All posts by David Todd

expatriate life, Operation Lotus Sunday

The Story Behind “Operation Lotus Sunday” – Our 1983 Trip

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In late July 1983, Lynda and the kids flew home from Saudi Arabia to miss the worst of the Al Hasa summer. Temperature 120F+, humidity 70%. We had first planned out in great detail our vacation to travel to Asia. To go around-the-world cost almost the same as a round trip across the Atlantic. So the family went on, planning to visit Rhode Island and Kansas. I would come in early September. We would be in Hong Kong on September 5.

To visit China, or Red China as we called it then, was a dream. It was only twelve years since Nixon had made his overtures to China, and only two since it had opened up to USA tourism—or maybe to all Western or outside tourism. We were in a place where we had some disposable income to afford the trip, and the time to make it. Lynda had seen an exhibit of the terracotta soldiers, uncovered in the Xian area, when it toured through Kansas City in the mid-1970s. She wanted to see them in situ. I of course wanted to see the Great Wall. We had studied ahead and put together an itinerary that would take us through six Chinese cities in fourteen days.

And not just in China. We would start in Hong Kong for several days, go to China by train, fly back to Hong Kong from Beijing and transfer to a flight to Manila, then fly on to Bangkok, and “home” to Al Khobar. People probably thought we were crazy to try to do so much. Charles was 4 yrs 7 mos. old, and Sara was 2 yrs 5 months old. They did well on airplanes and buses, and actually did fairly well on the various tours.

China would be different, however. There would be no off the cuff touring. Everything would be planned out by Swire Travel, no doubt under the strict supervision of the government. We would be told where to go and what to do. How would the kids do on this trip?

The cities on our China itinerary were Guangzhou (formerly called Canton), Kunming, a side trip to the Stone Forest, Chengdu, Xian, and Beijing. Those of you who have read Operation Lotus Sunday will recognize this as the itinerary of the Brownwells, the tourist couple who were American expats living in Saudi Arabia and touring China with their two preschool children. Hmm, sound familiar?

On this particular trip, I brought a 1983 day timer with me that I had bought in Saudi. I had made a number of entries through the year, mainly for business, but wanted to keep a trip diary and thought that would be a good book to do it in. The previous year, summer of 1982, we had toured Europe. We hadn’t kept a trip diary on that trip, and the memory of the specific things we had seen were already fading. I didn’t want that to happen this time.

So how did I get from a 1983 tour of China with my family to the plot of a novel? See the next installment.

 

Operation Lotus Sunday, Writing

The Story Behind “Operation Lotus Sunday” – New Ideas Begin

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So I’m on the Wheaton Campus, attending the Write To Publish Conference in June 2004, trying to decide if I was a writer or if I had written a novel.

I took the continuing class on fiction writing taught by James Scott Bell. I took good notes. I still remember a lot of what Bell said, especially his thoughts on dialog. Sitting in that class, as well as in some others, ideas began to come to me for other writing projects.

The first was some more ideas for In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. The second editor I met with was not interested in Doctor Luke’s Assistant. Bible-era novels don’t sell very well, he said, with there being a limited audience for the genre. His publishing house already had its “stable” of writers for the genre, with no openings for new ones. He asked, “What else do you have?” I told him about a political novel that had crossed through my mind, but which wasn’t well developed. He said no, he wasn’t interested, but added, “What else are you working on?” I told him about FTSP; he said he was interested and that I should send him the first three chapters whenever I had them done.

So I began to more seriously think about this baseball novel, and how to work Mafia influence into it. Bell spoke a lot about conflict in his class, so I was thinking about how to develop more conflict.

At the same time, I had been thinking about my overseas travels and how to work them into books. Through the years I’ve read about people—politicians, writers, royalty—who had made the “grand tour” around the world to gain perspective for their life work. I was disappointed that I couldn’t make such a grand tour to enhance my writing. Then I realized: I did make the grand tour. I lived overseas for five years and visited more than 30 countries. I just did it before I ever thought of being a writer, and so needed to pull from memory those things I needed to enhance my writing.

In my dorm room in the evenings, after putting down some ideas or some actual words for FTSP, I began work on a mental sketch of a novel. Or, I should say of a plot. Or, I should say, of going through our expatriate life and travels, and trying to decide if there was anything in those times that could form the nucleus of a novel.

There were years of living in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Would American readers care about that? Based on the total lack of interest by Americans we interacted with in the years after returning to the States, I thought not. We had some good travels in Europe in 1982, our first real travel adventure after moving to Saudi Arabia. But except for one train mix-up nothing really came to mind.

Our second long trip out of Saudi Arabia was our round-the-world trip to Asia in 1983. Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, and Thailand, for a total of 30 days. Surely something from that trip would be good at the nucleus of a plot. And it came to me. I began to focus on China, as I’ll explain in the next post.

Operation Lotus Sunday, Writing

The Story Behind “Operation Lotus Sunday” – Where I Was

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I can trace the genesis of Operation Lotus Sunday to June 2004. However, before I get to that, I want to set the stage of where I was in my writing career at that time.

The place was the Write To Publish Conference in Wheaton, IL. This was my first national conference to attend, having been to one regional conference in early 2003. I came there to pitch my first novel, Doctor Luke’s Assistant, to editors and agents. It was completed and polished with several rounds of edits. I had another idea in my back pocket, the start of my second novel, In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, which I was ready to share if the opportunity arose. Other than this, I was planning on attending classes, meeting other writers, and generally enjoying myself.

The first day I was able to pitch DLA to an editor, who passed on it. I had an appointment with a second editor the next day, and hoped for the best. The classes were turning out quite good (though I took a couple that probably weren’t the best for me). As we talked about each others’ books and writing “careers” I got to thinking about what my next steps would be.

For me, I was in the process of deciding if I was a writer, or if I was someone who had written a novel. DLA was done; FTSP was outlined but not started, and whether it would ever be written was an unknown. Did I have more books in me? I was working on my poetry book at the time, but I knew that was almost certainly not for commercial publishing. So where was I going?

Construction on the campus of Wheaton College, the venue for the conference, meant difficulty of moving around. There was no evening coffee shop on campus, and I didn’t want to walk off campus to find one. So after the evening sessions I went to the computer room in the dorm and updated on e-mail and a few web sites (no laptop in the family back then). And thought about what I could write. An hour later I was alone in my dorm room, and thought some more. Slowly over those four days, ideas for more writing projects came to mind.

I’ll tell about the two main ideas in the next segment.

self-publishing, Writing

June 2013 Sales

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As slow as February through May were for sales, and with two new titles appearing in June, I was really hoping for sales to pick up. And they did. I sold a total of 20 books in June. While that’s not exactly bestseller status, it’s enough to give me an upbeat outlook. Here’s my sales table.

So that’s seven different titles selling. I was surprised when Barnes & Noble reported through June 27 to see three sales of Operation Lotus Sunday s0ld on June 25, which was the first day it appeared in their catalog. I was also surprise and please to see a few sales of The Gutter Chronicles, which has sat without sales for some time. Even had a review of it posted.

For linking at a writers’ site I’m on, I’m pasting in a smaller copy of the sales table.

Operation Lotus Sunday

Operation Lotus Sunday

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Yes, it’s finally available. The e-book was published on June 10 at Smashwords, June 11 at Amazon, and the paperback book went live at Amazon around June 25 (though it seems to carry the publication date of June 11). The Amazon listing still doesn’t seem to have the e-book and paperback synced to the same listing, but will soon. Meanwhile, here are some applicable links for it.

 

 

 

 

Paperback at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1490420177

E-book for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Lotus-Sunday-ebook/dp/B00DCKDUPW

E-book at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/325112

E-book for Nook at B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/operation-lotus-sunday-david-todd/1115766810

I wouldn’t say sales have been brisk. As of this morning I have 5 confirmed sales, with another person telling me they bought one at Barnes & Noble that should show up next time they report. I’m certainly pleased with it.

Now on to the next project.

Operation Lotus Sunday

“Operation Lotus Sunday” almost published

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This will be a quick post. I’m killing time till I have to go to the Centerton City Council meeting to present a contract for a new project. After that it will be take home Sonic burgers for supper.

Well, yesterday I got as far as that paragraph and had to quit due to pressing things at the office, then going to the City Council meeting. They talked a long time about other things, then about our contract. In the end they approved it, but I didn’t get home until 8:15 p.m. or so.

But last night I completed the uploading process of Operation Lotus Sunday for the Kindle store. I worked on uploading the print version as well, but couldn’t complete the process. I completed it this morning. It’s now in the queue for checking. I hope that will be done by tomorrow, and I can order a proof copy.

So, things are progressing.

[adding a smaller version of the above for linking at Absolute Write]

Operation Lotus Sunday

Trying to avoid tinkering

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While I’m waiting on the cover for Operation Lotus Sunday to be completed, I’m working on a short story, the third (and I think final) in my short story series dealing with teenage grief at the loss of a parent. I almost finished it last night, and should do so tonight.

I also spoke with two people who can do covers for my books that are currently in e-book only, but which I want to get out in print. I don’t know what their schedules will be. I think I’ll have one in about a week, but the other could take three weeks. I’m really in no hurry on these as they are not a priority.

This means, however, that Operation Lotus Sunday is just sitting there, waiting for input from me. I could go ahead and format it for e-book and print and have that out of the way. However, as I wait for the cover I’m also waiting on others from my launch team to perhaps give me comments on the book. So I wait.

Even as I wait, I find plot lines and text enhancements coming to mind. I think of a scene in the book, and realize I could have written it better, or provided a small detail that would make it a better scene and thus a better book. Those have all occurred to me when I’ve been away from The Dungeon, and thus away from the official manuscript on the desktop computer down there.

So far, I have resisted making changes. I’ve allowed those thoughts to pass away as I go from place to place, and by the time I get to The Dungeon they are gone. I could tweak the book forever. I could improve the language, enhance the scenes, differentiate the dialog.

But I have to call it quits, and so I will. Look for a publication announcement soon.

Danny Tompkins Short Stories, Short Stories

Started a New Work

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I did it today. I started a new work. After church, after lunch, after reading ten pages in Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life In Letters, after my weekend long walk, I sat in a tired state at my writing station in The Dungeon. I played a few mindless computer games, then knew I needed to be about my second career.

As I reported what might be first in my last post, I started work on “Kicking Stones”, a short story dealing with teenage grief. Last night I wrote an outline on this, as well as a second short story that’s on my mind. Both of these seemed fairly well developed, more so than I expected when I sat down to do the outline.

So this afternoon I began work on “Kicking Stones”. I wrote one or two sentences and immediately began playing another game. I went back and wrote a paragraph, then played another game. This went on for half an hour, until my mind was truly engaged in the new work. I spent an hour and a half of good writing on it, and wrote over 1,200 words. I’m not sure how long it will be. At least 2,500 words, which is Amazon’s new lower limit for items published. The poem that I plan to include in it is already written. I ran it through one critique site some time ago, and will post it at another site tonight for a second set of critiques.

People who posted reviews of the other two in this series said they weren’t exactly short stories, but rather memoir-type pieces. I suppose that’s true, though I don’t know what else I could call them. But for this one, I think I figured out a way to work a major metaphor into it. I didn’t quite get there today, but should tomorrow.

Based on the progress I made today, I think I can finish it in three days. Of course, then there will be editing, cover, etc. So, while this will be published a whole lot faster than a novel, it still won’t be instantaneous.

Danny Tompkins Short Stories, Documenting America, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Headshots, Operation Lotus Sunday, Sharon Williams short stories

What to write next?

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Readers of this blog will perhaps remember a time last year when I mused about what I was going to write next. You can see the first of those posts here. I had several follow-up posts over the next weeks.

Well, I’m about there now. Operation Lotus Sunday (previously titled China Tour) is very close to completion. Last night I began what I hope is and expect to be a final read-through. In 30 some-odd pages I found only two minor things to change, which is a good sign that this truly will be the last read. Of course, once the text is complete I’ll be at the work of formatting it for two different e-book sites, and also for a print book. I’m still working with the cover designer, who gave me the first draft but who also had a couple of physical setbacks in the last few days. And, once the book actually launches, I’ll have some promotional activities to do.

But, believing that the best marketing for your published books is to write and publish more books, it’s time for me to plan what will be next. I’m actually pretty sure what the next novel will be: Headshots, the sequel to In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. Last October, when I wrote the first chapters of four different books to gauge my interest and energy level, this was definitely in second place. I will be writing some outlines for this soon.

But I’m thinking I may write a couple of short stories first. I have always planned to write a third story in my teenage grief series that began with “Mom’s Letter” and continued with “Too Old To Play“. Once again it will be based on my own experience with that, and will include teenage memories relived in adult years and a poem. I’m thinking this will be next, and it will be titled “Kicking Stones”. The story line has been running through my head for a while. I’m also thinking of another short story in the Sharon Williams series, taking “Whiskey, Zebra, Tango” and turning it into an unconventional CIA agent series. This one will be harder, as a story line is only now coming to me, and I don’t know for sure that I can pull it off. It seems like I have a good character and a good basis for writing a series of stories, but great inspiration hasn’t come yet.

I should probably work on a book to follow-up on Documenting America, on the Civil War, while we are in the Civil War sesquicentennial years. But when I wrote first chapters last October I found this one the most difficult. So maybe that’s to happen in the future, but I think not now.

So, will I soon dive in to Headshots, or are a couple of short stories coming? Stay tuned.

Operation Lotus Sunday

Twenty-two Pages to Go

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I’m currently proofreading China Tour—or should I say Operation Lotus Sunday. This will probably be the title.

Conventional wisdom says a writer can’t proofread his own work. The problem is we read it how we want it to be, not how it is. So we read right through mistakes. This can be mitigated by reading out loud. However, even this doesn’t guarantee that the text will be perfect.

On this round of editing, which is mainly a proof-read, I have 22 pages to go. I should finish that today. I’ve been taking a few moments every morning and noon to supplement evening time to proofread. I’m reading it out loud. And I’m not catching that many mistakes. Most of what I’m finding is minor improvements in the wording that will make the narrative flow better. Or I’m adding a comma here and there. Or I’m taking commas out. A few times I’ve found “and” that should be “an” or “of” that should be “or”. Things like that.

One other thing I’m finding is some repetitiveness. I cover something on page 150 that I cover again on page 175, perhaps the behavior of the kids, or some little piece of the spy operation that the same couple discusses twice. I’m also finding a couple of holes, still, in the story. It seems I really didn’t stress the fact that the two couples are on their own, without any help from the CIA or their cooperative Chinese organization. I added some scenes at the CIA bureau in Taiwan, which helps this. Yesterday I added something to a communication from the mysterious Dong Fang about the CIA not being able to get any more assets into the country. I need to find a place for that info to go to the other couple.

And, I realized I never gave much backstory for the tourist couple, Roger and Sandra Brownwell. A careful reader will be able to glean much from their interactions with the other couple, and from a few well-placed words. But I haven’t given each of them a page or two that we could know something about their life before Sept 11, 1983.

I think what I’ll do is finish proofreading today, type the changes as I have them. I won’t print it, however. Then I’m going to look at my wife’s comments on the book, which are somewhat detailed. Then, I’ll re-read some of it to see where I can work in the additional backstory. At that point, I’ll probably print it once more, and both Lynda and I will do a careful reading of it one more time. I’ll read quickly, in two or three sittings if I can, to catch any more repletion. Lynda will read it for another proofreading and to see if she agrees with my edits.

So we draw closer, ever closer.