Prathap Nair: Welcome to the second season of Record of Change, a podcast that follows eight people to understand how covid 19 pandemic is shaping their lives.
Prathap Nair: I’m your host Prathap Nair.
Prathap Nair: Today we’re reconnecting with Didem Tali.
Prathap Nair: Didem who lives in Istanbul tells us how she’s been coping in the past two months since we spoke with her.
Prathap Nair: Turns out, despite the global pandemic, Didem has some good news to share.
Prathap Nair: Let’s find out.
Prathap Nair: Thank you so much for taking the time again.
Didem Tali: Thank you so much for calling me again.
Didem Tali: I'm surprised you would be interested in hearing from me again, but I appreciate that.
Prathap Nair: We are definitely interested in hearing what's transpired in the past two months since we spoke.
Didem Tali: Has it been two months already.
Prathap Nair: Yeah.
Prathap Nair: So how is it going?
Prathap Nair: What are the updates?
Didem Tali: Actually now that you say it since the last time I spoke to you, there've been quite a few new things happening in my life.
Didem Tali: I had sort of mentally given up on this year.
Didem Tali: I thought this year was supposed to be just about survival and none of my pitches were or story ideas or projects were panning out.
Didem Tali: So I thought, okay, maybe I can forget about everything, but suddenly so many things started to happen.
Didem Tali: Mainly in my career, I was accepted into a program at the city university of New York.
Didem Tali: I think it is called entrepreneurial journalism program, journalism creators’ program.
Didem Tali: And I also got a full scholarship from Facebook to do my passion project and join them.
Didem Tali: Something that I've been thinking and working on.
Didem Tali: So that was fun.
Didem Tali: I've been quite busy with my coursework and catching up with my peer mentors, and I'm very pleased about that.
Prathap Nair: Congratulations
Didem Tali: Appreciate that.
Didem Tali: And how about yourself?
Prathap Nair: Oh, nothing much has changed in my life.
Prathap Nair: It seems you have the exciting updates.
Prathap Nair: Uh, how are things in Turkey?
Didem Tali: Thanks.
Didem Tali: In Turkey, if you ask me, things are not looking very good right now.
Didem Tali: So we also have an increasing number of infections and I'm beginning to be afraid that the so called second wave has come.
Didem Tali: That'd be a bit tougher than our first phase.
Didem Tali: Our first phase seemed quite controlled and people were adhering to the rules of social distancing and staying at home.
Didem Tali: But I think millions of people have jobs and food on the line.
Didem Tali: So I think millions of people are really fatigued and they don't want to just completely change their lives because of the pandemic right now.
Didem Tali: Um, the case numbers are rising and rising and people don't really trust the government's data, which is a problem that we talked about previously.
Didem Tali: So I am personally feeling very grateful that I managed to take a little bit time after summer.
Didem Tali: I was able to go to the beach and spent some nice time and enjoy the lovely weather, but I'm mentally preparing myself for a tough winter.
Prathap Nair: Yeah.
Prathap Nair: That's right.
Prathap Nair: A sense of complacency has set in among people, so it does feel like we are in for a harsh winter.
Didem Tali: Yeah, it sounds like it, it looks like it.
Didem Tali: And, but in my case, I'm lucky that there is going to be a lot to keep me busy this winter.
Didem Tali: One other positive development that I also want to bring up was that I finally signed up for that literary
Didem Tali: agent, who's a wonderful person who will help me to do all of my book and champion my work as an author.
Didem Tali: So from one perspective I’m preparing to have some really tough months in winter, but I was also
Didem Tali: thinking, at least I have a lot to keep me busy and I didn't lose by jobs or lifeline or assignments.
Prathap Nair: Yeah.
Prathap Nair: So congratulations on signing up with an agent.
Prathap Nair: Can you talk a little bit about that?
Didem Tali: Sure.
Didem Tali: I met him in a conference that I believe was the Boston writers conference.
Didem Tali: And we had a 10-minute pitching session over zoom and he was immediately interested and I immediately had really good vibes about him.
Didem Tali: He said, actually word to word, the sounds; your book sounds right up my alley, I really look forward to reading your book.
Didem Tali: And then he asked for my writing sample and full manuscript and it went very quickly.
Didem Tali: He was very prompt with his communication.
Didem Tali: And he sent me an offer and I also was being considered by other literary agents.
Didem Tali: But yeah, among I think about eight choices or so that I had, he was by some distance, the best choice, the most attractive choice.
Didem Tali: And he was really excited about my background and my book.
Didem Tali: And so, yeah, I decided to go with him and I'm just actually beginning to revise my book, working with my agent.
Didem Tali: And I'm super excited about it and slightly nervous as well.
Prathap Nair: Okay, so now the next process would be, uh, for your agent to take your manuscript to a publisher.
Prathap Nair: That's it?
Didem Tali: Yes.
Didem Tali: So before that happens, we'll be revising the manuscript.
Didem Tali: He made some suggestions and there are some things that I would like to work from my side.
Didem Tali: Um, but yes, that's the idea.
Prathap Nair: Okay.
Prathap Nair: Is there anything more you could tell us about your book.
Didem Tali: Sure.
Didem Tali: So apparently I didn't know that, but my genre is called book club fiction, and some call it
Didem Tali: women's fiction, but both my agents and I feel that women's fiction is not a very attractive title.
Didem Tali: I think it's a bit better than chicklet, of course, but it tends to describe books that are driven by character
Didem Tali: development and emotions, rather than plot driven, huge events, dramatic things like thrillers or a murder and so on.
Didem Tali: These books are much more about the characters and their journey and I write book club fiction, upmarket women's fiction.
Didem Tali: I don't exactly know where it stands.
Didem Tali: I think a lot of contemporary fiction works are this way.
Didem Tali: My book is set in contemporary Turkey and my protagonist is cosmopolitan and millennial.
Didem Tali: Turkish women who are trying to find their places in the world, physically, professionally and romantically.
Didem Tali: And I've always dreamed of becoming a career novelist.
Didem Tali: And in this book that I'm working on right now, there are some autobiographical elements, of
Didem Tali: course, but then it comes to her work and profession, but everything else is fictionalized.
Didem Tali: And, I feel that I really can't wait to offer the female voices perspective, because there are hundreds of narratives, hundreds of books about
Didem Tali: journalism written about journalists or written by journalists that feature western men in exotic and foreign lands, but there is next to
Didem Tali: nothing that I know that feature a local person who happens to be a foreign correspondent and especially in Istanbul or in the middle east.
Didem Tali: There is this dude bro journalist, you know, the kind of guy with his safari trousers and has satellite phones that he doesn't necessarily know how to use.
Didem Tali: And has this hyper masculine aura.
Didem Tali: I was very inspired by Ernest Hemingway and I want to be war correspondent – there are so many of them.
Didem Tali: And I just want to challenge the side here in my book that you don't need to be a person
Didem Tali: who wears a safari trouser, bullet vests, and so on and fits into that sort of narrative.
Didem Tali: And you can have pink handbags, an Instagram profile - be interested and passionate about all these vain
Didem Tali: things and fluffy things, but at the same time, be a bloody good journalist and be really good at your job.
Didem Tali: Because for me, for a long time, I taught these would be big clashes that I had this
Didem Tali: feminine side to me that I love, I don't know, handbags or go resorts and so on.
Didem Tali: But I also had this very serious interest in developing a solid career in journalism, trying to understand this world.
Didem Tali: And now I'm beginning to think why many people in the world are made to believe that these things clash so my books tend to tackle these issues.
Didem Tali: And I do feel that fluff is important.
Didem Tali: I think this was one English - French writer, John Harris, saying on her Twitter account that fluff, if it's used well, it can save you from freezing to death.
Didem Tali: Fluff is good, especially in a year like this.
Prathap Nair: Yeah, so you're sort of trying to achieve a middle ground between smashing patriarchy and related stereotypes and radical feminism.
Didem Tali: Yeah, I guess.
Didem Tali: I definitely don't have any problems with that interpretation.
Prathap Nair: Great.
Prathap Nair: So did the pandemic affect in any way, in you signing up, with this agent.
Didem Tali: I think it did actually, to be honest.
Didem Tali: It's written in a very short time, the book.
Didem Tali: Yeah.
Didem Tali: And this was definitely something I recently wrapped up, but if I didn't have the
Didem Tali: little fair space and time to think… I had a good chunk of time, suddenly I was free.
Didem Tali: I had so many work trips and assignments cancelled and I needed something.
Didem Tali: I had to have something.
Didem Tali: And I had this book that has been chipping up in my mind.
Didem Tali: I've written a good chunk of it earlier this year.
Didem Tali: And then was able to finish it.
Didem Tali: More free time than usual is definitely useful.
Didem Tali: And at the same time, it of course had some negatives as well.
Didem Tali: The agents and publishers, all the industry and economies are shrinking around the world.
Didem Tali: So I think some publishers shut down and a lot of big publishers decided to close down and so on.
Didem Tali: And obviously agents, a lots of agents have family to take care of and they have maybe some of them get ill and so on.
Didem Tali: So the response rates are, I would say a bit lower than usual and a bit slower than average.
Didem Tali: And I was very lucky in that sense.
Didem Tali: But one positive I believe is that I met my agent during a conference that would normally take place in Boston and maybe I would end up querying him.
Didem Tali: And you would work through the slush pile, who knows, but I feel that this conference happened over zoom.
Didem Tali: And I don't know if I would right now be able to prioritize traveling to Boston to attend a conference.
Didem Tali: And actually, even though the conference was physically based in Boston, my agent is from California and he was also dialing in from California.
Didem Tali: And I was able to meet so many more people in the industry with the zoom conference.
Didem Tali: And I think the agents were also really happy when I pitched my book, which is set in Istanbul.
Didem Tali: I had very positive responses from professionals and agents.
Didem Tali: Saying, oh, finally one book that's not from just another writing and writer in Brooklyn, you know, so I think it helped them too.
Didem Tali: Just broaden their regular horizon, says, well, then get a more diverse set of submissions.
Prathap Nair: Oh, wow.
Prathap Nair: That sounds very interesting.
Prathap Nair: That's one of the positive ways in which this pandemic impacted you.
Didem Tali: Absolutely.
Didem Tali: I am very glad that the cultures are changing a little bit because as a freelance journalist and a writer, who's
Didem Tali: based outside US that has been one big problem for me and for many other people that it's really difficult to network.
Didem Tali: You always tend to be this faceless freelancer from a developing country behind an email.
Didem Tali: And it's been changing slowly, I feel that that culture has been opening up even more, just network and meet over zoom and be able to discuss what
Didem Tali: the world has offered has to offer to you rather than just hiring the next American writer or publishing the next American book set in Brooklyn.
Didem Tali: Nothing particularly wrong with books written by American people and set in Brooklyn.
Didem Tali: But it's also good to have all this.
Prathap Nair: Yeah.
Prathap Nair: COVID lit is already as a sub genre in dystopian literature.
Prathap Nair: I saw at least a couple of books released in India just a couple of days ago.
Didem Tali: I'm not sure how I feel about it, but interesting.
Didem Tali: I'm most certainly not planning to write a Covid book.
Prathap Nair: So, when we were brainstorming for the second season, my colleagues wanted, us to talk about our friendship.
Prathap Nair: Has our friendship changed in any way during this pandemic?
Prathap Nair: If you ask me it has not changed in any discernible way, except that, you know, we despaired about the pandemic a lot in our conversations.
Prathap Nair: I had to say a friendship grows stronger in the shared pleasures of significant events in our lives.
Prathap Nair: So I feel like I was with you somehow in this journey of you getting an agent for your book.
Prathap Nair: Pandemic or otherwise, I do feel this has brought us a little closer to each other.
Didem Tali: I definitely don't disagree with that.
Didem Tali: I considered you a good friend for a long time, but as you said, so there is an element, some
Didem Tali: kind of a global synergy that made us bring closer to people that they were already close with.
Didem Tali: You were one of the first persons I shared the good news when I got the scholarship to develop my journalism project.
Didem Tali: And likewise when I signed up with my agents…
Prathap Nair: How is Seb doing?
Prathap Nair: So how are the both of you doing, are you still spending a lot of time indoors?
Didem Tali: To be honest we both spend most of our time indoors.
Didem Tali: We avoid public transportation and go nuts traveling.
Didem Tali: So it's a little bit more open than our full lockdown time.
Didem Tali: So of course, every now and again, we'll go out and have an alfresco meal and take boats to the European side of Istanbul.
Didem Tali: But we've been rigid to be honest, because I just want this to be over as soon as possible.
Didem Tali: Someone like me really don’t have a lot of reasons to be out and about too much.
Didem Tali: I understand people who have the core family obligations, so they can't stay at home all the time but I am the demographic who is benefiting this.
Didem Tali: So I feel that it's my responsibility to be as strict as I can be.
Prathap Nair: Okay.
Prathap Nair: In Istanbul is life continuing as normal?
Prathap Nair: Are there restrictions on bars and restaurants or how is the hospitality industry coping there?
Didem Tali: There are some tourists.
Didem Tali: We are open to US visitors.
Didem Tali: So I think they're open to Russia and Ukraine because we are desperate for the tourist dollars.
Didem Tali: So at this point of history, unfortunately, and yeah, I think they're open to UK as well, but I'm not sure about the rest of Europe.
Didem Tali: Yeah, it's pretty funny, but not whenever I go out if I take a boat, I usually see the tourists locals in my part of Istanbul at least they always wear a mask.
Didem Tali: In my part of Istanbul from an anecdotal observation, but then the boat, you always see the tourists without a mask, so sometimes that makes me a bit angry.
Didem Tali: I’m happy to say that Turkish people don't have much of an anti-mask or anti-vax thing going on.
Prathap Nair: How do you feel about flying Didem?
Prathap Nair: Have you, uh, any plans in the near future to fly?
Didem Tali: So for the time being, I don't have any big travel plans.
Didem Tali: I feel that I'm unlikely to go abroad before I get vaccinated, but I'm probably going to travel to Ankara,
Didem Tali: our ugly duckling capitol city in the next few weeks for a few assignments and I might be taking the train.
Didem Tali: I took a train once.
Didem Tali: I think this was back in like July.
Didem Tali: And they had sold only half of the seats and it was very well ventilated and there was a train
Didem Tali: conductor just walking up and down constantly and making sure everyone was just there in their masks.
Didem Tali: So that was a very positive experience.
Prathap Nair: Okay.
Prathap Nair: So your days now are spent on polishing your manuscript?
Didem Tali: Yes.
Didem Tali: I actually just signed up officially with my agents yesterday and he immediately sent me some suggestions and some lists of resources that I can work on.
Didem Tali: So it feels like I'm already knee deep in the revision process
Prathap Nair: I know you'll maniacally stick to deadlines and finish your manuscript.
Prathap Nair: It was lovely talking to you and we will talk to each other soon.
Didem Tali: Thank you so much for calling me again and for your interest in my life and my work and my creative process.
Prathap Nair: That was Didem Tali.
Prathap Nair: In the next episode, the Hongkong based couple Wenni & Dominic talk to Kecheng Fang and give us their updates.
Prathap Nair: Thanks for listening.
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Prathap Nair: This podcast is implemented by and with members of the Bosch Alumni Network a community that brings together
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