Bigging It Up In Romania
Well, the one country where I did not expect my publishers to collect me from the airport in a stretch limo came up trumps indeed, with the biggest, bling-blingest limo of all!!! We even made a splash in Romania's largest-circulation newspaper!
PJ and Helen - superstars in Romania!
My wonderful Romanian publishers, Nemira, heard that my Russian publisher had laid on for me, last September, a stretch limousine, and they were determined to outdo the nation whose Communist regime had inflicted over four decades of misery and suffering on their people!
In fact, the car being so long proved really handy -- because the traffic in Bucharest is so bad, and at a standstill half the time, I was able to walk to most places without getting out of the car!!!
PJ about to walk from one end of Romania to another
PJ and his Romanian agent, Simona Kessler, travel in bling style!
My late and very wise father once said to me that he could not decide which would be a better investment: To send me to University or to send me around the world for three years. I think it would be fair to say the only journeys I have ever regretted in life are the ones I did not make when I had the chance.
Woody Allen once famously said, "If I were to live my life over again, I would do everything exactly the same, except I would not have gone to see The Magus". I'm more or less with him on that one, except I actually loved the ending of The Magus. I would replace it with Bugsy Malone, easily the most pointless, boring and irritating film I ever saw. But hey, I'm always game to try new things. One of my favourite quotations is from the late Sir Arnold Bax: "Try anything in life once, except incest and folk dancing."
From all that I had heard about Romania, before I went to visit last week, on a combined research trip for my next Roy Grace novel and a book promotion tour for my publishers there, I was convinced that country was going to rank somewhere between The Magus, Bugsy Malone and Folk Dancing on the PJ scale of "life is too short to..."
I was warned that I would find the streets are filled with wild dogs, and feral homeless children. That the hotels are terrible, their five stars being equivalent to a UK two-star, and that the food is crap. Well, just how wrong these perceptions are. Sure, Romania has many problems, thanks to the heritage from the nightmare 42 years of Communist rule, most of it under the despotic Nicholae Ceausescu and his equally vile wife Elena, both finally and mercifully shot dead following a revolution in 1989. But its people are some of the loveliest I have ever met -- and high on this list I'm including the street people, the orphans, the homeless -- and the living saints who help them.
First to dispel the hotel rumour: We stayed at the Athenee Palace Hilton. I don't know if it is four or five-star, but I can tell you that it has exemplary service and -- like everywhere we went -- very seriously good food. I would rate the service as good, if not even better, than the service we had in Hong Kong recently -- and Hong Kong hotel staff are generally opined to be the sharpest in the world.
Yes, Romanians do eat crap. But it is delicious crap! Because in Romania crap soup is one of their national dishes. We spell it a slightly different way -- carp!
[To be continued...]
10 Comments:
At 2:20 PM ,
Anonymous said...
What a coincidence! Jacqueline Stratfold
At 7:35 AM ,
Anonymous said...
That is indeed a str-e-t-ch limo. If Helen had sat at the opposite end, you would have had to talk via phone!
Linda
x
At 4:36 PM ,
Peter James said...
Hi Linda - do you reckon Penny's Bookstore will lay on something similar for my next visit to New Zealand???
Peter
X
At 5:36 AM ,
The Book Guy said...
Sorry, I haven't got a clue who you are, but if you have nice words to say about Romania, you're cool by me. There's a lot to learn there.
Here's my latest project there: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF6tumPmX7w
At 3:28 PM ,
Peter James said...
Hi Book Guy
What a fantastic thing you are doing with this project.
Thank you for your kind words. You are right, there is a lot to learn there. I hope I can bring a little of it alive, the light and the darkness, in my novel.
Good luck with all you are doing there.
Peter
At 11:46 AM ,
Ioana Savin said...
My dear Sir,
I love your post about the beautiful country of mine. You should find the misery of my people in the history of this nation. Maybe you have seen one city, which paradoxic is called the capital of Romania. You should know that not the entire Romania is not like Bucharest. You should visit the entire country and then write a story. I guarantee you that you have never seen anything more beautiful in the world. Just see it and you may never want to leave this place.
I am sorry for my grammar mistakes.
With sincerity,
A 17 year old writer,
Ioana Savin
At 1:50 AM ,
Peter James said...
Thank you so much, Iona. I think you write very good English indeed. I would very much like to come back and see more of Romania, and hope to do that. All my best and lots of luck. Peter
At 8:39 PM ,
Ioana Savin said...
I need you help about something. May you help me, please? I need some advice in finding a traditional publishing house that can do translates included in the offer. I did not find any and I was hoping you might now one. Thank you for replying my comment. I have never seen an best-selling author that interact like that with his readers. Thank you.
At 12:42 PM ,
Peter James said...
Hi Ioans, thanks for your kind words.
All the major publishing houses in most countries include the cost of translation in their offers. It might be worth you speaking to my wonderful agent in Romania, Simona Kessler
Lots of luck, Peter
At 6:10 PM ,
Ioana Savin said...
Ok, Sir! Thank you very much for your advice.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home