Richard C. Morais's Blog, page 4
April 24, 2019
When a Picture Launches a Story #1
Big Bar in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Story lead: “No one knew for sure what he spiked his tea with, but it sure wasn’t anything sweet. Tea made him mean.”
April 22, 2019
Ready For Spring Renewal
October 1, 2018
New Novel THE MAN WITH NO BORDERS Bought by Amazon’s Literary Imprint, Little A
Pleased to announce that Little A, the literary imprint (hardcover, paperback. etc.) of Amazon Publishing, bought the global rights to my new novel THE MAN WITH NO BORDERS. It is tentatively scheduled to be released in Sep. 2019, but the editor-in-chief of the imprint is trying to move the pub date forward. Should know more this month about formal pub date.
In other words, THE MAN WITH NO BORDERS is an Amazon Original in the Great Disruptor’s book publishing division.
September 11, 2018
New Novel Coming From Richard C. Morais, Author of The Hundred-Foot Journey
This is the publicity photo for my next novel called THE MAN WITH NO BORDERS. Details to be revealed in the not too distant future. Notice the background in this photo. Rivers and fishing play an important role in this book, in the same way that food did in THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY and religion did in BUDDHALAND BROOKLYN.
October 15, 2017
When I Am Sad
When I am sad, and the dark state of the world is weighing on me, I rely on a two-step system to get me out of my funk: I first retreat to my comfort read, Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals; and then I attend a Wealth & Giving Forum event, which shares philanthropic best practices and inspirational tales among wealthy families, so that they give smarter and better to charitable causes. This cool organization exists largely because of co-founder and chairman Glen D. Macdonald, who has made it his labor of love and gift to the world. It’s a small jewel of an outfit.
The Wealth & Giving Forum’s event theme on Wednesday was the epiphany – that intuitive insight into reality that usually inspires action. Bruce DeBoskey, president and founder of The DeBoskey Group, a Colorado-based consulting firm for philanthropists, started the night with a riveting story about the time he went backpacking through Turkey in his 20s. On that trip, DeBoskey witnessed an entire village physically taunting and mocking a mentally-simple man the same age as DeBoskey. The villagers threw rocks at the bewildered young fellow, poked him with sticks, put a bag over his head.
Afraid the mob would turn on him if he spoke up, DeBoskey walked away from the scene, uttering a prayer, as he left, “that god will help me never to be a bystander again.” It was his epiphany and led him to become an acclaimed trial lawyer “raging against the machine” and a philanthropist. He could not speak of the horrific event he witnessed for 40 years, even though the vision of that tortured young man “worked in me – and continues to work on me in powerful ways.”
What followed that evening were similarly inspiring tales by Katie Meyler, the founder of the More Than Me Foundation, who, among other things, is shaking up Liberia’s education system; Gary Oppenheimer, a self-confessed New Jersey gardener geek who has built a Web-based platform at Ampleharvest.org that allows amateur gardeners to deliver their surplus produce to food pantries around the country; Tom Rutledge, a hedge-fund fixed income manager who is also the chairman of GiveWell.org; and the overachieving Chandrika Tandon, who is a Grammy-nominated composer and vocalist, after she had a Blue Chip business career that included a long stint as a McKinsey & Co. partner.
But my favorite speaker of the night was Walter D. Woods, a high-ranking executive at AARP before having a crisis of the soul when he entered his 50s. A cri de coeur led him to a two-week horse trek through Mongolia — and his epiphany.
The sheer stamina and endurance needed on that trip reintroduced him to his “timeless self,” he says, and, back in Washington D.C., it led him to a career change. He is now devoted, as president of The Good Samaritan Foundation, to helping the elderly in our nation find their resilience and “feel loved, valued, and at peace” – those intangible psychic bedrocks that his own parents instilled in him as a child.
My heavy tread of just a few days ago is both lighter and more determined.
January 6, 2017
November 4, 2016
A New Start
No matter what stage in life you are in, you have to fight to stay fresh and challenged and embracing life, for all its worth. I am trying. Hope you are as well.
November 19, 2015
Defying the Terror
In this time of angst, when civilization seems so perilous, it is particularly pleasing to celebrate my latest publisher, Zodyak Kitap of Turkey, coming to the fold. I hope the Haji family and Madame Mallory do particularly well in Turkey and Zodyak Kitap is justly rewarded.
February 1, 2015
2015 Citizen Diplomat of the Year
Richard C. Morais in Kindergarten at ICS, with friend Yuko
All my writing life, I have quietly tried to find what I have in common with characters far different from who I am and the heritage I was born into. I did this entirely for my own selfish reasons, so I wouldn’t feel so strange and alone in the world, but many years later, it seems the fantasies I explored in the privacy of my writing room have resonated with others.
This week Global Ties U.S., an umbrella group for over 120 non-profits that is helping to “shape U.S. foreign relations by opening avenues for greater understanding and cooperation,” is granting me their highest honor, the 2015 Citizen Diplomat of The Year, an award largely financed by the U.S. State Department.
Why? “Mr. Morais is receiving this award for promoting cross-cultural understanding in all his literary works,” Global Ties U.S. stated in their press announcement.
There have been nine other recipients of this prestigious award so far, including Maya Angelou and Senator J. William Fulbright, so I am sure you can understand why I am deeply moved by this honor.
November 15, 2014
Palm Springs Film Festival Appearance
Love books and movies? Want to be in balmy Palm Springs in January? Then come join The Power of Words: Book to Screen, a January 8th, 2015, event that is a new part of the superb Palm Springs International Film Festival. It’s an all day affair of literary panels and movies, discussing how books make it to screen. Among the talent speaking: Author Mark Bowden and scriptwriter Ken Nolan, on their film Black Hawk Down; and writer Amy Jo Albany and producer Albert Berger on their film Low Down. I’ll be sharing a panel with the fantastic Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of The Descendants and The Possibilities. A few of the films will be screened on January 7th, the night before the full day symposium.
Come join us. Should be fascinating.
