2010 Went to Vietnam to see Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Vietnamese Government discuss publishing a book for Hanoi City’s 1000th year celebrations. Funding gone. (January).
2010 Daisuke my husband left his company – had enough of being a Salary man for a Japanese company so left to pursue other business.
2010 Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Vietnamese Government came back and asked if we could present a book, but had to be in Hanoi in September (May), we traveled there to discuss but ended up attending a funeral, so the book was not discussed properly.
2010 Attended Vietnam Book Fair – spoke to German Publisher, not interested. (June)
2010 Created and presented a course on Japanese Culture to Malaysian Cultural Club a course on Japan Culture: Very Japanesey Don’t You Think So. (July)
2010 Joined NZ Business Mentors, as needed assistance to navigate Publication Licencing in Vietnam, could not help as did not live in NZ (Sept).
2010 Asked for help to NZ Ambassador in Vietnam, could not, but they handed my book to NZ Prime Minister (October).
2010 Spoke at length with Danish Refugee Council / Danish Demining Group, Vietnam regarding strategy + ideas how to continue series. (Nov/Dec)
2010 Got interviewed for program for Vietnam’s TV4, was released before book was published. (Aug)
2010 Spoke to G? friend about project, could not offer assistance Asia/NZ.
2010 Became a member at NZ Chamber of Commerce – Malaysia (Nov).
2010 Wrote the 265 page book with 1500 photos from May to August, designer worked to meet deadline, basically as I wrote the book, he designed it, then we sent it to the proof reader/editor. There was no time for major changes or to look at the book before heading to Vietnam.
2010 On way to Vietnam we went via Singapore and traded my engagement ring for some cash for the business (side story, ring never got back).
2010 Once in Vietnam we then had to negotiate the Publishing Licence which is a requirement for all written, filmed or photographed items in Vietnam. No Government publisher wanted to be responsible for it, since there was 1500 photos to go through. The Social Sciences Publishing House decided to proceed and for one week, myself and a translator sat and answered questions regarding the content of the book and went through most photos one by one to get approval. At the end of the day over 100 photos got taken out and 6 pages of text had to be deleted. Then we sat with their designer to change the book.
2010 10th of the 10th 2010 was the auspicious day that celebrated the 1000th year birthday of Hanoi City. My book celebrating this was launched about a week later due to publication licence hold ups.
2010 Spoke to PZ a film maker, Hanoi, Vietnam, was not interested
2010 Marketed the book in Hanoi, had ?? Retailers in Hanoi selling book.
2010 Marketing: Attended the International Women’s Fair, book fair and UN School fair to sell the book. Advertised in Aussie News, but could not build enough traction.
2010 Could not afford to go back to Vietnam after a few trips of there marketing the book, had borrowed money of family to try and get this off the ground. Ran out of money. In December 2010 Daisuke went back to Japan to work and I stayed in Malaysia.
2010 Spoke to WebFund in NZ, was not interested in this project.
2010 Spoke to a marketing friend RB in NZ, but he wanted $1000 to prepare something for pitch, but he did not get the whole concept.
