Book status

So what is the status of the book?

In basketball lingo, I'm setting up to take a shot. It's no layup or dunk, but I think I have a good angle at scoring.

I've written about 75,000 words of text (about 200 pages), I have a formal book propoal that I'm getting ready to send out to literary agents. I met a bunch of them at the ASJA national conference last week. Some seemed quite interested in the project, others sceptical about how well this book can sell. So as I track my book's progress to completion and publication on this blog, I'll also be tracking the popularity of the themes of this book around the internet, and see what sort of community is out there that'd be interested in plopping down the money to read this story.

How did I get "Dunked in Manila?"

I went to Manila on a one year internship through an international business club called AIESEC, which is a French acronym meaning something along the lines of "please send me somewhere cool to get a job." (Actually, it stands for Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales).

Prior to graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in Japanese Studies and Comparative Literature, I landed an internship with IBM in Japan.

Why would a comp.lit major work for IBM? Well, as my dad often pointed out, it's tough to open a comparative literature store. Unfortunately, IBM Japan, the sponsor, wanted me to come to Tokyo before I my studies were done. IBM Philippines didn't really care when I showed up. So I was dunked in Manila.

And so the troubles began...The AIESEC program depends on cooperation between corporate sponsors and local university student clubs. Most exchanges work out quite well. From the vandalized sign in the photo, you can see that one of the trainees didn't like the local Ateneo club too much. AIESEC Ateneo had stuck him with a resentful host family who tried to get him to leave by refusing to let him bathe in the house or change his sheets. The Ateneo students just laughed at his dilemma, so as a parting shot he (ok, we) climbed this sign and repainted a bit.

If you know Manila, you'll know the corner of EDSA & Ortegas doesn't look like this anymore, and I'm presuming AIESEC Ateneo has undergone improvements as well. I can't vouch for the other vandalizing trainee, but my experience in Manila changed me for the better.

My book Dunked in Manila follows the story of how a clueless American like myself learned how to "play ball" both figuratively and literally during some difficult times in the Philippines. Think of the story as "The Year of Living Dangerously" meets "Hoop Dreams."