In 1987, I travelled east for the first time, towards Asia. Inspired during frequent eight-hour bus rides, I wrote a series of travel stories and upon my return, I introduced them to a writing group in North London, known as much for its consumption of wine as of words. The travelling then inspired more travelling, more stories, and some photos.
Rubies and Rucksacks represents the Southeast Asian focused collection and comprises stories which can be read individually, or as an end-to-end narrative—target for full publication in the summer of 2026 by DC’s local bookstore Politics and Prose.
A portion of the profits from the sale of this book and its individual stories go to charitable causes for children in need.
Contact me below to request advance copies, or to subscribe to my Substack for the latest. Also, join one of our virtual open mics at the Facebook Bethesda Memoirs Meetup to hear a sample, or to read your own work.
Mel Christie
March 25, 2025
Editorial Note: Based upon the protagonist’s UK origins, British spellings and idioms are consistently used throughout this work. While choosing Rubies and Rucksacks for the title of the book, someone warned me that ‘rucksacks’ is not American word, and when I checked, Google prompted me “Did you mean backpacks?” So, I tested the title on a friend, but she thought I said ‘Rubies and Rough Sex.’ I assured her that there was only a little bit of rough sex in it.
Copyright Notes:
Masthead photo of Ukai cormorant fishing by Rod Waddington via Flickr under the Creative Commons license, cropped to fit.
Photo of blossoms by Brett Sayles under the Pexels license, saturated for effect.
Photo of Jeepney by Shankar S via Flickr under the Creative Commons license, cropped and post-processed with Snapseed.
All other photos, unless otherwise stated, were taken by me.
Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved.
All content was inspired by real events and people, in that all were real, but some were more real than others. Names and characteristics have been changed to preserve privacy, experiences have been compressed, some have been rearranged, and some have been somewhat tweaked for narrative purposes. Any further resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Although every effort to maintain accuracy of circumstances and information, the author does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors, omissions, or fuzzy memory. After all, these travels took place thirty or more years ago and are the product of a person who did not always speak the local language despite his best attempts.
I’ve had the privilege of reading some of these stories in their entirety – though prior to final edits. This guy is a lively storyteller; the stories are a lot of fun; and while it’s fiction, the settings are painted so realistically and vividly that you’re going to learn some interesting true background about the places these stories are set in. As in, some interesting accidents, incidents and angles that Rick Steves wouldn’t be including in his coverage!
Thanks for your kind words Dave. The stories are less fiction than you would think 😉