In Honor of Chinese President Hu

And his visit to the United States, I've just finished my latest paper for Zurich, which is a 50 page translation of a story that was originally written in Chinese. Keep in mind that I'm throwing around the word 'translation' very loosely. For the most part, I find out just enough to get the sense of what the story is about, and then come up with the rest from scratch.

What I've found interesting is that I really do need to have a framework to start with, even one that is bare bones beyond belief. For some reason, just having SOMETHING on the page in front of me is enough to guide me and direct the story. So while almost 95% of the story is what would be classified as 'original content', that 5% is vital to me. Without it.... Well there have been some projects. I've worked on things in the recent past which have had no starting framework at all, and I tell you, it's like working in the salt mines. The project get's done, but I'm totally spent afterwords.

Now this latest story really won't do too much to make China happy with the US, and I'm sure will have absolutely no positive effect on the relationship between the two countries. But I do hold out hope that on some level I've stirred interest in Chinese history through my writings, and will have encouraged someone, somewhere to do further self-directed research.
Full disclosure. I made up Chinese history. But heck, I sure made it interesting!

I think the next project coming my way will be in French, which is a language that I haven't tackled for about 6 months. I'm really curious about what it will be. From the brief glimpses I've had, it looks like a winner!