SONYA CHUNG

9 April 2010

Back from a packed, whirlwind Seattle-Portland tour.  I could write pages and pages about it — the events, the new people I met, the old friends I reconnected with.  Think about all that happens in a life over 14 years — I lived 7 years in Seattle, and it’s been 7 years since I left — and all that catching up to do (there were even a few people I hadn’t seen in nearly 20 years).

My friend Elisabeth summed it up, at the last reading event of my trip (an Elliott Bay Book Co. reading at Hugo House on Wednesday night): she looked at me and smiled and said, “So… how’s it been.. doing all this… as an introvert?”  My eyes grew wide, I nodded my head, and nothing else needed to be said.  Except that we agreed we would catch up properly another time.

It was a great 7 days, though (boy, what’s with the magic number 7?  Didn’t even register until just now).  Readings, talks, friends, food, coffee coffee and more coffee.  A little fish ‘n’ chips, too, of course.  I read 4 times in total, and in honor of Lisa, who lovingly accompanied me to each reading, I read a different passage each time.  By that final reading, I felt emboldened to try a section I’d never read before, one that included a scene that takes place in Korea.  It went well, and now I’m having a brainstorm — to record an audio pronunciation guide, a companion to the “List of Main Characters” in the front of the book.  It would seem that hearing the characters’ names spoken is very helpful to readers for whom the Korean names are challenging.

Now, I just have to figure out the tech side of DIY audio recording.  Suggestions welcome.

Scatterbrained for most of the time, I failed to arrange for consistent photography on this trip.  I have these two pics, provided by new friends Ben Wirth (one of the UW grad program readers at Castalia, where I read on Tuesday eve ) and Karen Maeda Allman (of Elliott Bay Books).

Castalia Reading Series (UW graduate writing program)

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Book signing following the Elliott Bay Book Co. reading at Hugo House

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And here are a few lousy ones I took with my Blackberry.

Hugo House exterior, Capital Hill neighborhood

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At Evergreen Radio Services, my first radio interview – with the lovely Rachel Glass (whose 8 year-old daughter has written 120 single-spaced pages of a fiction adventure).

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Shawn Wong, reading from  a new novel he is working on, entitled The Ancient and Occupied Life of Greg Li