Our Fears

October 1, 2012 1 Comment

Gengcheng: frightened, scared

The Chinese use lion dancing to celebrate many special holidays and festivities.  Businessmen believe a lion  will bring them prosperity, so they hang up a cheng (lit. green), a stalk of vegetable with a red envelope as a prize.  With gongs and drums in the background , the lion dancers will reach for the cheng, sometimes with one man standing on the shoulders of the other.  The expression gengcheng comes from the spectators being afraid that the dancers will fall.

Chinese New Year 2012, Los Angeles Chinatown

For me, October 1st=gengcheng.  Why?  After much debating, I have decided to attend the Writer’s Digest West Conference.  (I’ll be there on Saturday, October 20th.)  The event offers multiple writing seminars, along with a talk given by guest speaker Jamie Ford. 

It also hosts the Pitch Slam event (a.k.a. speed dating for literary agents), which scares me.  Despite hearing that: 1) agents work for the writer, and 2) you just talk about your story, these statements don’t alleviate my fear.  Anyway, here are three stabs at my manuscript pitch for the conference:

1)
Three generations in an all-female Taiwanese family living in Los Angeles in 1980 are all guarding their own personal secrets.  Lisa loses her job, her mother Silk gets diagnosed with breast cancer, and her own pre-teen daughter Abbey struggles with a school bully.  When Lisa uncovers Silk’s never-talked-about past—her escape from Taiwan’s 228 Massacre, widowed and pregnant—the truth forces the family to reconnect emotionally and battle their problems together. 
2)
Three generations in an all-female Taiwanese family living in Los Angeles in 1980 are all guarding their own personal secrets.  The grandmother Silk finds out that she has breast cancer as her daughter loses her job, while her pre-teen granddaughter Abbey struggles with a school bully.  When Silk’s never-talked-about past comes out—that she escaped Taiwan’s 228 Massacre widowed and pregnant—the truth forces the family to reconnect emotionally and battle their problems together.
3)
My story is set in Southern California in 1980.  When 32-year-old Lisa Lu finally lands a job that she enjoys, she also finds a surrogate father figure to replace her own never-discussed biological dad.  Then her mother Silk finds out, and haunted by memories of fleeing Chinese soldiers during Taiwan’s 228 Massacre, she disowns Lisa.  Lisa then has to choose between these two important figures in her life. 

Speaking of overcoming fears, another event starting up today is Khara House’s Submit-O-Rama, a challenge to send out your work on a regular basis throughout the month.  I’ll be taking on the basic version of this challenge (submissions 3x a week).  In November, I’ll report back the results of my efforts.

Please drop a note about which pitch grabs you.  If you’re a writer, let me know whether you’ll be participating in the Submit-O-Rama challenge.  For everyone else, feel free to share any of your own fears.     

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Filed Under: 228 Massacre, afraid, Cantonese, Chinese, Chinese saying, fear, Khara House, lion dance, pitch slam, red envelope, scared, submissions, Submit-O-Rama, Taiwan, Writer's Digest West Conference

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  1. Lion Dance says:
    January 27, 2014 at 4:36 pm

    […] the Greens. The lion will  pounce on the cheng, usually a vegetable like lettuce, to usher in an auspicious new year. (The word for vegetable […]

    Reply

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