The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

And now for something completely different! I’ve been tagged by Joan Small  to join the Next Big Thing Blog Hop – a chain letter for readers without any threats or bribes.  Readers are encouraged to follow the blog hop forward to the next writer to be tagged and back to the previously tagged. It’s a great way to find new authors.

Joan Small  is a self-published author, primarily of personal development books, but she has also ghost written autobiographies and collaborated in the writing of a Young Adults fantasy fiction novel. Joan’s book ‘The Energy Book for Life – The Guidebook to Energized Living’ is empowering, and energizing. Joan provides wonderful examples of many aspects of energy; she looks at health, vitality, the power of the mind, and the energizing effects of the people and environment we choose. The Energy Book for Life is a must read for anyone who wants to be happy and put everything into perspective. If you want to bring positive changes into your life, read this book today ... and then teach it to your children. It has been described as ‘a masterpiece in its field’. 

AND NOW FOR THE NEXT BIG THING......

  

THE TITLE OF MY BOOK IS:

China or Bust! A rookie’s guide to living and surviving in China as an ESL teacher.

 THE IDEA CAME ABOUT WHEN:

Peter and I were living in China teaching English and sending home lots of letters and stories to friends and family. I would get replies back saying how much they enjoyed the emails and that I should put them all in a book. I kept them all, but the thought of actually collating everything seemed too daunting and too time consuming. However when I was studying for my Master’s Degree in Writing over the past couple of years, I decided to try, and eventually the finished manuscript was the thesis for my degree.

 GENRE ?:

Travel/ auto ethnicity/ and a how-to book on living in China.

WHICH ACTORS WOULD PLAY THE PARTS IF IT WERE MADE INTO A FILM?:

I can’t’ see this made into a movie. It’s a really good read, but I don’t know if it is movie material.

A ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS OF MY BOOK:

An English teacher goes to China to teach, but she does not speak one word of the language, so learns to cope with daily life in a country where the culture is mind-bogglingly different, leading to  many funny experiences.

IS THE BOOK SELF PUBLISHED OR REPRESENTED BY AN AGENCY:

Self-published but also being translated in Chinese and being published by Xiamen University Press for the Chinese market in 2013. It is also available as an e-book and being purchased by Australian libraries.

HOW LONG DID THE FIRST DRAFT TAKE?

Around six months was spent on the first draft as I was also studying.  But the first draft was easy, and in my mind it was being collated and going nowhere. Once I decided to be serious about writing, it took on a life of its own. It took another six months or more after I decided to make it my thesis. It was re-written several times, with huge changes being made and then a publisher here on the Gold Coast was interested but wanted it to be a 'how-to' book as well, so many more pages and further research was needed.  It was being edited and tweaked for several months after that.  But there comes a time when you have to say ‘finished’. That was about the middle of 2012.

 ANY OTHER BOOKS IN A SIMILAR GENRE?

I have not been able to find anything else like it. There are books about living in China, but I have not found anything with the ‘how-to’ information I have included, such as how to get a job, how to find an apartment, doctors and hospitals, personal safety, how to use the complicated bus and train systems when you can’t speak or read a word of the language etc. I have covered everything a person needs to know when going to live in China to teach but cannot understand any Chinese.

WHO/WHAT INSPIRED THE BOOK?

Really it was the need for a thesis, and I had kept these emails for several years, and the idea just wouldn’t go away. In the end I had to give in to the urge and start writing.  I have written poetry and short stories for many years.

 WHAT ELSE MIGHT INTEREST THE READER?

I think uncovering the mystery of a county like China. The whole lifestyle and mind set is different. The whole way of living is different. Getting an insight into their culture is fascinating. Also the how-to information is clear and easy to understand and follow.

NOW FOR MY TAG TEAM:

JOAN SMALL:

ANDY MCDERMMOTT

DR MICHAEL CLANCY

PENNY GARNSWOTHY

 JILL SMITH

CHRISTINE DALGLIESH:

DI HILL

RICKY HUNTER

Take a trip to China today!

My sister, Ricky Hunter, and I have both published books in the last few months. That's the easy bit. Then you need to sell the little blighters. Aha, you think, no problem! But it's not that easy.

When you write a book it is your 'baby', and of course you are in love with it, although there is a love/hate relationship too, because by the time you have edited the thing a zillion times you are at the 'nine months and one week' stage, when all you want is to get this birth over and done with. A book is no different.

Nevertheless, being brilliant authors is not enough. You have to tell people that the books are there, and that they would love to read them.

My book is the story of our first year living and working as ESL teachers in China. When you can't speak any Chinese and hardly anyone speaks English it makes for some interesting times. This book is a really great yarn about our planning, deciding where to go, and the experiences we had working our way into a completely different culture, and getting to know some of the wonderful students we had in our classes. We also had lots of hilarious situations, and some madly frustrating times, for example, leaving the airport after touching down in China, to find that none of the taxi drivers could read my instructions on how to get to a hotel we were staying at for a few days. While trying to find a taxi driver that could read our hotel name we were bundled in and out of lots of taxis.  We were stunned to think so many people were illiterate. Of course, we found out later that day, that my extensive preparations were useless because I had printed everything off in Japanese! How was I to know the difference between Chinese and Japanese? Twelve hours later Peter was at the police station being finger printed while I was on the phone trying to get help.

So why not take a trip to China today? You can do it without leaving home.

Book available at Create space at https://tsw.createspace.com/title/3862700 or the e-book at 

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/160463.

I have also included a lot of how-to information for anyone going to China either on holiday, but especially if going to work there as teachers or in any other field. Information such as how to use the buses and trains when everything is in Chinese, personal safety, getting a job, work contracts, housing, shopping, doctors and hospitals, and how to never be lost.

Overseas public libraries.

I wrote a book. It is self published through Amazon.com, well through Create Space, which is an arm of Amazon.com. It's about the first year Peter and I spent living and teaching English in China. Its a pretty good yarn and has lots of how-to information for anyone planning to go there, either to visit or live.

I have been trying to find out how to get it into public libraries. This is a resource that would be helpful to many people. But it's hard to find out how to contact the local libraries in many countries.

From the stats I see that there are people from quite a few countries around the world who read this blog. If you are in in a country that has English books in the public libraries, and if you feel so inclined, and want to enquire from your local library who I should contact, I would be delighted to hear from you. If you want to contact me at englishstoriesforfun@gmail.com I would be pleased to get any information regarding this.

It is available at:        https://tsw.createspace.com/title/3862700

or as an ebook at:     

http://www.amazon.com/rookies-living-surviving-teacher-ebook/dp/B00826BBV6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=13371185

or through my website:     www.englishstoriesforfun.com

Sorry, the blue is really hard to read isn't it, and this site doesn't like it if I try and change the color.