"The Creative Process of Writing is a Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"
www.virtualwritingcoach.com
September, 2008
In This Issue:
1. Preview
2. Publisher's Note
3. Book Review: Three Cups of Tea
4. Helpful Hints
1. Preview
The Writer's Connection explores the creative process of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and actions.
We are an interactive community of authors and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge, skills, and experiences in
writing fiction in any genre, but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.
Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing information.
Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript,
and are provided to the general public. Because we are an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints are welcomed and may be
printed in future monthly newsletters with permission from Keith Barton.
2. Publisher's Note
September, 2008
Dear Writer's Connection Subscriber,
This month's newsletter features: Book Review:
Three Cups of Tea
3. Book Review: Three Cups of Tea
Greg Mortenson and David Relin have written a masterpiece
about building schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan
during the pre-Taliban and Taliban regime. The title,
Three Cups of Tea, refers to an ancient tradition
in these two countries of drinking three cups of tea to
do business: the first you are a stranger, the second
you become a friend, and the third, you join our family,
and for our family we are prepared to do anything--even
die. This was told to Greg Mortenson by his mentor, Haji
Ali of the Korphe Village in the Karakoram Mountains in
Northern Pakistan. Greg was not always a philanthropist
who founded the Central Asia Institute (CAI); he was an
alpinist who attempted to climb the second highest peak
in the world, K-2, at 8611 meters. His failed attempt
in 1993 brought him to the village of Korphe where the
sherpas and porters live as Sunni Muslims with their poor
families.
Greg lived in Bozeman, Montana, and learned to climb while
a student at Berkeley. His parents were missionaries in
Tanzania, Africa, and the 12-year-old boy climbed Kilimamjaro
with his father. When Greg was not doing emergency medicine
in the ER, he was climbing rock walls in the gym perfecting
his climbing skills. His youngest sister, Christa contracted
severe meningitis from a smallpox vaccination and suffered
frequent seizures until her death at 23. Greg vowed to
climb K-2 in her honor to leave Christa's necklace at
28,267 feet. His failed attempt nearly cost him his life.
Greg left mountain climbing to begin the arduous task of raising private funds for his first school in Korphe,
Pakistan. After 580 letters he received only one response from Jean Hoerni for $12,500 to build a five-room
schoolhouse for girls. Sherpas carried roof beams 18 miles over treacherous terrain after landslides buried
the only road up the Braldu Valley. Greg began his epic journey over the next ten years to build 55 schools
from 1996 to 2006. He hit the "big time" when
Parade magazine's David Relin wrote an article about Greg's
resolve to bring education to young Muslim school girls in the region, at a time when America was bombing
Pakistan and Afghanistan to find Osama Bin Laden. Greg received tremendous support from a staff of five
volunteers who answered letters and received donations from all over the world for his efforts. One young
Jewish boy gave all $1,000 of his Barmitzvah money to help Greg. The boy's gesture was just one example of
the multi-cultural and religious effort to help poor Sunni Muslim women receive an education to fight terrorism.
The book is magnificent in the visual depiction of the harsh mountain peaks, the highest in the world, and the
poor Muslim families who live there herding goats and planting crops in the lush Hushe valley. Greg sometimes was
away from his wife and two children for four months, transversing the globe between Pakistan and Montana. He was
very shy and not used to the limelight in his fundraising efforts for the CAI. He posed with Sir Edmund Hillary,
the first American to climb Mount Everest, at the American Himalayan Foundation dinner where he met his wife,
Tara Bishop.
The post 9/11 years read like a James Bond novel with Greg meeting secretly with the village Mullahs who
guaranteed his safety at a time when Americans were being flown out of Pakistan and Afghanistan. With his
tea-drinking buddies Greg's exploits became legendary to the Muslim tribal leaders who hated the Taliban because
of their terrorist zeal to bring down the United States. Greg was whisked from household to household to continue
to use education to bring down the fears of terrorism. At one time, Greg, was questioned by three CIA agents who
thought he was friend to Osama Bin Laden, and had him detained two hours for questioning. "For the next month,
American bombers and cruise missiles pummeled Afghanistan as Greg criss-crossed northern Pakistan in his rebuilt
Land Cruiser, making sure his schools were completed before the winter snows set in." (from page 273).
Please read this powerful epic adventure of a man who failed in his attempt to climb a mountain but prevailed in a
lifelong dream to bring schools to young Muslim girls in a war-torn country where terrorism was rampant. His idea
was simple: build secular schools to promote education (not terrorism) and support for the Taliban and other
extremist sects will dry up. For the enemy is not terrorism but ignorance.
Helpful Hints:
- Read Three Cups of Tea to get an insider's
view of the most remote region on earth and the people
who inhabit this forbidden area where human emotion
and hope prevails today. Go to the Three Cups of Tea website,
for more information.
- Go to Pennies For Peace
and get your local school involved in school supplies
for the young children below the Karakoram Mountain
Range of Pakistan.
- Support Central
Asia Institute with your donations to PO Box 7209,
Bozeman, MT 59771.
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About Keith Barton, Ph.D.
Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist
for over thirty years. He is currently enrolled in MentorCoach and is accepting new clients.
He has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina,
consultant to Fortune 500 companies in executive development, founded
and managed Texas Community Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing
group home services to persons with mental retardation. Keith founded
and has been running a clinical practice in Northwest Houston since 1990.
He writes part-time with the goal of completing one novel a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate
interest in helping others become attuned to their creative powers of storytelling.
Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family therapy and health psychology. He has published articles, made
presentations and conducted workshops about:
Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self-esteem
Communication skills
Marital/relationship enrichment
Wellness issues
The relationship between psychology and spirituality
