Sara Alexi's Blog - Posts Tagged "travel"

As some of you will have seen, a new giveaway went live this week for 5 people to win signed copies of Black Butterflies which is the second book from The Greek Village Series.

Along with the signed book, the 5 winners will also get a personalised postcard from Greece and a magnetic bookmark.



You can enter here:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

About the book:
Marina is a gentle soul who makes a modest living in her corner shop. Her husband died years ago, and her children have grown up. Life is pleasantly predictable, if a little dull.

But not even her daughters know that thirty five years ago Marina spent lonely months on a nearby island, and the events of that summer have haunted her ever since.

Now Marina's daughter is planning to move to the same island and the past and present threaten to collide with dreadful consequences.

Black Butterflies follows Marina reluctantly revisiting the island. She has a plan, of sorts, to avert possible tragedy but in doing so she will come face to face with the consequences of her long kept secret. Will she be in time, and why does she never go anywhere without her big black bag?

Packed with a troupe of colourful characters that intertwine in a gripping story, Black Butterflies is by turn uproariously funny, touching or sad.

Exploring themes of bigotry and how doing what we think is for the best can unwittingly harm those we love, this is a gentle journey to one woman's redemption.

What others have said about Black Butterflies;

"I loved this book. It takes us to a place both ancient and modern in every way and has an ending so satisfying and unusual that you will want to share this book with others, as I did."

"Another beautiful book. This is the second book I've read by Sara Alexi and it will not be the last. Her prose is beautiful, characters are true and believable."

"This delightful companion to Alexi's wonderful "The Illegal Gardner" takes a lighthearted and then serious look at the harm keeping secrets can do. Highly visual and beautifully described, the book sweeps the reader into Marina's life as she tries to prevent what could be a family disaster. Black Butterflies would be a perfect vacation or beach book."

You can also read the first two chapters from the book here on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Don't forget to enter the giveaway here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

In other news, my latest book from The Greek Village is now with the editors and is going to be available very soon! I shall be posting updates about that as soon as I can.

You can also keep up to date with news from The Greek Village by signing up to my free monthly newsletter here:https://saraalexi.com/2015/02/10/the-...

Happy reading!

Sara Alexi

Amazon are currently running a book offer for the first ten books in my Greek Village Series.

You can now buy the following titles for the bargain price of 99p each for a limited time only.

Sorry to readers from other corners of the planet, but this offer is for UK readers only!

Happy reading

Sara



The Illegal Gardener
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/Illegal-Gard...




Black Butterflies
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Butter...




The Explosive Nature of Friendship
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/Explosive-Na...




The Gypsy's Dream
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gypsys-Dream...




The Art of Becoming Homeless
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Hom...




A Handful of Pebbles
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...




The Unquiet Mind
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...




Watching the Wind Blow
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...




The Reluctant Baker
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...




Saving Septic Cyril
Buy now for 99p https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saving-Septi...

In hopes of getting to know you better every so often I pull a name from a hat and ask the person to tell me three things about themselves and then ask me three question. Today David Horning is in the spotlight.

So David what will you share and what will you ask?

My roots:

I'm a Native of Oregon -- That is, I was born here and have lived here all of my seventy years. I was raised, until I went to my first grade of school, on my grandfather's homestead., in the central part of Oregon. During that time we had no electricity and I grew to appreciate those who toil and produce with mainly their bare hands. Many do not know, because of Oregon's renown for its amount of rainfall, that the part of the State which lies west of the Cascade Mountains is hot, and dry. The area known as Central Oregon is arid and during the summer can be quite hot while often bitter cold during the winter. It reminds me of the dryer parts of Greece.

Marriage and Family:

I am married to my wonderful wife of 50 years, Sandy and I have 3 grandchildren and a 4th on the way. Together we have traveled to Greece several times and have friends in Nafplio, near where Sara lives. One of our favorite places on earth is Hydra Island (Orino Island, in the Greek Village Series).

Other loves:

My greatest love, besides my wife and family, is doing just about anything creative. My hobbies include watercolor and/or soft pastel painting; photography and writing. I participate in a fabulous writers group, with whom Sandy and I meet every Friday, to read, share and critique what we have written during the prior week.

And here is what David asked me:

Why you live where you do:

When did you first visit Greece; what led you there and why did you choose the Argolida area of the Peloponnesus in which to settle and live?

I first visited Greece on holiday. My friends had booked a two week package to Crete and I tagged along and slept o their floor. But my flight returned after a week and I did not want to leave. I felt I had come home when I was on Crete. But I took my flight and arrived back in the UK to pouring rain. The downpour was so hard the coach that took me from the airport along the motorway to my home was travelling at ten miles per hour the visibility was so poor.

I alighted from the coach and I intended to run through the splashing rain to the station to get the train I needed to my little Yorkshire Village, but my feet took me back to the travel agents. The next day found me back in Crete, much to the surprise of my friends. But this time I had a tent and it was I who waved them goodbye the next week, and I stayed until I ran out of money.

Since then I have lived in Athens, Galatas, Aegina and finally settled in Nafplion. I considered living in Hydra and went to look at several houses there, houses that are now ten times the price they were when I started looking! But I wondered if island life might become just a little too insular for me, as an outsider. I think Nafplion was the place I put my roots party because it was so pretty but mostly for practical purposes; it seemed big enough to hold my interest and near enough to Athens if I needed a ‘city’ fix and only an hour and a half from the airport.

About your writing process:

What part of writing is the most difficult for you? For example: Do you write and rewrite and maybe even re-write again before your satisfied with your story? Your characters are often complex and one of my favourite parts about your writing - do you find developing these characters a challenge?

I start with a vague plot around a character. It is usually very small, like a dream half remembered, and I spend time trying to catch more of it, to make it solid. When I do I try to create its form, I see the ending but then the aspects of the character begin to define what could and could not happen to them. For example a shy character is unlikely to talk to a stranger at a bar, and an over confident extrovert is unlikely to say they need someone’s help. So the character begins to guide my ideas.

The first chapter or two takes several days to write and re-write as I am not only starting a story, but also trying to capture a mood, to let the reader know enough about the character and generally set the stage. This part is a struggle and even though I am excited to begin a new tale I always wish bit was easier.

Once I have begun I have a rule: “Do not read over.” If I look back I become stuck in a loop of writing and rewriting and there can be no end, I would never consider it perfect. One of the idioms I came across in my psychotherapy training was: if in doubt of your abilities remember that you only have to be ‘good enough.’ as your role is an enabler, you cannot do the job for the clients, this they must do themselves. So I have taken this thinking into my story writing. I am not trying to create ‘Great Literature', but instead to share wonderful uplifting stories that allow the reader to slip into a positive place if they wish to and, hopefully, in this way the books make the world a slightly happier place.

As for developing the characters I think this is my drive. I have always felt that I do not understand the world as others seem to and so my quest has always been to try to figure out how other people work, to really understand them. The book I am currently writing, from this aspect, is quite difficult. I feel I share nothing personally with the character and so I am having to work hard and think deeply about how his motivations and thoughts are connected.

As I continue to write I find that starting a new book is more and more like taking on a new counselling client. I have to assess whether I have the reserves of energy to take on the new ‘client/character’, and whether I can truly love them no matter what they have done or will do in the story, because if I do not love them then how can the reader be expected to?

Future Holidays:

When you travel to the United States, will you come to Oregon and look us up? We would love to show you around our marvelous state.

I so want to come to the USA. I am not only driven to see your country but I also want to meet so many people I have been talking to for so long on social media. However being the character that I am the last thing I want to do is disappoint anyone and I am afraid I suspect that my books are far more interesting than I am, as I can be quite shy at times, and in truth, perhaps rather boring!


If you want to join in the Village shenanigans and for a chance to take part in Ask Sara, then do come and find me and friend me on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/authorsaraalexi

Finally, If you want to be first to know about new releases, competitions and news then come and join us at the Sara Alexi VIP Club here http://saraalexi.us10.list-manage1.co...

I'm very excited to announce the release of my latest book The Housekeeper, and have decided to let you all have a sneak peek in to the book with an excerpt from the first chapter below.

But first, here is the synopsis to give you give you an idea of what you'll be reading:

A tale of love and heartbreak, taking us back in time to the idyllic Greek island of Orino, where the secrets and ill-fated love of one young woman are relived in a bid to save another from the same mistakes.

As a young woman, Poppy travelled to Orino Island as housekeeper for a wealthy family. A romance burgeoned between Poppy and Pantelis, the owner's son, but a tragic turn of events led him to cruelly abandoning her.

With no option but to stay on at the empty house as the housekeeper, Poppy was thrown into a predicament when Pantelis eventually returned with a pregnant new wife who, after giving birth, had no interest in the upbringing of her own children.

Left in her care, could Poppy bring herself to raise Pantelis's children by another woman? And what became of the feelings Pantelis once had for Poppy?

Now nearing the end of her life, and recovering from an accident that has left her bed-ridden, some news about Pantelis means Poppy must come to terms with the course her life has taken, and in turn she must try to stop her good friend Juliet from making the same mistakes.

Unable to turn back the clocks, will there be time to save someone else’s future?

Excerpt from Chapter 1:

She's forgotten to put her shoes on again. The heels of her slippers betray their presence, whispering shushhhh with every step as they drag across the village square. At least they are her black slippers and are still reasonably new. Her old purple ones, now matted with hair from the cats curling up on them over the years, squashing them out of shape and clawing them beyond recognition, are still the more comfortable of her two pairs. But right now, she would rather have the stiff discomfort these cause because, in passing, they can almost be mistaken for backless shoes worn to match her black skirt and her faded black blouse.

Shushhh, shush, shush. She tries to pick her feet up to stop the noise as she passes the kiosk.
'Morning, Poppy.' Vasso peers out above the pile of newspapers she is organising inside the serving hatch of her small wooden emporium.

'Morning.' Poppy's throat is dry and the word comes out cracked.

She coughs and tries again. 'Morning.'

This time the word is intelligible. A chat with Vasso will give her a moment to rest her legs. Maybe she will buy a bottle of water to lubricate her throat. But Vasso is no longer visible, hidden behind her growing stack of papers, obscured from view. So Poppy keeps up her steady tread, across the square. The kafenio to her left abuts the blank wall of the cheese factory. She will head up that way, walk in the limited shade it offers, a hand on the featureless wall for support.

Poppy glances up and down the road, hesitant to cross. Cars and bikes come so quickly these days, faster than she can move.

'Morning.' Theo passes in front of her on his little motorbike and pulls up outside the kafenio. He takes a shopping bag from the handle of his bike and trots with ease up the three steps into his masculine haven.

When she first came to the village, way back when she was only a child, it was Theo’s grandfather running the kafenio – a tall man with a mass of black hair except for a shock of white that flopped over one eye. She found him frightening back then. In fact, the kafenio itself, a place where men went to hide from their wives and put the world straight with tireless talk about politics in a fog of cigarette smoke, was generally unsettling. Without a father figure in her life, men were a mystery to Poppy.

'Fools, every one of them,' she mutters to herself, and she catches in the establishment’s well-polished windows the reflection of her own white fluffy crown of hair framing her wrinkled face. Quickening her pace across the tarmac, she pauses at the other side, takes a breath, her supporting hand feeling the years of the whitewashed plaster of the wall of the cheese factory.

It’s been a while since she has headed in this direction. Not that she is so very far from her house and the shop – it’s just that she seldom has any reason to come across to this side of the square and use this particular road.

Feeling a little rested, her feet shuffle forward again. Her hips are less stiff now; the rest must have done them good as it is becoming easier with every step.

'You need to oil your joints!' she tells herself, and she chuckles at her own humour.

'Where are you going, then?' A light step reaches her. It is Thanasis, and with him comes the smell of the donkeys he breeds and the hay he feeds them. It’s a comforting smell.
'That’s for me to know and no business of yours,' she snaps, but a little smile creases her lips. Over the years she has come to feel that Thanasis is not like the other men – he keeps himself to himself and doesn't ask questions. Well, usually he doesn’t.

'That’s true enough.' His tone of voice tells her that he is not offended by her sharp retort. 'Well, you have a rather hot day for it, whatever it is you’re up to.'

He has not fallen into step with her; his pace remains brisk and he is pulling away, but as he goes he turns to look back at her. He may be an old man, but his eyes still dance and there is life in his limbs – no aching hips for him! That’s what an active life will do for you.

'Have yourself a good day.' Poppy’s wish is heartfelt.
'And you have yourself a fine day too.' And off he strides.

'A nice man,' Poppy says and, unbidden, her heart twists at the memory of two young people, and the day she had to watch them walk away from her. Her age seems to be doing this to her these days – dragging her back to relive times she would rather forget, forcing her to dwell on memories that are best left buried.

'How tiny they were.' She can vividly recall the backs of the little ones walking away from her in a memory so etched into her soul that it twists her nerves and makes her eyes water every time.

If you enjoyed reading this, you can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XX26CM...

If you want to be first to know about new book releases then why not join the Sara Alexi VIP club here? http://saraalexi.us10.list-manage1.co...