Ordinary Stories of Magic, Adventure, and Chocolate

September 15, 2009

Well, it's been over a year since my old laptop was stolen. I think at this point I can almost say I'm glad it happened. I can't remember how I got by with that old laptop that couldn't do so many of the things I now take for granted, and I ended up rewriting the book in ways that I'm pretty sure made it much better. Everyone told me that would probably be the case, but I guess it was a little hard to believe when I was in the middle of it. It's funny how often things that seem so crappy can actually turn out to be those well-disguised blessings.

I didn't work on the book at all from May until October, and instead focused on a series of collaborative reportbacks from Japan about the global justice organizing surrounding the G8 summit in July, which were published on alternet and beyond. When I finally settled back into Ordinary Stories last fall, I had to start editing back at the beginning, rereading everything, making enormous changes, and eventually adding a few new sections. As the year unfolded, resolution to some of the questions the book had left unanswered started to appear through the circumstances of my life, and as a result, the ending of the story actually changed.

Someone warned me once that editing a book takes longer than the original writing. I didn't believe it, but was definitely true for me. I finally finished the third draft two weeks ago, emailing it to friends just hours before heading off to Burning Man, with the idea in my head that the book was done, and when I returned I'd send it off to publishers and focus on new things. It's been a long time that I've been doing this, and I'm itchy to start working on something new—something with more tangible, immediate results; something that I can see is actually making a positive difference in the world. I'm dappling with the ideas of doing disaster relief work overseas, or studying chiropractic medicine, after seeing how effective chiropractic has been with my back injuries over the past 2 years (unfortunately the $160,000 price tag is a bit daunting). I'd also like to travel and start a second book, this time about other people's experiences with magic in their lives. And maybe plug into some new activist endeavors.

But I came home from the playa to find that my friends had come through for me—they'd read the book and given it back to me with a small mountain of suggestions for improvements. I had a brief moment of despair: Am I destined to work on this project forever? Will it ever be done? It will take me months to make the changes they are suggesting, which I must admit are good suggestions. I'm almost out of money. What am I doing with my life?

But my moment of desperation passed, and I've accepted the reality that it's not quite time to send my draft off to the pros. I'll send it off to some more friends, sit down with my mountain of edits, and keep plugging away.

But not quite yet. First I'm going to update the website. Find a new filing cabinet and clean my desk. Play with ideas for cover art. Catch up on email. Plant the fall garden on my little fire escape. Reaffirm faith in my trust fund (that is, trust that the funds will come from somewhere).

Maybe at some point I'll jump on a plane and work from the road; I always love a change of scenery.

And so the adventure continues...

June 27, 2008

What is the worst thing that could have happened  this month with regard to the book project? How about having my laptop stolen when I was literally ONE DAY away from finishing the first round of edits? Yep, that's what happened. And I hadn't backed up in way longer than usual, because I was so close to finishing and kept thinking, "Tomorrow I'll be done and sent it off to the editors, so it'll be backed up then." And it was probably my most productive writing month ever. To add insult to injury, just as I was realizing the computer was indeed missing, I looked over and saw that my new housemate's cat was peeing on my jacket.

I spent the whole day crying. I wondered if this was a message from the Universe that the book was crap and I should just move on with my life and do something more useful for the world. The idea of reproducing all that work was heartbreaking. The theft came on the heels of a few weeks that were difficult for many reasons, and I began to dread the start of each new day, wondering what else could possibly go wrong. My faith in magic and life and myself began to waver. Finally, I forced myself to stop thinking about it and focused on getting ready for Japan.

No, I won't quit. But I'm taking a break. Later in the summer I'll climb back into the project and try to piece together what I lost. I bought a new laptop and it can do all sorts of fancy things my old dinosaur couldn't, so that cheered me up a bit. And everybody says the rewrites will probably turn out better than the originals, which I'm not sure I believe, but I appreciate their faith in the project. The bright silver lining of the whole cloudy month was that my friends were so amazingly there for me, offering  help and encouragement at every turn. Thank you, all of you. If this book ever gets published, it'll be thanks to you.

 May 24, 2008

I had heard that editing is a longer process than actually writing a book, but I guess I didn’t believe it. Now that I’ve been editing since October, I think I understand what they meant. It’s amazing how much I find to make better and how long it really takes. I just finished the first full round of line-by-line edits last week, which was a big milestone for me. Now I’m re-working a few themes in the book to make them clearer, and after that I’ll send the second half off to my beloved editor friends who have been the angels that have kept me going through this whole seemingly endless project. I’ve already gotten the first half back from them, so when I return from the summer travels I’ll start incorporating their suggestions. I hope to be sending it off to publishers by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

August 31, 2007

Two years and a dozen countries later, the rough draft of Ordinary Stories of Magic, Adventure and Chocolate is finished! All that’s left is to fill in a few gaps, check some facts, and then edit. And find a publisher. OK, I’ll still be busy for a while.

It turned out to be over 450 pages long. We’ll see how much of it survives the edits. I got nice and stuck for quite a while. I knew what I wanted to write but was thoroughly sick of doing it. And I was lonely, sitting every day by myself, writing the book that seemed to be further from done with each passing page. I’d beg my friends to come out to cafés and have work dates with me, desperate for human interaction in my workday. Even chocolate wasn’t doing it for me any more.

I guess nobody ever said writing a book would be easy. In the end, it was completed in the same way it was begun- by physical injury. It was a broken toe in Moldova that forced me to sit still and begin the project that had been leaping around in my mind since Uruguay. And the day after my birthday, when I had decided to put it all aside and have a summer vacation cycling down the coast to Big Sur and then traveling in British Colombia, another injury ended my dreams of escape and forced me to sit down and finish it.

I never had x-rays, so I can’t officially say whether the disc in my neck was fully herniated or just bulging. I don’t know how it happened. It started out on July 23^rd as the typical stiff neck I get now and then, except that it was a little more acute, and made it hard to sleep. It was worse on my birthday but still tolerable. By July 25, having only cycled seven miles total, the pain was so bad we called my friends to pick me and my bicycle up in Half Moon Bay and bring me to the first available chiropractor.

I spent the next few weeks unable to stand for more than five minutes. I couldn’t do anything that required leaning forward, which I quickly discovered is almost everything. But one thing I could do was sit and one particular computer that we had ergonomically engineered to not hurt me. That computer immediately and mysteriously developed an inability to get the internet, and I took it all as a sign that the Universe just wasn’t going to let me move on until I finished the thing.

I almost wasn’t even surprised. We tend to get what we ask for. I knew that what I wanted more than anything was to finish the book. I couldn’t seem to do it but I couldn’t let it go. I wish I had done it without getting my ass kicked, but I didn’t. I wasn’t going to let it happen twice. I worked obsessively, determined to make the constant pain and cancellation of my summer lead to something positive. I typed the last page just as my chiropractor and acupuncturist declared me “graduated.” I was healed, on more levels than one.

So here it is. The true stories of my adventures, spiritual growth, loves, losses, and quest to understand the world, one faraway place at a time. Whether it will be of any value to anyone but me is yet to be seen. But I learned a lot about myself along the way, so I guess the journey was worth it regardless. I hope it’s a fun read, and I hope it inspires people to smile and see some magic they would have ordinarily overlooked. And eat some chocolate.