“…I may freely address you as ‘pissmidget’”

(Also posted on Bark)

It’s summer, I don’t have to go back to full time teaching until the fall and in between the projects on my to do list for this time off (garden work that will never happen, filling out the paperwork for becoming an American citizen, brushing the dog, planning for lessons, watching bad TV) I thought I would do some writing. However, my motivation to put words on paper plummeted to the lowest low when Monday’s mail brought  two rejection letters. Scott, Shira, and Sam have already “barked” on the subject and I don’t have anything to add other than that this video of Irish comedian Dylan Moran as the main character in the TV series Black Books reacting to a recent rejection letter cheered me up. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS1NOXWVWgo)

What do you do to cheer yourself up after one of these missives show up in your mail or inbox?

Posted in Humor, Rejections, Submissions & Queries | Comments »

Attend My Global Dinner Party; Send an Indian Kid to School

(This also posted at Bark.)

I’m having a party on June 18th at 6 pm and you are invited.

This isn’t just any kind of party, I will host a gathering at my house, but at the same time, all around the world, other people will have the same party—on the same theme. What’s our theme you ask? I’ll tell you, we’re CONNECTING THROUGH FOOD, one of my favorite ways of connecting.

We’re also celebrating the release of Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World (a Three River Press original). Forty-one authors, of whom I am one, tell their stories of adventuring around the world. An additional and very tasty bonus is the thirty-three accompanying recipes. Curried carrot soup anyone? Charred sugar-crusted Salmon? Ginger-cumin roasted chicken? Butternut squash salad from the Seychelles? (Say that three times fast!) Swedish Kladdkaka? If you guessed that the last one is connected to my contribution to the book, you guessed right.

All of the advance and the royalties from the book are being donated to send kids from New Delhi slums to vocational schools. So far, $40,000 has been sent through a Rotary Club in Maryland to a Rotary in New Delhi who will vet and mentor the students. Imagine how many children’s lives we can help change together by buying books, spreading the word, and hosting dinner parties! Each party is important, and hundreds will attract media attention. So please, join us.

Your “ticket” to attend the party is to buy a copy of the book. I have added handy-dandy links to my website for just that purpose: http://www.asamariabradley.com/samples.html. If you live in the Spokane area, please come to my party. Email me at asa(at)asamariabradley(dot)com for directions. If you want to host your own party or find a party in your area, visit the Female Nomad Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/femalenomad and check out the Events and Notes tabs for more details.

To find out more about Rita Golden Gelman, the editor extraordinaire of the project and a true nomad, visit her site at http://www.ritagoldengelman.com/. Rita hasn’t had a permanent address for twenty-three years. In Tales of a Female Nomad (Crown 2001) she tells the story of selling her possessions and becoming a nomad—living in mud huts, in royal palaces, and on a magical island. This book is still going strong and ignoring a warning from her publisher, Rita included her e-mail address. The last line is: “I can’t wait to hear from you.” She was flooded with e-mails from readers worldwide who offered guest rooms, couches, meals…. and their own stories of connecting around the world. Many of those stories and more of Rita’s adventures are collected in Female Nomad and Friends.

Hope to see you on the 18th, in person or in a photo or video on the Facebook site. The site’s Notes section has recipes for the dishes I mentioned above. Random House (of which Three River Press is an imprint) has posted the opening chapter of the book: https://randomhouse.box.net/shared/c3tdisusojand this virtual blog tour has excerpts from some of the stories: http://bookpromotionservices.com/2010/05/17/female-nomad-tour/#comment-265:

Posted in Essays, Firsts, Inspiration, Tales of Breaking Free... | Comments »

Pippi Longstocking Fraud in the US!

Maybe celebrating Christmas at home in Sweden with my three-year-old nephew and brand new nice has made me extra sensitive to violations against my childhood literary heroes. My English husband certainly thinks so after I treated him to a long tirade this morning about slimy fraudulent business men doing anything for a buck.

The source of my morning anger is Svenska Dagbladet’s article about Astrid Lindgren’s relatives spending hundreds of thousands of kronor on protecting character names from her books on the American market, only to find out that the copyright firm they used turned out to be fraudulent. Saltkråkan AB–the company responsible for Astrid’s estate, lead by her granddaughter Malin Billing–is known for being generous when it comes to using book titles and character names from Lindgren’s books, but they protest when hotels named Villa Vilerkulla open up claiming to be sanctioned by the author or children wigs made out of flammable materials are sold as “official Pippi products.”

Astrid Lindgren is so much more than a role model for me; my admiration is more on the order of worship. She didn’t start writing until she was in her forties and still managed to become an international publishing phenomenon. When she became pregnant as an unwed young woman in 1926, she decided against marriage even though the father of the baby proposed. Instead she left the boy in foster care and worked her butt off to get a career that would support both her and the child. I’m always a sucker for women who do their own thing despite society’s rules and expectations. Throughout her life she was an advocate for children and animal rights, as well as gender and ethnic equality.

The author has a minor planet called after her (3204 Lindgren, discovered in 1978) and the Swedish microsatellite Astrid 1 has instruments named after characters in her books: PIPPI (Prelude in Planetary Particle Imaging), EMIL (Electron Measurements - In-situ and Lightweight), and MIO (Miniature Imaging Optics). After it launched on 24 January 1995, the author said that maybe people should call her Asteroid Lindgren from then on.

Like several generations of Swedish children, I grew up reading her children and young adult books. Although Pippi and Emil were a big favorites when I was a child—mostly from the TV shows–my favorite books of hers, probably some of my all time favorite novels, are the young adult stories: Bröderna Lejonhjärta (Brothers Lionheart), Mio min Mio (Mio my Mio) and Ronja Rövardotter (Ronia the Robber’s Daughter). All of her characters are strong-willed and independent boys and girls who struggle with temptation, but in the end always do the right thing—all while having the adventure of their life.

Although I didn’t consciously thing about it then, I’m sure that strong female characters like Pippi and Ronja had a great influence on my perception of what girls’ role and place in society is. Just like Astrid herself, they didn’t take any crap and kicked butt just as well as the boys did.

I hope Lindgren’s granddaughter takes after her grandmother and give those fake copyright company owners a great ass-whopping.

Posted in Authors I Admire, Inspiration | Comments »

The Cover is Here!

I’ve known about the book for a while now, but when I received the cover it it really sunk in that I’m going to be published–in a book!

I may be biased, but this is the most beautiful book cover I have ever seen. I can’t wait to hold a copy in my hand, hope there are many more that feels the same way and that it will make a ton of money for the kids in India. It’s an honor to be part of this project with Rita and to be published among such fantastic writers.

Posted in Essays, Inspiration, Non Fiction Writing, Tales of Breaking Free... | 6 Comments

Marketing, marketing, marketing!

As if it’s not enough stress to carve out enough time in the day for writing, aspiring authors also have to research marketing opportunities and start to establish themselves in the webby-facebooky-myspacey-bloggosphere.

I know what you’re thinking; shouldn’t you have a book published before you start working on your marketing plan? And yes, I should, but it isn’t just the books you’re marketing, it’s also yourself, your image, your presence, etc. Look at how many authors are on Facebook and/or have webpages and/or blogs. Why does Malcolm Gladwell publish a bunch of essay in the New Yorker right before one of his books hit the shelves? Because he knows marketing, baby!

In nonfiction marketing discussions I forever hear the word “platform,” as in “what’s your platform?” I don’t know what my platform is, I just write, but sometimes I worry if maybe I should have a platform and then write from that. Am I waisting my time writing without a platform? Does that mean my book will never be published?

It’s enough stress to merit a visit to the doctor for a request of increased dosage in your anti-anxiety prescription. And then you come across something like today’s “Shouts & Murmurs” section in the New Yorker and realize that laughter is after all, the best medicine. I giggled for a long time after reading Ellis Weiner’s ”Subject: Our Marketing Plan.”

Enjoy!

Posted in Humor, Inspiration, Marketing | Comments »