Or, at least, I’m going to be.
It all started one evening when I was working hard arsing around on Facebook, and Veronica from The Dangerously Truthful Diary of a Sicilian Housewife popped up for a chat. We engaged in some very important discussions about life, love and the universe – or maybe I talked about my cup of tea – and then she told me about an idea that she and Pete, of Black Sheep fame, had come up with.
The idea was dangerously simple: invite funny expat bloggers from all over Europe to contribute to a comedy anthology, publish it on Amazon in time for Christmas and donate the proceeds to charity. They’d had the idea around nine months ago, but hadn’t really got around to doing anything about it.
While Irish Linda was lazily formulating the thought, “Ah sure, it’s grand. Eight months is no time at all, at all…”, German Linda efficiently stomped her and went into military mode. Within a day, we’d compiled a list of the bloggers we wanted to take part, emailed them to ask if they wanted to contribute, I appointed myself editor, and asked a friend to design the cover. Veronica would take on marketing the book and formatting it for Amazon. (Thankfully, as I am clueless about that stuff.)
“Uprooted and Undiluted” was born. I also gained the lovely title of “Linda the Whip”. (Thanks for that, Pete.)
Luckily, everyone else was just as taken with the idea as I was and, in no time at all, the blog posts started rolling in. We decided to divide it into topics, rather than simply by blogger, so we’d cover things like daily life, sexy time, man flu, battling red tape, and problems with learning the local language. I compiled all of the posts into one monster document and got down to it. Needless to say, it was a lot more work than I had initially thought; I finished editing it yesterday and my right hand now resembles a claw. The ‘N’ has also worn off my keyboard although that could be more a side effect of typing “NEIN” all the time.
We have bloggers covering Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, England, Croatia, Sweden, France and, of course, I’ll be contributing my hilarious antics from both Latvia and Germany. You can find the full list of writers on my new page and, I have to say, they really are a funny bunch – editing the book was incredibly difficult as I just couldn’t stop laughing.
As I mentioned, the proceeds of the book will go to charity. Now you’d think it would be pretty easy to give money away, right? NEIN (sorry, N). We contacted a couple of major international charities to ask if we could use their logo and donate the money to them. The amount of hoop-jumping and bureaucracy they wanted us to go through would make even a German’s head spin. One actually wanted us to sign a contract guaranteeing a minimum annual donation… Um, what? Can’t we just give you the money?
In the end, Veronica came to the rescue by emailing an old friend who’d set up a charity called Hands Together that builds schools in Nepal. They were absolutely thrilled to be part of the project and we are delighted to be donating the money to such a worthy cause. They’ve offered to help us market the book in any way they can, and the Chairperson, none other than the Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley, is even going to write a foreword for us.
With the editing done, the cover a day or two from completion, and the charity on board, it’s all starting to feel very real. I have no problem admitting that I am stupidly excited about it all. I think the book is fantastic and I hope that everyone immediately rushes out and buys a copy. Or, rather, sits comfortably in their armchair and clicks a couple of times. (Technology, eh?)
You’d better be quick though, before Mammy O’Grady buys them all.
The Facebook page can be found here – #uprootedandundiluted. I think. I still don’t really understand what hashtags do…
This post was updated October 15. The editorial team is re-visiting its connection with the aforementioned charity as the book might be too ‘undiluted’ for their taste… More to follow in a later post.
How exciting! I am eagerly looking forward to the book! I will be able to amuse myself with your antics (and those of other excellent expat bloggers) without sitting at my computer screen scrolling through pages! 😀
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It certainly sounds much easier that way – and you won’t have to click ‘like’ at the end of every page 🙂
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😀 Good point!
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JL and AbFab rock my world! I can’t wait to get my hands on this book!
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There will be an update tomorrow – things have gone a bit pear-shaped 😉
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Oh dear.
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Major ruh roh 😉
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Cool stuff and many congratulations. I’m sure it’s going to be raving. Wel done you! 🙂 🙂
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Thank you! And here’s hoping! 🙂
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I meant, “well done!” Why can’t tabs do the things we actually want them to do…..!
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What are these tabs you speak of?
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My husband’s ipad which enjoys “correcting” things into the German format even though I’m writing in English….!
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Ah 😉 German keyboards drive me nuts too!
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That is so fantastic, congrats! Cannot wait to read it… not to mention a few new bloggers to add to the list. 🙂 Well done all!
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Thanks Heather! It’s really starting to pick up momentum now – very exciting! 🙂
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Wow, wow! What a terrific idea! I can’t wait to read it. I’m firing up my Kindle right now. (Actually will you have it for sale in the US?)
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We’re hoping so! PN’s Workaways want to promote it at their university so it would be great if their friends could actually buy it!
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I want an autographed copy please…. or do I… considering that apparently I wasn’t funny enough to be invited into the sandbox….
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You’re not an expat 😉
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I’m kinda an expat – twice!
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Maybe if we write a second one then 🙂 Might go global with it!
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Reblogged this on The Dangerously Truthful Diary of a Sicilian Housewife and commented:
Me too! Yes, an Absolutely Fabulous anthology of the funniest, award-winning expat bloggers in Europe is being published in aid of charity, in time for Christmas, and I am part of it!
Find out more from the Editor, otherwise known as Linda the Whip!
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this is very exciting 😀
My S, D, F C ,and N keys have worn off…the E is nearly gone and the shift key has seen better days…
this confuses other people who use my keyboard…but I don’t really know why…
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Ha ha! It shouldn’t really be that hard to figure out 🙂 And yes, VERY exciting!!
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That sounds brilliant, Linda – well done to you all. And major score getting JL to write the forward – it should walk off the shelves. Looking forward to reading it and laughing my socks off!
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Don’t do that – winter is coming. Your feet will freeze 🙂
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I’ll have to laugh my ass off, so. No great loss there!
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Sigh, if only it were that easy!
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The Y and Z keys on the keyboard are in wrong places! Bad Linda!
Also, will this be an ebook-only deal, or there will be a printed version, too?
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It will be a print version 🙂 I can’t be doing with dem ebooks 😉
I also have Russian characters – they won’t wear off…
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Oh, nice, I actually was hoping for a printed version, will it be just Amazon?
And it’s a thing with Russian characters – we don’t wear off. 😉
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Har har! Just Amazon as far as I know! I don’t really know much about that side of it all. I just do the words 🙂
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Okay then, can’t wait for the big announcement! 15 poxy quid to force a bunch of kids back to school – what a bargain! 🙂
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Awesome! I can’t wait to get me a copy 🙂
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I knew you’d be on board 🙂 You and Mammy O’Grady can fight over the first copy 😉
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She’ll win (and deservedly so). I’ll be satisfied with the second copy 😉
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Heh, she’ll kill me for mentioning her again – she hates when I do it 🙂
But I just like saying “Mammy O’Grady” so much 🙂 She’s like a mini-celeb. Thankfully not a f****** Kardashian 😉
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What an ab fab idea! The book will fly off the shelves (or through the ether, as the case may be). Well done, the whole bloomin’ lot of you.
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Thank you so much! I’m so happy to be part of it! When V first messaged me, I was like ‘Yay! You think I’m funny!’ 🙂
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Recognition, eh?!
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Feels good haha! When people I think are really funny think I’m funny, it’s great 🙂
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Yay Linda! I can’t wait to click and buy. 🙂
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You’re just too technologically savvy for me 😉
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That sounds amazing!
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Here’s hoping! The content is great – and we have two cover options at the moment. Just ironing out a few issues and then… 🙂 Fingers crossed it all goes well!!
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You go Gurl!We are so proud of you – I’m bursting.
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You and my mam both 🙂 Just hope it bloody sells now! 🙂
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Oh, by the way Linda, I just did a post over at Willowdot21’s https://willowdot21.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/if-we-were-having-coffee-august-232015/ if you have the time to drop by.Thank You.
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OK, I’ll check it out if I ever stop working 🙂
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great opportunity to write all negative things about Latvia:)
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Ha, not at all 🙂 Just picked a few of the funniest ones that fit in with the categories 🙂 Janis gets a mention, of course 😉
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Janis is not worse as Conor http://www.ireland-information.com/heraldichall/irishboysnames.htm
Every Latvian family should have one Janis, for at least Middle Summer Night celebration. Also in our family we have Janis. The Latvian women are not monsters. In general, we are highly educated, well groomed and strong. But in the right moment we can play the role of the weak lady to give a possibility for our Janis to be a conqueror.
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I quite like the name Conor – didn’t know it meant hound lover though 🙂
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This is absolutely fabulous! I will be first with my copy at the checkout counter. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! To have you and Joanna collaborating so selflessly on this project is guaranteed to make it a smashing success. What a worthy cause; I’m so, so, so looking forward to it and will promote it shamelessly! Well done. X
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Woop! Sounds like you’re almost as excited as I am! I will not stop you from promoting it shamelessly – quite the opposite in fact haha! Joanna and I – the perfect pairing. I pretty much am Pats from Ab Fab after all 😉
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YAY! Sounds like a fun book…look forward to it!
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Me too haha! Really hope it does well – it’s so funny and for a great cause 🙂 Should be out in early November. Mammy O’Grady will be tapping away with her one finger typing 😉
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Reblogged this on Englishman in Italy and commented:
Linda from Expat eye on Germany has written the following post titled I’m in a book! this is a charity book that a number of crazy bloggers have got involved in, I hope you will go over and read her post and more importantly buy the book when it comes out.
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Woop! 🙂 Are we crazy?
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As crazy as they come.
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Dr Black Sheep called it 😉
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JL is writing the foreword?!? The things one finds out on your blog…!
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I didn’t tell you? Oops 🙂 Yep, well at least we hope she is! We can also use her picture 🙂
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She may well change her mind when she reads my latest post…
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Or sees me comparing her to a Latvian… 😉
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She’ll be getting her pitchfork ready…
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She’ll have to join the queue 😉
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I can hear her sharpening the prongs…
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Ruh roh…
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