Mina Javaherbin, Author @minajavaherbin-blog - Tumblr Blog

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop! 3/16/13

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop! by Mina Javaherbin

www.minajavaherbin.com

3/16/13

Authors have been playing tag and I’m it. The game is to answer certain questions and tag two other authors and pass it on.

I’m playing because my friend C.Leigh Purtill,http://www.cleighpurtill.blogspot.com/

author, dancer, choreographer, film maker, screenwriter, educator and all around vivacious fellow Gemini tagged me on her Blog. (Leigh and I share our birthdays, May 26, please don’t leak this important information to wiki!)

When I read C.Leigh Purtill the book pages glide and I find myself in a world which I’m sure she has meticulously created with her notorious attention to detail. But then she has magically made her story flow effortlessly by using her intimate voice and her gripping plots. She draws us in and connects us to her characters and places so seamlessly that we can’t help but genuinely care to find out what becomes of these folks and situations next. But that’s not all, when her books end I always think I’ve learned something about myself. She’s really a great and deep thinker and a master of letting us see ourselves by reading her literary work without even a hint of a preach. Pick a paper or an e-copy of her books and enjoy.

I will now try my best to reply or dodge the below questions which passed on to me as a part of the tag game.

The truth is I’m not too comfortable talking about what I’m working on at this very minute, (I am working on young adult novel) but I can use these questions to tell you about one of my upcoming books, the most immediate one which will be out in 2014.

After you’re done reading my answers please scroll on to see who I’m tagging next.

What is the title of your work-in-progress?

Soccer Star - yippee it’ll be out in 2014 – I’m doing some copyediting on that. 2. Where did the idea come from?

The idea to write the book was popped to me as a why not question from my editor. “Mina why not write a…?”

3. What genre does your book come under?

Picture Book of the literature milieu.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?

Donkey from Shreck, I mean it. I’m not being an idiot! Or am I? After you read my book you’ll see, oh and Bono, he can play in it too, Sonia Baraga, or … okay … , pass on this question.

5. One sentence synopsis for your book?

An homage to a special creed of players with a hint of Mina stuff, you know, that wanting to change the world with my art bug I got going on in my own tormented world while everyone laughs at my naiveté and mainly pays no attention to me. (Phew long sentence)

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

My book is going to be published by Candlewick Press. 7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Honestly I didn’t time it, but oh roughly a few months to get the entire first draft down. By first draft I mean the initial manuscript which truly no longer resembles anything to what I have right now. Sometimes I feel writing is like running a 30K course, the first 5K you’re beginning to slowly warm up for a warm up. So to all you aspiring writers I can’t reiterate enough the importance of re-writes. 8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I wish I knew of even a single one on this subject, because universe knows we need more of these in the picture book world. At the risk of sounding incredibly narcissistic I have to admit this book is a perfect compliment to my other book GOAL! 9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My editor, my publisher, inspired me and I think that is the best kind of inspiration in the whole wide world. Why is that the best inspiration? Because they know me and they trust in what I’m capable of. So they hinted a very general subject and left me with it. When I showed them what I had they liked it! Now that’s truly something. To be able to connect through my art with my readers is one amazing feat but having editors who get me and believe in me is cloud nine material.

10.What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Realities of life are not to be hidden from our children. Children are interested, they care and not only do they understand everything but in fact they understand better than us. They are not marred by adulthood greed, selfishness and close mindedness. They will learn and they will change our world. I want to be among the ones who tell them about our world. I want to be among the adults who do not talk down to children. I respect their intelligence immensely and I sure hope their parents and teachers will also like my book.

And Now …Drum Roll Please…

I hereby tag the accomplished and supportive author/ illustrator

Roxie Munro

http://www.roxiemunro.com/home.html

I have to pinch myself when I think Roxie is my friend! I’ll never forget seeing her for the first time in New York and how she graciously showed me her studio. I knew she was a friend instantly as we sat there and talked about life, politics and the arts.We could sit there all day and all night and carry on our rapport and try to solve all the problems of the world together and at once. She is my kind of people, a prolific artist and a phenomenal human being with ideas way ahead of her time. Not only can she paint the sort of art adorning myriad of The New York Times covers but she’s at the forefront of book apps. know how too! She covers the entire gamut and I can’t say enough about her. Visit her website and immerse yourself in a large body of work created by this artist.

My second tag goes to my my fellow author friend

Mr. Wade Bradford

http://wadebradford.com/ .

Wade and I met when a bunch of authors, agents and editors were heading out to a restaurant in LA. We immediately started talking and relating as we are both parents, goof balls, and authors or as he describes himself “brilliant, amazing and humble”. Potato- tomato!

Wade is a college professor, a filmmaker, a famous playwright and an all around author. I’ll never forget the comment he made when we were introducing ourselves the first time to each other, “Wow let me get this straight, so Mina first you became an architect and then you chose to be an author, hmm, you seem to have a knack for picking impossible careers!” Wade is a bright individual with a marvelous sense of humor. I think his picture book Why Do I have to Make My Bed? Is a gem of hilarity and history.

Addressing My Nerdy Pet Peeve Persian or Farsi

PERSIAN OR FARSI

I have a nerdy pet peeve and it’s a rather easy one to explain. So without further ado let me jump in.

The matter is the word Farsi vs. Persian.

Both words are the name of the language people speak in Iran (as if anyone cares, since Bachelor is on, or is it the Dancing With The Stars night tonight?).

Back to the subject, Persian is the name of that language in English and Farsi is the name of that language when the person is speaking the language.

Say wha?

This might help.

Say you are from Germany and your name is Johan and you know how to speak German and English.

I come to you and ask you in English, “Hi Johan do you speak German?” You will naturally reply to me in English, “Why yes Mina I do speak German at home with my wife and children all the time.”

Now say you, Johan, are trying to get the train home but you hear two German tourist admitting to be lost and wishing there was someone there which could speak their language and help them find their hotel. You decide to help them and you go up to them and say.

“Ich spreche Deutsch!”

Note in the German language the name of German language is not German it’s Deutsch.

One more example to make sure this nail won't become loose again.

We say to a friend as we speak English “I speak Spanish,” But in Spanish we must say

"Hablo español."

Note that in the Spanish language the name of Spanish language is not Spanish, it's Espanol.

When we are speaking English, the language of Iranians is called Persian and when they are speaking Persian they call it Farsi.

In English there is no word such as Espanol, Deutsch or Farsi. The respective words for those languages in English are Spanish, German and Persian.

Capito?!

One more thing; if an author or a poet or someone in the artistic field decides to use artistic license and utilize the word Farsi instead of Persian - well that’s just that. It is not right or wrong and we don’t have to judge everything and everyone all the time and out of context.

But it’s good to know the correct usage of words.

That’s all folks.

Thank you for reading.

(Source: minajavaherbin.com)

#Farsi vs. Persian Farsi Persian #mina javaherbin

My First Blog 2013 Dedicated To The Teachers Who Teach Listening And Facts!

I like to dedicate my first blog of 2013 to elementary school teachers and all teachers for their love and passion of teaching. I like to thank all of you out there who are teaching the future generations and realize the immense influence you have on the lives of the children of today. With that emphasis on the value of education I like to recommend some more accent on world geography, world cultures and even the world politics in early years.

Attention and emphasis on what is going on out there in the world not only brings the knowledge of the world to the class but it also highlights what we have here in USA. The appreciation of what one has is always easier via comparison.

Appreciation of our voting system, the freedom of speech and the know how of having a voice in our own government can mobilize children to want to become more involved in the politics in their future. By that I don't mean to recruit more politicians, I mean to create more informed citizens. As a nation of people who live in the "government of the people, by the people, for the people” it is of essence that our society should know a lot more about politics. In fact I’m always amazed to see that our nation who has the ability to vote their government in and out of the office has one of the lowest interest and knowledge rates about the politics in general.

Therefore we witnessed many who their sole source of knowledge is biased TV or celebrity news magazines, making crazy contributions to the debates of the past election year. People who do not know a thing about the world around them and never read about politics, people who their weekly reading is about the shoe sizes of celebrities somehow thought since they could vote they should also open their mouth and talk politics!

I did wish they would shut up, but mostly I wished to guide them to a class which teaches politics 101. But more importantly I was thinking of the children in those households and what they were learning from their non-political parents who felt obligated to spew ill-informed knowledge at the dinner table. A friend's son, not yet even double digits in years , said to us while eating at our house one day, "I hate so and so (a kid we all knew) he’s so bossy like Obama!"

(I assure you we were not talking politics at the dinner table and his saying truly came out of left field!)

WOW! Where'd this come from? I immediately saw the dropped jaws of my own older children who did not reply to the uninformed utterance of a child who clearly did not know what he was talking about and was perhpas mirroring the emotional sentiments in his own household in the heat of the election year.

I still think about what the little boy said and where did it really come from?

I'm proud to be able to hang out with people who do not think like me or do not believe in what I believe in. I find shared grounds with them and go on living. I don’t like to shut my door and only allow in people who are exactly like me. I want to have a wide view of the world and this has always brought me deeper insight in terms of educating myself, my children and in some rare cases maybe others!

Learning about facts, listening and common grounds should have a place in schools. Racism, hate and more are taught to children in their homes as early as their pre-school age. We need to have the education which can offer other options to the impressionable youth.

Teachers you're my only hope. War, hate and racism can simply not solve a thing. We must all believe that if we want to go on as a race, we must learn to live together and listen to each other, curb the urge to shut each other out and create conversations to educate ourselves and each other. We must learn to talk about informed facts and truly listen and then may be we "shall not perish from the earth" as our wise man Lincoln said.

In closing please feel free to send a copy of this to the congress!

#racism #listening #Mina Javaherbin #Teachers #Education #Common Grounds #Lincoln

If Life Gives You Lemons - another series of blogs which will probably not go on for long due to the lazy blogger in charge here.

If life gives you lemons slice them paper thin. Carefully pour a very slight amount of brown sugar on top and place them in the oven for ten minutes at 450 f. Then take them out and enjoy the crispy goodness of your lemony sugary snack perhaps with tea?

But not really, because I just made that up. I have no idea if that'll work. I mean it'll probably work but not sure about the 450 and the minutes, so play with that part if you have the time or if you've done something similar before, and let me know.

Okay this concludes the first installment of becoming a popular blogger which people follow and buy her books and stuff.

Last Giveaway Of This Week - Children's Book Week

This was Children's Book Week and every day this week I've given away a book. So if you're reading this I hope you appreciate how books are not just another consumer item, books are doors to reading, literacy and knowledge.

According to our today's standards the ONLY true way to support an author which you like is to go out there and purchase her books.

Unfortunately no matter how many awards I win or I'm nominated for, or if my books are being taught in classrooms across the USA, the only factor which motivates a publisher to publish more of my work is the profit margin on the magical SALES NUMBER.

So if you got my book for free maybe tell your local library to purchase a copy, your school library, your friend? Maybe give a copy as a gift which keeps on giving.

I am happy to promote my books and ask you to please buy them because I work incredibly hard on making them and it took me years of hard work and pounding the pavements to find a path for them to the publishing world. Again I want to remind you that books are not just another consumer item, books are more than that and I'm elated to be a contributing part to the book world.

Thank you for reading and reading to your children. The first email comment to me gets the last free book, I hope I can do more of these giveaways in the future. Good luck.

Giveaway Giveaway Read All About It

May 10 2012 It's Thursday and I've been giving away books all week. It feels awesome. So send me a message and be the first one. This is the second time today because of a misunderstanding I've already given two books out today but the more the merrier. Woohoo. Here we go. Good Luck. Email me here from the contact page. YAY.

IRAN 101 – Post 3 , A look at Iran's neighbors in 1906

IRAN 101 – Post 3

Context - Neighbors in 1906

So as I said in Post 2 one of the most important events in the past 250 years of the history of Iran was the Iran’s Constitutional Revolution in 1906 which demanded the monarch to hand over his power to a parliament.

This forward thinking of the educated and the elite aristocrats which immediately attracted the public support and pushed the monarchy to a change has always fascinated me. The significance of this movement becomes tangible as we examine how forward this thinking really was in the international context of time and place.

So let's look at Iran’s neighbors and see where they were in 1906.

Russia [if you look at the map of Iran now, you will not see Russia, you will see Armenia, Azarbaijan and Turkmenistan, all of these countries at that time were colonies of The Russian Empire.]

Russian Empire at the time had some very interesting turns of events. In 1905 we have a significant revolt of the Russian people against the absolute monarchy of the Tsar. This revolution led to the Russian Constitution of 1906.

The Russian Constitution of 1906 is a revision of laws initiated by the imperial government of Tsar to hand over the absolute power of the Tsar and involve a parliament to share the power with the monarch.

Iraq – Was not a country. The province after being the subject of squabbles between the Persian Safavid Dynasty and the Ottoman Turks was taken over by the Turks. There is a long history of Iraq as a part of the Persian Empire. For now we focus on the fact that in 1906 Iraq was a region occupied by the Turkish Ottomans who in 1906 were facing their own problems of keeping up their outdated empire.

As the new imperial forces of Netherlands, England and other western countries began their new strategies of ruling over the world by modern colonization ways of finding and exploiting mines, and the people of the countries without establishing direct colonial governments, the Ottoman Empire still tried to exert power by lording over lands and extending boundaries.

This sort of "Empire Building" proved troublesome due to the uprising of the locals who did not want to be ruled by foreigners. Also conquering lands without having the infrastructure to exploit the riches and the labor of the occupied land did not deem much profitable for the Turks.

So in 1906 Iraq did not have a central government or a government of its own people.

Turkey – Turkey was the seat of the Ottoman Empire and it was an absolute dictatorship. The Ottoman Turks as mentioned above, were not up to date with the new ways of the world domination, they formed alliances with other empires but in the end failed. In Turkey of 1906 an anti-monarch movement by the name of Young Turks started to shape.

Afghanistan – Afghani nation is a proud nation who whether we like it or not their small but important country, Afghanistan, has always been a part of the Greater Iran until the early 1700’s. Half of the country speaks Persian fluently and better than Iranians do (I say this because the words they use are the older words of the Persian language and I’m simply in love with the way they speak it). One of the most important literary figures of the Persian language the poet Rumi was born in Afghanistan, of course at the time Afghanistan was a part of Iran. Our culture and history is so intertwined and similar that it baffles me why are we not one nation, and why don't we share our country with our Afghan brothers and sisters? The answer is India, England and much more which I know you will read about it at your own leisure. For now we focus on this fact that in 1906 Afghanistan consisted of many tribes and it was under the control of India and India as we know at that time was a British Colony!

In 1906 Afghanistan did not have a central government of its own people.

Pakistan - Pakistan in 1906 was a British Colony, it was not a country with a constitutional law and a central government and it would not be one until the late forties. Pakistan used to be a part the Greater Iran at times throughout the history but Pakistan has always had a stronger cultural proximity to India. The reason Pakistan became a country lays in the desire of the Islamic Separatists of India. In 1906 Pakistan did not have a central government of its own people.

Saudi-Arabia - in 1906 the Arabian lands on the peninsula now called the Saudi-Arabia was consisted of a few small merchant towns and many Bedouin tribes. The region was under the lands conquered by the Ottomen Turks. Saudi-Arabia is a brand new country and in 1906 did not have a central government or a central leading body of its own people.

I am going to stop here and invite you to take a look at where Iran was in comparison to its neighbors and the ever expanding colonial powers and the discovery of oil and the awareness of its educated class.

As you can see there are vast differences between these countries in the region and I’m glad I can give you the quick version. At the same time I am very sad that I do not have the education or the time to delve into each subject deeper. However our goal about this blog is set at a Cliff’s Notes level, so I suppose we’re good.

As you all remember I said this blog is to get the ball rolling and to give you a bit of information about Iran. In a fast world like this I suppose even this blog might have some sort of value.

I also want to point out about the fact that these days there's a tendency for people to think that some sort of uprising is in the works for the entire world. That may very well be the case but in fact there has always been some sort of an uprising in the works. As you can see nations have always been influenced by each other and related to each other, one’s triumph has always inspired the others to move and intelligent aware people of all nations have always changed the course of history.

The reason we think there is an uprising is because we now have the ability to know more and faster. As we type in to see "Cat" videos we will come across "Catastrophe" videos, internet is funny that way so use at your own risk because with knowledge comes responsibility and power.

Thank you for reading about Iran.

IRAN 101 - Post 2 - Gajar Dynasty, William Knox D’Arcy, British Petroleum, Iran’s Constitutional Revolution- 1906-1908

Gajar Dynasty, William Knox D’Arcy, British Petroleum, Iran’s Constitutional Revolution- 1906-1908

I like to start with this; in 1908 when a lad by the name of William Knox D’Arcy found oil in Iran he soon after became the director of British Petroleum.

A few years right before this history changing discovery of oil, Iran had gone through a significant turning point called the Iran’s Constitutional Revolution.

Iran’s Constitutional Revolution was actually initiated by the aristocrats, educated elite and religious leaders in order to curb the absolute authority of the king. In the end the revolt succeeded to create the first parliament for Iran.

Like any revolution this one also involved, strikes, scuffles, imprisonments and loss of lives. It’s important to know that the religious leaders who met the population regularly in the mosques on Fridays, (similar to priests who meet the population on Sundays at the churches) had a great power in conveying the word to the people.The elite and aristocrats used this clergy power for propaganda efforts and literally put the religious leaders on a pedestal throughout the course of this revolt.

Iran’s Parliament was established in 1906. Elections for the members were held and a legislative body at the parliament was formed.

For the first time in the history of Iran the king of the country handed over some power to another faction. Iran’s Monarchy became a Constitutional Monarchy, at least on paper.

I like to end with this; in 1908 when a lad by the name of William Knox D’Arcy found oil in Iran he soon after became the director of British Petroleum.

Oh wonderful glorious liquid black gold what if you had never been found? What if Mr. D'Arcy never found a drop of you in Iran? Where would Iran be now? An industrial country with a democratic government? A poverty stricken desert? An up and coming country emerging from the USSR communism? We will never know.

IRAN 101 – Detour to reply to my friend Irina Mirskaya - Please scroll down to intro. and more posts for Iran 101

IRAN 101 – Detour to reply to a question.

As I mentioned on the web, that I’m going to write a blog about Iran, my friend Irina Mirskaya asked, is it still the same since you left? Mine had changed so much, I’d feel as a stranger in my own town.

Irina is an illustrator/textile designer/author who is also an immigrant to USA from a lovely country which I want to know more about.

I think this is an excellent question and one that I can reply to in a novel. But since I promised to be brief here, I’ll stick to my promise and write the novel later. I warn that his is already going to be a long post so please accept my apologies in advance.

Due to school, work, finances, family obligations and the fact that most of my very close relatives live right here within twenty minutes of my doorstep in the US of A, I have not traveled back to Iran in the past almost three decades, except for once, about fifteen years ago.

Irina, I can not begin to tell you how many things have changed. But I felt very Iranian there. In fact for some odd reason I felt more Iranian there than the other Iranians who lived there! That’s what I felt fifteen years ago, but I’m over it now, specially after the uprising a few years ago. I salute them. I felt they claimed their country back. I was mad and angry at them and now in my heart all I have is pure respect, love and admiration for the brave people of Iran who are trying to survive.

As I was born in Iran, I speak the language fluently. This gives me the privilege of having access to some of the most wonderful literary works written in the human history. I specially benefit from knowing the language because I read these works and use them in my everyday life. As I'm an author this knowledge is of immense value to me. So I feel doubly Iranian and immersed in the literature. I also know the history, the culture and a little more about the arts and the architecture of Iran than the average fellow.

So yes I felt and feel very Iranian.

However many Iranians there told me that,

· I spoke with an American accent

· I did not care about Iran

· and I have become an American.

To that I must reply it wasn't really the accent they objected to and found foreign, it was more my style of conversation. It's true, I didn't know or use the new slangs but the fact that I spoke my mind, I spoke direct and I spoke to the point seemed to be the problem. I realized this is not the way of conversation in Iran.

I realized the political and social atmosphere, the revolution, the war and myriads of incidents which the people of Iran had gone through in the past few years made them skirt around the issues they wanted to address. It made them exercise self-censurship even in their routine encounters and conversations. It made them use an extensive amount of flattery to cover up their absolute discontent.

This culture of hiding ones true self and lying all the time and being one way outside the house and another inside is a way of survival for many in Iran. I think this behavior has a direct connection to the harsh laws of the dictator governments to date. This can become the subject of an anthropology book. I will address this Dr. Jekyl, Mr Hyde behavoir more in my future blogs as I find it fascinating.

In reply to the fact that I did not care about Iran, I must admit, I'm not a nationalist. Although I'm an Iranian and I'm an American too, I can never think that these two countries are better than any other country in the world! To me it’s absurd to think that. All countries have their problems and their glories and as a person who travels, who moved from one country to another in hope of a more comfortable life, who sees the world at the click of a mouse, I’m in awe of all countries and all people. Nationalism stumps me.

In reply to I have become an American, I confess I have no idea what that means?

I’m Mina Javaherbin and certain things happened in my life. I now live in the USA. I work here, I have a family here, I pay my taxes here, I vote here and I adhere to the laws here like many other immigrants who came here.

At the cost of sounding a little weired for a minute now, I want to say if you think that this country is a total failure then please move out.

We have a large earth. Please go away. Move to another country and enjoy your life in a place which suits you best. I moved from one country to another and you can too.

I think this country has many problems and I love that I'm free to say this and free to occupy anything I want. Wall Street, my home, a book.... USA is not a perfect country but I don’t want to live anywhere else on this planet. I want to live here. I don’t want to live in England, I don’t want to live in Thailand, I don’t want to live in France, I don’t want to live in Iran, I want to and I chose to live here. Between you and I, I happen to think since the entire world looks up to us we better clean up our act in US and inspire the world. If anyone can, it's us.

I become so upset when Iranian artists or people in the public eye from Iran attempt to make themselves look important and exciting by saying that “I’m living here due to political exile !” Stop it. Get over yourselves and your constant lies. We all know what happened and happens to political opposition in Iran. The government did not exile you. If you were important enough you'd be under six foot right now. So go look up the definition of exile and please get over your self and stop lying to the American people and stop assaulting the public's intelligence by assuming they’ll never find out about your lies and your publicity stunts.

However there are a handful of admired political activists who somehow made it out and I for one am very happy they have chosen to not go back to Iran as we know where they may end up.

I might have never come here if certain things did not happen in Iran, but I’m here now and this is my life. I immigrated to America like many other immigrants. This is how this country is built. I explained to many in Iran how immigrants come here and they not only become a part of America but in many ways they also bring their heritage to share and integrate. I explained to them that this is the true magic of America. A magic which has made this country strong, a magic which will one day help us out of major pickles.

Unfortunately the concept of immigration, integration and democracy is not easily comprehended in Iran. I feel it's because the people in Iran never had the chance to practice democracy or live in a democratic atmosphere and regime. While I'm at it, may I please say that democracy is not something America can bring to the world through war, drones and bombs, so please, don't.

Democracy is a concept to learn, to acquire, and grow up with. Democracy is a tradition. Democracy seeps into society and becomes a way of life. It takes time for democracy to settle in the minds of people and it's a complicated concept to understand for a beginner. For example I know many educated people from Iran who have lived here in America for years but they still act like they live in a feudal tribal community. They actually have the equivalent of a tribal alpha leader in their very cute little camps too, e.g. the lord of the tribe can be the celebrity in their mix, the most educated person with the dream job, or the richest person in the click. They have minimal contact with other factions of the society, keep to themselves and do think that they know it all. Most do not vote or think themselves as a part of this country and many are waiting to go back!

But there are not many of them around for the nation to even sense their existence. However they are obvious enough to the trained eye and a source of constant irritation for many. This sort of behavior usually goes away after a few generations of immigrants as we can see the similar examples in many other groups of immigrants who came here before the Iranians. Note to self, write a cartoon strip or a funny graphic novel about these reluctant immigrants or inspire others to do so.

So to answer to you my dear Irina I certainly did not feel like a stranger in my own town when I visited but I sure had many strange feelings and thoughts.

There was a time in my life which I struggled with being an Iranian-American, or an American-Iranian or whatever that means, (I use the word because if I don't use Iranian-American each time I have to say,"An Iranian person who due to life circumstances had to and wanted to leave Iran and chose to live in USA instead of Iran"), but as I’m getting older I realize my rather painful experience is a treasure box although specific to my life, it is where I go to pick out many universal elements for sharing with the world.

Thank you for the great question Irina which became my muse today and caused a lovely detour.

My blog is going to be more non-personal as you will see in the future, but how can we avoid blogs like this peppered throughout. So I'm fine with the organic way things shape as I go along.

Like I always say, the most personal experiences in our lives are the most universal ones.

Thank you for reading everyone.

I'll edit this more later, I'm tired now, so don't judge my grammar and punctuation as I needed to get this stuff out before I croak.

IRAN 101 - Post 1 - Please scroll down and start from intro.

Iran is a country older than history, like China, Egypt, Greece and so on. Don't worry I'm not going to start from 3000 years ago. Since this is suppose to be the water-melon version, as I indicated in the intro. blog, please feel free to google Persian History and sympathize with me when I tell you that my best grade in history was always a B in Iran.

I was a student who always had an A in math and physics and writing and reading but what can I tell you? 3000 years is too much to memorize.

The names, the kings, the dynasties and the wars are mind boggling and that's what they tested us on. If they tested me on the story aspects I might have had a better a grade.

I'm going to start towards the end of the Qajar or the Gajar Dynasty. They started ruling Iran 225 years ago, and to create a little context here, that's a few years after Buffalo Bill died and Calvin Coolidge the 30th president of America held office.

Again I want to remind you that we are going to talk about an old country. A country which has survived for ages, and still has more or less the same language the same name and the same traditions that date back to over 3000 years ago.

People in Iran, and Greater Iran (countries which were once a part of the Persian Empire), also people of Iranian heritage living all over the world, e.g. Iranian-Americans, still celebrate many of the ancient festivities specific to Iran.

Please be prepared that we are going to talk about a country which dates older than Moses, Jesus and Mohammad.

This concludes my first post of Iran 101.

Cheers.

IRAN 101 -Introduction

IRAN 101

Hi Everyone

When I became a published writer I promised to not do two things.

1-Write my memoir, ugh.

2-Write a blog pertaining to my country of origin, Iran.

I'm still not writing a memoir, but I have now started a blog about Iran, desperate times call for desperate measures. I hate wars and this is my anti-war contribution.

I am an Iranian-American. I’ve lived 2/3 of my life in America and like many of us here in U.S. I’m not up to date and in the know about what is happening exactly in the politics inside Iran or between my two beloved countries Iran and America, my what a combo, this is like being a Jewish-Arab, I feel you people.

Clearly what I’m about to blog under IRAN 101 is not going to be of a “Carnegie Mellon Fellow” nature, my blog here would be more of a “Water-Melon Fellow” nature.

I will post short and to the point facts about Iran aimed at most of the population to fit into our daily reading schedule and not interrupt or take any time away from our Facebook and Twitter activities. God forbid.

With this blog I wish to inform the fellow readers who have no time to read heavy and awfully translated and simply non-existent books about Iran. I'll be writing for a person like myself, a regular fellow. The only difference between my reader and I is that I grew up there and I can share a bunch of good stuff here with you. It’s going to be sort of a Cliff’s Notes, if you will, only better, cause Cliff’s Notes really suck so bad that every time I picked one up in college I had to throw up and go buy the real book. Oh my gosh may be I’m trying to trick you into reading the real book. I had no idea! Can I possibly be that sneaky?

But seriously the only reason I’m doing this is that the other day I realized the majority of the population in America still has no idea what in the world is going on there in Iran and bombing that country or not bombing that country really means nothing to them. Yikes! This will not do. I must do something. War is bad people.

In order to be able to talk and negotiate and not do the war thing we need to know a little so we can make better decisions and stop uninformed governments and uninformed people from running our lives. I for one do not like to live in a war zone EVER.

Trust me I’ve been there, it’s no fun to hear sirens and wait to see if the bomb will hit your home or not and hold your family members hands, in the bunker, in the basement, while crying that your mom is not in the basement with you cause she’s on the rooftop and she says if she’s going to die she does not want to die in a basement and… (more on that later in my memoir if I ever write one, ugh).

So come on let’s learn a little and be informed about Iran.

I’m so busy with my life like all of you and I can not believe I’m going to do this. I’m already thinking what an idiot I must be. “Mina no one will care and read this.” A voice is saying inside my head. Then there is the other voice in my head, “Everyone will read this and they will learn and enjoy and be grateful that you wrote it.”

Let’s hope the latter is the case. Is there anything else around except for hope?

I promise to be brief, simple and informative. I have no idea when will I start and how often will I post. It all depends on you, my readers.

Wish me luck people, I’m going in.

12/8/2011

California, USA

Check out this wonderful interview with Lupe Fernandez from The Pen and Ink Blog

#mina javaherbin #GOAL!#The Secret Message #Lupe Fernandez #The Pen and Ink Blog

#Mina Javaherbin #California Young Reader Medal #Goal #The Secret Message

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Scroll down to the 2nd video to see the latest book trailer from Robin Shipman.

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Notable Books for a Global Society 2011www.slideshare.netThe 25 award winners selected by the IRA Children's Literature and Reading SIG (Special Interest Group) selection commit. Very honored and proud that Goal! is included with these incredible books and authors.

#mina javaherbin #goal #notable books for a global society

An interview w/ Behnood Mokri on The Voice of America TV (in Persian)

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