Join Novelist Yi Shun Lai & #Write2TheEnd for a Self-Help Book Swap!

Yi Shun Lai

YOU ARE INVITED to a SELF-HELP BOOK SWAP at the #Write2TheEnd offices at 420 Main Street in St. Joseph from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 14.

#Write2TheEnd is honored to welcome writer and editor Yi Shun Lai to southwest Michigan.

Lai is the non-fiction editor of the highly regarded Tahoma Literary Review. She was, for a time, the youngest-ever writer for the legendary J. Peterman catalog. And that was before "Seinfeld" discovered it. Her most recent work is NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK: THE MISADVENTURES OF MARTY WU (2016, Shade Mountain Press), a humorous epistolary novel.

At the Book Swap, Lai will conduct a workshop on keeping an active journal and will discuss her writing process. She will have a limited number of copies of NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK on hand, available for signing and purchase. Light refreshments will be served.

“We have all been tempted by the Self-Help section of the local bookstore,” says Lai.
“And we've probably also all acquired some gems and some duds. Did you get something out of your book and want to pass it on now? Or was it just not for you? Bring it to the Book Swap!"

Prior to the Self-Help Book Swap, On Wednesday, July 13, Lai will be featured in a booksigning and writer’s Q & A session at the Webster Memorial Library, part of the Van Buren District Library, 200 N. Phelps Street, Decatur, from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

She will be a Special Guest at the Webster Memorial Library’s Writing Workshop with Ami Hendrickson the evening of July 13 from 6 to 7:30.

Lai will also appear at Women and Children First in Chicago, IL, on Friday, July 15.

NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK details the life of Marty Wu, a compulsive reader of advice manuals who would love to come across as a poised young advertising professional. Instead, she trips over her own feet and blurts out inappropriate comments. The bulk of her brain matter, she decides, consists of gerbils "spinning madly in alternating directions.”

Marty hopes to someday open a boutique costume shop, but it's hard to keep focused on her dream. First comes a spectacular career meltdown that sends her ricocheting between the stress of New York and the warmth of supportive relatives in Taiwan. Then she faces one domestic drama after another, with a formidable mother who's impossible to please, an annoyingly successful and well- adjusted brother, and surprising family secrets that pop up precisely when she doesn't want to deal with them.

Mining the comedic potential of the 1.5-generation American experience, NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK is an insightful and witty portrait of a young woman scrambling to balance familial expectations and her own creative dreams. Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, author of A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family raves: "A breezy and charming tale ... Anyone who's grown up immersed in a profoundly rich old-world culture and feels its constant pull will commiserate—and be entertained."

All of Lai’s southwest Michigan appearances are free and open to the public.

#Write2TheEnd is an eight-week intensive writing workshop in St. Joseph facilitated by Ami Hendrickson and Kim Jorgensen Gane. #Write2TheEnd participants have succeeded in finishing novels, poetry chapbooks, non-fiction books, and more. #Write2TheEnd also conducts occasional short workshops. In addition to Lai, noteworthy authors #Write2TheEnd has hosted include Patty Chang Anker (Some Nerve: Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave. Riverhead; Penguin) and Ava Chin (Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love, and the Perfect Meal. Simon & Schuster).

The End... And a New Beginning

The inaugural #Write2TheEnd Writers Workshop kicked off with a bang. Practically every genre of writing -- poetry, memoir, non-fiction, and fiction -- was represented in the Summer, 2014 session.

We met weekly. Some participants had never finished a book before. Others had publishing experience, but wanted to challenge themselves to produce something new. Some were introverts; some extroverts. Some had never comfortably called themselves "writers" before.

We all discovered that a lot can happen in eight weeks:

A mother of two can become a mother of three...

A parent can experience a life-threatening crisis...

Family members can require long-distance assistance scouting and purchasing a home, and help coordinating a major household move.

Friends and family can come to visit -- and stay... and stay...

Medical crises can result in hospital stays... or rehab... or, sadly, death...

ALL of this, and more, happened to our #Write2TheEnd participants this summer.

And we STILL wrote.


No Ifs, Ands, or Proverbial Butts

We stretched ourselves, setting goals at the beginning we knew were ambitious. Then life set in. Yet we persevered.

We wrote our proverbial butts off.

Kim & Ami are facilitators, but Ben is The Great Motivator.

We also kicked proverbial butt. I am honored to report that #Write2TheEnd participants have a 100% success rate for our first session.

One participant has two children under the age of 3 and another on the way. Yet, she wrote over 60,000 words on her novel and met her goal!

One participant is a natural introvert who lives an hour away. She took a leap of faith, never missed a meeting, completed an entire poetry chapbook to enter in a contest and met her goal!

As facilitators, Kim and I both felt that a high point of our whole summer was handing out certificates of completion -- and crisp, new $100 bills -- to each writer whose goals were met.

Here's what one of our participants had to say about her experience:

"I've tried several times to write this book for over 6 years, but never gotten very far. This summer, I did it! I wrote it! I had my money's worth out of the workshop already by Week 5!"

What's keeping you from leaping?

Here's another perspective:

"The #Write2TheEnd writer's workshop has been an incredible experience for me. I began the workshop with a started project. By the workshop's conclusion, my project was finished and ready for submission.

Throughout the workshop, Ami and Kim were encouraging. They made me feel my project was important and worthy of completion. They held me accountable for getting an adequate amount of work done each week so that my project would progress in a timely manner.

Kim and Ami are wonderful facilitators. They presented me with many useful tools which will continue to make me a better writer. 

I'd recommend #Write2TheEnd writer's workshop to anybody with a writing goal to achieve. I truly did Write2TheEnd."

All writers interested in finding out more about how #Write2TheEnd can help you finish writing or editing that pet project (you know the one...) are invited to a free Meet and Greet on Monday, August 25, at 420 Main Street in St. Joseph, MI.

Our Fall, 2014, session kicks off on Monday, September, 15 at 6:00 p.m. Sign up today! And come Write2TheEnd with us!