Richard C. Morais's Blog, page 6
March 20, 2013
German Cover
The German-language cover for Buddhaland Brooklyn by Pendo Verlag, my publisher in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
February 27, 2013
What New Yorkers Read on the Subway
Buddhaland Brooklyn, Richard Morais (F, 20s, black leggings, purple nails, brown scarf, concerned expression, L train)
January 18, 2013
A Bargain Dinner at $500 A Head
 
The other night a buddy and I went down to Washington D.C. to check out Minibar, the acclaimed restaurant by Chef Jose Andres. It blew me away. Had popcorn that made me roar smoke from my nostrils like a dragon and red ravioli filled with peanut butter. Plus 24 other stunningly inventive courses. In this article I wrote for Barron’s, you’ll get a taste of what it’s like, and why I think it’s a bargain at $500 a head.
Photo credit: Fleming Meeks
January 17, 2013
Abbas Haji Getting Excited in Hebrew
How extraordinary. Hassan, Big Abbas, and Madame Mallory are currently on tour of Israel and speaking fluent Hebrew. That’s thanks to Yediot Ahronot Books and my talented Tel Aviv publisher and editor, Hilit Hamou-Meir, who bought The Hundred Foot Journey. Thanks to their hard work an interview about the complicated cultural cross currents at the heart of the book recently ran in a major local newspaper.
December 20, 2012
“Mind, Body, Spirit” from New Zealand
“When Oda is sent to America to open a Buddhist temple in New York, Buddhaland Brooklyn, much like the lotus sutra which is the core of its philosophy, blossom out of muddy waters into a hilarious, thought-provoking clash of cultures where Oda is forced to confront the practice of his training in a world that in his eyes is barbaric and ill-suited to true believers. In the acknowledgements, Morais emphasises this is a work of fiction but ironically it wonderfully captures all of the beauty and difficulty of all spiritual paths where the middle way is found in walking the talk and talking the walk.”
That’s the conclusion of the New Zealand reviewer of spiritual books, Mike Alexander. Click here to read his full review of Buddhaland Brooklyn and other spiritual books Alexander covers in “Mind, Body, Spirit.”
November 17, 2012
Spiritual-Literary Discussion of Buddhaland, Brooklyn
Walter Mason and his friend, Stepahnie Dowrick, run the Universal Heart Book Club in Australia and discuss my book, Buddhaland Brooklyn, alongside The Hope. Separately, Walter Mason, author of the acclaimed travel memoir, Destinatin Saigon, has written a review of Buddhaland Brooklyn.
Very nice. Check out their sweet YouTube discussion.
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October 20, 2012
Hundred-Foot Journey Audio Out
The audio of The Hundred-Foot Journey, beautifully read by the classically-trainned actor, Neil Shah, is finally out. The recording is made by Blackstone Audio, the firm that also made the award-winning audio recording of Buddhaland Brooklyn that was read by actor-director, Feodor Chin.
All we need now is the movie.
But, either way, it looks like it’s time to start writing again.
October 13, 2012
Back to Sarah Lawrence College
Heading back to Sadie Lou, my old alma mater. Should be fun. And all because of one of the finest, unsung heroes of that place of higher learning: Charling (Sha) Fagan, head of the Sarah Lawrence College library.
Whatever Sha asks me to do, I will do. She is special.
September 27, 2012
Luxury Reading
LUXURY READING review of Buddhaland Brooklyn: “As a book reviewer, we all love the written word to the degree that some have and some wish to have, a book of their own, written by their own hand, someday. If I had a book I could call my own, it would be this one. Eloquent, unique, funny, tender, sad, and pristine in it’s delivery, Buddhaland Brooklyn challenges, motivates, placates, and seduces it’s readers in to reaching one conclusion. Live life fully. Simple. Understated. Perfection.” — Claudia Robinson
August 30, 2012
Foreign Publishers Buy Buddhaland Brooklyn
Foreign publishers have been slowly but steadily buying into Buddhaland Brooklyn. First to sign in was HarperCollins Publishers India. This is especially sweet to me. HarperCollins India gave me my first break in publishing, buying my little novel, The Hundred-Foot Journey, when it was a mere novella and then having me come to India for a book tour. Shortly thereafter the walls of indifference that I had met in the US and the UK crumbled, all because of the extremely generous reviews I received in India.
The classy Italian publisher, Neri Pozza, has also bought into Buddhaland Brooklyn. They, too, were among my first supporters in Europe and it’s a huge vote of confidence that this respected publisher, fighting it out in the stressed Italian economy, so believe in my skills as a writer that they have again placed a bet on my fiction.
Pretty fine, particularly since just north of the Italian border, the Pendo imprint of the great German publisher Piper Verlag, have also signed on. Pendo is the powerhouse that produced the elegant German hardback of my first novel and has come back for seconds, even before they have released the paperback of my first novel. For some reason I can’t pull Pendo’s logo off their home page, but the absence of a logo here doesn’t mean tepid excitement. Quite the opposite. It’s red-hot.
