A Cat's Language

I never had a cat in Vietnam and my perception of cats was that they were aloof. My landlord's cat in DeKalb, IL, reassured me of that perception. For a dog lover, cat's aloofness was perfectly fine with me. However, that image of cats changed when Wes's cat Samantha welcomed me and sat with me the first time I visited him and his grandmother in Seattle. I was impressed by her friendliness and began to like cats.

Then, Hermia our cat transformed me into a cat lover. Her attachment to us, especially to me, is amazing. She follows me everywhere I go in the house, even to the bathroom. I also begin to pay attention to her language. She makes different sounds for different "occasions," such as seeing birds on the deck, letting me know she wants water or food, feeling upset when I tell her to go away because she's become a nuisance, alerting us to get up in the morning. The noises she makes all sound different. I remember years back, I ran into a book in a bookseller's catalogue called How to Talk to Your Cat. At the time I didn't care about cats at all but thought it interesting.

Now, do I want to learn how to talk to Hermia? Probably not. I think we communicate well enough that we know each other's wants and needs. For example, when I don't want her to follow me around in the house, she understands what I say. On the other hand, when she sees birds outside, I know she wants to go out there and catch them. Unfortunately, she's an indoor cat, so she has to stay inside. Now that I'm laid up with a knee injury, I believe she's happy that she wasn't home alone all day long until we returned from work in the evening. Now we enjoy each other's company, especially when I'm done with my writing and Wes is still at work.

Diversity in Genres

To my delight, new genres in all kinds of writing pop up every so often. Just for essays, there're flash essay, standard essay, personal essay, memoir essay, and lyric essay. Which kind should I writer if I want to express my thoughts and feelings in an article? The upside is that I can have different types to choose from; the downside is that I have to decide, and making a decision takes time.

One kind of essay that intrigues me now is the lyric essay. After googling it to find out more about it, I think I'd like to explore this genre. I love lyric poetry, so I might as well try my hand at it. Before I start, I should think of what I want to write in a lyric essay. From what I learned from the Internet, the Internet is an amazing learning tool, a lyric essay jumps around a lot. What's the best subject for me to write in this kind of essay? When I'm day dreaming? Anyway, someday I'll write a flash lyric essay. There we go. A "new" genre has just popped up: Flash lyric essay. A writer is an explorer. Sure enough.

Fresh Eyes

For six months in 2009, I worked on my genre-bending (blending) novel The Jade Pendant Tale and finished the revised draft and let it cool down. For the rest of the year, I worked on different things, such as plays, haiku, and personal essays. Now that 2010 is here, as scheduled, I return to the novel. When I looked at it on New Year's Day, I spotted quite a few of problems, seeing the novel with a pair of fresh eyes. My discovery didn't frustrate me; instead, it brought me joy. For me, the six-month hiatus worked. For some other writers, though, six months might be too long a cool-off time. The long put-off is just for the novel. I won't grant a short story months' time-off. A month should do the job.

A Humongous Christmas Present

This Christmas was a weird Christmas. For the whole month I was home all day every day because of my knee injury. With short-term disability, I can't work. And the orthopedic surgeon said it'd take nine months to let the torn meniscus heal. With no worker's compensation, no income, and no unemployment benefit as a self-employed interpreter, I looked for sources for "income." I checked out a couple of emergency funds for writers sites and found myself unqualified: writers who would get help must be published authors. I had some publication credits, but that's not enough. Then, through Fidelma at Artist Trust who gave me an e-address. It turned out to be The Dramatist Guild in NYC. I used to be a member, but currently I'm not. So I wondered if I was qualified but gave it a try anyway, sending Sue a letter and a copy of my artist's resume. I got a response asking me to fill out the form. I was still not sure if I'd get it.

Yesterday, December 26, I received a letter from the Guild. Before I opened it, I suspected it was a rejection letter. To my surprise, it came with a check! I wanted to cry. The grant became my biggest Christmas present I'd ever received. The help I received did not only touched my heart but also encouraged me to keep writing. I will.

A Gainful Loss II

It's been the fourth weekend since I was laid up with my knee injury. I was so active before the accident: I went to my interpreting assignments by bus and on foot, braving all kinds of weather--95 degree heat, gust, pouring rain, cold, and the combination of some of these, such as cold with rain and wind. Now I don't have to go through all this for a while but stay home and work on my writing. Writing full-time is what every writer yearns for. So, Wes said my injury is a blessing in disguise. I myself strongly believe this must have some sort of meaning, and something good will come out of it; as to what it is, I can't predict.

For the past four weeks, I've put Chinese philosophy and Buddhism into good use. I'm grateful to my illiterate mother for having given me an education that gave me the ability to not only read ancient Chinese books but dig deep into Chinese philosophy.

And, I can't end this without saying thank-you to Wes for all his support.

A Gainful Loss

Three days before Thanksgiving I had an "accident" between my interpreting assignments--a trip and fall on the sidewalk--which left me with a badly injured knee. I considered that Monday my personal black Monday; ironically it was in the same week of Black Friday. Unlike Black Friday, my black Monday would turn my bank account into red, not black. The reason? I am self-employed as an on-call interpreter and thus I am not covered under worker's compensation, nor can I apply for unemployment benefits during the period of having a short-term disability.

My loss of income did cause me concern. However, I succeeded in turning the misfortune into my advantage. For three weeks, I've been productive in writing. Before long, I'll have my work sent out to writing competitions. For me it's a gainful loss. There's a gain in a loss, and there's a loss in a gain.

Not Escapism

When Wes told me The Road, the movie, didn't have a wide release, I was surprised. Based on a best-selling novel and a Pulitzer Prize winner, the movie wasn't open in most of the theatres. After giving it some thoughts, I came to see why. Its gloominess doesn't fit the mood of our time. It's not a movie that people would want to watch to lose themselves in the fictional world for a couple of hours. Although it deals with courage and love, the image of what our world would come to is too bleak, and too horrific.

However, The Road, the book was a best seller. http://modern-american-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_road_review_of_the_book When the book came out in 2006, the unemployment rate wasn't above 10%. Timing is everything.