Posted on Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Bonds of friendship

Director-General Lai presents citation to WWII veteran William Seam Wong, U.S. Army, 14th Air Force (aka “Flying Tigers”), 407th Air Service Squadron

Last Friday, in Boston, MA, my father, William S. Wong and 2 of his fellow servicemen were honored for their service in World War II. My father was part of an all-Chinese American unit called the 407th Air Service Squadron.

The 407th Air Service Squadron was activated in November 1942 to support aerial operations in China. Army Air Force support personnel who were fluent in both the English and Chinese languages were needed to communicate easily with both Chinese soldiers and civilians. This service unit served a special mission: to assist American Flying Tigers pilots and to train Chinese Air Force ground crews to defend against Japanese invasion.

Posted on Tuesday, May 12, 2015

My first SCBWI conference

SCBWI Spring Spirit Conference

Back when I was mulling over a career in writing, I had been advised to join the SCBWI, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I joined because I trusted the person who gave me that tip. Unfortunately at that time, all I did was read the newsletter they sent out. Though the cost to join was not high, I didn’t get anything out of it. After a year, I dropped it. I had not taken the time to seek out what value SCBWI could bring to me.

Now that I have entrenched myself in this endeavor, I have rejoined and am making a concerted effort to make use of the networking advantages as well as workshops and conferences. A few weekends back, I attended my first SCBWI conference. The conference, “2015 Spring Spirit,” was put on by the California North/Central region of SCBWI. It was fantastic!

Being that this was my first SCBWI conference, I had no idea what to expect. I went into it with my “growth mindset” and sought to learn as much as I could and hoped to make some new friends who also wrote children’s books.

Posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2015

The student can also be the teacher

Photo courtesy of canstockphoto.com/tang90246

I’ve spent the last year, researching and learning what it takes to publish a book. After almost a year of doing this, I still feel like there is so much more to learn and that what I know just barely scratches the surface. There are still days when it all seems overwhelming but thankfully, over time, those days are fewer and farther between.

Despite feeling like I’m still a neophyte in all of this, my friend, Adele pointed out, recently, just how far I really have come. She and I attended a Meetup about publishing with an emphasis on what goes into a contract between you and a publisher. During that meeting, I peppered the speaker with questions, and I offered up my experience to others attendees. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but later, on the drive home, Adele commented on just how much I really know and how easily I am now sharing what I’ve learned.

Posted on Tuesday, April 14, 2015

An author wears multiple hats

Image courtesy of canstockphoto.com/ctjo

When I first considered writing children’s picture books, I envisioned myself at a desk with my laptop or a notebook/pen feverishly creating whimsical rhymes that would later become fabulous bestselling books. That dream still exists, but the reality is that an author is so much more.

What I have discovered during the past year is that in addition to being an author, I am also a:

marketing person
sales person
researcher
web master
networker

If you want to become a successful author, you need to be able to promote yourself, you need a website, and you need to connect with others in your field.

You don’t have to wear all of those hats, but you’ll increase the likelihood of your success (or so I’m told) if you get all those elements in place. You could hire a team to help you; but given that you may not have any income rolling in, the impetus to “do-it-yourself” can be rather strong.

Posted on Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Coloring outside the lines

It seems that most of my life, I’ve always colored inside the lines. What I mean by this is I play by the rules, I follow the instructions, I rarely deviate from the norm. I know that may sound a bit odd to say given the current writing journey I am on, but I think for the most part, I’m a “color inside the lines” type of gal.

The reason I bring this up is because I’ve been following a well-trodden path for publishing my book. I’ve perused many websites, attended writing workshops and read various books on publishing. My take away from all of that was:

You should only contact a publisher if they are a really good fit for your book.
Initial contact for submitting your manuscript should follow strict submission guidelines.

Posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Who takes care of the caregiver?

Image courtesy of canstockphoto.com/Bialasiewicz

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday and a few weeks back was the anniversary of when she passed away. So, she’s been on my mind lately. In 2004, my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It’s a devastating disease with a horrible prognosis. I flew to Boston immediately so I could go with my mom for her first visit to her oncologist. One of the first questions my mom asked was “how long?” The answer: 5–6 months.

Receiving news like this is heartbreaking and different people handle it in different ways. As the patient, my mom was stalwart and accepting right from the very beginning. Ever the pragmatist, she believed she had lived a long life; and if this was the hand that was dealt to her then so be it. She wasn’t angry. She wasn’t depressed. She just accepted it.

As her daughter, I was devastated. I didn’t want to watch my mom suffer through any of it. But as a caretaker, I never wanted her to know how affected I was by it. I promised myself right from the very beginning that no matter what happened, I would not look back on this time with any regret. I would be there for her, I would stand strong, and I would take care of her the best way I could even if I was falling apart inside.

Posted on Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Finding life’s sweet spot

Image courtesy of canstockphoto.com/nelosa

A couple of weeks back, I had lunch with my friend, Kathy. We try to catch up every 2–3 months. She has been following my blog. So, she knew I’d been feeling overwhelmed. As always, she was patient, loving and kind as she listened to my woes. She stressed the importance of taking care of myself and being gentle with myself. In other words, cut myself some slack and be okay with not accomplishing everything I want to do. Figure out the priorities and let other stuff go. The question is How do I do that?

Kathy gave me a newspaper article. The article was titled “A balanced life: productive people hit the ‘Sweet Spot’ without being busy.” The article interviewed Christine Carter, the author of the book “The Sweet Spot: How to find your groove at home and at work.”

The book teaches you how to achieve more by doing less! It shows you how to find that balance in your life where everything flows smoothly. Life’s sweet spot is the optimum combination of factors that produces ease and happiness rather than stress and exhaustion. Sounds awesome!

Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2015

I wish my dog could talk (part 2)

Bryce and his mom

Since the beginning of December, things have been up and down with Bryce. He has his good days and he has his bad days. The good news is we have the arthritis under control. The bad news is the coughing and breathing issue is still a work in progress. The frustrating news is the colitis could be under control with food, but Bryce really hates the food. Trying to cope with all these issues is causing me to lose sleep … literally!

Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Changing up your work environment

Photo courtesy of http://www.canstockphoto.com/lightwavemedia

I wrote a good portion of this week’s blog while sitting at Panera Bread with 3 people I had just met. This was my first meet-up for writing and it’s called “Shut Up and Write.” The premise is to dedicate a certain amount of uninterrupted time to writing. In this case, it was an hour.

Prior to coming here, I wondered if I could really get any work done in a public place. In school, I had never been one of those people who could study in a noisy area. I always found a quiet, out of the way spot in the library or an empty classroom where there would be complete silence and no distractions.

There are multiple reasons why people gravitate to public areas to do their work:

Some crave the interaction with other people.
Some need to get away from the distractions at home.
Others may need the Wi-Fi available.

For me, I needed a venue outside my home to get away from the distractions of my dogs and the chores that never seem to go away. Plus, I thought it would be interesting to see if sitting with other writers would motivate me to write for one solid hour.

Posted on Tuesday, January 20, 2015

What kind of mindset do you have?

Image courtesy of canstockphoto.com/michaeldb

My friend Adele recommended a book to me called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck. The premise is that there are 2 mindsets: a “growth mindset” or a “fixed mindset.”

People with a fixed mindset believe that their personality, ability, and talent levels are permanently fixed at where they are at. This limiting belief therefore hinders their performance and actions.

People with a growth mindset believe that hard work along with the desire to reach beyond their current personality, ability, or talent levels will result in noticeable improvement.

At first glance, I said to myself I have a growth mindset. In general, I believe that is true. I’ve always felt that I can do anything that I set my mind to. But, when I really stop and think about it, I realize that that is not entirely true.