January 2010 – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

100 Day (Or Less) Part Three: Writing And Working

Jan 25 2010

I know it is not easy to write a book, not when you have a full time job, family, and other responsibilities. Most writers have had to carry on two lives while they wrote. The poet Wallace Stevens was a vice president of an insurance company and an expert on the bond market. The young T.S. Eliot was a banker. William Carlos Williams a pediatrician. Robert Frost a poultry farmer. Hart Crane packed candy in his father’s warehouse, and later wrote advertising copy. Stephen Crane was a war correspondent. Marianne Moore worked at the New York Public Library. James Dickey worked for an advertising agency. Joe Heller, author of Catch 22, worked for a magazine, selling advertising. Archibald MacLeish was Director of the Office of Facts and Figures during World War II. Stephen King was teaching high school English when he wrote Carrie. Novelist Jennifer Egan author of a novel . . .

100 Days (Or Less) Part Two: Who Is John Coyne?

Jan 24 2010

Why listen to me? That is a good question. Here is why you should take my advice on how to write a book in 100 days. Here are some of my qualifications. I have written 25 published book, fiction, non-fiction, collections, guide books, instructional books. I have written award winning and New York Times Best Seller novels of mystery, horror, romance, historical fiction, and fiction, and non-fiction about golf: www.johncoynebooks.com. I wrote all of these books within a three month period. My novels have been published in eight foreign countries. (I also wrote 7 novels before publishing one and could paper a wall with the rejection slips I have received from some of the best magazines and publishing companies in the world! I know what it means to get rejected.) I have two degrees in English literature and have taught creative writing at the high school, college level, and on . . .

How To Write A Book In 100 Days (Or Less)

Jan 23 2010

Are you a writer? Do you want to write a book? Do you have a great story that you need to tell? Do you read a novel and say to yourself, “I could have written that book, and I could have written it better! Is there this nagging thought in the back of your mind that has been telling you all your life: write your story! Do you really want to stop reading and start writing your book, whether it is a novel, a memoir or non-fiction. Do you ask yourself: Do I want to write my novel? Do you ask yourself: When will I tell my story? Do you ask yourself: How will I write my book? The why is easily answered. And you can answer those questions. You know you will never be satisfied if you don’t sit down and do it. You’re secretly tired of people saying, . . .

New Novel by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963–65)

Jan 23 2010

A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta by Theroux is due out in mid-February from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This is Theroux’s forty-third book, his twenty-seventh novel that includes Hotel Honolulu, My Other Life, and The Elephanta Suite, his most recent collection of short fiction, which Time Magazine said was, “a set of brilliantly evocative and propulsive novellas.” This novel is about Jerry Delfont, a travel journalist leading an aimless life, struggling in vain against his writer’s block, and flitting around the edges of a half-hearted romance when he receives a mysterious letter asking for his help. The story he tells is distrubing: a dead boy found on the floor of a cheap hotel; a seemingly innocent man in flight and fearing for his reputation as well as his life. Well, typical Theroux. Note: A Dead Hand is now available at Amazon — click on either the linked title or the book . . .

Literary Agents React!

Jan 23 2010

Literary Agents React! By Jeff Rivera on Nov 11, 2009 12:43 PM Miriam Goderich of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management responded in their blog to the GalleyCat posted back in November entitled, Literary Agents, bah! Who needs them? by stating: “Who needs an agent? You do.” In her well-respected blog she also mentioned: “every serious author needs an agent. Not just any agent, of course. You need a good agent. One who is an advocate, who is willing to fight for you and who is able to tell you when you’re being unreasonable and doing your career more harm than good.” And that was not all — emails, comments and tweets have come pouring in from agents, writers and other book publishing professionals with a resounding, “Yes, we do need agents.” Deidre Knight of the Knight Agency says, “Many agents, myself included, believe that the digital age is bringing opportunity. . . .

January RPCV Books

Jan 22 2010

Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry By Evan Wolfson (Togo 1978-80) Simon & Schuster, $14.00 256 pages 2004 Tenderfoot Mary Timble (The Gambia 1979-81) Treble Heart Books, $13.50 289 pages January 2010 A Witness in Tunis By J.P. Jones (pseudonym for Phil Jones Tunisia 1966-68) Booksurge, $14.9 410 pages January 2010 Through Our Eyes: Peace Corps In Korea,1966-1981 Editor by Bill Harwood (Korea 1975-77) COMA the Artist Company Korea, $50 200 pages October 2009

Literary Agents, Bah! Who Needs Them?

Jan 22 2010

By Jeff Rivera on Nov 10, 2009 02:54 PM CrainsNewYork.com reports that Amazon.com wined and dined a number of prominent literary agents at their home-base in Seattle, Washington to convince the agents that they are not the “evil empire” but rather willing to work with them as the publishing industry makes its full-fledged transition into the digital revolution. The fact that Amazon.com had to have this discussion with literary agents brings up the question, will literary agents even exist in the near future? Are literary agents even necessary nowadays when a writer can upload their manuscript to the Kindle service or Smashwords and sell their books directly to the consumer? “There will be a need for literary agents,” says Nicholas Croce of The Croce Agency, “Agents … offer informed advice and camaraderie during the inevitable ups and downs that all writers experience. I don’t think technology will ever put this . . .

Passing Of An Early Peace Corps Legend

Jan 21 2010

There are Advance Men and there are Advance Men, and then there was Michael Sher. I heard late yesterday that Michael Sher had passed away in his sleep early Wednesday morning in New York City. It is so unlike Michael to just “pass away in his sleep” for this was a guy who did not, as the poet Dylan Thomas wrote, “go gentle into that good night.” Now this is a true story, told to me in D.C. when I first back from Ethiopia in the summer of ’64. It was told to me on a recruitment trip with Bob Gale, the director of recruitment for the Peace Corps. Sher had not been a PCV, but he was working for Gale, who had developed the famous blitz recruitment system in the Peace Corps in the early days of the agency. Sher had gone to work for Gale without a salary. He was . . .

Review of Thirteen Months Of Sunshine

Jan 20 2010

Reviewer Bryant Wieneke is the author of a series of suspense novels exploring the idea that a practical, effective and far less militaristic American foreign policy may be achieved through Peace Corps-like principles. These novels are available at www.PeaceRosePublishing.com. • Thirteen Months of Sunshine Peace Corps Adventures in Ethiopia 1962–1964 by Patricia Summers-Parish (Ethiopia 1962–64) 199 pages $19.95 Publish America October 2009 Reviewed by Bryant Wieneke (Niger 1974–76) Thirteen Months of Sunshine made me wish I’d been a better Peace Corps Volunteer. Patricia Summers-Parish was living in Milwaukee in the summer of 1962 when she was inspired by President Kennedy to apply for the first Peace Corps program in Ethiopia. Sent to an 8,000-foot-high, overgrown mountain village called Dessie, she taught English to eighth graders in a classroom with no books and innumerable flies. It is the story of many Volunteers over the Peace Corps’ 50-year history, but the author’s . . .

Review of Vello Vikerkaar's Inherit the Family: Marrying Into Eastern Europe

Jan 19 2010

Reviewer Tony D’Souza’s first novel, Whiteman, received the Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Prize for Fiction, and is loosely based on his Peace Corps service in an Ivory Coast headed for civil war. His second novel, The Konkans, is loosely based on his mother’s Peace Corps service in India from 1969 to 1970 where she met and married his father. Tony has contributed fiction and essays to The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, Outside, Granta, McSweeney’s, the O. Henry Awards, and Best American Fantasy, and is the recipient of two NEA Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and gold and silver medals from the Florida Book Awards. He lives in Sarasota, FL, with his wife Jessyka and two young children, Gwen, 15 months, and Rohan, 5 months. The D’Souzas will be spending the next few months traveling in India. Here, Tony reviews Vello Vikerkaar’s Inherit the Family: Marrying Into Eastern Europe. The author . . .

Crisis Corps (a.k.a. Peace Corps Response) Looking For RPCVs

Jan 19 2010

The Peace Corps has created a questionnaire to find out how many RPCVs are willing to go to Haiti with the Crisis Corps (a.k.a. Peace Corps Response.) If you are an RPCVable to volunteer in Haiti, please copy fill out your responses and email them to: pcresponse [at] peacecorps.gov. The Crisis Corps (a.k.a.) Peace Corsp Response is the agency’s program that engage RPCVs to serve in short-term, high-impact volunteer roles. Peace Corps Response – Haiti Response Questionnaire Thank you for your interest in assisting Haiti during this time of emergency. To help us gauge the current level of interest among former Peace Corps Volunteers, please fill out this questionnaire. This is NOT an application. Please keep your answers brief (no more than 3 sentences). Please email your completed questionnaire to pcresponse@peacecorps.gov. [NOTE: please only use this form if you are a former Peace Corps Volunteer.] Name: ______________________________ Country of Service (when you were . . .

Our Man In Saipan: RPCV P.F. Kluge

Jan 19 2010

Visiting author Dr. P.F. Kluge (Micronesia 1967-69) will start a monthlong lecture series on four classic American novels at 6pm this evening at the American Memorial Park Theater. The series will kick off with Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. Participants will spend three 90-minute sessions exploring this novel before moving on to the next title. Other books to be discussed over the course of the program include The Old Man and the Sea, Huckleberry Finn, and The Things They Carried. Kluge will examine these books on three levels-what they say, how they say it, and how their themes relate to contemporary life in the Commonwealth. Ample time will be reserved for questions and answers. The program is sponsored by the NMI Council for the Humanities under a “We the People” grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kluge is . . .

Wofford Remembers King; Washington Post Remembers Wofford

Jan 18 2010

An article about Harris Wofford (HQ 1961, CD Ethiopia 1962-64; and Associate Director HQ 1964-67) and Martin Luther King Jr. appeared in the Washington Post today, written by Krissah Thompson. Here are a few excerpts. For a decade and half, Harris Wofford has taken what Americans do on the national holiday marking the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy personally.During his single term in the U.S. Senate, Wofford (D-Pa.) partnered with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) in 1994 to pass the King Holiday and Service Act. Both men, veterans of the civil rights movement who were friends of King, were fed up and disappointed with what the holiday had become. Rather than a day of unity and service as they had envisioned, the holiday was little more than broadcasts of the “I have a dream” speech and sales at shopping malls. Until last year. That’s when Martin Luther King Jr. Day got a . . .

RPCV Writers & Doctors At Work In Haiti

Jan 18 2010

E. Jackson Allison, Jr. MD/MPH, FACEP (Malawi 1967-69) is a Professor of Emergency Medical Care at Western Carolina University. He also served a 3-year tour with the Peace Corps in Malawi, Central Africa, where he was a public health Volunteer in the bush. He is best known as a singer/songwriter there, having recorded arguably the most popular song with a message in Malawi — Ufa wa Mtedza (Peanut Flour in Your Child’s Corn Mush). After Peace Corps, Jack went to medical school, and recently retired after a 30-year career in academic emergency medicine. He has done three public health stints in Africa — a USAID mission in Tanzania in ‘82, a Project Hope Mission in Malawi in ‘94, and US State Department mission in Malawi in ‘05 — the latter two involved helping to eradicate AIDS in that Central African country. Since 1967 Allison has raised more than $150,00.00 with his . . .

Peace Corps Director Williams On Haiti And The Crisis Corps

Jan 15 2010

Late today Aaron Williams sent out another alert on what the Peace Corps plans to do. You can read it all on the Peace Corps website: www.peacecorps.gov. However, for those who want to volunteer for what was called the Crisis Corps, here is what Aaron has to say: “While formal partnerships with Haiti relief organizations have not been established, Peace Corps is currently assessing how we can be helpful in the future. I encourage all Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) interested in possible short-term, high impact assignments in Haiti or other programs around the world to apply to Peace Corps Response. As an RPCV, you have the opportunity to serve again by putting your skills and experience to good use in the places where you are needed the most. Over 500 Americans have served in Haiti as Peace Corps Volunteers and Haiti will forever be a part of the Peace . . .

Archive - January 2010