Success

To laugh often and much
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived
This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist & Poet

Now in Print: ABC News

My latest work is a feature for ABC News (Australia) on how the Commonwealth Games trash will be handled and what the wastepickers are getting (or not getting, to be accurate) out of it. Click here to read it.

Speaking of work on wastepickers, a piece I did earlier on the same topic has been selected as a finalist for the Developing Asia Journalism Awards. I’ve been invited to the three-day forum and the concluding awards ceremony in Tokyo, Japan, which I’ll be attending. It’ll be held in mid-November.

I’ve never been to Japan before, so I’m really excited. I’ve convinced Sam to join me for the ceremony so that we can celebrate and spend a nice weekend together in the city. Any tips on what we should do while there?

Making Time

There was a time when I used to feel really guilty about not socializing as much as I could. I’ve always loved being around people, but it’s intimate settings I enjoy, not loud parties where you can’t hear the voice of a person above the music. And I’ve always been like that. Though I didn’t have much choice in that matter, I do wonder that given the option, I might have still preferred reading in bed on a Saturday night than going out and getting drunk with friends.

Over the last one year, especially, I’ve had many chances to get really social. We get invited to parties often, Sam likes going out now and again, and I know more freelancers, editors, and journalists now than I ever did before in my life. Even better, I actually like most of them.

I’m also, however, very protective of my writing time. I still am that girl who prefers a night of writing in front of her computer than sitting with a bunch of people I only know through work. One of my closest friends, who is also a freelance journalist, is the only one I manage to talk to each and every day. We’ve both come to the conclusion that since we became writers, we also became inwardly-focused. She has a kid, so at least she has an excuse.

But to be honest, I actually like that. Because I know that it’s easy to wile away my time in activities that mean nothing by giving up things that are actually important to me. My relationships are my first priority and my career is a very close second, and so when given the choice, I prefer to spend my time on these activities — family and writing — than things I don’t much care for.

Someone posted a link to this blog entry by Danielle Steel on Twitter the other day, and I was pleased to see her say pretty much the same thing. “The only greater priority in my life was my family, my children and husband,” she writes. “They always came first– but after that, I turned down just about everything else so I could write.”

It’s also interesting to hear that while her first book was published, the next five weren’t. FIVE. She then sold her seventh novel. And how many books has she written since then?

It’s easy to forget the price even successful people pay for that success. I remember reading that Khaled Hosseini would get up at 4 a.m. each day to write two or three hours before going to work. That’s how he wrote The Kite Runner.

I’m always inspired by stories like these. It takes the mystery out of the writing process and lays it bare. A lot of us like to romanticize about the books we’d write if we had hours and hours of free time, and the reality is that it doesn’t work that way at all. Most writers just replace most of those pointless social events with evenings spent writing or with family. And some of us actually prefer it that way.

Date With My Bed

I somehow miscalculated the time difference between a client’s country and my own, thinking we were a few hours ahead of them, when the opposite is true. Thankfully I discovered this last night before I was about to shut down and go to bed. Not-so-thankfully, this meant that I had to pull an all-nighter. Sam found me passed out and drooling in front of the computer this morning.

I will admit that as I’m nearing the finish line on my deadlines, I’m also beginning to feel the exhaustion. I haven’t ordered a coffee IV or started seeing creepy crawlies or even been wearing my pajamas inside out (yet), but the deadlines have been constantly at the back of my mind (or front and center depending on the time of day) and it’s difficult to relax when I know I still have so much to do.

It’s nice to have the work though, so I’m not complaining. And I’d be lying if I said I don’t enjoy the breakneck pace of it all and the swooshing of the deadlines over my head every few days. Only two more to go.

On one of my five-minute breaks last night, I was searching for an audiobook version of a classic novel and came across LibriVox. I’m a huge Project Gutenberg fan, so I’m amazed I hadn’t heard of it before. Now I’m all eager to sign up as a volunteer and record a few chapters of my own.

But for now, I’m off to the long-awaited date with my bed. Have a great Monday!

What I’m Reading

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: I’m already familiar with the concepts in this book since Gladwell is hard to escape, but regardless of that, I really enjoyed it. As a stranger said to me at an airport terminal (where I was reading it), “It’s nothing you haven’t thought of or known before, but the examples he gives and the way in which Gladwell makes the point is worth the time spent reading the book.”

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami: I either love Murakami novels or know I’m not going to like them mid-way through the book. I loved this one, from beginning to end. You start off from a very different place from where you eventually end up and the author makes sure you enjoy the ride. As always, the twisted plot and the fantastic characterization are the key elements to the book, and it’s only part of the way there that I realized I knew the characters intimately even though I didn’t even know their names.

The School for Husbands by Wendy Holden: I would never have picked up this book if not for a friend, partly because of the offensive title (imagine the backlash over a book titled The School for Wives), but also because I tend to dislike the whole genre of “train your husband” books that are suddenly flooding the market. Anyway, other than the title, there’s nothing much controversial about the book, or that memorable either. Light read, easily forgettable. (Oh, and something to add to your trivia of the world: there actually is a school for wives in India. Of course.)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: Maybe I have a warped sense of humor, like the author herself, because while I know many people don’t like the ending of this book, I love it. Thankfully, I never had to study this book in school (like many classics that I can’t look at without imagining a Q&A at the end) and was able to enjoy it as entertainment. Which is, of course, why I went back to it.

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss:  Being one of those people who really enjoy their work and don’t just see it as a means to an end, books like these don’t really excite me. When someone asks me to dream of a life doing what I love, I think about reading and writing– exactly what I’m doing now. I also know I’m not the target audience for this book because words like “automation” and phrases like “you want to remove the human factor” make me cringe and the only reason I wanted to read this book (or hear it, as it so happens) is because I want to cut my working hours by half but increase or keep steady my income. And sure enough, once I moved past the automation stuff, I did find dozens of helpful nuggets scattered throughout this book that can make you extremely efficient and productive.

Reading and Writing

Phew. I’m in the final stretch. Three articles for a total of 4,500 words are left to do, and then I can breathe easy.

Oh wait. I can’t. Commonwealth Games. Which as it happens, will go on.

The Games saga, which you will have heard about if your country is participating and don’t much care for if your country isn’t, continues. The 24-hour news networks are constantly bombarding us with up-to-the-minute reports and I’ve spent considerable hours being disappointed and upset about all of it, so I’ll save you the rant here.

It almost feels like our entire household has been taken over by the spirit of the Games, and not in a good way. Sam was on BBC radio twice yesterday talking about Delhi’s people and our reaction to this entire spectacle. He’s also written about it here: On Your Marks… Get Set… Don’t Go. (There’s a picture of him in a hard hat and workman’s clothes in the print version that I might just have to get framed.)

I’m on standby for two of my biggest clients and a new radio client for any breaking news during the event and I am making my radio debut next week on Australia’s public broadcaster, ABC. I’ll be on live, so I’ll give you a heads up before I go on air.

In the meantime, I’m working on a long story about the construction business of the Games– the who, what, why, and how-the-heck-can-a-footbridge-just-collapse angle. I’m already beginning to wonder how I’m going to get the sources on that one.

But for now, work is almost finished for the day. I am making the most of this gorgeous weather by treating myself to large mugs of hot chocolate and just enjoying both work and play. I’m revisiting books I read and forgot many years ago, as for some reason I’ve always associated this (almost but not yet winter) weather with the classics. I’m currently listening to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility on tape. Next up: Don Quixote.

What are you reading and writing?