Slowly, accidentally.
You hear about writers who swear they were born to write—who filled notebooks with stories from the time they could hold a pencil and dreamed that one day they would publish a novel … or many novels. Well, that wasn’t me.
I came to fiction writing slowly and by accident.
EDSA-Shaw Overpass, photo by Elmer B. Domingo
“There will be blood in the streets.”
Before the People Power Revolution, I didn’t write much beyond my weekly letters home and a few journal entries.
By then, we’d lived in the Philippines for thirteen years. We’d experienced floods, typhoons, the imposition of Martial Law, the 1973 Oil Crisis, and innumerable brown-outs. But nothing in those thirteen years could compare with the assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino in 1983. The former senator, who’d become leader of the opposition, was returning from three years of exile when he was shot stepping off a plane. The mourning and suspicion were immediate. More than two million people lined the streets for his funeral procession.
My husband, who’d lived through two wars, picked up right away on the mood of insurrection that was brewing. One evening, returning home late from work, he looked particularly worried. I met him in the garden and took his attaché case.
“I had a drink with my friend from the Embassy,” he said.
“Oh?” In the darkness, I felt the electric charge of his alarm.
“He says there’s going to be blood in the streets.”
I wasn’t convinced. “How would he know?”
“He’s CIA. It’s written all over him. He advised me to send my wife and kids home.”
And that was how it started.
While the unrest grew, we made plans to send our three daughters back to the States to stay with my mother until I found a place there for us to live. Eugene would look into finding another job.
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, photo by Al Ramones & Domie Quiazon
As it turned out, the supposed CIA agent was right about “blood in the streets,” but events didn’t unfold as he predicted. The People Power Revolution that ousted President Ferdinand Marcos was peaceful. Millions of unarmed civilians filled the streets. Women linked arms to stop the troops, and nuns with rosaries knelt in front of tanks.
It was the aftermath, with seven coup attempts in four years that left blood in the streets. During that time, I “commuted” between Manila and Seattle. With no fixed location, suddenly writing became the sensible way to spend my time. I took creative writing classes at the University of Washington when I was in Seattle. When I was in Manila, I tried my hand at writing short stories.
I never did meet that CIA agent. But without him and his blood-in-the-streets prediction, I might never have become a writer.
I love to write. I find that I often express myself better in writing than I do by speaking, although I talk a lot!! Writing also helps me to zero in on what I really feel and think. Lately I have taken up “art journaling,” which is mixing art with journal/diary type entries. The latest one I did is titled: “The Monster that Ate our Summer.” referring to my husband’s struggle to keep his legs. It started in either late April or early May and he is just now starting to heal somewhat. In times of trouble, I sometimes write to keep sane. I also write with the idea that what I put down will be available to my grandchildren some day, and to theirs if they take good care of my journals.
I’m sorry about your husband’s struggle. I hope he continues to heal. Writing and art give us the ability to make something with everything life throws our way.
Manila to Seattle . . . that’s quite a commute! Glad it gave you a chance to start writing.
My “commute” to Manila usually lasted about three weeks at a time. It’s a luxury to have two homes. I feel than way still when I visit my daughters and stay for a couple of weeks. And even now, I can take my writing with me.
I didn’t know you well in high school Nicki but I am enjoying getting to know you now both in person at our gatherings and through your writings…Your writing is honoring the adventurous life you’ve lived…Thanks for sharing it with us.
I’m also enjoying seeing you at the parties for our class and following you on Facebook. There were a number of years when I thought I’d never see many of my high school classmates again. Who would have thought we’d have so many gatherings.
Oh wow. That’s incredible. I can’t imagine living through that (but I am glad it pushed you to start writing!)
You and Jocelyn Eikenburg and other bloggers in cross-cultural marriages know the difficulty of following a loved one to another country. There are more career opportunities now than there were in the 1970s and ’80s, but it’s never easy. You’re an example of a young woman who’s made a place for herself in a foreign land through her own ingenuity and hard work. Congratulations.
What an inspiring story of the events that eventually led to you becoming a writer!
Your openness to life in China and to the people you meet there is an inspiration to everyone who reads your blog.
Thanks for your kind words, Nicki!
We’re all glad you became a writer. Your stories as well as your blogs show us what an interesting life you’ve created.
Thank you, Paddy. In some ways we create our own lives, and in some ways they happen to us. But the way we see our lives is dependent on the stories we tell about them.
Interesting to read that writing happens in such different ways. Best to you with the writing of your second novel.
Thank you, Evelyne. At the moment, I’m uncertain about the directions of my second novel. It needs all the good wishes it can get.
Nicki, I know of your difficulties on researching your material for your books. For more than fifteen years now, and because of my close connections to the Philippines, I have been trying to assemble information about the Philippines during WWII. I have collected bits and pieces of stories from all three sides. The Philippine side, the Japanese side, and the American side. It is true what they say; there are three sides to a pillow. I have tremendous respect for the work that you do. Your classmate and friend Dave Bruggeman
Thank you, Dave. My biggest trouble with research was that I only read a few words of Chinese, and it was hard to find information in English about the area of China I wrote about. Fortunately, I had access to the excellent libraries at the University of Washington, and I had the benefit of hearing first-hand about the war from my husband.
I come from a family of talented (but non-professional) writers. My brother was an excellent business writer and my 21 year old niece has had her poems published. On the other hand I starting writing for fun and it got to be an addiction. I am working on splicing some of my more connected stories together to publish. However, I don’t think I could write fiction. Maybe some day I will try but I am in awe of people who can. Starting a career later gives you the tools you need to weave the story. I am anxiously waiting for Tiger Tail to hit Kindle.