Author: Kevin McGeary

This has been a month of completed drafts. I completed the first draft of my novel, a continent and millennia-spanning epistolary thriller, and have sent it off for its first beta reading. I also completed the first draft of my MBA thesis, which asks the question “Are diversity drives proving productive for UK publishing?”

Activities

The first draft of the MBA has been a struggle. It has involved a lot of reading and quantitative research. “Diversify” by June Sarpong proved massively helpful when it came to accruing data.

There have also been more live music performances, a side-project that continues to grow. I am building up to giving a full-length set that will hopefully materialise this year.

Output

There have been new MVs, including a higher-quality version of “Self-Doubt”, that has proved popular on Manchester’s open mic scene.

There is also “The War of 1812” (I underestimated how difficult it would be to sing), and another version of “The Happy Birthday Song”.

My review of “Life” by Lu Yao, translated by Chloe Estep, was also published by The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing.

Wider World

When writing my MBA thesis, my main goal is to try to ensure that its conclusions are somewhat less weaselly and evasive than those of The Mueller Report. The left’s worst nightmare has come true, with Trump in the White House and well on course to win a second term, and Boris Johnson in 10 Downing Street and committed to delivering Brexit, deal or no deal.

There are reasons for optimism though. Boris Johnson does not believe in Brexit with any conviction. Trump continues to show himself to be an ignorant fool with every utterance, which means the Democrats have a reasonable chance of inflicting the first real defeat on an incumbent since 1980 (1992 barely counts because the late Ross Perot split the centre-right vote).

With the situation in Hong Kong, it is more important than ever for liberal democracy to show that it is the superior form of government.

After a record-breakingly hot summer last year, this June had some mercifully miserable weather. I also managed to be productive.

Activities

I have started frequenting open mic sessions at The Old Pint Pot in Salford. Performing my songs and getting an enthusiastic reaction is one of my few activities that is ego-stroking.

Things for which there is no instant gratification, but my future self may thank me for include strong progress on my MBA thesis on diversity in the UK publishing industry. I am also 25,000 words into the first draft of an epistolary novel that contains elements of historical fiction and fantasy. I have also finished the final Beginner-level module of Spanish at The Cervantes Institute in Manchester.

Output

I bought a new electric guitar and have recorded an instrumental I wrote called “In a Lonely Hour”. I look forward to making more MVs with it.

I have also read and reviewed “Life” by Lu Yao, which has been brilliantly translated by Chloe Estep. My review will appear shortly.

Wider World

The debates for the Democratic nomination have begun. Kamala Harris was a standout performer, but Tulsi Gabbard may be the most impressive person they have.

Still, I think Trump is the favourite by virtue of his familiarity, and that he is America’s id.

Being busy is hardly anything to be proud of, but despite still being underemployed (I missed out on a book translation gig I really wanted), I am managing to fill the days with activities I find meaningful or expect to bear fruit in years to come.

Activities

Every day I plug away at Spanish and can now make out bits and pieces of conversations I hear. I am also exercising regularly and keeping abreast of dreams and reflections in the manner of ‘A Life of One’s Own’ by Marion Milner.

This is all very therapeutic. It’s a cultural taboo, but to suggest that psychotherapy is only for mentally ill people is like saying only unfit people should go to the gym, or only stupid people should read.

I also turned down an offer of a very good job in China. As tempting as it was, returning to Asia at this point would probably cause more problems than it solves.

Output

This month I have made very pleasing progress on my novel. I expect to finish the first draft this year. I have also plugged away at my MBA thesis, encountering a lot of game-changing ideas and facts along the way.

Researching a novel involves reading a lot of stuff one would read for pleasure. An MBA involves a lot of books and academic papers that nobody would read without having an exam to pass. Both have already proven to be worthwhile activities and may even make some money someday.

On the lighter side, I have had a very successful open mic night performing this song among others:

Lastly, my latest for LA Review of Books China Channel is on translating Tibetan literature.

Wider World

 I was and am a remainer and am not the slightest bit surprised by what a shitshow Brexit has been. But, remainers can also be annoying sometimes.

Tulsi Gabbard gave a very impressive interview on The Joe Rogan Experience. As presidential candidates go, she is certainly one of the more electable democrats. However, I still think Trump is the favourite for re-election at this point.

This month marked a year since I left Asia. While freelancing away, I have been binging on books, trips to the cinema and attempts to stay fit in the hope it leads to another creative burst.

Output

According to a nationwide survey by Pan Suiming of Renmin University, China has the world’s highest proportion of people who admit to engaging in extramarital affairs. The figure for both men and women has consistently increased since the year 2000. This month I made a new MV, a song about this moral anarchy that the country is going through.

I also reviewed Jiang Zilong’s thousand-page tome “Empires of Dust” for The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing.

Activities

Early in the month, I was attacked by a stranger online for an inappropriate attempt at humour. This reminded me of two rules I have about most social networks: never argue and never attempt humour.

Woke people usually have a point, and just because they often make arses of themselves overstating it, doesn’t mean they’re wrong.

Cultural consumption this month has ranged from the exceptionally good (seeing Michael Mann’s “Heat” and Jia Zhangke’s “Ash Is Purest White” on the big screen) to the extraordinarily bad (blockbuster novel “The Tattooist of Auschwitz“), but all provided valuable lessons on the art of story.

The Wider World

This month, Extinction Rebellion brought parts of London to a standstill while the Brexit Party made its presence felt, with Annunziata Rees-Mogg (Jacob’s sister) announcing her candidacy.

These two things happening at the same time reminded me of a passage from “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari: “Nationalist isolationism is probably more dangerous in the context of climate change than of nuclear war. An all-out nuclear war threatens to destroy all nations, so all nations have an equal stake in preventing it. Global warming, in contrast, will probably have a different impact on different nations.”

On the subject of irresponsibility on the world stage, Amal Clooney has attacked senior members of The Trump Administration by name for their undermining of the International Criminal Court. In opposition to Trump, Joe Biden became the 21st democratic candidate to declare and, in spite of allegations of inappropriately touching women, currently looks like the favourite to be the nominee.

Despite the candidates including such genuinely impressive figures as Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, my money is still on Trump to win a second term.

This month, more time has been freed up by the completion of my MBA exams. Now I have to start selling myself professionally.

Output

Having had five short stories published, I remain committed to the form, and will attend both The Northern Short Story Festival and The Comma Short Story Writing course later this year. However, if I am ever to get a book deal, I will need to write a novel. I am working on one about a Chinese prostitute. The premise is even cornier than “Pretty Woman” so the execution will have to be super good.

I will finish a draft this year and expect to be submitting it for publication by the middle of 2020.

This month I made a return to performing at open mic nights. The first time, the audience was too small to really gauge how the songs went over, but it was good getting out there again.

Published writing has included a review of Tsering Döndrup’s “The Handsome Monk”, posted by The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing, and two essays in LA Review of Books China Channel’s Hidden Histories section.

Moreover, I have finally completed my brief essay collection, “China in 5 Words”, about business practices in the People’s Republic. I am considering self-publishing the collection in book form.

Activities

I am now able to read for pleasure again.

Books that I have completed this month include “21 Lessons for the 21^st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari and “Skin in the Game” by Nasseem Nicholas Taleb. Both inspire the reader to consider the wider implications of their own actions or inactions.

For example, Harari points out that in Victorian England, genteel women drank tea laced with sugar that was grown in the Americas by African slaves working in hellish conditions. Their action was not based on hatred, but indifference.

The same can be said of the moral implications today of consuming meat or oil or coal. In the novel I am working on, the central character sets out to live her life by causing as little harm as possible. The conflict will arise from the complications of what this even implies.

The Wider World

On one side of The Atlantic, with the Mueller Investigation having ended, Donald Trump looks in pole position to win a second term. On the other, Brexit is unfolding as disastrously as most knowledgeable people predicted.

The former issue is still massively unpredictable. But to use a term coined by Taleb, Trump is anti-fragile. The Access Hollywood tape for example, would have buried any other politician, but expectations about Trump’s personal conduct are so low, he seems to get away with everything.

The latter issue has made me feel slightly guilty about an op-ed I wrote in 2012 while working for a Chinese government mouthpiece. There are writers I admire who were and still are in favour of The United Kingdom leaving the EU, including Taleb, Theodore Dalrymple, and Paul Kingsnorth.

In a rather rushed op-ed, I made the anti-EU argument clumsily, influenced by the mercifully now-defunct Telegraph Blogs. Most of my op-eds for this newspaper don’t appear to be alive online anymore, which proves that The Chinese Communist Party is wrong about something – there is a God!