As I told you all in a previous e-mail, I have sent in book proposals to several companies pitching a new guidebook on Bangladesh. Today, I finally FINALLY have some good news, after months of waiting: Bradt guidebooks (www.bradtguides.com), based in the UK, has given me a positive response and we have taken further steps to publishing a book.

I should stress that I have not signed a contract yet nor has the company fully confirmed that we will do a book. They have, however, taken a writing sample from me and indicated they liked it, and now I am to complete a detailed proposal describing the content of my proposed title.

How do I feel? I am absolutely ecstatic!

It was over a year ago when I decided I wanted to try my hand at travel journalism. I bought myself the necessary gear: a good digital SLR and the smallest but most powerful Apple computer available at the time. I purchased and devoured Lonely Planet’s Travel Writing, and read the interviews in it again and again. Everything I’d read about the profession helped me set my expectations: I would not be making a lot of money and it would be a lot of hard work, and I should expect a lot of rejections along the way. But the rewards of such a compelling job, to experience the world with the journalist’s eye, have kept me on this course since those early days.

And then Bangladesh happened. So many of the expats I have met here tell me they did not choose to come to Bangladesh, but rather Bangladesh chose them. It seems I now express a similar sentiment: I chose Bel and she happened to be in Bangladesh. When I came back here after being in Canada, I returned to a place that for once, I knew what to expect. By then I’d already left and come back to Bangladesh three times!!!!! Despite all its problems, and the fact Bangladesh (and its people!) are always in your face, I stopped trying to fight the flow of this place and instead chose to ride it.

So here I am. The plan at the moment is to continue with VSO until June or at least until a contract with Bradt is finalized, and from there only Buddha knows how things will pan out. I will want to keep my ear to the ground during research, so you can expect that I’ll be living in Dhaka while heading off on frequent jaunts around the country and perhaps a break to India, Nepal, Tibet, Thailand or China. Depends where people who visit me want to go! It also depends where I can line up some freelance work.

I want to pitch myself. Is this really my dream job coming true?

In other news, I’m looking for other India-based travel writers. Please contact me if you are interested. I’ll send another e-mail on the topic. Perhaps some of you may know somebody and can help me by forwarding the e-mail? If your name is Nick Lockey, Sanmati Verma, Rohit and Regina Sawhney, Miles Gravett or Andrea Dowd-Dever, or Clare Brundle, please let me know if you know anybody in these parts who might be interested..