A TRIP TO TERESA

Have just reached the end. I was worried that the conclusion would be unsatisfactory, an anticlimax. But it wasn't so. You have produced a work which maintains the interest throughout, with suspense and a wealth of fascinating and sometimes gruesome detail.. The sexual, spiritual, drug and foreign-place themes are very well handled; and I think that no matter what the reader's attitude to each of these, there is something to think about, vicarious experience to enjoy, if perhaps with a shudder sometimes.

There are all sorts of minor things that need the assistance of an editor, but in my amateur opinion, your work is well worth publishing and I look forward to hearing of its commercial success.

Michael, this is the most gripping piece of writing I have so far encountered on this site. By that I mean that I was ready to give up on most of them after a paragraph or a chapter without curiosity to read further. This one seems to capture the very essence of the narrator's experience, which engages me to the point of apprehension: not just as to his safety, but whether I will be repelled by the rawness of his revelations. It's a world I don't quite know at first hand, as my own freewheeling journeyings took place in 1963 mainly, in France and Italy.

Nevertheless, the type of adventure you relate is familiar enough to me from other sources as "the hippie trail". Your writing is fresh and immediate, with, I feel, some maturer reflection thrown in unobtrusively. It's an appealing style.

The only caution I have is with your paragraphs in bold. They are interesting in themselves but some are a little long. For example, your little section about Mount Ararat found me for the first time skipping lines - and eventually the whole section; because it had a different story to tell, one whose relevance to your main narration didn't seem obvious to me. My skipping was not because I was bored by the side-tracking anecdote but because I wanted to resume the main narrative of your trip.

I would like to make more comments as I continue to work through your chapters.

Thanks. I need to fix that formatting and space problem.

I love your story. You do seem to have a formatting problem, too many spaces here there and everywhere, to the point it's a little distracting to me. but the story telling, first two chapters at least, is great. Shades of "The
Dharma Bums or something" but of course, with its own settings and its own mystique. Clever setup, such unlikely persons, it would seem, to be on some kind of spiritual "mission," if it may be called that.

FEL

So many entertaining and interesting turns, such as when Ahmet turns to reveal his erection ... I mean, it's so unexpected and incongruous, and yet, somehow it does not seem out of place with all the other oddities that are quickly adding up to one very idiosyncratic tale.

FEL

I love your story. You do seem to have a formatting problem, too many spaces here there and everywhere, to the point it's a little distracting to me. but the story telling, first two chapters at least, is great. Shades of "The
Dharma Bums or something" but of course, with its own settings and its own mystique. Clever setup, such unlikely persons, it would seem, to be on some kind of spiritual "mission," if it may be called that.

FEL

Hi Michael

I read this all and really enjoyed its honesty and openness. If you do not find a publisher, I hope you will decide to self-publish as I believe you will find (and well deserve) a wide audience. Backed.

Nicole
Chosen

What a wonderful story and fascinating life. Thank you for sharing it with us. The homage to Gracie in the desert, brought a tear to my eye, and a lump to my throat. Very sensitive writing indeed. I grew up with her music.
There is such a lot of living packed into such a short period - if we consider eternity. You seem to have lived more than most of us, and experienced horrors that many of us will never have to face. I have never been witness to such poverty and sickness etc. You are to be congratulated at portraying so powerfully, a life well lived. I have backed your book with pleasure. Eunice - The Temple Dancer.

Arf, arf, I like your brief pitch ... the notion of a pot smoking catholic in 1979 is amusing and suggests all manner of possble conflicts ... as to going off to MT, that is laudable and laughable in equal measure ... your pitch says a lot in a lot less time than many take in their crazed intensity to sell, sell, sell ... it is also far more enjoyable to volunteer comments to someone who is not outrageously pimping their imagined worth

hi michael 'A TRIP TO TERESA'

THIS IS ONE VERY GOOD BOOK, well written and a page turner. love the cov er by the way and the pitch sell itself. the thief in the train is described so very well and almost matter of fact , great stuff, the book appears to be full of it, can see it on film some day' good luck;
oh. how can one go wrong with the mention of mother teresa, one great walking and modern day saint
TOM BYE ' FROM HUGS TO KISSES'
please look at mine and back comment it time thanks

Dear MIchael

I have started to read your writing and must say that it is compelling. very well crafted and totally original, which is refreshing. Animated and quite addictive really as you take me on the same journey as yourself quite effectively. I feel strongly to back your book now. I do wish to be part of your climb to the top on this site. CONGRATS and I will comment more as I read more

BACKED BY ME FOR SURE.
Please take a moment to look, COMMENT which is important to me, and BACK my book. if not that is OK also

The VERY best of luck to you

Denise
The Letter

Dear Michael, I love that you end your story with the lyrics of, "To Dream the Impossible Dream," then a scripture & Walt Whitman's quote. :) What an adventure! :) Great pitch to draw me in to read & nice tight dialogue & paragraphs. :) I've backed your book :) - could you please take a moment to back my memoir book? :) Thanks so very much. :) Love, Susie :)

I love this. I have no suggestions for your writing, because I am still savoring your story line, your diction, the history, travelogue, odyssey, philosophy, spiritual outlook and the party. Is it possible we have a modern-day Homerian piece here? My only concern is your rank on the site and the fact that more people aren't tuning in and reading. Do you think your cover puts people in mind of a religious treatise or some kind of biographical non-fiction work? If I were in your shoes, I might change the cover and re-launch, see what happens. I realize "rank" position isn't everything, but now that I've found this book, I want others to know about it. Kudos.

Memphisgirl
Ashes By Now

Absolutely brilliant writing and a real life story without dragons and vampires - how refreshing and down to earth. BACKED with pleasure!

Liz
The Cheech Room

Worth Publishing. Backed with pleasure.

Michael,
I have now read the first four chapters plus some random chapters of A Trip to Teresa. I really like your book very much. Your descriptions come so naturally and hippie-like. My son has also worked with Mother Teresa as a barber and he has told me a lot about that time. Good luck with your book.
I will put your book up on my shelf as soon as I have received your comment on my book.
Nillan
Blue-eyed in Luhya-land

Ah, so that's what random Bible passages is called, Sorte. St. Francis of Assisi and his colleagues practiced sorte before they formed the brotherhood of friars. The passages that came up led them to start the first Franciscan Order of Minor Friars.

I'll read further and see what interesting things come up.

Patricia

Hiya Michael, as others have noted, a fine read. on my shelf. i've read my share of this kind of tale and often find the writing too self-indulgent. yours, however, is spot on, a judicious mix of the personal and the universal, with an engaging tone and a rollicking pace. this is one "travelin' man" i want to follow.
best, andy

A Trip to See Mother Teresa

Hi Michael,

I kept on reading this. You have captured this experience so completely, rendering the everyday with the energy and seamlessness of a piece of fiction. There is all I would expect from a fiction novel here, there is character, description and narrative, along with intrigue and tension. You show us this slice of life in technicolor detail, what an interesting vicarious experience for any reader. Your narrative voice is strong and engaging throughout and you capture the essence of those people around you with quick, bold descriptions. Each chapter encourages as to read deeper, this is a definite contender as far as I am concerned for Harper Collins to publish under their True tag.

Thank you for offering us an insight into this world. Best wishes and good luck with this
Andrew W
(Sanctuary's Loss)

A Trip To Teresa

Hi Michael

This is great, so readable, not what I was expecting at all, more comments to follow in the morning but onto my shelf right now -Andrew W
(Sanctuary's Loss)

"The glowing ends of the joint float in the air like fireflies" - how gorgeous! And there are so many other lovely depictions I confess I am too lazy to type them out again - but this is jam-packed with interesting tit-bits and little bits of history that I can't stop reading. It's also rammed with fantastic descriptions of India and the middle east . An absolute must-read for any one who is spiritually minded and loves exploring different cultures.

Backed and highly recommended!

M&J

Just read your first 2 chaps & enjoyed them. I'd like to discover more. You handle dialogue well & the graphic factual detail brings the settings to life. I'm bookshelving this.

Hello Michael,
Your travels interested me hugely. I have never been to the places you passed through, so all the descriptions, events and people you met on the way fascinated me. I liked the unusual slant of you being stoned rather than an earnest traveller. (Fancy your mate smoking crushed scorpion tails, yuk!) I also liked the asides in bold, each one a nugget of information which I did not find intrusive to the body of the book as a whole.
I have put it on my shelf, and as I have only reached Ch 5 so far, will come back to it.
Thanks for a good read. Nicky (Chickens and Churchbells)

Thanks, Hermoine. Maybe I should have another go at querying publishers/agents. But, oh, the futility of it!

Hey, thanks very much for the positive comments, Ma! Hope you're right about its commercial success! I'm stony. Broke, that is.

On reading the account of your own recent nightmarish Meditteranean trip on your blog, I really liked your observation and tone.

Have just reached the end. I was worried that the conclusion would be unsatisfactory, an anticlimax. But it wasn't so. You have produced a work which maintains the interest throughout, with suspense and a wealth of fascinating and sometimes gruesome detail.. The sexual, spiritual, drug and foreign-place themes are very well handled; and I think that no matter what the reader's attitude to each of these, there is something to think about, vicarious experience to enjoy, if perhaps with a shudder sometimes.

There are all sorts of minor things that need the assistance of an editor, but in my amateur opinion, your work is well worth publishing and I look forward to hearing of its commercial success.

comments on chap. 3: same as before with the paras in bold. I could not see what was added to the overall narrative by the details about the film Ryan's Daughter, even though, in another way, I was glad to learn something new!

It was rather astonishing, when you had entered the cinema, to be suddenly told, without even a change of tense to the pluperfect, or some indication of relevance, about an incident which had occurred in Istanbul. I had to check back to see if I had missed something. No, we are still in Lahore, so why this?

Michael, this is the most gripping piece of writing I have so far encountered on this site. By that I mean that I was ready to give up on most of them after a paragraph or a chapter without curiosity to read further. This one seems to capture the very essence of the narrator's experience, which engages me to the point of apprehension: not just as to his safety, but whether I will be repelled by the rawness of his revelations. It's a world I don't quite know at first hand, as my own freewheeling journeyings took place in 1963 mainly, in France and Italy.

Nevertheless, the type of adventure you relate is familiar enough to me from other sources as "the hippie trail". Your writing is fresh and immediate, with, I feel, some maturer reflection thrown in unobtrusively. It's an appealing style.

The only caution I have is with your paragraphs in bold. They are interesting in themselves but some are a little long. For example, your little section about Mount Ararat found me for the first time skipping lines - and eventually the whole section; because it had a different story to tell, one whose relevance to your main narration didn't seem obvious to me. My skipping was not because I was bored by the side-tracking anecdote but because I wanted to resume the main narrative of your trip.

I would like to make more comments as I continue to work through your chapters.

I'm sure that the experiences I had in India in 1979 are quite different to the precious ones you experienced yourself there last year.

Maybe I should give a brief introduction before the story.


"This is the story of a conscience-stricken Westener, raised a Catholic. who decided to work as a volunteer with Mother Teresa' s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1979.