Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Sarkozy makes my blood boil!

So the useless President Sarkozy comes out and declares that the full-body religious gown is a sign of the 'debasement' of women.

He's perfectly okay with his wife being plastered around the Internet without any clothes on but he has a problem with the burkha. Naked pictures of his wife all over the place do not debase women - a woman covering herself is debasing herself. Can the guy hear himself or is he so full of himself that he misses the bloody point?

I don't understand how on the one hand people like Sarkozy talk about democracy and freedom and on the other want to tell some women how they should dress. It's really none of his business.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Serbian this time...

Oops, below is the cover of THE SOUND OF LANGUAGE in Serbian (or is it Bosanski?). The previous one was the Romanian translation. I thought it was Serbian because I didn't know Ballantine had sold Romanian rights. But it's exciting to know that THE SOUND OF LANGUAGE has now been translated in Dutch, Danish, Romanian, and Serbian (or Bosanski - I'm not sure but I hope a reader can help me). More translations to come I hope...once the recession passes and publishers the world over start buying books again.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

My book in Serbian...

I don't even know what the title translates to but this is the Serbian translation of THE SOUND OF LANGUAGE.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Doing publicity for my sister's friend's new movie...


This year’s funniest and coolest film, 99, releases worldwide on May 15!

99 is a 'smart comedy' that promises a hell of a ride with unpredictable and hilarious twists and turns. Facts and fiction are liberally mixed to create a heady cocktail of twists and turns and loads of laughs.

It is an exciting comedy-thriller-historical fiction, a one-of-a-kind film.

The eclectic cast blends a reinvented Kunal Khemu with a new look, the ever-cool Soha Ali Khan in a chic new role, the hilarious Cyrus Broacha in his first feature role, and the talented powerhouses Boman Irani and Mahesh Manjrekar. The film also brings yesteryear hero Vinod Khanna back to the silver screen in a rare cameo.

The film is already generating buzz as the COOLEST COMEDY of the year, and is coming to ALL CINEMAS on MAY 15.

Watch the super-cool trailer on www.99thefilm.com or on youtube.

Directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK
Produced by Anupam Mittal and Aditya Shastri
Cinematography: Rajeev Ravi
Sound Design: Stephen Gomes
Music: Ashu, Shamir Tandon, Roshan Machado, Mahesh Shankar
Written by: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK and Sita Menon

A People Pictures Presentation

Monday, May 11, 2009

Flying - a rant...

So...when you pay, say $2,000 for say, a hotel room for the night, you know that the service you get will be impeccable. People will genuflect and every whim of yours will be fulfilled.

Now say, you pay the same money for an airline ticket, what would you be expecting? I'm expecting nothing but grumpy people who think that the airline business is doing us a favor by flying us out and about and taking our money. Airlines have forgotten what it means to be hospitable and are the weakest link in the hospitality chain.

I rant because I flew today. The service wasn't bad but in Europe there is no service. No tea, coffee, breakfast, nothing if you fly monkey class. You just sit cramped and wait to land. No one even says hello to you unless your seat belt is unbuckled.

Today, as I walked through security, I kept my shoes on. I usually take them off, it's just not worth the hassel. But it's spring and I was wearing pretty open shoes without socks and didn't want to take them off. The thing beeped and interestingly enough, two men stood there feeling up women. I mean the guy touched my boob in an attempt to find a bomb. Now I know it was 8 a.m. but Copenhagen airport can't hire women to feel up women? I'm not a prude and I didn't kick up a fuss because I didn't want others to think I'm a prude, but seriously, some strange guy runs his gloved hands all over me...and doesn't even offer me a drink?

And wouldn't you know it, the damn security thing beeped every time someone walked throug it. I don't wear a belt. The only jewelry is my wedding ring and some ear rings.

I'm disappointed with the aviation industry. They don't care for their customers. They don't give a damn how we're treated. I was in the US in February and after getting through immigration which took two long hours, we were in another security line and this guy was yelling, "take your shoes off, take your shoes off." We were all tired after 10 hours on a plane and this guy was talking to us like we were cattle. How is this behavior okay?

Imagine going to your supermarket and they yell at you, do you go back? Would they do that and still stay in business?

I think the airline industry confuses itself with a homeland security type agency and that's the big problem. We're all terrorists and should be treated as such until the plane lands and we're out of their hair.

I'm sick and tired of this. I have decided to do something about it. From now on, I intend to call on every rude act performed toward me or anyone else I see during my travel. I should have said something today morning when two men were feeling up several women as their security gate beeped for absolutely nothing. Well, there's always next time I'm sure.

What do you hate about flying? Or do you love flying and why?

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Og nu invitation på dansk...

If you're in Copenhagen, come see me read in Danish!

Did it knock your socks off?

I was recently invited by a Dutch blogsite to write about the books that changed my life. I have no idea how my life turned out the way I did so I wrote a blog about the books that have knocked my socks.

Read the blog here!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Do you tweet...blog...Facebook...?

Remember that cool ad from Yahoo! that went "Do you Yahoo!"?

I think those were the good days. Once upon a time, a writer wrote a book and after collecting many, many, many reject letters, sometimes got published. The author had a website, which was picked up by the Yahoo! search engine and maybe, just maybe, even a newsletter to his email list that consisted of Uncle Andy, Auntie Whatyouhave, obscure highschool friend, and some others.

Now that isn't enough. Now it isn't enough to just Yahoo! You need to be on Google for starters because no one searches on Yahoo! anymore (except my husband that is). And a website is a given. It's not even up for discussion. Then you have the Facebook profile, My Space page, a blog...and now Twitter. You also have to respond to emails you get from readers - send out quarterly email newsletters - and somewhere in the middle of all this, you need to write your book.

Since publishers have smaller and smaller publishing budgets for midlist writers like me, it's imperative that we do our own publicity - and the cheapest and most effective way to do it they say is via the Internet.

I'm all for publicity. I'm not sitting there waiting for magic to happen - but I also don't know how it's possible to keep all that online activity going and writing a book.

Even as online marketing opens new doors for writers and other artists, I wonder how much time it takes away from the creation of the book...the art. I like the blogging - I know I don't do it regularly enough but I like it. It's a great way for a writer to communicate since we can write. But I must confess going in and out of Facebook, tweeting about what I'm doing right now...I don't know. I just signed up for Twitter and I'm experimenting with it. I understand the attraction because I feel caught up in reading other tweets...still, wouldn't my time be better served with me working on book rather than writing that I'm working on my book? Facebook is yet another distraction for me. I will wander around other people's pictures and suddenly two hours have passed.

Do you feel these social networking sites enhance your life or do they suck your time? Okay...now back to writing...