About this project
Hi Kickstarters! My name is Deidre Dare. I'm a native New Yorker, a lawyer and a writer who's written a novel about a group of Westerners living and working in Moscow, Russia and their extravagant but dangerous lifestyle. I began the book when I was living in Moscow and its plot was inspired by a British Petroleum scandal that happened when I was there. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? If only.
MY NOVEL'S CHECKERED PAST
ЭКСПАТ, n. Expat is a work of fiction wrested from my imagination. Before we go any further on this road together, I need to make clear to you guys that Expat is not a blog; it is not a diary; it is not a travelogue and it is certainly not pornography. Because of all that, since its first appearance on my website, it has had the standard "any resemblance to persons living or dead" disclaimer on its cover.
Yet even though my book is a novel, my law firm fired me for writing it. After all, people had sex in the novel and we all know lawyers don't have sex and therefore shouldn't write about it.
But in all seriousness:
Perhaps we can understand firing an author of a blog who writes about identifiable people in the office and tells of their daily and true mishaps or of confidential information. But once creative writers are fired for writing pure fiction, we've entered a dark and scary place.
I wrote my first novel when I was 8 years-old and I've continued to write fiction ever since. It can't be the right answer that we can't write or express ourselves creatively in our spare time if we have a day job. It just can't be.
KICKSTARTER PATRONAGE
I'm trying to finish Expat and get it published. But I need Kickstarter Donors to help me. I've exhausted my resources fighting my former employer and need funds to make these last steps of Expat's possible.
My old firm has done everything it can in the United Kingdom to hinder the book's publication. My agent (who took me on after reading all the international press coverage of my dismissal) and I have now teamed up with an American agency and are trying to sell the book in the United States market, where publishing laws are more liberal. In the meantime, I am working hard on what I hope is an almost final edit of the manuscript.
Thanks for any support you can give me. It means the world to me.
XXOO
FAQ
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41
Backers
$25,385
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on July 15, 2011.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
An autographed copy of Expat with a personal message of gratitude to you.
Pledge $250 or more Pledge $250 or more
The above plus a mention in a special Acknowledgements section of the book.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
All of the above, plus an invitation ot the Launch Party when the book is published.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
All of the above, plus my well-known and prominent agent will read your manuscript, book proposal or screenplay with the idea of respresenting it if he likes it. Or, if you're not a writer, drinks with me the next time you're in LA or I'm in your home town.
Pledge $2,500 or more Pledge $2,500 or more
All of the above, plus your website or work linked to my website (which gets an enormous amount of hits due to the frequent publicity surrounding my firing). PLUS: in addition to reading your work, my agent will give you personal feedback over Skype for 10 minutes.
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Deidre is from Brooklyn, New York. She went to Barnard College and studied law at Columbia Law School. She has written all her life, and, in her spare time, practiced corporate law on Wall Street and at law firms in Sydney, Singapore, London and Russia. She is currently suing her employer for her dismissal and finding that road to be a long and hard one. She writes a monthly column for Passport Magazine in Moscow (www.passportmagazine.ru). She has also been a columnist for the Moscow News (www.themoscownews.com) and has been described as the Carrie Bradshaw of Moscow.
