I got an email last week from Yoani Sanchez who blogs about her life in Cuba. Yoani tells it like it is and on at least two occasions she's been threatened with prison by the Castro brothers, but thanks to an outcry from Spanish and Latin American bloggers the threats have been lifted. Yoani's blog isn't all politics - she talks about books, music and the craic in and around in Havana. The President of Russia is in her home town this week, being dragged around Cuban Potemkin villages by the score. He could do worse than meet Yoani and get a tour of the real Habana that foreign visitors don't normally get to see. Time Magazine picked Yoani as one of its 100 Heroes and Pioneers and I can't but agree. The worst that can happen to me on my blog is that someone will ask me to remove a YouTube link or some wee shite will comment that he hates my books, Yoani could actually end up in a plantation gulag for what she writes. More power to her. To read the English translation of her blog Generation Y, click here.
Showing posts with label cuba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cuba. Show all posts
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The Blogger as Hero
I got an email last week from Yoani Sanchez who blogs about her life in Cuba. Yoani tells it like it is and on at least two occasions she's been threatened with prison by the Castro brothers, but thanks to an outcry from Spanish and Latin American bloggers the threats have been lifted. Yoani's blog isn't all politics - she talks about books, music and the craic in and around in Havana. The President of Russia is in her home town this week, being dragged around Cuban Potemkin villages by the score. He could do worse than meet Yoani and get a tour of the real Habana that foreign visitors don't normally get to see. Time Magazine picked Yoani as one of its 100 Heroes and Pioneers and I can't but agree. The worst that can happen to me on my blog is that someone will ask me to remove a YouTube link or some wee shite will comment that he hates my books, Yoani could actually end up in a plantation gulag for what she writes. More power to her. To read the English translation of her blog Generation Y, click here.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Fifty Grand
Last year I spent a lot of time in Cuba researching a book called Fifty Grand. I wrote much of the novel at the atmospheric Ambos Mundos Hotel in Havana where Hemingway wrote For Whom The Bell Tolls. Its your standard murder mystery/ Scientology/ Hollywood/Cuban Secret Police/conspiracy novel, but I like it. 50G won't be out until early next year but if ya want to read chapter 1 then please click: here (comments much appreciated). 50 G will be published by Holt in the US and Serpents Tail in the UK. ...
All this week I'll be working on the page proofs and when I'm done with them I'd like to give them away to a reader/collector. If someone could suggest how I do this in the form of a fair competition or draw, I would greatly appreciate it. The proofs might look a bit messy so I'm not a 100% sure anyone will be that interested but if I get assassinated by Cuban Intelligence or a Scientology Clear then they might be worth a few quid. (The first few comments below are from when I originally posted this back in July (we didnt all lose our minds))
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