As part of a new series to help aspiring writers, I have created a section to help new, up & coming and aspiring writers to get seen, help them, start promoting them and to help them get seen by a much wider audience.
So, if you are a writer and want to be seen by a new wider audience, then complete the form at the bottom of this blog, to feature on the next Writer’s Blog…
Guest Post by Fia Essen
I had a somewhat unusual childhood. I grew up surrounded by horses around the clock. Literally. I couldn’t bear to be away from my beloved horse, Stradivarius. So my father talked the owner of the riding club into building an apartment for us on the second floor of the stable, directly above Stradivarius’ box. I believe it’s safe to say that no other father has done that for his daughter.
When I wasn’t on horseback, I had my nose in a book. I didn’t read books, I lived them. The characters in the novels I read became my best friends. I suppose it was inevitable that I would one day start creating my own. But back then I never thought I would become an author.
Moving from Singapore to Crete is what made me pick up a pen and start writing. Not only did I find myself adjusting to living in a different country, I was inundated by an entirely different culture, too. After nearly two decades of being an expatriate in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Europe was utterly alien and downright esoteric to me. Writing helped me process the experience.
I had visited the Greek islands as a tourist before my family and I packed up our life in Singapore and headed to Crete, which is the largest of the Greek islands. Like most tourists, I took the romanticized and perfectly idyllic version of the Mediterranean home with me in my mind when my vacation ended. The reality of life on a Greek island came as a huge culture shock. Singapore and Crete are both islands but that is where their similarities begin and end. One is a bustling metropolis of the highest modern mode. The other often operates on medieval morals… Crete has one foot firmly and proudly planted in its illustrious past and history while the other foot tentatively treads on present ground.
I now live in Athens with my parents and my Yorkshire terrier and I’m currently working on Amanda, which is my third novel. My first two novels, Ariel and Anna, are both contracted to Solstice Publishing. I call my books Chick Lit with an international twist. Ariel is a lifelong expat who has worked and lived all over the globe but now she’s stuck in a rut in Singapore. Anna hops on a plane to Greece in a moment of uncharacteristic spontaneity, leaving her life in New York behind. Amanda leaves Boston for France while she’s grappling with a personal crisis.
Even though I call my books Chick Lit I’ve received several positive reviews from men who have read Ariel and Anna. Both books deal with the issues of finding the courage to discover what you want from life and how to handle unexpected changes. And I think that appeals to both men and women, younger and older people.
Writing is my job and I work hard to create stories that I hope people will enjoy. I’m in it for the long haul. My aim is to write two new manuscripts each year. The beauty of writing is that there’s no age limit, it’s not something you’ll ever grow too old for.
Both Ariel and Anna are available on Amazon: http://author.to/fia and you can contact me through my website: http://www.fiaessen.com
To learn more about why I am doing this to help writers and to see other writers who’ve have written blog posts, please visit “Helping Aspiring Writers” to learn more. So, if you are looking to follow in Fia’s footstep’s and share a blog post about you and your writing, please complete the form below:-
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