Temple Street Gets Sined

The first draft of "Visible" is finished. I wrote this in Connecticut, and delayed tweeking due to something we writers call "laziness". Last night, however, I realized something: I wasn't ready to finish "The Way I Was Born." So I tweeked "Visible" and printed it out for Ying to edit : )

Of course, now I have to finish "The Way I Was Born." The idea for this story came fast and hard. The execution, not so much. I think it has to do with the location. Hong Kong stories always take more time, because of the pressure to get it "right." A Chinese protagonist in Hong Kong will not think/behave the same way as an American protagonist in a small town. Words like "douchebag" probably won't come up a lot, for one. Luckily I have Ying to tell me, "A Hong Kong person wouldn't say this." Is he always right? Not necessarily. He traveled in a certain circle in Hong Kong, and I write about a difference one. Which is a nice way to say that he was kind of a goodie two shoes. My characters, on the other hand, tend to come from "the wrong side of the tracks" (another phrase my protagonist wouldn't say), and be a lot "dirtier". Thank goodness for research.

I think I can finish "The Way I Was Born" today. The bad stuff is about to happen, and things tend to go faster after that. Then I can show it to Ying, and horrify him with what I did in the place of his birth. Of course, he's used to it.




*For the record, my finger stayed out of most of the pictures.