It’s been another long stretch since I posted on this blog, and the reason is that I’ve been kept all too busy finishing the manuscript of Overtaken By Events: A Pakistan Road Trip, my new book to be published in March. I’m working with a very good, thoughtful and patient editor, and together we’re doing well keeping the project on schedule. But there’s a lot involved in the publishing side of a book, as I’m learning - from selecting a printer, to hiring editors and page and cover designers, to selecting photographs for the cover and inside pages, to planning ahead for launch events and other marketing well into next year. All this while also writing the actual book, plus starting a graduate program in South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, including Urdu language class every morning at 9:30.
Ethan Casey at the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno, October 2, 2009. Photo by Irfan Ali
I’ve also continued traveling around North America speaking to both Pakistani and mainstream audiences. In September I visited Chicago and Toronto, and over the first weekend in October, Todd Shea and I spoke at an Islamic center and two churches in Fresno, California. Many thanks to my good friend and collaborator Fawad Butt in Chicago, Andy Merchant and the Canada-Pakistan Business Council in Toronto, and Irfan and Monica Ali and Dr. Mohammad Ashraf in Fresno. Those in-person visits help in pre-selling copies of Overtaken By Events as part of a $50 two-book package with the limited remaining copies of Alive and Well in Pakistan, and those sales are helping fund the printing of Overtaken By Events. I’d love to visit your city when I can. In the meantime, learn how you can support my work by visiting the Books page of this site.
My Dawn column has just been cancelled - along with other columns - which is unfortunate but, in a way, well timed. I’m a bit over-committed through the autumn and need to stay focused on finishing up the writing and publishing of Overtaken By Events, planning ahead for its promotion in the spring and summer, and doing well in my classes. I also will be continuing to travel: in November I’ll be visiting Orange County and San Diego (to speak at a fundraiser for Shehzad Roy’s Zindagi Trust - look for more from me on this), Fort Worth (speaking at Texas Christian University), Portland (speaking at the Multnomah County Public Library at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 21), and Minnesota. To see my full travel/speaking schedule, visit the Calendar page.
On the updated Books page and Store page you’ll learn about several ways you can support this project. We also will soon be offering Pete Sabo’s photographs in fun new inexpensive formats, including postcards, Eid Mubarak cards, and perhaps the first-ever Pakistan-specific fridge magnets. But if you enjoy and appreciate my work and can’t support it in any other way, consider pre-purchasing your copy of Overtaken By Events today. It will be mailed to you in the spring, as soon as it’s published:
