An Exciting New Adventure

         On Wednesday, February 29, 2012 I will be talking with John Byk on his radio blog 2012writersALIVE.  I have never done anything like this before, and I am very excited about it.

John’s radio blog features interviews with authors whose books deal with social problems, and I was fortunate enough to interest him in my books about Palestinian refugees (Born a Refugee and Refugee Without Refuge).  We will be discussing the humanitarian aspects of living in the refugee camps and the problems the refugees encounter as a result of living under occupation, with a particular emphasis of education.  John Byk is an educator and has traveled widely, giving him a unique perspective on the problems.

The blog is an audio broadcast (hence the name radio blog) and can be heard live by anyone who goes to his website http://2012writersalive.blogspot.com/.  I expect him to call me at 1:30 PM Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, and I assume the interview will go live shortly thereafter.  If you miss it, he archives his blog posts and you can listen to them anytime.

Social injustices are pack animals--they seldom exist in isolation, and they have no respect for international borders.  Poverty, overcrowding, lack of preventive health care, and limited access to education are all examples of injustices that exist in the refugee camps and in other areas throughout the world.

Some of his previous blogs have focused on topics such as domestic violence, victims’ rights, bullying, civil rights, and post traumatic stress disorder.  Our discussion will probably cover some of these same topics since unfortunately, these problems exist throughout the world.

In addition to having an interesting blog, John is also a talented writer.  He writes under the pen name Conrad Jonson.  I am currently reading his book Till the Moon Falls.  It is a thriller that will keep you turning pages and keep your light on far past your bedtime.  I am thoroughly enjoying it.  The hero, John Oxman, is very likeable, and I hope there are more of his adventures.

 

    To my delight, Till the Moon Falls is part of a series.  The second book is Xenophobia, and the third one is Detroit Daze.  I can't wait to read them all.

 

                        


 

Better to Light a Candle...

Naji al-Ali, creator of the character Hanthala, has truly lit a candle to lighten the darkness of the Palestinian refugees.  Hanthala has stolen the hearts of Palestinians everywhere.  Al-Ali says that Hanthala “represented the honest Palestinian who will always be on people’s mind.”  Joe Sacco wrote the introduction and describes Hanthala as epitomizing the “poorest, most powerless Palestinian.”  His hands are behind his back, and his back is always to the reader.  He is only an observer, but he observes everything—Israeli oppression, Arab leaders, the U.S., and even his neighbors.

   A Child in Palestine was published in 2009, twenty-two years after al-Ali’s assassination, yet sadly, Hanthala’s observations are as relevant today as they were when they were first published in newspapers throughout the Arab world. 

   The English captions and introductions to each section give the Western reader a greater understanding of the plight of the Palestinians than they could ever get from Western publications.  Al-Ali presents a view of the Palestine problem as seen from the inside. 

   The simple cartoons are heavy with irony.  Like Hanthala, the cartoons observe the absurd whenever it exists.

   A Child in Palestine, published by Verso, is available from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Child-Palestine-Cartoons-Naji-al-Ali/dp/1844673650

Things that make me feel proud

In today’s world there are many things that make me upset, embarrassed, even ashamed to be a member of the human race. Fortunately, every now and then a person steps forward and sparkles like a gem to make the rest of us breathe a huge sigh of relief that the human race just might be worthy of the name after all. It’s even better when you have a personal connection to that person, as though a bit of the sparkle rubs off.

One such person is Lisa Suhair Majaj, the author of Geographies of Light. I first met Lisa when she was a bright smiling student in my fifth grade math class in the American Community School in Amman, Jordan—way back when.

In the years that followed, Lisa and I were linked by more than long division and fractions. We both developed a political conscience that would not be denied. Palestine and the injustices perpetrated on the Palestinians that go apparently unnoticed by the world became a centerpiece of our writing.

I write novels in an attempt to show the Palestinian refugees as I know them—loving, caring, hard-working, and long-suffering.  Lisa’s poetry is more direct. It speaks from her heart to the heart of the reader. 

No one who reads Lisa's poetry can help being touched by her words and the poignant emotions behind them.  Her award-winning book Geographies of Light is a collection of poetry that expresses the Palestinian experience in a profoundly personal way yet mirrors the emotions felt by an entire nation.

Lest you think that poetry about the loss of one's homeland is dark, dank, and dreary, I have asked Lisa's permission to quote the first two stanzas of "I've Been Searching."

I’ve Been Searching for years without success. I’ve checked in all the obvious places: police station, courthouse, town hall, legislature, White House. I’ve looked under the judge’s desk, behind legal tomes in the law library, in between the stitches on the flag. More than once I’ve hunted through history, scouring the cascade of centuries for some shred of evidence. But each plunge into the past reconfirms my suspicion: if justice is somewhere to be found, it’s hidden well. Once, tiring of the unending saga, I did what any self-respecting American would do: placed an ad in the personals. Of course, I focused on specifics: if you flounder in generalities no one will pay the slightest attention: “40-something Palestinian woman, curly brown hair, olive skin, hazel eyes, loves music, nature, good stories with happy endings, deprived of a homeland for half a century, seeks partner (tall-dark-handsome optional) for peace-making, nation-building, a little activist world-shaking. Must be equitable, funny, kind; committed to human rights; willing to follow international law. Fondness for garlic and dancing (all kinds) a plus. No photo necessary.”

Lisa’s description of the partner she seeks in “I’ve Been Searching” affected me personally.  She wrote an amazing description of the man I married long before she began her search, and long before I even knew that those characteristics were the ones I would treasure for many decades as we took our life-long journey together. 

Thank you, Lisa, for saying it so well.

*     *     *     *

The full text of the poem can be found at http://web.mac.com/renkat/Autumn_08/Lisa_Suhair_Majaj.html along with another of her poems entitled “Night Sky.

The book may be ordered from http://www.amazon.com/Geographies-Light-Lisa-Suhair-Majaj/dp/1934832081

More about Geographies of Light and Lisa can be found at http://electronicintifada.net/content/words-flower-fragile-bodies-poignant-poetry-lisa-suheir-majaj/10890

The Dust Bowl and the Palestine Problem

Remember the idea that anyone in the world is approximately six steps away from any other person on Earth?  (Facebook says it is now down to less than five.)  The same seems to be true for ideas that interest me. 

Last night I was watching a documentary about the Dust Bowl and the most famous Black Sunday in this country.  As I often do when I see something I find fascinating, I did a little walk through Google and Wikipedia to learn more. 

Black Sunday –April 14, 1935—twenty of the worst “Black Blizzards” occurred throughout the Dust Bowl.  The dust cloud blew on the easterly winds over a thousand miles and darkened the sky all the way to Washington DC.  It was not until that event that the politicians began to take the problem seriously and work toward establishing principles of soil conservation.  Over 100,000,000 acres or 400,000 km² of land were affected.

I was taken aback by the number of hits for Black Sunday that had nothing to do with the Dust Bowl.  There were TWO Black Sundays in Australia, one in the mid-1920s and one in 1955—both caused by massive bush fires.  It took a fraction of a second to find a 1977 movie about a terrorist plot at the Super Bowl (not encouraging on the eve of another Super Bowl), another movie (1960) about witches and the undead, a novel, an album, and three songs of the same name.  There was more, but I was suddenly curious about the other days we describe as “Black.”

I went on to Black Monday and found a surprising number of those as well.  Of course I’d heard of Black Monday in October, 1929 when Wall Street crashed, ushering in the Great Depression, but not about Black Monday in 1209 in Dublin.  Black Monday didn’t have any movies, albums, or books I could find, but a surprising number of Black Mondays involved huge downward movements on Wall Street, and most of them were in October.  Any theories on that?  There were Black Mondays in England, Australia, Malta—and Palestine! 

The Al Aqsa Massacre took place on Black Monday, 8 October 1990.  This was an incident that took place “at the Al Haram al Shareef and other Holy Places of Jerusalem resulting in over twenty Palestinian deaths and in the injury of more than one hundred and fifty people, including Palestinian civilians and innocent worshippers,”  according to the United Nations Resolution 672.  The resolution, which “expressed alarm at the violence,” was rejected by Israel.  Nothing new there—Israel has been rejecting statements that express even a tiny bit of disapproval.

The Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242 after the 1967 war in which Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza.  The resolution refers to the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security."  This year will mark the 45^th anniversary of that resolution—and the West Bank and Gaza are still under a violent and oppressive military occupation. 

There it was—four degrees of separation between the Dust Bowl and Palestine.

As a postscript, I continued my Black Days walk through the paths of Google trying to find Black Days that were NOT about catastrophes, natural or man-made.  My first find—a beer produced by The Bruery, a small craft brewery located in Orange County, California.  The dark beer was released on a Tuesday in October of 2010.  I wonder if October has more black days than other months and if so, why?

That brought me to my favorite black day—Black Friday.  The most surprising thing I learned doing this?  My husband did not recognize the phrase “Black Friday!”   For the uninformed (probably all male), Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.  Stores open at ridiculous hours—serious shoppers don’t even bother to sleep.  Sales are everywhere for the diligent shoppers. 

Thanksgiving is the official opening of the Christmas shopping season, although in recent years the merchants are pushing it back a lot farther.  Supposedly Black Friday got its name because any retail store that is operating at a loss (signified by red ink) will make it into the profit territory (signified by black ink) on this day.  It’s even more fun than a keg party!  It may be months away, but I just started the countdown.

More about familiar books in unfamiliar places

     Writing a book is like starting a snowball rolling down a hill—you never know exactly where it’s going or who it might bump into along the way.  I am astounded at the places my books have surfaced.  Last week I talked about my first book showing up on a medical books site.  This week I found my second novel, Refugee Without Refuge, on a website about weight loss.  Amazing—check out http://letslim.info/products/Refugee.html#  and see for yourself.

     I racked my brains for a while trying to figure out why this might have happened.  I didn’t come up with any answers, but I decided not to worry about it.  The important thing is that I now have more exposure AND the customer rating was FIVE STARS!  What could be better?  The way I see it, this gives me a lot more exposure.  Having another website where people can run into my book is a big deal, and this one has a potentially large readership (no pun intended, really).  If everyone who wants to lose weight sees my book I could have an audience of millions.  It is entirely possible that the number of people who are trying to lose weight outnumber the people who browse through Amazon books!  It is a little hard to pin down numbers, but some studies estimate that as high as 86% of Americans could be overweight—I just hope they browse the web and find my book.

     Writing a book is a tremendously satisfying accomplishment.  It is especially satisfying if the book also tells the reader something important.  I wrote my books about refugees to help people understand that Palestinian refugees are very much like the rest of us.  They have hopes and dreams, they want better things for their children, and they love their families. 

     It gives me great pleasure to know that my books are getting wider and wider distribution on the internet.  Readers have given the books excellent reviews, calling them haunting, compelling, fast-moving, interesting, and a must-read.  I hope that wider web coverage means wider readership and just maybe a wider understanding of some of human issues involve in the Palestine problem.

     You can find links to my books on my website: http://www.hallajs.com 

Finding Familiar Books in Unfamiliar Places

It is a cold snowy day and I was browsing the internet looking for inspiration, or maybe I was looking for distraction.  Just for fun, I decided to search for my second novel, Refugee Without Refuge, to see if it has been pirated like my first one.  Before I build the suspense too high, if it has been pirated I didn’t find it.  What I did find surprised me—a lot.

I expected to find quite a few online book stores, and I did.  Some of them had descriptions in languages I didn’t recognize, while others started with the explanation that it was a book, libro, or Buch written in English, inglés, or englisch.  What I never expected was to find my books, even the books in which I have contributed only a few pages, listed in a Medical Books Center.  There are many Medical Books Centers on the web, but this one is sponsored by echocardiology.org.  You may be reassured to know that this is not a brick and mortar store that has my books on its shelves, sandwiched between medical tomes.  The “buy now” links click through to Amazon. 

While I am a doctor, I’m not that kind of doctor.  My medical knowledge is a mixture of old wives tales (I am an old wife after all), common sense, and odd bits of real science gleaned from sources I can no longer remember.  Whenever I write about an injury or other medical problem I always run it by my youngest son (who is that kind of doctor) before I release the manuscript for publication.  Even so, I love being listed on a Medical Books Center.

The internet is so much fun!  Why would anyone want to censor it?  It would not be half so delightful if the apparent mismatches of information, non sequitur answers to questions, or the incredible wealth of misinformation as well as information were somehow limited and ordered.  The internet just “growed like Topsy,” and I, for one, think it is better for it.

How should I react when my book is stolen?

This morning I found a website that offers a free download of my first novel, BORN A REFUGEE in Kindle format. What? Someone is pirating my book? I must admit my first reaction was one of surprise, maybe even shock. Of course I want people to read my books--why else would I write them?  I want people to understand more than they see on the news. My Refugee novels take the readers into the crowded and often violent world of the Palestinian refugee camp and show how people survive under military occupation with the support and love of the family. I wrote the novels to show Palestinians as I know them—not as the media shows them. I want the world to see the miracles of love amidst violence.

Why would someone want to steal my book and offer it for free, considering how affordable the book is online? It’s been 99 cents for months now, although that was a temporary price for the Indie Book Blowouts. Anyone can afford that, can’t they? Maybe not. I write about refugees. I know that not everyone has the ability to pay for online products. I know not everyone has a credit card or even a bank account, but may have computer access in libraries, schools, community centers, etc.

Okay, so I admit there are people who might benefit from a free book, but I don’t think that’s why it was done.  Piracy is really shoplifting. The pirates are stealing something I spent a year of my life to write. Not only are they stealing this book, but they undermine my reputation as a writer.  A writer’s reputation depends on selling books. When I approach an agent or publisher with a manuscript, the first question is “How many copies of your books have sold?” I price my books as low as possible so more people will read them. I wrote them so people would read them. If you download a pirated copy, that never gets into the statistics.

If you really can’t afford 99 cents, send me an email dixiane (at) hallajs.com and let me know your circumstances.  I’ll send you an ebook for free.

The English author Charles Calem Colton (1780-1832) said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Is piracy also flattery? or is it just plain theft?