http://www.eveahmed.com en-gb eveahmed.com 2010-6-19T00:00:00Z eveahmed.com http://www.eveahmed.com/page9.htm#68354 Im off to Ibiza next weekend clubbing with hubbys daughter and her boyfriend both in their 20s. Hubby and I are in our 40s. Well be raving chilling larging etc etc. Isnt that the sort of thing that young people do on the White Isle I hope we can hack it that we have the energy to keep going. Were heading for Pacha the legendary superclub where the dj for the night will be man of the moment David Guetta. What shall I wear Hot pants and a bikini top are de rigeur but Im way past those comedy outfits. Im a mama grizzly. Thats what postmenopausal woman in the States are calling themselves where its okay to be middleaged and still have a life. Here in the UK were more buttonedup with our stiff upper lips and all that. What would a mama grizzly wear to a superclub Perhaps the woman who coined the phrase Sarah Palin would have a view Anyway Ill report back on the fun and frolics on my return. Hasta la vista baby 2010-6-19T00:00:00Z http://www.eveahmed.com/page9.htm#67831 Ive just got back from a screening of the new movie Bhutto which traces the life and death of Benazir Bhutto. It portrays them as a mythical family riven with Shakespearean drama. The film was followed by a Q and A with the producer a man from San Francisco who runs a direct mail company for political campaigners including Hillary Clinton. Not much of a link there to Pakistan But he was so filled with a passion to tell Benazirs story that he spent 2.5 years of his life on the film and raised the 3m dollars it took to make it all on his own. Its a fantastic documentary very interesting carefullyresearched and compellinglytold. It makes you cry for the loss of such a brave woman who obviously adored her kids. But I left the film feeling empty about the future of the country. Its message is that Pakistan is so mired in corruption and vested interests that it will be hard for democracy to ever be more than fledgling before the army seizes control again. 2010-6-13T00:00:00Z http://www.eveahmed.com/page9.htm#67420 I met film producer Leslee Udwin at the Oxford Union last week. She was there to talk about the dearth of women in the movie industry and also about making West is West the sequel to East is East. In the new film the northern mixed race family gets taken by Dad to Pakistan to get their errant westernised ways sorted out. Thats what Im writing about I told her. That same culture clash but from a girls viewpoint. I explained that I wanted to write something as comical as both of her movies but was finding it a struggle. Leslee listened sympathetically when I said The pressure put on girls to conform in that culture is much stronger which means theres less to laugh about. On a lighter note Ive become friends with TV presenter Saira Khan who it turns out is fun modern and a Muslim. So you see it is possible 2010-6-8T00:00:00Z http://www.eveahmed.com/page9.htm#27944 How to get your book in front of agents This is what I have gleaned First write your three sample chapters. As well as these you will need a 10 20 page outline explaining What the book is about and why what you have to say is important. Why you decided to write the book and whats special about you as the author. Why the book needs to be written and published now. Who your audience is and why your book will stand out. Plus Anything else about yourself or your project that makes you stand out. Research into similar works that have already been published. A complete chapter breakdown. A biographical note on your background training and experience. You must also include a covering letter to summarise who you are and what the book is about. In terms of presentation send unbound A4 pages in 12point Times New Roman font double or 1.5linespaced and printed on one side of the paper only with wide margins. Pages should be numbered. Print your name and contact numberemail ... 2008-8-5T00:00:00Z http://www.eveahmed.com/page9.htm#13787 I have spent the past almostfortnight here in Angmeringbythesea in West Sussex. I have spent my hols partly struggling with a piece for The Guardian which I have been asked to rewrite. The rest of my time has been occupied with lying in the jacuzzi bath comtemplating my newlypinkpainted toenails slathering on face packs plucking and preening areas in need of deforestation sweating at the gym walking on the beach dodging dog shit and seaweed experiencing the seedy casino and the camp vaudeville scene in Brighton but most of all Ive been missing my girls who are on their hols with their dad from whom I am divorced. Thats the really cruddy thing about being divorced. Instead of being able to relax and enjoy my seven days of freedom from my kids safe in the knowledge that they are with their father I worry about them getting sunburnt staying up too late fighting drowning their plane never returning... My brain whirls with potential dangers they could get entangled with and then as s... 2007-8-19T00:00:00Z http://www.eveahmed.com/page9.htm#11936 Ive spent the major part of the last six months trying unsuccesfully to date to flog my proposed book on the British mixed race experience. Its been my first attempt to get a nonfiction book or indeed any book published. I warn anybody contemplating pitching a nonfiction book that their their existence from now on will be obsessively focussed on the seemingly impossible to catch the eye of an agent. Ive read that you need to be rejected by at least 15 of these before beginning to accept its not going to happen for you. So far I won an agent within two hours of just one email pitch who then six months later told me she could not find a publisher for it. I rewrote the pitch and sent this second attempt out last week to two more agents. Now the waiting begins apparently they take up to eight weeks to get back to the hapless wouldbe author. Maybe Ive not got the tone right or my layout is poor or I dont seem expert enough or whatever... But I just cant believe m... 2007-6-19T00:00:00Z