A new light, a new release: a brand new world!

 After a long pondering and fighting all the possible hesitations, I did it. I have searched and found a translator for my books. The first market I wanted to try, is the one I am more familiar with, the Italian market.

This means that I am proud to announce that the first book of the trilogy has been translated into Italian and has been published yesterday, 25.2.2020.

My biggest hesitation, so far, was due to two factors: the fares and the alternative solutions to a royalty share.

Unlike the audiobooks, where the royalty share is controlled and limited to a certain period, the translation market is wilder and less regulated. In this case, I preferred to keep all the rights and search for a translator who could have taken the job and was flexible enough to accept various payment plans. 

I am not a widely successful author who can afford to have a substantial cut on the royalties. At the point where I am now, I prefer to pay upfront but to keep the ownership of the title, after all already Amazon is having a 30% on the sales, and cutting the profit further for a translation and then audiobook means not having a margin for living out of my craft (unless I'm as successful as Stephen King).

The task seemed to be almost impossible until I found the person I was looking for. The first book is doing fairly well, and I hope the Italian audience will like it the same way the anglophone audience did, so please join me in keeping the finger crossed for this trilogy in this new market I'm dipping the fingers into.

I was so satisfied with the first book that I decided to have all the other books of the series translated. I have received the first part of the second book, and I'm extremely satisfied with the quality. I know you will wonder why I didn't translate the books myself, saving money. 

The reason behind my decision to hire someone else to take care of this job is time. I really have no time to take care of marketing, day job, relaxing, writing new books, updating social media and website. One thing I can do is checking the translation received and confirm the great value I've received.

But here is the cover of the translated version:

And if you like to read in Italian, here's the link to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XK6H3QP

With this great news and having found back my writing mojo, I'm going to wish you all a great weekend.

Every cloud has a silver lining

These are difficult times for everybody. For some of us are even tougher as many lost their job, had to close their business or worse of all, lost dear ones.
Nevertheless, this post isn't focused on the harms, this pandemic has brought.
Today, I want to bring a glimpse of positivity, a chance to look to the future with hope.

COVID-19 didn't bring only negativity to the people on this planet, it also gave the chance to stop for a moment and think.
Well, this is something that doesn't happen often, does it?
When was the last time we had so much time at our availability to take a good look around us and think?
Now we have it, and we can reconsider what is around us, and try to fix what we see wrong.
On a personal level, we can analyze whether there has been something we left aside because we didn't have time.

We can reconnect with those people we lost on the way, we can declutter our life from those habits that stopped us, instead of helping to go on.
No better time than this to get rid of things we thought we need but were the result of a silly momentary desire.
There are so many things we can reconsider, and if not now, when?
This is the perfect time to make a good cleaning not just of things, but of relationships, habits.
It's a perfect moment for renewal.
When this state of emergency will be over, what changes do we want to bring with us? What kind of improvement in our lives and to our society we want to bring? Let's figure it out and act.
There won't be a better chance to improve what we think has gone wrong and finally make them right.
As for me, ion these few weeks, I literally emptied my house of those things I've simply accumulated. I donated most of those I don't need and reconnected with people I haven't heard for ages.
Today, being a glorious sunny day will be the time to fix the garden and prepare it for the summer.

Spring is here despite everything

Something you can count on is that Nature is not going to follow any quarantine. Spring is coming, and with it, everything is waking up to a new cycle of life.
This is a sort of consolation, and although, it would be better to be quarantined in winter, the explosion of colors offered in this period gives an extra motivation to keep going.
During this long weekend, which included the missing celebration for the first of May, I had the chance to retreat to the forest, and take some pictures.
I thought to share what I've found in nature with you, hoping this will cheer up you all.
This lockdown seems to last forever, and in effect, the only reasonable way to end it would be having a vaccine and a cure for COVID-19.
Meantime, I know someone who has been extremely annoyed with having us for a longer time at home, and that is Carolina.

Despite the low resolution, it was obvious I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, at least considering the threatening stare she gave me.

This was one of the reasons why I took my camera and decided it was safer to be away and leave her spaces too.

The weather was strangely fair, and the healing power of nature did the trick on my restless soul. It didn't just give me peace, but also inspiration and entertainment.

The first person I met was an interesting guy. He was looking for food, and if I'm heading to a particular spot, I know that on my way I will meet him or someone who won't miss the occasion for a snack. Therefore, I had some nuts with me.

The wood is a place where to find hidden gems, like a sun, shining in the darkness:

And as the sky was so perfectly clear, the new leaves peeked out to test the weather.

Losing myself in this beauty, I completely neglected my garden, to which I hope to give the right attention starting from the next week.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this small spring show, and I wish you a great beginning of the month.

Take care and stay at home.

Quarantine, and some side effects

We all have been doing at least some social distancing, but many of us have been forced to quarantine or prefer to stay safe and self-quarantine until the situation clears up.

As for me, since my job can be carried out also from home, my employer suggested that those who can, should stay home until further notice, cooperating through skype or telephone and working remotely connected tho the main server of the firm.
For me and for my husband, it was quite a fine solution, but we are not alone in the house.
Carolina, the human-eating rabbit, declared not to be pleased with the actual arrangements.
In her opinion, our presence disrupted two main things, her beauty sleep and her need for meditating in silence.

Diary of an exasperated rabbit:

"You know what is worse? When they are taking a pause and decide that I am too cute not to be pet! Really?! Get a dog if you want someone to snuggle!

Then of course, when I slap their hands away, they seem to be offended; well, I was sleeping!
It is then quite frustrating because they know I have a soft spot:

RAISINS!
According to their (poor) judgment, I should not eat many of those. But how to resist their juiciness, sweetness, and yumminess?
Yet, they know it's a great way to bribe a snuggle out of me. What a poor rabbit has to do to get some treats. This has been the first week of their self-quarantine. I barely survived the noise and their presence, and... hold on they are speaking at the phone..."

...

"Damn! They will have at least another week of quarantine from the work. Do you know what this means? It means that I will have to stand their constant presence for another week, and Rabbit-God only knows for how long still.

I just hope there will still be raisins for sale in the shop, because there is no way I can calm my nerves, in such a stressful situation.
Oh, I just came to know that all their holiday plans have been canceled. I don't have certainly to explain to you that this means having them around even during the holidays.
Rabbit-God give me some strength!

Meantime, you keep yourself safe and if you have pets, for the grace of the Pet-Lord leave them be!

Writer's life and social themes

When a writer is going to set him/herself in front of a blank screen, he might already have some ideas about the theme.
Sometimes we are inspired by a piece of news that shocked us. A crime news section, which piqued our interest because of the thoughts it generated in our souls.
Then a plot is born based on that piece of news.

There are many discussions, which appeared on my Facebook feed about what is allowed and what is not allowed in a novel.
Well, here is my point of view.
If your aim is to bring a social issue to the spotlight, because you feel it would generate thoughts, then basically everything is allowed.

Stories of violence, abuse, and similar need to be told, to raise awareness, even if we are writing a novel. The boundary that should not be crossed, in my opinion, is when the writer is no more using the story to provoke thoughts in the readers but makes it an apology to a determined act of violence.

There are many aspects in the making of a novel, and the writer often deals with his/her own demons, which will translate into different characters.
The villain of the story will have his own time to show how evil he can be, but also the reason why he is acting that way.
The duty of the writer, in my opinion, is to offer a full description of the characters, their actions, and their internal struggles. The reader will pick his/her own conclusions and will take his sides, whether the villain was rightly condemned, or was perhaps a victim him/herself.

When I wrote my novel, I tend not to censor my character. There is a reason why the villain is acting the way he/she does. None of those reasons are justified in any of my novels. The villain, and the hero, are there telling their own version of the story. I am just a transcriber of their feelings and their actions.

I generally prefer the reader to draw his own conclusions and take the story as a way to reconsider the people around us.
So, what is your opinion? Do you think there are taboos in writing a novel? Should a writer focus on lighter themes?
Concerning me, I guess my readership already knows the gloomy shades prevailing in my writings.

Nevertheless, as the weekend is here, let's just focus on rest and having fun.
See you next week!

Some resources for writers

So I have been for a while not just in my writing cave, avoiding all human contacts, except my workmates. Yet, I wasn't only writing, I was trying to find some good and viable way to use advertisements, and if you are a writer looking for some cool resources, just follow me here.
The first thing I have noticed is that Amazon ads have been changing, and there is not just the general .com site where to advertise. When you go to the AMS page, you will find that you can choose the marketplace, and depending on where you live, you are given a couple of more choices to choose from. This is, from my point of view, good news, because it offers the chance to target better your audience depending on where they live.
Once again, this means that you need to do demographic research when you think about the keywords to target your audience. The other good news is that as the general amazon.com seems not to give good results with titles, which have less than 10 reviews, this might not be true for other marketplaces.
Meaning that if amazon.com is restricted because you don't have so many reviews, you might want to check other marketplaces.
Many of us found it struggling when it comes to the keywords, and "publisher rocket" (https://publisherrocket.com/) is indeed the best tool you want to have if you mean seriously to start the road of AMS ads.
The point is that you would like maybe first try it, and unfortunately, nowadays there aren't trial versions anymore. You get instead a 30-day money-back guaranteed. But what if during those thirty days something happens and you cannot even get to try it? Well, you keep the software, and if you are not satisfied, there is nothing much you can do.
One alternative is offered for free by Sonar. (http://sonar-tool.com/us/)
Sonar is a free tool to search for keywords on different marketplaces. It doesn't have all the features of publisher rocket, but it is a way to start and get your hands on the ads with a free tool to understand how keywords are working and how they can be useful for the marketing of your book. The key is trying with as many ads as possible, starting with a low daily limit of 5 $.
I have had 25 ads (and I still have them because I am still on the trial phase) with the daily limit of 5$.
The average monthly expense for the whole was barely reaching the 15$, but it gave interesting results.
No, I haven't become famous yet LOL
Mainly I am starting to see which might be the right keywords to be used, so to be ready to purchase the publisher rocket tool.
Another important thing is how to get your book to the right category. If you nail the right one, you can easily be an Amazon top seller for a long period, not restricted to a time of big sales. This is because customers are looking more into detail the categories they are interested in, and being in the right one makes you more visible, discoverable, hence purchased. Being in the right category means also having fewer competitors.
To understand better the categories and their importance, I suggest you read this article:
https://www.kindleranker.com/articles/kindle-categories-in-historical-fiction/
and use https://www.kindleranker.com/ at your advantage.
Kindle ranker gives you the chance to make two searches for free per day. Although you can use the 0.99$ option to have a 15-category search for 24 hours. Or, if you have a large volume of products, you can take advantage of the subscriptions offered. At the moment I am OK with the two free searches a day. I don't have so many products yet.
Anyway, whatever you do, it is important to follow the ads constantly, not perhaps daily, but twice a week to see what you need to change and try something new.
One thing I personally do not recommend is letting someone else taking care of managing your ads. Although this might sound like a great idea, you need to be the one who checks the ads and calibrate them. You are the one who knows the book better. So if you really want some help, better to follow some courses, but have full control over your actions/books.
I am also looking for producing audiobooks for my novels, and if you don't have access to ACX, like me, I might have found a solution for that too. Follow me also on the next week's blog to find out more.
Meanwhile, I hope this information was useful for you.
Have a great weekend!

The Berlin wall: 30 years anniversary

This post comes a little later than usual, but I have a good reason for it. Friday and Saturday, I was in Germany with my work colleagues, and there hadn't been any chance for me to write my weekly post. Nevertheless, this trip gave me the perfect topic for this weekly post.
In 1989, I was a sixteen years old teenager, and couldn't travel to Germany when finally the Berlin wall, which divided the city of Berlin into two parts, fell. This started the process that brought the following year to the reunification of Germany.
Since 1949, Germany had become two separated countries; the Federal Republic of Germany, run by the allies (France, UK, and the USA) and the German Democratic Republic, run by the Soviet Union.
The city of Berlin was within the territory of East Germany. Yet, it was divided and shared between the allies and the Soviet Union.
In August 1961, the East German communists were given the go-ahead by Moscow to close the border and build a physical barrier: The Berlin wall.
It was constructed initially as a barbed-wire fence overnight, to contrast the immigration of young and educated citizens to the west.
Although it has passed three decades since the reunification of Germany, there are still significant cultural differences between the people living in West and East Germany.
Those differences in lifestyle, wealth, political beliefs, and other matters remain. It is still common to hear people talking about eastern and western Germany as if they ere still two different countries.

Here, Germany and Europe were divided until 10 December 1989 at 10:15 am

Nowadays, Berlin, despite the differences between the two sides of the city, is one of the most fascinating cities for its impressive architecture, the cultural heritage, the museums, and history.
Besides the must-see historical places, like the remnants of the wall, of the checkpoint Charlie, and the Brandenburg Tor...

 

it offers one of the most intriguing and eye-catching architectural design that make this city beautiful and unique.

A city that made of its internal diversity its strength and point of attraction, and where the past of classical architecture meets the audacity of the present days.

It's a city that certainly is able to impress for the ability of their architects to find interesting solutions that can use shapes and materials to create a harmony of forms and reflections.

As usual, I wished I had more time to explore the city and its beauties, but it was enough to have a taste of it and pinpoint a place where I will surely return one day.

Fall has arrived, what does it mean?

Well, if we think about Fall in the general idea of the term, it just means the start of a very depressing season, which is winter.
Yet, there is more, and there are as many meanings as there are human beings on this planet. We all have different feelings towards it.
For some people, it means the starting of the spring with blooming colors, the green of the grass, and flowers.
For others, it means getting cozy in front of a fireplace, or wrapped into a warm blanket on the couch reading a book, or watching the snow falling.
What I mean with different meanings, is the memories we carry inside our souls, those that give a real feeling when we simply spell the word fall.
I have had the chance to live the Fall season in three different wonderful countries. Italy, Germany, and Finland. I have been visiting many places, but those meant for me the everyday life for a specified period. Italy for 28 years, Germany for 4 years and Finland for 15 years.
Each place gave me different feelings, and all of them, I am treasuring in my heart.
Italy has the taste of my childhood. Of the times before the Internet, mobile phones, computers. Most of them convey to one single place, or to be precise to one single item, the iron cast wood burning stove of my grandmother.
Every fall, we would have gathered the whole family to help my grandmother to store the wood she ordered to be delivered at home. The truck arrived and unloaded the pile of chopped wood in front of her house. There, we would have spent one whole day to bring them in the wood storage that was on the entrance of her home, a large room placed at the entrance divided from the rest of the house. Since she didn't have any other heating system in her house other than two iron cast stove and another wood burning heater.

That meant a huge amount of chopped wood to be stored for the winter.
Another tradition was roasting the chestnuts on that stove, and that was something that still brings me a broad smile on my face. Our family, when still my grandmother was alive, was almost always gathered in her house.

The years I have spent in Germany meant the starting for the preparation for the Christmas market. Some cities have their traditional Christmas market already in November. Therefore, October was a time when we started thinking about where to go for the Christmas Market.

At that time, I was studying at university. That meant that December I would have spent the time back at home in Italy, and we wouldn't have the time to visit them all, or at least not together.
In Europe, we do not celebrate Halloween. We do have the celebration for all saint's day. This means going to visit the graveyards, (although this is something we do regularly, for that day we bring special flowers and candle lights). Some people go to church in honor of the dead people, but that would be all the celebrations. Some fairs are organized last for the two-three weeks between October and November, but nothing spook-related.
Since I started to live in Finland, Fall means mostly the amazingly beautiful colors with which nature gives a good night, before being immersed in the long darkness of the winter. People get together in the cafeterias waiting for the snow, which gives the impression of more light to shine in our lives.

Finland, like most of the other Nordic countries, waits for winter, only for one reason, winter sports, which includes a lot of snow, hot chocolates, crowded cinemas, getting together with the family, and wait for the Spring.
One day, I hope I will be able to experience my everyday life in the southern hemisphere. There, I will get used to waiting for the Summer in October and for the Winter in June... How crazy that might sound!
I wish you a great weekend and a spooktacular Fall.

Doha, you can't even imagine it.

So, here, we were ready to board once again to return back home after our journey. We could not leave Nigeria without anything that made me wonder.
We just passed the check-in and passport control when we reached the gate. However, there we had to go through another security check before entering the plane, which sometimes happens when the flight company does not trust the local screening completely.
I arrived at the counter, and the woman there started to open my carry-on baggage for prohibited items. Everything followed the routine when suddenly she glanced at me: "Do you have anything for me?"
In the beginning, I wasn't sure what she meant, or whether she was just joking, so I just replied that I didn't have anything.
She looked a bit disappointed and seriously: "aren't you, my friend?"
At that point I just thought you gotta be kidding me, bribing at the safety check at the airport? Really?
"No, I am not your friend," I replied firmly.
She checked thoroughly and sent me to the body scan, "well you can scan whatever you want, I am not going to get robbed this way."
Of course, this didn't cause anything more than just a delay to my boarding, but the least I can accept in this world is people trying to rob me.
This was just a little incident and didn't really mean any trouble. Yet it raised a few considerations about what is considered legit and what it is not from the personnel at the airport.

So here we were leaving Nigeria to reach our first stop of seven hours in Doha. The flight went smoothly, and at five o'clock in the morning, we reached the International airport in Doha.
Now the first impression:
You certainly are familiar with the heatwave that hits you when you open the oven to check on your food. The same heatwave hit us as we stepped out the plane. The engine was off, so it wasn't because of it. It was like entering a giant oven at 240 Celsius, barely breathable humid and hot.
I thought I knew about the heat after having experienced the Afar desert in Ethiopia... No, this was more... In Ethiopia at least it wasn't that humid, although the temperatures were much higher than in Doha (around 50 Celsius).
It was only five o'clock in the morning, and the temperatures reached already 30 Celsius!!
We reached the well air-conditioned inside the terminal with our great relief.
The first idea was that perhaps we could have had a tour of the city, but thinking twice we could also take a hotel room, have a shower, a good meal and maybe a tour of the city, before returning to the airport.
That was the best idea possible, and we had a hotel arranged within a couple of minutes. The efficiency of the country reflects on the way the general organization of the services.

Now I need to make a small introduction to Qatar. This little State of about 11.000 square kilometers is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The funny thing is that 88% of the population are expats working there, the rest 12% is Qatari.
I cannot figure out yet a good reason to move and live in such an over, where, going for a walk is totally restricted to the night or early morning.
We tried to have a walk, and our stubbornness found an empty city, where only cars were moving around.

If you have followed the Olympics that is now going on in Doha, you might have heard horrifying stories about the heat, well, let me tell you, they are not exaggerating at all. That place is not fit for humans. Just like the Sahara desert, it is made for very specialized animals.
At least THIS human doesn't consider it as a place for herself. Although I crave the summer and the hot, there is a limit to it. My limit has been abundantly tested in Doha.
So glad to have returned home, where I am free to go wherever I want without fear of dying dehydrated LOL
I wish you, as usual, a great weekend. If you live in similar desertic countries, believe me, you have all my respect and sympathy.

Togo and the Voodoo heritage

After our stay in Benin, it was finally arrived the time to reach the next destination, Togo.
This was a place where we could find most of the answer to my questions about Voodoo. Together with that, I collected some material for a novel I am planning to write.

Undoubtedly voodoo, as a religion, was born in Benin, Yet, although it is still one of the main religions practiced in the country, it seemed more widespread in Togo. Perhaps it is because people in Benin seemed reticent in talking about it, or because it has been challenging to get any contact there. Whatever the reason is, in Togo, people seemed keener to talk about it and explain to us a little bit of the religious practices.
The first thing is that Voodoo is wrongly associated with black magic or with evil forces. This is absolutely a myth that needs to be debunked. Voodoo is about healing and evoking the spirits for good purposes. Whether for healing disease, ask for the end of a long period of drought, to maintain peace inside the family, the spirits and the Gods are summoned for good practices.
Voodoo is a way of life for many people in Togo and Benin. It consists of about 100 divinities, which essence governs the Earth governing the forces of nature and human society.
The divine creator is called Mawu and is a female being. It is believed to be an elderly woman who is gentle and forgiving. She owns all the other gods.
An interesting part of this journey was the visit to the Marché des Féticheurs in the Akodessawa district in Lome. It is said to be the largest fetish market in the world. Perhaps just because there aren't many competitors, a visitor might find it not as big as they figured out in their mind. Nevertheless there people find all the necessary for worshipping and also ingredients for traditional medicine.
According to what they told us, the dead animals in the market were found in the forest already dead. Some others were farm animals who have been used for the sacrifice (and then eaten with the community). Considering the relatively small amount of corpses that are allowed to dry, I might also think that this is not far from the truth.
Just like I always say, when traveling to other countries, and particularly when getting in touch with different heritages and religious practices, we need to unlearn and forget from where we come from. This allows us to look at them with fresh eyes.
Asking questions to get a more in-depth insight into the cultural heritage will help to understand.
So are you ready for a full immersion into the culture of Voodoo?
Good, follow me...

This young man was a practicing priest. Not everyone can become a priest, This is something that is transmitted through the family. Therefore only the sons of the priest can become one day priests themselves.

Now to the question, that might come to your mind, "did you buy anything?" The answer is, "Yes, I did, but mostly it included wooden masks and other artifacts."

Lome has lovely beaches, which could have great potential for tourism. Yet, they are not really well kept, and most of the places seemed to be something to avoid rather than something to enjoy. 

Nevertheless, the restaurants on the beach offer a great variety of food and I have to say, absolutely delicious. I just indulged myself in their local fish specialties, and I could not get really enough. It was a real pity knowing that we needed to leave the country after a few days. I would have remained just for the food for much longer.

I hope I didn't creep you out with this cultural insight. As for me, I felt extremely inspired for the novel I've started to write.

I wish you a great weekend!