[GSBN] Fwd: Message from Pat McArdle - SB activist

Wed May 26 19:49:59 UTC 2010

Dear Colleagues -

Please forgive me for this slightly off-topic message.

Longtime strawbale supporter with a career in the US State 
Department, Patricia McArdle has written a novel based on a year she 
spent in Afghanistan -- that is one of three finalists in the 
Amazon/Penguin Contest.  The novel illuminates many of the challenges 
the country faces, and suggests some sustainable approaches.  Read 
below for more information.

Pat was an invaluable supporter of Builders Without Borders when we 
built the strawbale ecohouse in Washington in 2008.
Many of you met her at the ISBBC in Ontario in 2007.

The contest winner will be determined by Internet voting. This is 
where you come if you so choose.
Thanks in advance for casting a vote.

Sincerely,
Catherine Wanek
Co-director
Builders Without Borders
<mail at builderswithoutborders.org>
www.builderswithoutborders.org
575-895-5400

>Delivered-To: mail at builderswithoutborders.org
>From: Patricia Mcardle <solarwind1 at mac.com>
>Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 17:13:28 -0400
>Subject: Message from Pat McArdle about her novel set in Afghanistan--a
>  finalist in Amazon/Penguin Contest
>
>Dear fellow Climate Project presenters, solar cooks, straw bale 
>builders and other champions of sustainable development,
>
>Amazon and Penguin books announced this morning that my novel 
><http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011>Farishta<http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011> 
>(Dari for 'angel') is one of three finalists in the General Fiction 
>category of their annual writing competition, which opened in 
>February with 5000 entries.
>I need your votes.
>
>Farishta was inspired by the year I spent with a British Army unit 
>in northern Afghanistan.  The main character is a mid-career Foreign 
>Service officer, who has never recovered psychologically from the 
>loss of her husband in the '83 Beirut embassy bombing. Her career is 
>in free-fall and her last chance at promotion is an assignment to 
>Afghanistan, which she is reluctant to accept.
>Through the voices of my characters I have tried to articulate my 
>concerns about environmental policies which I believe are going to 
>leave Afghanistan economically crippled and dependent.  My main 
>character introduces solar cooking to refugees in northern 
>Afghanistan.  A young Afghan student of architecture is determined 
>to revive traditional cob construction.  An American petroleum 
>engineer searching for oil in the north confesses that he lives off 
>the grid in a solar home back in the U.S.
>
>Farishta is one of three novels out of five thousand entries that 
>have made it to the finals after several rounds of judging by 
>Amazon, Penguin and Publishers Weekly editors.
>
>The winner (and recipient of a publishing contract from Penguin 
>Books) will be determined solely 
><http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011>by 
>the votes of Amazon customers.
>
>For ONE WEEK ONLY, from today Tuesday, May 25 through Wednesday June 
>2, at 11:59 p.m. EDT, Amazon customers can 
><http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011>click 
>here, log on to their account, then click on "Cast your vote in 
><http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_353000882_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000508771&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1WT6AN287EM7SWARQEGT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1263891282&pf_rd_i=332264011>General 
>Fiction" on the top left side of the page.   I hope you will vote 
>for my novel by clicking on the circle next to Farishta.  (There are 
>also three finalists for a separate Youth Fiction category.)
>
>Below this message (for your information) is a 300-word synopsis of 
>Farishta and some of the early reviews from the judges.  If you 
>would like to read an excerpt and more reviews, 
><http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_353227202_19?ie=UTF8&docId=1000508631&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=1JGMYERS3BDFMEF074VV&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1264003022&pf_rd_i=332264011>here 
>is a link.
>
>Please click 
><http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011>here 
>today, log on to your Amazon account and cast a vote for Farishta.
>
>I would be grateful if you could forward this message to colleagues, 
>family and friends who might also be willing to vote for Farishta.
>
>Thanks for your support.
>
>Pat
>Patricia McArdle
>Arlington, Va.
>
>Foreign Service Officer, Retired
>Member, Board of Directors
>Solar Cookers International
>
>
><mailto:solarwind1 at mac.com>solarwind1 at mac.com
>"Qatra, qatra darya mesha."
>Drop by drop it becomes a river.
>--Afghan Proverb
>
>*1 ______________________________________________
>
>
>SYNOPSIS OF FARISHTA
>
>In 2004, American diplomat Angela Morgan is informed by the State 
>Department that she must accept a one-year assignment at a remote 
>NATO outpost in Afghanistan with the British Army or risk being 
>forced to resign from the Foreign Service. Angela has battled 
>untreated PTSD for more than twenty years. Her life and career have 
>been drifting since she witnessed her husband's death during the 
>1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.  At a meeting in London 
>on her way to Afghanistan Angela has a highly charged encounter with 
>a British major more than a decade her junior. During the year they 
>spend at the camp in Mazar-e-Sharif, their confrontational 
>relationship develops into a powerful attraction that both are 
>reluctant to express. At the same time, a Russian diplomat, whom 
>Angela befriends while transiting Dubai, gradually wins her trust 
>with disastrous results. When she arrives at the fortified military 
>camp in Mazar-e-Sharif, the British soldiers and her young Afghan 
>interpreter make it clear they are not pleased to have a female in 
>their midst.  Frustrated by her inability to contribute to 
>Afghanistans reconstruction Angela begins leaving camp without 
>permission and hidden under a burkah to work with a group of 
>refugees. Her growing friendship with a young Afghan woman incurs 
>the wrath of a powerful warlord in the north. When attacks are 
>launched against the NATO troops with deadly effect, she must deal 
>with wrenching personal losses. FARISHTA (the Dari word for angel) 
>was inspired by the year I spent as a diplomatic advisor to a 
>British Army unit in northern Afghanistan. It is my hope that this 
>story will bring to life the soldiers, civilians and Afghans who are 
>fighting not only to rebuild Afghanistan but simply to survive in 
>this ancient and beautiful land.
>
>THE EARLY REVIEWS:
>
>Amazon Review #1:     I loved Angela. An older female main character 
>with a brain is hard to come by. The reader knows that she is headed 
>into danger, that she is damaged goods mentally, and that she has no 
>desire to go through what she is about to go through. She is a very 
>real, honest character that the reader can grab hold of and root 
>for. Her past endears her to us, and her vulnerability makes us want 
>to follow her to ensure that she is okay. There is very little here 
>that I would change other then perhaps a bit of smoothing. I'm not 
>sure that I'm 100% comfortable with the first person narrative, but 
>it works so far. A very strong entry, one of the few with both 
>strong writing and a strong story. I would have happily continued 
>reading this.
>
>Amazon Review #2:    Right from the start you made me really 
>interested in Angela.  I wanted to know what happened to her husband 
>and the miscarriage.  I was happy to have found out before the 
>excerpt ended.  My heart really went out to this woman.  I also 
>enjoyed the training part.  I truly have no complaints about this 
>excerpt.  I really enjoyed what I read. I thought the story was very 
>well written and I thought that this author had a really nice 
>writing style. The story seemed very interesting.
>
>Publishers Weekly Review:      When American Foreign Service officer 
>Angela Morgan receives her new assignment, it isn't the cushy London 
>job she hoped for. Instead she is sent to northern Afghanistan to 
>work with a group of British troops and help them determine if their 
>interpreters are giving them honest information. To induce her to 
>take the assignment, the office promises her the London assignment 
>when her year is up. This is small comfort to a woman thrown into a 
>culture that curtails women's freedoms, is hostile to Americans, and 
>is desperately poor. Still, Angela is determined to make the best of 
>it. She befriends locals, goes on patrol with the soldiers, and 
>attempts to use her limited influence to do good for the country and 
>its most oppressed citizens.  This is a poignant, thoughtful work. 
>The author strives to offer as balanced a view as possible and, in 
>the process, humanizes the war in Afghanistan in a way few others 
>have--with grace, humor, and an aversion to stereotype or melodrama.
>
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