Hi Norm! I finished 'The Queens of Dragon Town' and I have some questions! 
–Diana V.
Hi Diana! So nice of you to read the book and get into it so much. I’m glad the story and messages are really reaching people!
 
I’ll do my best to answer your questions but first, let me give you some context about how I came up with the story:
 
I took a combination of everything I saw, experienced, and went on in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines and combined it into one story. Of course it wouldn’t work if I used a literal timeline, places, and stuck to individual characters spread across 1 year and 4 countries, so I combined them all and made one fictional place to host them on the journey – Dragon Town and the island it’s on.
 
Question1: Have you kept in touch with Sophar or Mamasan? I know you didn't catch up with Sophar before leaving for the States and she owed you money, but I am wondering if she was able to contact you through social media?
Likewise, Sophar (Sophara is a common Cambodian name but the real girl with a very similar name is actually an amalgamation of 3 or even 4 girls I knew. But there is a real "Sophar" and I did go to the province with her and meet her mother and she was hustling to make money to put a roof on her mother’s house.
 
There was also a girl that borrowed money from and I walked away instead of forcing her to pay it back, and a third girl who drank the money she’d collected for her mother and showed up drunk at my room and freaked out and tried to hurt herself. And others I lived next to on the roof of a building in a way-too-hot rat infested shack.
 
I keep in touch with all of them and still see them, though Sophar I am not really friends with any more and we have somewhat of a love-hate relationship. Lol
 
As for Mamasan, again that was a combination of characters. The inspiration came from a now-good friend who is the mamasan of a bar in the Philippines who helped me out after the typhoon. I’m still great friends with her. And there were several other real-life Mamasans or inspirations for the character and I can’t think of anyone I’m not still friendly with.
 
Question 2: What happened to the guy who climbed the billboard at the end of the book? I am going to assume he didn't make it out alive....or did he?
That did happen, almost exactly as its written except I was on Sam Sam’s tuk-tuk. It was my last night in town and I was in a hurry and didn’t want to mess around so we didn’t stay to find out what happened to the man. I can only guess it didn’t end well for him, though I doubt they killed him or beat him too badly in front of everyone there. But of course it was a metaphor for poverty, powerlessness, and hopelessness, and man’s futile climb to rise above it, no matter what the consequences.
 
Question 3: I am assuming the Prime Minister stole the donations. Do you know if there were any repercussions from that? 
Right after the typhoon, I was asked to meet the mayor (not prime minister but that made more sense for the book) of the main town on the neighboring island to Boracay, where the seat of government was held. I met with him and his staff and we did plan a fundraiser on the beach, which they did cancel inexplicably. While I can’t accuse that actual person of embezzling donations, that exact thing happened way too much in hard-hit areas like Leyte and Tacloban. It’s all-too indicative of the absolute corruption and greed in government and society in many countries – and people. And no, there weren’t any reprecussions for the hertless graft after the typhoon that I’ve heard of
 
I added the bit about the Chinese advisor and how he was really pulling the strings because that is happening in so many places, including Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Big fish eats little fish, I guess. The governments and business owners are making deals with China, which has unlimited resources, is ultra-aggressive to expand, and has zero ethical considerations as far as I can see. But instead of benefiting the people, the rich make sure all of the money goes in their own pockets and they get richer by selling out their own country.
 
It’s interesting because only a month after I wrote the book and finished it, there was a government order in Otres Beach in Sihanoukville in Cambodia (one of the big inspirations) that mandated all businesses on the beach had to move out and demolish their own buildings and give up ownership of their lands. They just forced these people out in one felled swoop totally unlawfully, and it’s obvious they are going to clear the land and then build huge resorts, casinos, and condos for the Chinese. The same bullshit is going on with priceless Diniwid Beach on Boracay, and all over SE Asia.
 
Question 4: Was there another revolution after Ava's death?
“Ava” was a friend of mine in a bar who was a ladyboy, another ladyboy who was super nice and friends with all my friends on Boracay, and also someone I never met named Jeffrey Laude. Jeffrey, aka “Jenny,” was a transvestite in Subic Bay in the Philippines who went with a drunk U.S. marine and was found murdered in the exact graphic detail I described. This was a couple years ago but by stroke of coincidence, the marine was just extradited to stand trial in Philippines court right after I released the book.
 
But the revolution part comes mostly from Thailand, where there was a coup when I was there where the military junta took over control of the country. That happens a lot in Thailand, believe it or not, so it wasn’t a super-bloody or violent civil war, but the military is mismanaging the country something awful now. There was also political unrest in Cambodia when I was there.
 
Question 5: You mentioned in an earlier Facebook message that you were in the States for a few months and then heading out to Africa. Did you make it there, and if so is there going to be another book soon?
I never made it to Africa because the non-profit I was planning on going there to work for never really got off the ground, so that’s on hold. I went back to SE Asia to the usual stomping grounds, especially Phnom Penh, where I’m invested my time and energy helping non-profits and caring people who are making a huge difference in the world, and especially working to change the social issues we encounter in the book.
 
 It took me about 18 months to finish the book, so even though it starts in November 2013 with the typhoon, the actual timeline stretches out almost 3 years.
 
You want me to write ANOTHER book? Hahaha! I need a break so I’m sticking to my real job of blogging and marketing for companies for a while, traveling, and writing a lot of my own blogs and articles that interest me. I really like how the book came out and believe in its messages, so I will hit pause on writing another one until I can dedicate six months to a year to promote it in earnest (I haven’t even started yet!)
 
…but I have already been mulling over the next book, which will be inspired by true events as a semi-autobiographical story about life for a high school kid in the early 1990s. It’s not going to be a travel or adventure book…but if it comes out anywhere close to how its shaping up in my head, it’s going to be damn entertaining! The working title is “We Are Family.”
 
Stay tuned for that one in a year or two!  

-Norm  :-)

You can get the the book 'The Queens of Dragon Town' on Amazon.com or download a free sample here.
 

They’ve been called everything from modern day Robin Hoods to cyber-terrorists. They rally for free speech, champions of democracy, and even work to protect us from Isis and Al Qaeda. They are malicious pranksters who hide their identities behind masks, vandals that cause billions of dollars in damage and ruin lives, and lawbreakers.
 
You may have seen images of them on the news during Occupy Wall Street, adorning the front cover of Time Magazine in 2012 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world or in the shadowy corners of the online reality. They are both our best protector against all-powerful corporations, governments, and ideologies, and our biggest threat to topple the stability of economies and nations.
 
Somehow, the online hacker group known only as “Anonymous” is all of these things, often at the same time, and represents even more. But no matter whether you love the work they do or think they are dangerous criminals, it’s clear by now that Anonymous is more powerful and significant than ever.
 
Here are a few bullet points on the group Anonymous:
 
“Anonymous” is the self-appointed name of the world’s largest and most powerful network of activists and cyber hackers.
 
However, Anonymous has no central leadership, hierarchy or even infrastructure, just "a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives".
 
They commonly adopt the mantra, "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”
 
Anonymous started innocently enough in 2003, on an online message board called 4chan. Members of that board that posted comments without sharing their real names were just listed as “Anons”.
 
This group started pulling online stunts and pranks, focused only on entertainment value (called ‘lulz’) without any social or political conscience.
 
But all of that changed in 2008 when they launched Project Chanology, an orchestrated string of online protests and hacks against The Church of Scientology after the church sued an entertainment website for copyright infringement after it posted a video of Tom Cruise lauding the religion.
 
Anonymous quickly took on many aspects of a smart brand, including the highly-recognizable yet faceless representation of the group using masks like the ones worn in Guy Fawkes’ graphic novel and film, V for Vendetta.
 
That feud led them to more focused involvement targeting big media and entertainment companies like Sony, the Motion Picture Association, and the Recording Industry Association, opposing internet censorship and control. In 2010, Anonymous launched Operation Payback, which collectively shut down industry websites for more than 500 hours.
 
Spurned by their success and crystallizing their mission, Anonymous leaked hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables that same year.
 
Next, with Operation Avenge Assange they picked a fight with Internet commerce and banking giants like PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and Amazon, and even US government officials who rebuked the band of pranksters-turned-cybercriminals. Some of their efforts were more successful than others, but PayPal alone estimated that Anonymous cost the company more than $5 million, and 14 members that worked on behalf of Anonymous were brought to justice.
 
The group’s vision took a huge jump to the political realm in 2011, as many operatives and subgroups of Anonymous helped spark the Arab Spring, condemning government surveillance and persecution and helping to attempt to topple regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia by attacking government and ant-rebel groups online. In fact, the Arab Spring was largely successful only because of the organization, communications, and methodology used by protestors through social media and online.
 
Anonymous gained household recognition I the US in 2011 and 2012 as it supported the Occupy Wall Street movement, leading Time Magazine to recognize it as one of the 100 most influential “people” in the world.
 
Anonymous reportedly launched attacks in 2012 against the Brussels Sock Exchange in Belgium, New York Stock Exchange, and London Stock Exchange, though this create a fissure in the group, as many “Anons” condemned the actions.
 
There were smaller scale social and civil rights campaigns in play during those same years, as Anonymous took on the Westboro Baptist Church for their homophobic rhetoric, even publically releasing names, emails and phone numbers of church members after Westboro Baptist announced their plans to picket the funerals of the children and teachers killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre.
 
They took on the Klu Klux Klan in 2014 after the white-supremacist organization issued death threats in the wake of the Ferguson riots, similarly promising to release about 1,000 personal details and identities for Klan members.
 
They were closely involved in the police shooting deaths of Michael Brown and then Tamir Rice. Anonymous released the name of the police officer in Cleveland who shot Rice, though when it did the same with the alleged officer in the Brown case, they reportedly named the wrong policeman.
 
And just when the media and public opinion is ready to condemn Anonymous for blunders like that, anarchism and hypocrisy, we realize they’ve been working tirelessly since 2011 to fight child pornographers online with their Operation Darknet, infiltrating and hutting down networks and leaking names and details of thousands of members.
 
Anonymous rallied to raise money for victims of the storms and floods in Oklahoma, raised awareness for the plight of homeless people internationally with Operation Safe Winter, and strongly condemned the Paris terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo that killed 12.
 
With that attack, Anonymous vowed to fight al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations around the world by disrupting and eradicating their websites and social media accounts. And while we might be comforted by their well-intentioned activism, they’ve also been criticized by some international crime enforcement and military organizations, which say it’s harder to track the terrorist cells when their online fingerprints are erased.
 
These days, it’s hard to even tell what actions are really performed by Anonymous, and which can be attributed to the myriad spinoffs and castoff members. In fact, membership is open to anyone who wants to claim to be a part of Anonymous and join in the fray, and the group still has no easily defined philosophy or allegiance, only operating by a few rules (that nostalgically, make us think of Fight Club): not disclosing one's identity; not talking about the group; and not attacking the media.
 
Where will Anonymous attack next? Will they help or hurt our society? What do they truly stand for? After almost a decade of social and political activism, there are more questions than answers, more horror film masks than human voices, as we can’t easily discern anything about Anonymous except never to underestimate them.

But I guess that’s the whole point, right?

-Norm   :-)

***
Originally written for Blue Water Credit.com 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rumi was a 13th century Persian poet, thinker, and mystic; still world-renowned as one of the most insightful and enlightened human beings ever to live. Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, or just 'Rumi' as he is commonly know, is still considered the most popular poet in America, and many parts of the world.

I am a huge fan of Rumi's words, and faced a profound problem when starting to collect his quotes for this anthology; they were all great. Not good, but great. Through much deliberation and reluctant deletion, I managed to narrow the list down to 60 of Rumi's best quotes - though I didn't dare amend to 50. Upon reflection, I really should have included 100.

We often just scan blogs, articles, and content online, but I highly encourage you to take the time to actually read every one of these quotes.

I guarantee that at least one of Rumi's quotes will set you free.

-Norm  :-)

​1. “Set your self on fire. Seek those who fan your flames”
 
2. “Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.”
 
3. “Open your hands
if you want to be held.”
 
4. “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop”
 
5. “Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being. Halfheartedness does not reach into majesty.” 
 
6. “Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.” 
 
 7. “This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.” 
 
 8. “Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise.”
 
 9. “Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” 
 
 10. “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” 
 
11. “A pen went scribbling along. When it tried to write love, it broke.” 
 
 12. “Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought!”
 
 13. “It is certain that an atom of goodness on the path of faith is never lost.”
 
 
14.  “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
 
15. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
 
16.  “Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
 
 17. “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
 
18. “Silence is the language of god,
all else is poor translation.”
 
19. “What you seek is seeking you.”
 
20. “The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.”
 
21. “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.”
 
22. “When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
 
23. “Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.”
 
 24. “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
 
 25. “If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”
 
 26. “Travel brings power and love back into your life.”
 
27.  “I closed my mouth and spoke to you in a hundred silent ways.”
 
28.“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”
 
29. “What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”
 
 30. “Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.”
 
31. “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
 
32. “People want you to be happy.
Don’t keep serving them your pain!
If you could untie your wings
and free your soul of jealousy,
you and everyone around you
would fly up like doves.”
 
33. “Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!”
 
34. “Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open?”
 
35. “The lion is most handsome when looking for food.”
 
36. “Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy.”
 
37. “Either give me more wine or leave me alone.”
 
38. “Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”
 
39. “I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I’ve been knocking from the inside.”
 
40. “Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.”
 
41. “I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.”
 
42. “The cure for pain is in the pain.”
 
43. “For one moment
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you.”
 
44. “I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.”
 
45.“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?”
 
46. “Not only the thirsty seek the water, the water as well seeks the thirsty.”
 
47. “Respond to every call
that excites your spirit.”
 
48. “These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”
 
49. “The way you make love is the way God will be with you.”
 
50. “When someone beats a rug,
the blows are not against the rug,
but against the dust in it.”
 
51. “Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal..”
 
52. “Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.”
 
53. “You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”
 
54. “When you feel a peaceful joy, that’s when you are near truth.”
 
55. “The moon stays bright when it doesn’t avoid the night.”
 
56. “They say there is a doorway from heart to heart, but what is the use of a door when there are no walls?”
 
57. “You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!”
 
58. “The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.”
 
59. “In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.”
 
60. “You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.”

*** 

Which one(s) were you favorite Rumi quotes and really moved you?

Watch me eat these beetles, crickets, roaches, frogs, larvae, and a bunch of unidentifiable critters from a street stall in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - all for a good cause to raise money for several amazing charities! 

If you got a kick out of this video PLEASE consider donating $100, $25, or even $10 to the charities I introduce below, Connecting Hands, Willow Tree Roots, and the Children's Improvement Organization. These are all charities I personally help out and see first hand the work they do to better a lot of lives.

Thanks - and get ready to be grossed out!

-Norm  :-)

To donate, just click on the PayPal link below and tell me which charity you'd like to help.
​It's quick, easy, safe, and I'll make sure the money gets to the appropriate charity and you get a receipt.
​