Okay, I’m a little early with the next
author. Please welcome our Featured Author, Dorothee Lang, who is a writer, web
freelancer and traveler, and editor of Blue
Print Review. Dorothee is from Germany, where I’m in the process of moving
to, and has always been fascinated by roads, languages, and
places abroad-themes reflected in her own work. Her book, Worlds Apart is a
true story of two friends, two journeys and ten life lessons. I’m definitely
interested in this one since it focuses on lessons learned from traveling.
About Worlds Apart
Smitha Murthy lives in Bangalore, India. A restless wanderer in the
wilderness of this world, she worked as contributor to the Deccan Herald, as teacher
in a school in China, and in the Global Markets Research department.
While Smitha Murthy is in a foreign country for the first time – teaching
English at a Chinese school – she chances upon a fellow traveller in the web:
Dorothee Lang, who has just returned to Europe from a journey to Asia, and is
trying to find the balance between everyday joys and worries, work, and the
call of the horizon.
An engaging travelogue in the form of emails unfolds. It leads from the
Great Wall to Shanghai, from Munich to the Mediterranean Sea, and from curious
questions ("How does one type on a Chinese keyboard?") to shared life
lessons: "And that is the beauty of travel. It's a journey to discover the
truths that lie underneath."
Interlaced with photos and rounded up with practical advice for travelling
and teaching in Asia, WOR(L)DS APART is both an inspiring travel read, and the
story of a friendship across cultures and borders.
The
Start of Worlds Apart
This book started through a
coincidence: after Dorothee returned from a journey through India, she posted
some travel memories and photos online. A few months later, those blog posts
triggered an email from the other side of the world: “Hi! I know that you will
be really surprised to receive an email from this stranger. Let me explain. My
name is Smitha, from Bangalore. Right now I am in the middle of a teaching
adventure in China…”
After the first contact, they both
wanted to learn more since they led very different lives. They had no idea that
their mail conversation would continue and would turn into a book—but at some
point, as the dialogue developed, crossing between cultures, revealing
differences and commonalities, so they began to collect the correspondence in a
file.
Choosing an Indie
For Dorothee, the indie literary scene – both the online and print
one – always felt a bit like the individual travel scene: drawn to follow new
trails, to explore new places, to cross borders, to share. They thought about self-publishing,
too, but felt it would be good to have someone with editing skills that could advise
and revise their collected notes from a fresh point of view, especially as they
wrote their mails without the plan to publish them. Folded Word Press, their
publisher, started as an online magazine and chapbook press of handmade books –
that’s how Dorothee got to know Jessi Graustein, their editor. Jessi was also into
travelling, and when she posted about the idea to invite travel-themed
manuscripts, it all fell into place.
I want to take this time to thank Dorothee Lang for
sharing her book with us, and I’d also like to thank her for featuring Net
Switch and Pay It Forward on her website.
Travels and Memories,
Bea
