The queries and packets have been shipped out by the agent to six publishers. Let's see if anyone bites.

I've started writing an Internet mystery serial for Discover Nikkei (Nikkei means of Japanese descent). Titled "The Nihongo Papers," it's actually a bio terrorism/paranormal thriller involving strawberries (!). It's great fun. I'm supposed to deliver a new installment each month for a year.

Here's the first:…

Yesterday I went to this amazing pop culture conference, Imprint Life, which discussed Asia's and Asians' role in developing global pop culture. Got me thinking about a lot of things, which I'll probably elaborate more on my website at the beginning of October.

There was a session on blogging, and the panel moderator Josh Spear spoke about this ill-advised web banner campaign that McDonald's embarked on in 2005. It something related to its dollar meal and including the phrase, "I'd…

I was channel-surfing last night and watched a host on one of those entertainment TV magazines (I think it was ET) talk about her tummy tuck that her plastic surgeon husband had done on her. She's a mother of two and had a slight tummy roll (yes, they shot it on camera). The program had some gratuitous "after" shots of her proudly baring her now flat midriff. She then expresses that she is so happy, that she was "so ashamed" before. Ashamed? What does having a slightly poofy belly after…