Stage actor and part-time hairdresser Nathalie Qadir befriends three polite young Muslim men in her immigrant neighborhood in London; they fill a hole in her heart where her brother once was. She doesn't realize that terrorist financier and ideologue Abn Al Sadr has...
Kyna, Dad and I went to Kentucky. You can't go to Kentucky without seeing horses: This one is a stallion that is rented out for his... prowess. If you know what I mean. It's creepy in that they tie up the mares to whom he is... assigned. He goes four times a...
I read an old article by Oliver Sacks yesterday, about the Sabbath and keeping it holy. He was raised Orthodox in the Jewish faith and the Sabbath was really the Sabbath. In Washington DC I used to go to Shabbat dinner with Zahara and other friends and there was...
I have been researching the person to whom I was referred - the one who says she has lots of contacts. She was very cool and sent me places I could look to see her referrals and testimonials. She took time to answer my concerns. Then I went to LinkedIn and she has...
I am shaking like a leaf... I don't know if that's good or bad. Since my last post I've worked very sporadically on my book. If I had to guess, I'd say I was chickenshit about getting more rejections, so I've worked but without direction, without deadlines, without...
With the help of the Book Doctors, I've worked on my query to see if there's a way to get more interest. They said the text is great - it's the query that's not grabbing the agents. I am not sure if this does the trick: I'm really eager to get Nathalie's personality...
One is happy as a result of one's own efforts once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience. -George Sand [pen name of Amantine-Aurore-Lucile...
I felt I was on my way when I got two rejections. Now that they've reached five, even with some lovely apologies mixed in, I feel less sanguine about it. And of course the fact that everything has gone straight to hell at home does not help. I was so excited for my...
I have gotten two rejections. I'm pretty psyched. One was more personal, one was more "form letter" type. I think this is totally to be expected, and now that I'm experiencing it, it's not as bad as I had feared. I was pretty freaked out on Saturday. I only sent two...
---***--- The bombers. Still the dissonance rings in my ears like Anglican church bells in my neighbourhood full of Muslim immigrants. They were boys, sweet and dear and polite, and they got haircuts in my shop every three weeks for the full six months they spent...