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 »

Yay! I made the final cut for a collection!

When I read Rita Golden Gelman’s Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World in 2005, I immediately wanted to know more about the fascinating author. Actually, what I really wanted to do right after reading the book was to sell all my stuff, pack a backpack and start living a nomadic life like hers. I had travelled around in South East Asia and Europe for most of 2002 and was very keen on adapting that lifestyle full time. After I calmed down a bit, I logged on to Rita’s website instead of listing all my possessions on Craigslist. What I found is that she’s a fantastic inspiration as well as a fabulous writer. I sent her a note through email and to my surprise she emailed me back with gracious advice about traveling and writing. On the website, I also saw a note about a collaborative travel essay/cookbook project and after some encouragement from my critique group, I sent in a submission. I wrote about my first American Thanksgiving and included the recipe for the chocolate cake I baked for the dinner.

Since then, Rita and Maria Altobelli (who writes about living in Mexico and maintains http://www.mexicoinsmallbytes.com/) selected which essays they liked best, tested all the recipes, found an agent for the project, who then found a publishing house. Today I found out that our editor for Random House’s Crown division picked my essay to be included in the book. The working title of the book is Break Free, Break Bread, Break Rules: Stories and Recipes from the World at Large and should be out next year. All the proceeds, including the advance, will be used for scholarships for vocational education for high school graduates living in the slums of New Delhi.

Today is a very, very happy day.

Posted in Agents & Editors, Authors I Admire, Essays, Firsts, Inspiration, Non Fiction Writing, Submissions & Queries | Comments »

First Manuscript Request

Haven’t been posting for a while, but that’s because I’ve been busy with new and wonderful things.

My friend Jere and I traveled to the beautiful Whidbey Island for their writers’ association’s annual conference—and what a great conference it was. The fantastic nature, the excellent volunteers, and the intimate and casual atmosphere made this my favorite conference ever.

One of the reasons I’m so partial to it is because while pitching for an agent, I got my first FULL MANUSCRIPT REQUEST ever for Paved Paradise. So, that’s what I’ve been working on. Even though the manuscript was completed and reviewed by my writers’ group (twice) I still couldn’t let it go without doing some polishing and final edits.

More about the conference later—now back to grading my students’ finals and catching up on sleep.  

(Moved from my old blog: http://writingvalkyrie.blogspot.com.)

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First Paying Article

Actually, I did get paid for another article. It was a book review for a local bookstore’s newsletter. My reward was in used book credit. I spent it right away.

This gig is for a small local magazine and it involves interviewing a former NASCAR driver who grew up in our town. I’ve never written a profile before, so I’m a little scared–but kind of in a good way. I’ve talked to the guy already, but our time was cut short due to his family obligations. We’ll continue tomorrow again. I was really nervous and had tons of questions prepared, but my profile subject was as nice as he could be and it was more like having a chat with someone you’re trying to get to know.

The main obstacle to this whole thing is having a full time job and finding the time to do a phone interview with someone that is in a time zone 3 hours ahead. The solution is that I have to get up super early in the morning and catch my NASCAR guy right when he arrives at work.

So far, this is a fun assignment. I’m not sure that it is healthy learning curve to have my first article comission with a very helpful and nice editor, while interviewing a cheerful easy-going guy. But hey, I’m not complaining–I’m having a blast! 

(Moved from my old blog: http://writingvalkyrie.blogspot.com.)

Posted in Article Writing, Firsts, Inspiration, Money | Comments »

My First Writing Conference

I went to my first writing conference ever last week, the PNWA conference. The whole writing group was supposed to go (all three of us) but my two partners chickened out. Actually, they had really good excuses for why they couldn’t go, but I had already paid my registration fee. After some mishaps about parking—the hotel wasn’t prepared for so many people driving their own cars—I settled in for my first workshop.

What I was expecting from this conference was a bunch of already established writers looking down their nose at us plebs that were trying to get an agent or editor to notice us. I also assumed that the publishing industry professionals would be snooty (they were after all, mostly from the east coast) and probably shoot most of us down before we managed to stammer out our name and the beginning of our elevator pitch. I’d read just about all of Anne Mini’s blog that had to do with preparing for a conference, but was super nervous about having to do any kind of pitching.

The conference was the complete opposite of my expectations. Every single person I met was extremely encouraging. The workshops were for the most part excellent and taught by writers that not only knew how to write, but also how to teach. Every writer I met, established or not, were chatty, interested, and interesting. The agents didn’t have any horns on their head and listened politely to any elevator and hallway pitch I attempted. Several of them gave me their cards and encouraged me to send them queries. The agents and editors I had scheduled appointments with, all (except for one who does not accept queries from unrepresented writers) asked me to send them pages.

I had a fantastic time and learned so very much. I’m definitely going back next year and would encourage everyone else that writes to attend a conference. I very much felt like I got my money’s worth. Before I was super nervous about meeting agents and editors, now I’m all nervous about sending them my stuff. I’ve already spent days rewriting and agonizing over manuscript pages and query sentences. Funny how trying to say something on only one page takes a lot longer to write than a full manuscript.

What was your first writing conference experience like? Did you meet your agent or editor at a writing conference?

(Moved from my old blog: http://writingvalkyrie.blogspot.com.)

Posted in Agents & Editors, Conferences, Firsts | Comments »