I finished my book! Kind of...

coming up for air + two mysteries I'm trying to solve

The Pollinator Manifesto

After ~5 months of living under a rock, I finally have a complete, coherent, clean manuscript of my book. (!!)

I’m calling it my third draft. Very little from my first draft (November + December) has made it past the cutting board. The second draft (Jan + Feb), I worked closely with an awesome editor (hi Geoff!), as I wrote what ended up feeling like the exact thing I was meant to write, exactly when and where I was meant to write it. The third draft (March), has been all about refining that second draft (also with Geoff’s help!).

I poured so much of myself into the writing, that the few days over the last months when I had calls with friends or plans to meet someone IRL, I genuinely thought I wouldn’t remember how to engage in conversation. In fact, I felt like I had nothing left to say (hence no newsletter) since I’ve been saying everything I want to in this book.

Alan Watts had this advice for aspiring writers: “Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves.”

I only recently came across that quote, looking for a quote about flies, lol, but this is exactly what I have being doing: writing an ode to pollinators, both human and “more-than-human” (as I’ve learned nature writers call non-humans 🥰).

Writing a book is a very strange endeavour. 10/10 recommend though.

I’m usually not one to brag about anything I do (and not because I’m humble, but because I don’t think I have done much that is brag-worthy). BUT, I gotta say, this book is going to be fucking good. Like 🤯. I honestly can’t believe I am the one who wrote it.

It’s not all the way there yet, but I know I can get it there. Right now, the bones are all there. In fact, it kind of feels like I finally birthed a human, but 2 months premature. So the little baby has not just bones, but all the vital organs. With just a little more support and tender loving care, we’ll be home from the hospital in no time.

I thought I’d feel more excited to reach this stage, but unfortunately I think the fun part is behind me. So I have a favour to ask: do you know anyone in the publishing industry? Or any (published or self-published) authors?

If so, I would love to connect with them! I think I can teach myself how to hold a conversation again…

I need to work on how I summarize these ~90,000 words succinctly (help?!), but for now I can say it will be called The Pollinator Manifesto (which takes on additional meaning as my dad, a devout Marxist, becomes more of a character). I see it as a hybrid memoir, interlacing stories about life, work, and nature. Like Braiding Sweetgrass, but for people who want more juicy characters and less nature prose.

I might describe it as a meditation on interconnectedness and class? That, or my journey to appreciating that everything matters, even the things we’d rather eliminate from our lives (winters, bugs, shitty jobs, crushes that led nowhere…). TBD.

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Mysteries I’m trying to solve

STARFRUIT

My favourite fruit has always been starfruit. It’s so expensive in most of North America, so I rarely, rarely eat it. Only when I am lucky enough to find a slice on a fruit platter at a conference or something.

Well, there are starfruit trees all over Vietnam. Jackpot! BUT, it is not being sold in stores/markets! No exceptions. I cannot wrap my head around this. Mangos and bananas, which are also found everywhere on trees, ARE sold in stores, so I know it’s not a question of abundance.

When I’ve asked locals about this, they say they do cook with it, and offered to get me some from their trees. SO WHY CAN’T I BUY IT?! I feel weird having to beg strangers for some of their stash. One theory is that every time a local has fetched one for me, it’s already been picked at by birds. Maybe they’re too vulnerable to be sold as produce, unlike say snake fruit or passionfruit (also in season right now).

Anyway, if you have any hypotheses, I wanna hear them.

PREPONDERANCE OF VEGAN FOOD IN JAPAN VS THAILAND VS VIETNAM

If I weren’t writing a totally unrelated book right now, I would go down a deep rabbit hole about why there is a much higher concentration of vegan/vegetarian restaurants in Vietnam than Thailand and Japan. I’m hoping someone (I’m looking at you Andrew M 😉) reading this might have a satisfactory theory.

All three are Buddhist countries. All three welcome millions of tourists (who seem to be the main diners in these establishments). All three have traditional cuisines that are otherwise very meat/seafood-heavy. All three have climates that can easily support a plant-based diet.

If it was a question of openness to Western influence, or the types of tourists/expats the country attracts, I would expect more vegan restaurants in Thailand (and yes, there are many there, but not relative to Vietnam).

If it was a question of how easy it is for foreigners to start a business (since many of these restaurants appear to be at least minority-owned by foreigners), I would again expect more in Thailand, because apparently Vietnam has much more red-tape.

I’ve thought about this from many other angles, and none seems to help me explain the mystery!! What do you think?!!?