: About Me

In June 2007 I returned for a year of living in Japan with my seven-year-old daughter who was adopted from China.

I love travel and learning about cultures around the globe. Trained as a journalist, I have also taught writing for more than 25 years and taught English in Japan for six years (previous to my recent one-year stint).

When I was in Japan the first time, I saw a sign on the bathroom wall of an ex-patriot friend. It said, "I will never be the same having lived on the other side of the world." And that's true. Living in Asia was a life-changing experience. Despite the difficulty I've had coming back to my little comfortable cubbyhole here in the U.S., I have no regrets.

My passion is ...

Thinking outside the box

I know too much about ...

My own issues

My parents always told me ...

Hold out for true love (maybe that's why I'm still single?)

My childhood ambition ...

To be a famous author

My favorite memory ...

Sitting on the steps of the WTC in Bangkok, speaking to a Thai man in Japanese on Christmas Day 1997

Why I write ...

I can't NOT write

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Biographies, especially about travel, China or Japan

My first job ...

A reporter at the Seneca (SC) Journal

Society & Lifestyle > Asian Culture China's one child policy

6 of 10

I sat in my hotel room in Nanning, China, listening to the cry of a baby in the hallway. Unable to remain still, I was propelled through the doorway. To my right another American woman was rolling film of a Chinese toddler walking toward her new daddy. On the left, an infant wailed as she was assaulted by the chilly air of a western-style hotel in June, the strange smell of foreigners and the unfamiliar cadence of an alien language. Through the confusion, I heard what I had been waiting for. "De Yang," a young man called softly. He stepped out of the room across the hall, holding a 9-month...

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