Summer in Bali

Half the year has sped by and I’m not sure where it’s gone.  It’s possible I hit the fast forward button once too often.  Fortunately, I’m in a good place to pause:  Back in Bali with family.  The first time in far too long.

My mother’s house is nestled between the rice fields and beaches of Bali’s west coast.  Most mornings, I try to explore the backroads that wind through bright green paddies or, if the tide is not too high, stroll along the beach.  

Now, I have time to slow down and pick my way through the half-started projects and fiction ideas I jotted down this year.  Apparently, I am an avid collector of great beginnings and inspired ideas!  Seeing those ideas through to completion?  Not so much. 

For the first half of this year, I focused more on my journalism with assignments for CNN in Lviv, Jerusalem, and Istanbul.  In each place, I was immediately absorbed by the dramatic events unfolding around me, especially in February as Russia launched its wide-scale invasion of Ukraine.  I packed away my fiction writing and let the old news instincts take over.

In terms of creative writing, I did make some progress on my novella but not nearly as much as I had hoped.  In May, I was able to take a quick literary detour with Litro Magazine, writing my first ever book review on the newly published translation of People From Bloomington by renowned Indonesian author Budi Dharma.  This was a different writing experience for me but one I really enjoyed.  Plus, it allowed me to explore more Indonesian literature, something I have been meaning to do.  

Back in Bali, two things have helped me to get back to writing:  My morning walks and my writers group.  The morning walks have become a meditative way to clear some headspace for creative work and my writers’ group is the gentle nudge that keeps me writing, even when it feels like a chore. 

Also, time to read!  And such wonderful books!  Being transported by great stories always makes me want to write.

My favorite fiction reads so far:  All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Falladé.  Both are historical fiction novels with young adult protagonists.   What delighted me, however, was the way both writers used inventive language and imagery to create indelible scenes and characters. 

The Promise by Damon Galgut was another favorite.  Galgut has created a unique narrator’s voice that is at once omniscient and intensely personal, dipping in and out of the character’s minds in this tragicomic novel out of South Africa.  An amazing feat made more astonishing by the narrator’s distinctive, stinging commentary that always leaves the reader off-kilter, balancing somewhere between empathy and loathing for the characters. 

Now, as I settle back into my writing routine, I am especially grateful to have a long stretch of summer to catch up with family and friends.  And in such a beautiful place as Bali!

I am lucky indeed.