James Lande
Hello James,
Thank you for your continuing interest in Yang Shen.
At the rate I’ve been going on Book II it will need at least several more years. Book I takes the story up to the first defeat of the Foreign Rifles in early July 1860; Book II then continues on through 1861 into the first part of 1862 when the Imperial general Li Hung-chang brings his Huai Army to Shanghai; Book III takes up with our hero’s association with General Li and ends in September 1862 with our hero’s final campaign.
Over the past year or so my steam engines have been throttled down to low ahead in order to navigate around obstacles like old-age and ill health and dwindling enthusiasm for a book in which very few people take an interest. When I haven’t the moxie to work on Yang Shen, I fill in with other projects for Old China Books, editing the memoir of a 95-year-old lady who grew up in Southern California in the 20s, 30s and 40s, and editing my Yang Shen journals for publication. These distractions cause further delay.
Like Harry under Kilimanjaro, I have, if not entirely destroyed, at least compromised my “talent” by not using it and at this late date am scrambling to make up for the loss. I might live long enough and join the roster of Artful Codgers. Maclean wrote River at 74; Doerr published her first novel at 74; Updike was still scribbling at 76, Marquez at 81, Bellow at 85. Elmore Leonard is 87, Doris Lessing is 94, and Herman Wouk is 96, and they’re still writing. Will-o'-the-wisps? Maybe, especially if I don’t find a way out of the doldrums. Square-riggers were becalmed in the Horse Latitudes for weeks, occasionally a month or more, but with luck found wind in their sails before they starved. Dismasted and weather-worn, I may still be able to get up some wind that would take me into a current.
Look for a review and lengthy Q&A of Yang Shen from Isham Cook (Lust and Philosophy) in the coming weeks.
Best regards,
James Lande
Thank you for your continuing interest in Yang Shen.
At the rate I’ve been going on Book II it will need at least several more years. Book I takes the story up to the first defeat of the Foreign Rifles in early July 1860; Book II then continues on through 1861 into the first part of 1862 when the Imperial general Li Hung-chang brings his Huai Army to Shanghai; Book III takes up with our hero’s association with General Li and ends in September 1862 with our hero’s final campaign.
Over the past year or so my steam engines have been throttled down to low ahead in order to navigate around obstacles like old-age and ill health and dwindling enthusiasm for a book in which very few people take an interest. When I haven’t the moxie to work on Yang Shen, I fill in with other projects for Old China Books, editing the memoir of a 95-year-old lady who grew up in Southern California in the 20s, 30s and 40s, and editing my Yang Shen journals for publication. These distractions cause further delay.
Like Harry under Kilimanjaro, I have, if not entirely destroyed, at least compromised my “talent” by not using it and at this late date am scrambling to make up for the loss. I might live long enough and join the roster of Artful Codgers. Maclean wrote River at 74; Doerr published her first novel at 74; Updike was still scribbling at 76, Marquez at 81, Bellow at 85. Elmore Leonard is 87, Doris Lessing is 94, and Herman Wouk is 96, and they’re still writing. Will-o'-the-wisps? Maybe, especially if I don’t find a way out of the doldrums. Square-riggers were becalmed in the Horse Latitudes for weeks, occasionally a month or more, but with luck found wind in their sails before they starved. Dismasted and weather-worn, I may still be able to get up some wind that would take me into a current.
Look for a review and lengthy Q&A of Yang Shen from Isham Cook (Lust and Philosophy) in the coming weeks.
Best regards,
James Lande
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