My Adventures in Student Writing

Take a look at those five covers up there. These are the five anthologies I worked on while living abroad. Two of them are from Bhutan and three are from Kazakhstan. I've worked on a lot of projects in my life, but these are the five books I'm most proud of, and I didn't even write them!

These books were completely written by my teen and pre-teen students in Kazakhstan and Bhutan. (For the first two, I even went on a country-wide book tour with my students, selling most of our books at Buddhist temples. But you can read about all that craziness on my Medium page.)

Anyway, I wanted to introduce each one in case anyone's interested. You'd be amazed at the amount of creativity (and weirdness) on display in these stories!

The first is We Are Bhutan, the result of my first teen creative-writing group. We even designed a little mascot to appear throughout the book, a Himalayan black bear.

Very quickly after that, my students released Scary Stories from Bhutan, a direct result of how many spooky stories I got during the first round. It was a genre that a lot of my students were interested in, which makes the (mostly-family-friendly) all-horror collection extra fun!

(We used a crane for the mascot in that one. I loved illustrating him in his various Daffy Duck-style freak-out poses.)

After those two books were out, my travels in Bhutan came to an end and I relocated to Kazakhstan. Once again, my students were giant globs of creativity, so of course I had to continue these anthologies.

This time, the participating writers were given pictures for inspiration, along with a one-hour time limit. It was structured as more of a competition, with various prizes for the winners, but the resultant stories were just as wild as before, if not more so.

The first was Crazy Stories from Kazakhstan, which had a couple stories that were surprisingly emotional. I was really impressed.

(A snow leopard as the mascot.)

We ditched the mascot for the next outing, Writers of Kazakhstan 2022, which included some really cool stuff. A lot of our writers used their stories to grapple with their post-pandemic traumas, resulting in a memorable collection.

And finally, our latest collection, Writers of Kazakhstan 2024. After being out of the country for nearly two years, I came back to attend this event. Such a great time, and even though the participating writers were no longer MY students, I think they did an awesome job.

I hope you check out these books. They were a ton of fun to make, and it's so cool that over 200 kids are now published authors! They worked hard and they earned it.

Wedding in Kazakhstan

This was a Kazakhstan/American wedding in the mountains just outside Almaty, Kazakhstan.

I danced all night. Badly.

And I'm so happy for the lucky couple.

Welcome to SAN CICARO

San Cicaro is a coastal resort town in California where strange things happen every day. I was lucky enough to be included in this travel companion. I wrote all about a local landmark called Missy's Diner. Come check it out or (better yet) visit San Cicaro yourself. 

Paper Mill, Uzbekistan

Zara and I got to visit a really cool paper-making factory in Samarkand, Uzbekistan!

The Singing Dune, Kazakhstan

And yes, it really does sing.

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

I actually heart Samarkand (not Sam), but the stranger we asked to take the photo didn't understand how photography works.

Where Am I?

Guess where I am. I'll give you two clues.

Clue #1: This is definitely not Kazakhstan.

Clue #2: That first clue was a lie.

Oh, Look! Dancing, Naked Monks!

A few weeks ago, I experienced the world famous Naked Monk Dance, which happens every year right in my valley. It's a truly one-of-a-kind festival. It's also pretty much exactly what you'd expect from the name.

Head on over to Indie Travel Podcast to check out my complete rundown of the experience, including tips and tricks to make your trip as fun as possible. (Spoiler alert: Do NOT take pictures.)

Monkeys Everywhere!

Do you want to hear the story of my trip to Jozani National Park in Zanzibar? Do you want to know about the time a monkey jumped on my shoulder and totally freaked me out? You do?

Well, check out Responsibly Irresponsible for the whole primate saga.

And if you still want to read more about Zanzibar, the new book comes out in five days!!!!

One Week to Zanzibar

The clock is ticking! One Night in Zanzibar comes out in one week! That means you have exactly seven days to preorder the ebook for only 99 cents. After that, it’ll be available at its regular price of $2.99.

   

How am I feeling right now? Excited. Nervous. A bit curious. This is my first erotic romance, and I’m waiting to see how my readers react.

 

I’m also very grateful to everyone at Tirgearr. Out of all the publishers I’ve worked with, these ladies were the most hands-on (and the most unceasingly positive). Once the clock strikes midnight on November 29, though, the book is out of our hands and into yours.

  

Finding Happiness and Creativity

Zanzibar is my favorite place in the world. I lived there for two years and had the time of my life. I've been grabbed by monkeys, stung by some jelly thing, gotten more sunburns that humanly possible, and met some of the coolest people in the world.

   

You should visit. Right now, actually. Go there right now. You won't regret it.

   

  

If you're still hesitant,  though, check out my guest article on Happiness-Creativity-&-Kindness to see the many reasons why Zanzibar is such a cool place to visit. (Spoiler alert: I only scratched the surface of all the big reasons you should go.)

   

And if you're still-STILL not convinced, there's always my new book, One Night in Zanzibar, which comes out in exactly one week. Just saying...

How to Survive a Russian Summer

        

Mushroom picking. Surprise goats. Tiny Russian children reenacting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze.

    

I had some truly awesome experiences in Russia, and I was lucky enough to do a guest post for Privet-Russia to talk about my experiences there. Spoiler alert: it was insanely stressful, and also one of the coolest jobs I’ve ever had.

    

Hop on over to Privet-Russia for a bunch of other articles about travel in Russia. It’s a fun site with tons of helpful tips.

BHUTAN TIME!

Hello, everybody! I wanted to give a quick travel update to let everyone know that I'm safe, sound(ish), and connected to wifi. Right now, I'm on summer vacation, so I'll be trekking through Bhutan and Nepal for a bit.

I've been in Bhutan for almost six months now, which has truly flown by. I've made a lot of new friends there, but I haven't taken nearly enough pictures. Here's one...

And here's one...

And here's one...

As you can see, I have the near pathological need to open my mouth and make these awful bug-eyed fish-faces every time I see a camera. It's a sickness, really.

I'll try to take more photos in the next six months, and I'll try even harder to close my stupid mouth when the camera is on. Seriously. I mean it this time. I'm in a 12 step program and everything.

FLYING BODY PARTS: My Experience with Chinese Theaters

    

Living in China is an eye-opening experience. It’s frustrating and crazy, but it’s also a really, really fun time. The people are friendly and welcoming, the food is amazing, and—as long as you don’t name-drop Taiwan, Tibet, or Tiananmen Square—everything is safe. I lived there for three years, and one of my favorite experiences was going to the local theaters.
  
Now, thanks to globalization (and the fact that China is the most money-obsessed communist country around), giant multiplexes have sprung up all over the country. If you want to see the latest Iron Man sequel, you can check out some 3D glasses and enjoy the whole IMAX experience with hundreds of other screaming movie fans. It’s a lot like American theaters, except people don’t laugh at the same jokes.
  
IMAX is awesome, of course, but there’s something extra special about the mom-and-pop theaters that spring up in rural areas. You see, because of lax bootlegging laws, small towns in China will probably have at least one independent cinema. Here’s how they work:
   
1)      There are no set times, so you can just go in whenever you want.
  
2)      At the snack bar, you can get flavored popcorn (mostly strawberry-flavored, never with butter), sodas, and teas.
  
3)      There’s a big book of bootleg DVDs at the front counter. Usually, the movies are at least three months old. You pick something that looks interesting.
  
4)      The clerk ushers you into a small side room where a computer projects the movie on the wall. Sometimes the chairs are plastic. Sometimes, they are equipped with “5D technology,” which means they shake.
   
5)      You leave the theater and promise to come back again.
   
It might sound low-rent, but watching movies in an independent Chinese theater is a blast. Take, for example, my experience watching My Bloody Valentine 3D. Now, this movie is a gory, fast-paced 3D extravaganza. Body parts fly at the screen at regular intervals. And aside from a nonsensical climax, the whole thing is wildly entertaining.
  

In three glorious dimensions!

   

Now, picture yourself in a cheesy plastic chair with a metal bar across the front. Whenever someone gets murdered, the chair shakes like a crazy person. Sometimes air will blast at your feet. You’re sitting next to an elderly Chinese man who apparently had no idea what movie he was about to watch. He’s busy laughing at all the gory stuff. The two seats in front of you are reserved for your coworkers, a Ukrainian couple that keeps making out. Loudly.
  
And when the movie finally ends, you have no idea what just happened. It felt like that creepy boat ride scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Oh, and you ate popcorn that tasted like strawberries.
     

I'm still woozy from that scene.

  

That’s pretty much the Chinese movie experience in a nutshell. While I went to lots of English-language movies when I lived there, my favorites were always the crazy horror movies. Final Destination 5, for example. Shark Night 3D. Those were the best movies to watch because the seats moved, the popcorn flowed, and there was always one elderly person who wandered into the theater without any idea what was going on.
  

 

Unfortunately, these movie houses are dying out. The government has cracked down and the Chinese audiences are opting for the big IMAX experience over the crappy projector-on-the-wall one. Nowadays, everything is so expensive and homogenized and… well, legal. The bootleg movie houses weren’t paying for their films, so no money was going back to the filmmakers. At least now, the right people are getting compensated for their hard work. Still, though, I’ll be sad when all these mini-theaters close down.
  
I’ll always remember the times I spent in a dark room, surrounded by laughing strangers, watching blurry jawbones fly at my head as my chair spun in circles.

Living in Bhutan

For those who want to learn a little more about where I live now, check out the WIKITRAVEL page. It's really basic, which means it doesn't do justice to the awesomeness of Bumthang Valley, Bhutan. But it is a nice little primer in case you're curious. (Right now, the internet is a bit too slow for photo uploads, so this'll have to do.

And in the meantime, did you know that WIKITRAVEL had a listing for here, and here, and here? Random!

Haunted Zoo!

  

If you’re ever in LA and you have a free afternoon, go to the LA Zoo. And no, I’m not talking about the current zoo. I’m talking about the creepy, abandoned zoo that’s just a few minutes away from the current one. All the cages and enclosures are still standing, but everything is slightly overgrown, glass-strewn, and graffiti-covered.

  

Holy crap, this place was moody. I felt like I just walked into an episode of Scooby Doo. I went with some local friends (not imaginary), and we walked through the cages for a good couple hours. Unfortunately, you couldn’t hear the lonely screams of ghost bears, because there were tons of tourists wandering around. I think we saw three separate movie crews (UCLA students, probably) filming stuff in some of the more cinematic areas. Still, it was an awesome day. And I finally met my spirit animal.

  

She was a tortoise.