Your name link is dead so I hope you’ll find this and contact me.

I’m a publisher. One researcher from U of Hawaii was also in PP in early 1975 gathering information on the (former) Royal Cambodian dancers and their tradition. He escaped with his papers and photos on April 7 in a military transport.

More than 30 years later, I’ve finally published his work as “Earth in Flower – The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama.” This is the most comprehensive history of Cambodian dance ever compiled. Sadly, no more complete account can ever be compiled…it’s estimated that 90% of the dancers and their teachers died under the Khmer Rouge regime. There are photos and more info at http://www.EarthInFlower.com

Note that this book is just about the dance tradition, but the author also kept diaries with his impressions of the city and its people at that pivotal time. I’ve been encouraging him to gather these for a future book. Sounds like you’re on the same track.

My contact info is on the website and I hope to hear from you.

Thanks for sharing your account and photos.

Kent Davis

1) I’m so lazy that if I don’t tell the world I’m going to do something, I probably won’t do it.

2) I can’t write for shit so I need the practice.

3) To get criticism.

The way I look at it is that I have to just get it out there as a series of little drafts. Sort of like the scaffolding of a story and then polish it over time while filling in the blank spaces. I’m taking the same approach to this as I would to design (an area I have some education in). In design I first start off with what are basically sketches of an idea and the then refine the idea, get some criticism and then refine some more. It has been said that design is a process that never finishes. I suspect that the writing process has some similarities to the design process.

As for not “letting anyone see my novel til it’s good and done”, I know that I don’t have the skills to turn out anything worthwhile reading (never mind a masterpiece) without some feedback and guidance. I have a few good friends that are only too happy to give my ego the kicking that it needs.

What I will be writing about will basically be content driven and I’m hoping that if I practice writing in this blog that I may be able to develop some kind of style that allows my “voice” to come through, without coming across as the “Chuck Norris” of literature.

By the way my wife has collected over 3 A4 pages of just the titles of my anecdotes (she’s sick of hearing them and figures if I put it all in a book she won’t have to hear them again), so I’m pretty sure I can fill up a book with my past stupidities. I’m going to try and put out one or two little stories per week. See, now I’ve said it, I’ll have to do it! As everyone who knows me says, I’m full of it.

Thanks for dropping by and do please come again.