Lisa's interview, Qaisar's column, Powell's Books
Hello everyone,
Welcome, new subscribers! I’m going to be trying in this newsletter to foster a blend of “news you can use” as (most of you for now) Blue Ear Books authors (including info about publishing industry trends), with material in the subject matter areas of our books. One thing this will mean is that I’ll be asking each BEB author to contribute short pieces from time to time.
I’m going to try to post as infrequently as possible, out of respect for everyone’s limited spare attention, and also always as briefly as possible, so you can count on each post being worth your while to open and peruse.
Today being Veterans Day, it’s appropriate that I have the opportunity to feature a good recent video interview on Axios by Russ Contreras with U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and BEB author Col. Lisa Carrington Firmin (USAF ret.), headlined “Honoring Latino veterans’ service & sacrifice.” Lisa’s part starts around the 14-minute mark. “I realized that I was a role model” to younger Latinas, she says, among other things. Her discussion of her BEB book Stories from the Front: Pain, Betrayal, and Resilience on the MST Battlefield, which is scheduled for April 2022 publication, begins around 19 minutes.
Lisa also recently shared with me an article in UTSA Today, the publication of the University of Texas-San Antonio - where Lisa serves as military liaison - about UTSA psychology professor Sandra Morissette, described as “one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field of military and veteran mental health.”
Two other items:
BEB author Qaisar Shareef’s latest column for the leading Pakistani newspaper The News (which I used to write for myself), on American political dysfunction, is appropriately headlined “Political circus.” I always find Qaisar’s columns interesting and enlightening, representing as they do the perspective of an intelligent Pakistani long resident in the U.S., writing for a Pakistani readership.
The New York Times today has an article about one of America’s greatest bookstores, Powell’s in Portland, Oregon, headlined “Powell’s Books Survived Amazon. Can It Reinvent Itself after the Pandemic?” I remember how tickled I was, on a visit to Portland in 2006, to find my own book Alive and Well in Pakistan in stock at Powell’s. (The NYT article is also being carried in my local paper, the Seattle Times.)
That’s all for today,