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Dear Colleagues -<br><br>
Please forgive me for this slightly off-topic message.<br><br>
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 <b>one of three</b> <b>finalists</b> 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.<br><br>
Pat was an invaluable supporter of Builders Without Borders when we built
the strawbale ecohouse in Washington in 2008.<br>
Many of you met her at the ISBBC in Ontario in 2007.<br><br>
The contest winner will be determined by Internet voting. This is where
you come if you so choose.<br>
Thanks in advance for casting a vote.<br><br>
Sincerely,<br>
Catherine Wanek<br>
Co-director<br>
Builders Without Borders<br>
<mail@builderswithoutborders.org><br>
<a href="http://www.builderswithoutborders.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.builderswithoutborders.org<br>
</a>575-895-5400<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Delivered-To:
mail@builderswithoutborders.org<br>
From: Patricia Mcardle <solarwind1@mac.com><br>
Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 17:13:28 -0400<br>
Subject: Message from Pat McArdle about her novel set in
Afghanistan--a<br>
finalist in Amazon/Penguin Contest<br><br>
<font size=4>Dear fellow Climate Project presenters, solar cooks, straw
bale builders and other champions of sustainable
development,</font><br><br>
<font size=4>Amazon and Penguin books announced this morning that my
novel
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011">
<i>Farishta</a></i>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011">
(Dari for 'angel')</a> is one of three finalists in the General Fiction
category of their annual writing competition, which opened in February
with 5000 entries. <br>
</font><font size=4 color="#C72B59">I need your
votes</font><font size=4>.<br>
</font><br>
<font size=4><i>Farishta</i> 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.
<br>
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.<br>
</font><br>
<font size=4><i>Farishta</i> 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. <br>
</font><br>
<font size=4>The<u> winner (and recipient of a publishing contract from
Penguin Books) will be determined solely
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011">
<b>by the votes of Amazon customers.</a><br>
</u></b></font><br>
<font size=4>For ONE WEEK ONLY, from today Tuesday, May 25 through
Wednesday June 2, at 11:59 p.m. EDT, Amazon customers can
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011">
<b>click here</a></b>, log on to their account, then click on<b> “Cast
your vote in
<a href="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</a>” </b>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.)<br>
</font><br>
<font size=4>Below this message (for your information) is a 300-word
synopsis of <i>Farishta </i>and some of the early reviews from the
judges. If you would like to read an excerpt and more reviews,
<a href="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">
<b>here is a link</a></b>. <br>
</font><br>
<font size=4>Please click
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011">
<b>here</a></b> today, log on to your Amazon account and cast a vote for
<i>Farishta. <br>
</i></font><br>
<font size=4><i>I would be grateful if you could forward this message to
colleagues, family and friends who might also be willing to vote for
Farishta</i>. <br>
</font><br>
<font size=4>Thanks for your support. <br>
</font><br>
<font size=4>Pat <br>
</font>Patricia McArdle<br>
Arlington, Va.<br><br>
Foreign Service Officer, Retired<br>
Member, Board of Directors<br>
Solar Cookers International<br><br>
<br>
<a href="mailto:solarwind1@mac.com">solarwind1@mac.com</a><br>
<b>"Qatra, qatra darya mesha."<br>
</b><i>Drop by drop it becomes a river.<br>
</i>--Afghan Proverb<br>
<font size=1><br>
</font>*1 ______________________________________________<br><br>
<br>
<font size=4>SYNOPSIS OF <i>FARISHTA<br>
</font><br>
</i><font size=4>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.
<i>FARISHTA</i> (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.<br>
</font><br>
THE EARLY REVIEWS:<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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