Leaving on a jet plane -- No joy on Podcast

I'm leaving in just eight hours for Chicago. From there, I will layover for about four hours, and then take a 13-hour flight to Seoul, South Korea. I will spend the night in Seoul and then fly to Tianjin, China, to take a bus to Beijing. I'm going to be traveling for the better part of two days.

I won't be able to blog from over there, very likely, so for my very small audience this is my last post for some time. I have yet to see any sign that they've recieved my first five episodes of The Worldwrights over at www.podiobooks.com. So I likely will not be the first person to take it for a test drive when it does appear.

So until next time . . .

Podcast -- China, South Korea

Very shortly here, I expect in the next day or two, you will be able to tune in for free to a podcast of The Worldwrights. I am reading the entire novel out loud and composing some background music to go with it for www.podiobooks.com. I have just finished submitting the first five chapters and am awating word that they're released and ready to go.

I've read the first nine chapters and I'm in the midst of post-production on all of them. There will be a gap of about two weeks coming up here, however, as my long-anticipated trip to China and South Korea is about to begin. I hope to be able to blog about it from Korea at least (they are very Internet-connected there, I'm told) and post pictures and the like. If not, I plan on having a huge section both here and on my website hosting a photo diary.

I've put in some time with the Pimsleur tapes for Mandarin Chinese which I found at the local library and I'm feeling very confident that I will at the very least be able to follow the gist of most of the conversations I hear. I don't know how much opportunity I'll have to ask for directions to Long Peace Street, but I'll certainly be asking where I can find a good fan dien (restraunt) or where the shee shou chien (bathroom) is. And I don't think I'll be sorry I learned to say do shou chien (how much money is it) or tai dou-la (it's too much)!

Anyway, as this pertains to my writing it's been fascinating. Four weeks ago I knew not a word of Chinese except maybe "ni-hau" and "kung-fu." Now I can identify myself and talk about my family and count money and tell the time and all kinds of cool things. Language is very interesting as it reveals so much about how a culture thinks.

I'm also very jazzed about visiting the site of some of the world's older civilizations, and in particular the country where printing appears to have been invented for the first time. I will also be spending a good chunk of time in South Korea . . . I have somewhat worked aspects of Korean culture into the backstory of my current in-progress novel, Prodigal Earth, so it's going to be interesting to actually experience the real thing.

At any rate, keep an eye on this space for further developments.