Just read an interview with Yann Martel author of Life of Pi and a series of notes he has written for his next novel. It is very revealing about his process for writing. He says that art takes from life and gives it meaning- which I agree with. He does a lot of research for his novels and explores concepts which fascinate him. It took him four years to write Life of Pi (which I love!). You can find the notes and his interview with a collection called “the notebooks”. With my own process I’m still trying to work this out. With Vixen I discovered her character first- then put her in history as a backdrop. With my short stories I write by concept- things that fascinate me that i want to explore. I am trying to build a new novel and at the moment I have the characters but not the narrattive framework to put them in. It will come- I have faith if they want their stories told in a certain way they will let me know.

I’m taking a break from the 50 verses of consciousness and reading Thomas Moore’s Original Self. There are some zen like moments in his writing- however he thinks (and I paraphrase) that living in the present moment solely denies links to the past and the future. I think he misunderstands the emphasis on trying to live in the present moment in Pureland Buddhism- I think there is an understanding in Thay’s Buddhism that living mindfully in the present moment is difficult to achieve. It is a moment in time when mind consciousness stops for a little while. Many practices such as Touching the Earth leads you to meditate on the past and the future. I’ve been talking to a friend Doug who said that his Japanese masters told him not to expect anything from meditation and you don’t meditate to get results. Thay says meditation leads to greater mindfulness and helps cultivate compassion. However meditation relies on you to let whatever is in your mind come to the surface and if you force this it won’t happen. At least this is how I explain the differences between these two. What I am really appreciating from the practice at the moment is learning to smile at your emotions. This is what I think is missing from Western psychology theories- the ability to smile and be compassionate to yourself and then to others.

I am finding that doing the practice has made me more aware of my emotions and I feel them more acutely than I have in a while. These range from frustration to joy that I am in Hanoi (so it’s not all bad!) I’m going to go to Saigon and follow Thich Nhat Hanh around for a while in late February- my understanding husband has supported me in doing this. I’m reading “transformation at the base” now a very dense book about the fifty verses of the nature of consciousness. It’s pretty complex but comforting to read especially when you’re feeling sad.

Went out for dinner last night with an american academic Doug whom teaches at Hanoi University whom had read Vixen and met me at a bookworm gallery launch. He has met Tim O’Brien the author of “the things they carried” and Tim O’Brien said (and I paraphrase very badly) that there are two kinds of reality, historical reality and story reality. The fiction author is able to condense reality and display it. His story “How to write a true war story” apparently depicts this- I haven’t read it yet. Doug is teaching American politics and geopolitical environmentalism or some such and his gut feeling is that Vietnam is very open. Hanoi University is training their students to be ready for graduate schools overseas. He commented however that there is racism towards ethnic minorities the area he wishes to study. He also promoted my book to some Vietnamese-American academics that came over from California too! He also loves ghost stories and we discussed mental illness too- and I mentioned that one of the things I explore is that grey area between the spiritual and the psychotic. Been doing a lot of writing ensconced in the Bookworm bookshop and reading short stories and books that Rob has been recommending to me.

I’m currently reading Shantaram, an Australian novel about an ex prisoner whom escapes to Bombay- a true story-and it’s far more than the exotic travelogue that it could have been- it has a hard gritty truth about it- it shows the seedy horrible side of India as well as its captivating moments with some real personal reflection in it. I’m very impressed. I read an article by Zadie Smith which was mostly pretension but had two nuggets of worthwhile gold in it- about what makes good writing and (I paraphrase) she says that good writing shows a truth or perspective in it. She also says the self gets in the way- I think this only strikes second novels when you are suddenly aware of yourself as the author and have to put this external perspective created by media and press away. A truth (or reality) that I’m trying to portray in my short story work currently has the theme of coming to terms with or exorcising the past and coming to peace with it. It’s hard to not write the same story again and again, I’ve found I’ve been doing that lately, but that’s what all those other drafts are for.