The Southern Belle Sounds Off

The Southern Belle Sounds Off

NEW ORLEANS – City of My Heart

I just returned from New Orleans. No matter where I live, it will always be the home of my heart. And it’s never looked so beautiful or so sad. It’s a city on the edge, both fragile and graceful, eating, drinking, making music, and worried about the next storm.

I stayed with friends in the suburbs where life goes on as usual... more or less. When my hosts ran into people he hadn’t seen in some time the greeting was not how are you doing? Or what’s up? But how’s your house? What have you lost?

My husband and I drove out to Lakeview. Unlike the now famous 9^th Ward, Lakeview was home to middle-class and upper-middle-class families mostly white. These were people who’d made it, who’d bought a home between City Park with its sculpture garden, museum, oak trees, the shores of Lake Pontchartrain and tragically near the 17^th Street Canal, where the Army Corps of Engineers underestimated the weakness of the soil.

For the most part these houses survived Katrina, the earthen levees along the lake held, but not those around the 17^th Street Canal. Now you drive through block after block after block of ghosts. The houses stand. They look OK until you realize they’re empty shells.

In each of these neat, modern homes were families who before the storm worried about what we all worry about-- how to pay the mortgage, why weren’t their children applying themselves in school, how to build their business, or the stupidity of their bosses. Regular things. Now their lives have been changed forever. It’s as if the raised cemeteries spread out to cover over half the city. The freeway underpasses are still burial grounds for hundreds maybe thousands of abandoned cars.

Ed Reams, tv news reporter at WDSU was kind enough to give me a tour of the station and let me shadow him to research my next novel. Seven months after the hurricane, local news is still all about aftermath Katrina. http://www.wdsu.com/index.html The flood maps, new homes projected, and FEMA’s refusal to renegotiate no-bid contracts. Their coverage of local crime is no longer, “if it bleeds it leads,” but about contractor fraud.

And still the music, the cultural life of the city goes on. More next time.

Here's the meeting from outside Denise's fabulous home with the golf course reflected on all windows. 

Here's the meeting from outside Denise's fabulous home with the golf course reflected on all the windows. 

That's me with some of the women of Women In Film.  

Here's the meeting of Women In Film in Denise's fabulous home with the golf course reflected from all windows. 

Here I am with Craig Lawver 

ON THE ROAD

ON THE ROAD – PALM SPRINGS

A lot of authors complain about book tours.  Not me.  So when Leanna Bonamici of Casablanca Studios in Desert Hotsprings, asked me to speak to the Palm Springs Chapter of Women In Film at their monthly breakfast on February 11th, I jumped at the chance.  While the East Coast was covered with snow, I got to spend the weekend in the sun surrounded by one of the world’s most beautiful golf courses.  Unfortunately I don’t play golf, somehow I’ve never been able to connect with little balls, but after the breakfast I spent an hour swimming in the pool.  

I’m only sorry I didn’t get any pictures of Leanna, or my hostess, president of the Palm Springs Chapter of Women In Film, the beautiful Denise DuBerry Hay and her beautiful sisters.  However, here are some pictures of the house and the meeting as well as one with Craig Lawver from Borders of Rancho Mirage who was gracious enough to come out and sell books.  OK, here’s the truth, I’m hoping I can get Picassa to send the pictures.  

The Palm Springs Women in Film Breakfast have come to hear me speak at the home of the beautiful Denise DuBerry Hay. She lives right on the golf course.  

SAVE A LIFE

SAVE A LIFE FOR THE PRICE OF A FEW STAMPS.

Here I am the Southern Belle and I’m supposed to be sounding off on men, how to get them and what to do with them once you’ve got them.  

Instead I’m going to ask you to send letters to save the life of a journalist living in a country you may never see.  But can you resist the chance to save a life, just by writing a few letters?

Last year as a member of PEN USA I took on the job of special “minder” to a Bangladeshi editor and journalist who’d been arrested at the airport in Dhaka on November 29, 2003 on his way to Israel address a conference on the role of the media in bringing about peace in the Middle East.  He was thrown into jail in Bangladesh, not the best place to be, and languished there for 17 months.  Then on May 2005, following appeals from around the world including a focused campaign by PEN USA, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury was released on bail.  And on November 9th Pen USA made him their recipient of the 2005 Freedom to Write Award.

Things were looking up.  In October 2005 he was again allowed to publish his Bangladeshi Weekly Jamjamat and The Weekly Blitz, an English language tabloid.  You can check out the latest edition at http://www.weeklyblitz.net/blitzV21/  You’ll learn about what people in Bangladesh are concerned about and see for yourself that Choudhury is against violence.  He risks his life to write against terrorism.  He even publishes American Richard Benkin’s series on saving the Temple Mount in Israel.    

Although he is out of jail, his life is still in jeopardy.  He goes on trial in the next few days or weeks (we don’t have the date yet) and sadly sedition is a capital offence in Bangladesh.  So his life is in danger.

Here’s what you can do:  Write the Prime Minister (a democratically elected woman,) the Minister of Home Affairs and/or the Bangladeshi Ambassador.  I’ll give you the addresses and phone numbers.  I’ll even give you a letter you can copy.  Here it is:
Your Excellency,
I am writing to you on behalf of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who is currently out on bail after 17 months in prison on unproven charges of “sedition.”  I am concerned that these charges against him have not yet been dropped.  Choudhury was arrested for the peaceful expression of his opinions; a right guaranteed by Article 19 the United Nation’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  His message is that of peace and cooperation between all people and a rejection of violence.
After many hearings and postponements of his court date, Choudhury is again scheduled to appear in the High Court.
Bangladesh is a great democratic nation whose people have the reputation for tolerance.  I respectfully request that you urge your government to drop the sedition charges against Mr. Choudhury.
Sincerely,
That’s it.  All you have to do.  Here’s where you send the letter with 84 cents in stamps:

Begum Khaleda Zia
Honorable Prime Minister Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Prime Minister's Office
Old Sangshad Bhaban
Dhaka
Bangladesh

And

Md. Lutfuzzaman Babar
Minister of Home Affairs
Bangladesh Secretariat
Building 4
Dhaka - 1000
Bangladesh

And

Ambassador Shamsher M. Chowdhury, BB
Bangladesh Embassy
3510 International Drive NW
Washington, DC 20008
Telephone : (202) 244 - 0183

You can even Fax him at :(202) 244 - 5366

You don’t have to write them all, but the more letters you send, the better chance he has to walk free.  Please forward a link to this blog to ten friends.  I can’t promise instant riches if you do or bad luck if you don’t, but it’s got to be good for your karma.  





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Books Before Dancing

With enthusiastic readers at the Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend. 

The Wild and Wonderful Texas Queens

Here I am in the center of some terrific Texas Queens who know how to have fun. 

Dancing with the Pulpwood Queens

Here I am at the big Hair Ball dancing with Timothy Schaffert, who wrote The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God. Tim and I had a "thing" in Jackson, Mississippi. 

The Pulpwood Queens Weekend

Here's the Queen of the Pulpwood Queens, Kathy Patrick 

THE PULPWOOD QUEENS

DANCING WITH THE PULPWOOD QUEENS

Just came back from a great weekend with the Pulpwood Queens.  Hundreds of women from reading clubs all across the South and the Midwest descend on Jefferson, Texas once a year to meet authors, wear tiaras, and let their hair down or put it up.  As Kathy Patrick the Queen of Queens says, “The higher the hair, the closer to God.”  Kathy, who owns a bookstore and hair salon, started the Pulpwood Queens to promote literacy and to have some fun.  Kathy’s is a girl who likes a good time and wants those around her to join in.  
She asked me to give the keynote speech to a very enthusiastic sold-out luncheon crowd.  I told them how after a couple of years as a hippy mother in New Orleans, I slung my ten-year-old son over my shoulder and headed out to Los Angeles to break into show business.  Then after over ten years of writing for some of the biggest TV shows in the country I again decided to follow my dream and wrote a novel, which became a national best-seller.  
Timothy Schaffert who wrote The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God was there, along with almost two dozen other authors.  He and I gave a joint reading at Lemuria Books in Jackson Mississippi last fall, so I told everyone, “Tim and I had a thing in Jackson.”  
He responded, “I followed her to Oxford MS.  But it ended badly.”  (He really did follow me.  He had a reading there the next day.)
After a day of books, Kathy puts on a party.  The first night was blue jeans and boots to a great old rock and roll band.  The second night was the big Hair Ball, where everyone was encouraged to wear their wildest.  

15 Minutes of Fame

15 Minutes of Fame

Andy Warhol said everyone gets 15 minutes of fame.  But who would have thought mine would be in Bangladesh.  It’s true, the editor of the Weekly Blitz, an English language magazine interviewed me and has put that interview on page one along with Bin Laden’s secret meeting with absconding Bangladeshi terrorists and Radical suicide squad in kindergarten schools!
Blitz Exclusive
 
I wrote answers to such probing questions as, [Your] promotional says, this book is a story of murder, adultery and regular church attendance…How do you personally look into adultery as a human being?  

You can see it all for yourself at: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/blitzV13/front.htm

Belle's Book Tour

Belle’s Book Tour

William Morrow/HarperCollins gave Belle Cantrell in spite of her disreputable conduct.  I tagged along.

Sept 15, 2005 – Winston-Salem, NC
Belle sashayed over to Winston-Salem, North Carolina where I spoke about her at the Southeastern Book Sellers Association or SEBA.

Sept. 27, 2005—Beverly Hills, CA
Belle debuted in style at Barnes and Noble’s – store at the Grove in Beverly Hills, where over one hundred people showed up for a celebration of Louisiana.  I donated half my royalties to victims of Katrina.

October 2, 2005—Memphis, TN
Belle’s tour began in earnest when I flew to Memphis.  

October 3, 2005—Memphis
Bright and early the next morning I was dressed and smiling for “The Morning Show” on FOX 13 at 7:15 AM.  Belle was of course ready, gazing beguilingly from the cover of her book. From there we went over to WREG CBS Channel 3 where I was “Live at Nine.”  That evening the wonderful bookstore, Davis Kidd hosted a “Bad Girls’ Night Out” with champagne and chocolates for Miss Belle.  

October 5, 2005—Blytheville, AK
I met Mary Gay Shipley and read at That Bookstore in Blytheville, one of the great independents in the nation.  If you-all have the good fortune to be in Blytheville drop in on Mary Gay and bask in her cultural oasis.

October 6-9 2005—Nashville, TN
The Southern Festival of Books greeted Belle with enthusiasm.  Too bad it was pouring down rain most of the weekend.  But the wonderful people at the Festival gave me the auditorium for my speech.  I met the delightful people at Joseph-Beth Booksellers as well as some fascinating writers, such as Juno-award winning singer-writer Connie Kaldor & and her husband, music producer Paul Campagne, from Montreal, who were there with her children’s book and music. Belle and I joined Ray Brassfield at WKCT-AM, “Drive Time,” and I was able to visit the beautiful capitol building.  It was a real thrill to walk around the Assembly Room where women finally got the right to vote.

October 10, 2005—Birmingham, AL
I began at “Good Day Alabama.” WBRC-TV (FOX) and spent the rest of the day with the delightful ladies of the Birmingham Junior League.  My special thanks goes to Juliet “Juju” Beale who accompanied me to all three bookclub meetings and who was too much a lady to act as bored as she must have been when I was asked the same question for the third time.

October 11, 2005—Atlanta, GA
My very social cousin, Joel Lowenstein and her husband, Irwin, were kind enough to give me and bad girl Belle a book signing party before I went to the Chapter 11 for my official book signing there.

October 12, 2005 I flew back to LA, the first leg of my book tour over.

With my hair uncovered

Here's a picture of me as seen in Bangladesh. 

IN A BANGLADESHI MAGAZINE

WHO KNEW?

I didn’t know whether or not to tell you-all, but I found a picture of myself in a Bangladeshi magazine.  Earlier this year through PEN USA, I learned about a journalist with the difficult name, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who’d been thrown in a Dhaka jail cell, after being picked up at the airport in on his way to speak to an international writers’ conference in Israel.  

I contacted PEN and offered to be his minder.  That meant I would, personally, concentrate on his case.  I organized many letter-writing campaigns at the same time a writer in the Chicago area, who was also working for his freedom, contacted a Congressman who discussed the case with the Bangladeshi Ambassador.  We got him out of jail, but he was still under indictment for sedition, a capital offence.  

PEN USA named Mr. Choudhury as our 2005 Freedom to Write Award Winner, which we hoped would send a message to the Bangladeshi government that we care about him and were watching them.  So far the charges have not been dropped, but the good news is Mr. Choudhury is home with his family and has been allowed to publish again.  Since he was under indictment and couldn’t travel outside his country, I accepted the award for him.  

He published my picture in his English-language magazine, The Weekly Blitz.  The headline read:
Celebrated novelist Lorraine Despres Eastlake receiving prestigious Freedom to Write Award on behalf of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury on 9th November 2005 in Los Angeles. PEN USA accorded this award to Choudhury.
Bangladesh is a democracy of 140 million people and we never hear about them, except occasionally during a flood and recently because of terrorist bombings there.  A traditionally moderate Moslem nation, they are at the crossroads in response to this new wave of fundamentalists.  When I wrote The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell, I wasn’t just writing a romp or a steamy love story, but drawing parallels to the intolerance sweeping the world today, with the year 1920, the year a terrorist bombed Wall Street, Hitler began raving in beer halls, Henry Ford published his anti-Semitic rants in the Dearborn Independent, and the Ku Klux Klan swept the United States.  

In case you’re interested in what’s going on in Bangladesh, here’s a link: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/blitzV10/other.htm  or for a full look at the paper:
http://www.weaklyblitz.net

That's me receiving the award for my Bangladeshi friend