based on Dr. Burton's last email, I did a bit of research and found an awesome free network for creative writers online!  It is called Writers-Network, and my profile is here if you are interested. 

Since I just signed up I cannot give a full report, but what I really like is that there are many members and you are able to post writing based on how much you comment on others writing- ensuring that there are discussions going on instead of just writing out in space.  You can create your own profiles, categorize your work so that they can be easily searched, join other writers fan page and follow their stream, etc.

For an experiment I posted a pretty rough draft of a poem I wrote while I was in Ghana last year.  I cleaned it up a bit, renamed it "Roads,"  and posted it on Writers-Network, just to get a general response and test to see what this site can offer.

It seems like it is going to be a great opportunity to connect with other creative writers and to receive some quality feedback on my writing.  If you are interested in creative writing (and I know there are a few of you out there that would enjoy this site), you should join!  Really!

Consume: Freedom in Exile by the Dalai Lama

Freedom in Exile by Dalai Lama XIV

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Reading this book in Dharamsala, the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile, was a unique experience. I’ve heard a lot about this remarkable man from my Tibetan host family as well as from some of his frequent teachings, but this book helped me understand a lot more about his personal journey.

Getting a personal account of his flight from Tibet and the events leading up to it (including his interactions with Mao) were highly interesting. I had not previously understood India’s motivations for being so hospitable to the Tibetan refugees, but this book makes it clear that it was a tough situation at first; Nehru felt that the Dalia Lama was “asking too much” (163). In fact, India was not even one of the countries in the UN who recognized the Tibetan government in exile. Yet, despite the bumpy start, India still continues to be very generous to the incoming Tibetans. Nehru even took it upon himself personally to see that the Tibetan children received a good education in both Tibetan and English since they are the most valuable resources (164).

Email from Professor Burton: Checking in July 3, 2011

This is part of an email response from my field study faculty mentor, Dr Burton, on connecting and the importance of social discovery.

Rachel:

When will you all be headed to Amritsar?

Are you finding other creative writers abroad? Not just in India? And I do want to encourage you to diversify your means of social discovery, particularly by thinking in terms of "marketing" your experience. If you haven't already, review my post on Social Discovery (http://digitalcivilization.blogspot.com/2010/11/social-discovery.html). And as you can, browse my recent students' blog posts relating to that from Spring (especially the ones where they commented on finding people to invite to our webinar or to read our eBook). I know this seems like I'm beating a dead horse, but if there is anything I would change in my teaching it would be accelerating this and expanding it. Social discovery is both finding and telling, so keep it up and keep me posted. Tried reaching out to various educators?

Check in again soon.

Dr. Burton

(From a church parking lot in Culpeper, Virginia)

Sent from my iPad

Honors Prospectus is IN!!!

I am happy to say that thanks to a bunch of great people back in Provo my honors thesis prospectus is now at the honors office awaiting approval.  Here was the latest discussion on it with my mentors.  Now just to figure out my eBook (the next thing I need to work out) and the more traditional format for both my Digital Civilization class and my final thesis:

Professor Bennion:

It is passed so far as I'm concerned.  I put the form in Dr. Dean's box.  I don't know about the filing of an ebook as a final project according to what Honors expects, but Debbie probably would.

Professor Burton:

Rachel:

I agree with Dr. Bennion that this is good to go. Thanks for your patience and persistence in nailing this down. This is still a bit risky as a hybrid project -- but I think you are up to it. I like the way you blend anthropological sources and methods with creative writing and digital media, and your work to date on the blog is on target.

Create: A Little More Than a Dog

Here is another building block to the create aim of my blog:

During the preparation course to come to India we had a lesson on ethics.  Among the plethora of hypothetical questions, this one was thrown out there:

 “What do you do if there is a stray dog starving near your home and your host family advises you not to feed it since they don’t want her puppies?”

In class I got on a bit of a soap box.  “We come from the land of Mickey Mouse and stuffed animals and tooth brushes for our dogs.”  From my experience in Ghana I felt like I had a new perspective.  I wanted the students to realize that this is not the same mentality that we will experience once we get to India.

I was firm.  Felt firm.  As much as I love puppies, the dogs in Delhi with their dangling tumor stomachs did not stir my blood.  I am not heartless—it is just different somehow.  I have felt really good about living with Buddhists who do not believe in killing, even insects (even really, really big insects in my room), and I’ve gotten by just fine so far without getting my heart strings wrung.

Until last week.

Consume: A Hike to Triund

A little over a week ago our group decided to take a hike to Triund out of McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala.  It is a 9 kilometer hike one way (according to the menu at Nick’s Italian Café), and depending on how hard core you are it can take you anywhere from 2 to 4 hours one way.  Our group took about 5, but we had a lot of breaks.

It is all uphill getting there, and all downhill coming back.  There is virtually no variety in the workout, but the hike itself is beautiful.  If you are interested in ever doing this hike try to go earlier in the day to ensure you have planned enough time to spend on the mountain.  Do it on a clear day too so you do not get the fog problem we had, and pack a lunch because there are some shops up there that are very pricey. 

Here are a few pictures I took.  I will admit I was disappointed by what I captured.  The rain and clouds contributed a lot to that.  I’ve felt this lack of enthusiasm for photography ever since I got here in India though—in many ways I do not think I have ever gotten over the ethical dilemma I faced in Ghana. This week I have made a goal to get my camera out...

Consume: The Essential Gandhi by Mahatma Gandhi

The Essential Gandhi by Mahatma Gandhi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book changed my life. It is by far the best biography I have ever read, but I think the unique format lends itself to that. While it is officially an anthology, the editor strung it in a way that Gandhi himself narrates the story. Drawing from all of Gandhi’s writings, this blend really makes up something special.

It is more than the fact that it is packed with a bunch of quotes you might find on dentist office posters or written on your mirror though (which there are plenty of that I will note at the end of this review). It inspired me to be a better person. I second what Einstein said, that “generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked this earth” (323).

One of the most refreshing things about this biography is that Gandhi is very frank and honest about his human shortcomings. This might sound really silly, but I remember once taking the Meyer Briggs personality test and noting that Gandhi was also an INFJ (of course someone else took it for him, but still). After reading this book I can start to believe that he and we may have actually shared a lot in common, at least, when he was young. As a child he was “very shy” and would run straight home from school because he “could not bear to talk to anybody” (6). He also admits that he was very afraid of things (11), had a problem with secrecy (12), and once had to confess to his father than he stole from his brother (13). I laughed as I went through marking the pages—so many parallels to my own life, particularly his obsession with seeking truth (14). I remember as a young teenager some of my earliest terrible poems were about the conundrum of truth, especially around the time of my parents’ divorce. It does not really shock me that I am now very interested in the authenticity of experience and storytelling for my field study projects. I doubt I would have made that connection had I not read this biography.