Kilt Me! (A few pages of the first draft of the sales pitch) For a while I wasn't sure how much I wanted to talk about this on the blog.
Afterall, this is a kilt blog, not a book blog. But writing, producing, designing, sellinng, and publishing a book is a fascinating process (at least to me) and I thought it might be fun to chronicle some of it for you too. A few months back, in a marathon writing session, I wrote most of the story. I wrote for about six hours a day and got a little over seven thousand words down on paper. I eventually sent it to my friend Donna Mehalko and asked if she'd be interested in illustrating the book with me; then we could sell it together (of self-publish if we had no takers). Which brings us to about now. So, there's the story so far. So, here it goes! Save atheists! Islamists are slaughtering them in Bangladesh! (Warning: Violent Images) » No Country for Women.
Four people were killed and more than 200 injured in Bangladesh yesterday as hundreds of Islamists clashed with police in Dhaka and other major cities demanding execution of “atheist bloggers” they accused of blasphemy.
Islamists hate atheists. Their banner says, ‘ We demand the death penalty for atheist bloggers because they use obscene language to criticize Allah, Muhammad and the Quran.’ The banner carries the pictures of atheist bloggers. Asif Mohiuddin is among them. Asif was brutally stabbed by the Islamists a month ago. His blog is known for its criticism of religions in one of the most conservative parts of the world. Cops asked him to stop writing. Rajib Haider, another atheist blogger was slaughtered just a few days ago, for saying state and religion should be separated, education system should be completely secular, and politics must not be based on religion. I hope Dhormockery will start again soon. Sketchesnatched. NobWatch UK. Ricky Gervais... Obviously. We never actually managed to finish it because I ruined every take laughing.
The fact that you know what's coming every time doesn't stop you laughing when so called "corpsing" takes you over. It's like you're possessed. Luckily it was never meant to be part of the actual show. It was going to be a little DVD extra of David, in character, doing a tour of the caravan. Either way, we got something else. A 10 day campaign of photo shoots, press junkets, chat shows and a fucking massive Hollywood premiere. Often, those things are a labourious nightmare, but it was made fun by the presence of an evil Russian frog and my new best friend, Constantine.
I feel I should point out that Constantine's alter ego is a very talented puppeteer, actor, and all-round hilarious nice guy called Matt Vogel, but I pretty much ignore that fact when his right arm turns green. Now I've got to do it all again for the UK release. This is what we call The Muppet Show. And now the New York weather: it's fucking cold. What They Probably Listen To. Sips and sjin.