The land began to change after we left Midelt, the mid-point in our journey. We started to ascend into the Atlas Mountains, the domain of nomadic tribes who graze their flocks of goat and sheep between high altitudes and low in search of fodder. The Mid-Atlas is green and fertile compared to the more arid […]
Morocco – the South Read More »
I thought that travelling through Morocco during Ramadan would be as daunting as those “dry and hungry days” I faced in the Arabian Gulf during this period of fasting, but with the exception of local hotels, restaurants and food stalls being closed during the day, tourist hotels served food continuously (a couple of them even
Morocco – the Northern Cities Read More »
I’ve been coming to the Dominican Republic for over 15 years, but never had the chance to visit the capital, Santo Domingo. Why? It was always too far from the tourists resorts of Samana, Punta Cana, and La Romana where I usually ended up. The one time I dared to book a visit, food riots
Road to Santo Domingo Read More »
The world is agog with ChatGPT—the AI machine that writes for you based on the commands you give it—and the revolution it is going to cause in journalism and the arts. Essay and article writers will go extinct, say the pundits; graphic designers will commit hara-kiri and visual artists would have to take up house
This article is NOT written by a robot Read More »
There was a time when, if you had a problem with a new service or appliance you bought, you called an 800 number, spoke to a live expert, and got your issue resolved. Well, that’s history, right? As we entered the 21st century, as voice-recognition technology improved, as Big Data expanded to gather a myriad
The Extinction of “Customer Service” Read More »
We got out to book launches and readings again this fall after a two-year shutdown for the pandemic. And the world had changed. People were still reluctant to come out to public events, especially to crowded ones where we breathed over each other. The older demographic was masked and impregnable, and readers were consuming less
In Praise of Indie Writers Read More »
Queen Elizabeth, the only monarch who has ruled over the colonial domains I’ve lived in during my lifetime, finally passed away last month. Her Majesty had a good run, the longest, and has now left an aging successor whose tenure on the throne is suspect, as is the stability of the Commonwealth of Nations, that
The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King! Eh? Read More »
Every time I sit down to write about Sri Lanka, I shake my head. The country never fails to surprise me. And sadden me. The rational side of my brain says, “But you need not concern yourself – you left 42 years ago. You’ve cleaved to another, more rational and prosperous, country – let it
A Country of Paradoxes Read More »
Every time there is a seismic shift in taste, technology or time-availability, pundits say the novel is dead. And yet this hefty tome that demands so much attention from its reader has ambled on over the centuries. No one really knows when it began, although everyone claims their favourite to be the first novel (Tom
How the Novel travelled through the internet with me in tow Read More »
It is now a given that you can’t submit work to a major publisher without going through a literary agent, for there are no more publishers’ slush piles. Publishers have also outsourced most aspects of production – editing, design, formatting, printing, distribution, proof reading, marketing and publicity – to “contractors.” What are publishers left with?
Have Publishers Outsourced Their Slush Piles to Literary Agents? Read More »