6 ways mushrooms can save the world | Paul Stamets

My Movie.mp4 OPA! Thanks Erin Dertner for this record of my Kefi!

Let's Go to Poros! by Pamporos

A Walk around Poros Island II

A morning walk on Poros

The Embroiderer by Kathryn Gauci
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A brilliant tapestry has been created with the words of this spectacular historical novel. Having lived in Greece for over 25 years, I have read much, and perused the Athens museums like the Byzantine and Benaki, the Museum in Hydra, Nauplion and others displaying life from the Revolutionary times here via artifacts, clothes, room settings and art. The house I live in was built in 1892. My landlady has shared some of her family history with me and my journeys to present day Istanbul and Egypt also gave me further insight into the Greek-Turkish history, including the exchange of populations in the 1920's and the diabolical WWII. All of my studies through the years are encapsulated immeasurably in the pages and lives of the heroic (and not so heroic) personalities so beautifully stitched into The Embroiderer. I, regrettably. finished it last week, and am rereading it again now. This book is brilliant enough to read more than once! Thank you, Kathryn Gauci - Brava!
Pamela Jane Rogers, Author of Greekscapes Illustrated Journeys with an Artist

View all my reviews

Homer's Where The Heart Is: Two journalists, one crazy dog and a love affair with Greece by Marjory McGinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved every minute of reading this book! It's chock full with the author's experiences and admiration for the Greek people. There are very funny and heartwarming anecdotes of meetings with strangers along the way, unusual friends made, and rather atypical situations encountered by herself, her partner Jim and their Jack Russell Terrier. There is not a dull moment in Homer's Where the Heart Is - nor for the 2 other books in the trilogy, which I have now read also. I highly recommend this book (as well as #1, Things Can only get Feta, and #3, A Scorpion in the Lemon Tree) to readers who enjoy excellent literature. Read it for the fun, the adventure, and to learn and glean further understanding about life in Greece.

View all my reviews

Meet The Author Pamela Jane Rogers

Meet The Author Pamela Jane Rogers

The Kindle Conundrum

I'm taking deep breaths now. My Kindle book is indeed on the promotion, after days of checking to make sure I put all information in correctly, with the final day, today, holding my breath until I saw that yes it had worked - it really was on Amazon!
My partner has been coming by at intervals, to stand just outside the door of my 'office' (a desk in the living room) and wait for me to look up from the keyboard so he can repeat his droll,
"That book is driving you nuts." 

 In a way, he's right! Sometimes it seems like I've spent as many hours on the self-publishing and promoting process as I did creating the book! It's consoling to be in touch with other authors who understand, commiserate, and at times kindly offer suggestions.

Create Space is very helpful, once you get the hang of it. Amazon also, although they are still confusing my author pages with links to the first and now out of print 'novel' I published in 2013. Was it a Tuesday 13th that day too? Oh - that's the day to beware of in Greece, not America's Friday 13th. I'm pretty sure there must be a typo or two somewhere in the manuscript that I've missed. I am not a person who thrives on details. A Greek friend in the writing/publishing business told me that even Kazantzakis' books have a few typos. Perfection invites the dreaded evil eye. She and I laughed together at the thought of anyone coveting my fledgling authorship, as they might his.

The other huge consolation for all my time spent is hearing from some readers that my book has inspired them. That was one of my heartfelt goals - to inspire readers to take their dreams more seriously...at least seriously enough to help them leap over the roadblocks that even a relatively directed life-style can set up. 

 In the early 90's after I moved to Greece I was soaking in bliss. Before long, however, I was frantically running around and racing up and down the mountain on my moped organizing a painting holiday for artists: get the flight and ferry schedules straight - search for the right accommodations at the right price - run to the post office to mail the information - receive a letter with questions and run back home to write another update and mail it to that person - get prices for our dinners from the tavernas - prices for the entertainment - find painting sites near restrooms - what had I forgotten? it seemed endless, and I wasn't making enough time to paint.

.

 I'd arranged several painting workshops to Greece while in the US, but both had been problematic in different ways. Now that I was living here, surely I could ward off the problems?
I had to make sure that everyone would have a fantastic time and nothing would go amiss!! At the time, computers, internet and cellphones did not yet exist on the island, and calling the US from Greece was expensive enough to be done only in an emergency. In retrospect, I can't imagine how I managed to do so much with just a pen and a notebook. 

 One late afternoon it really all got to me. I was both exhausted and depressed to the point of tears when I met with the owner of the travel company helping me find accommodations. He asked me something about the trip, and I blurted out, "I just don't know if this workshop is going to work out after all."

We chatted about the perils of the travel industry for a few minutes, and it was a relief to just have someone to talk with who understood.

And then he asked a question that surprised me a bit, coming from a businessman. 

"Well, what was your dream when you came here?" 

 He actually said the word 'dream'. 

I answered slowly, struggling with the words, as if I was waking from a deep sleep. 

 "I wanted just to have a little studio near the sea and paint." Ahhh, the relief!  I can remember it now. "Well, what's stopping you?" he asked. 

He didn't need to say another word. After all my anxiety about the workshop, it went well. And the loveliest part was that one of the artists, Erin Dertner, who had flown all the way from California solo for her first trip abroad, continues bringing artists to Poros for workshops here every few years. I love joining her and her friends to paint when I can but otherwise, I'm just living my dream on the island - painting, sometimes writing - and enjoying the new technological advances that keep me connected with the wider world...as long as I don't let the advances drive me nuts

So, here it is. Yeia Mas, y'all - have a lovely evening!

Promo .99 - 2.99 now through 18 August '16.
Link: B00H14P86O 

 

Reading = food for the soul!

During the seven (or so) years that I was writing Greekscapes, I avoided reading novels and memoirs about Greece, lest I lose the nerve to write about my own journeys. By the time I finished writing and publishing, I was Fed Up with my story and absolutely Starved for literature by other writers! Currently I am re-visiting Kazantzakis' Report To Greco, inspired by five other books by 3 excellent contemporary writers that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed since May.

A brilliant tapestry has been created in this spectacular historical novel.

The Embroiderer  (http://www.kathryngauci.com/about-the-author/).  I’ve absorbed much Greek history by reading and living here so many years. I’ve perused the Athens museums like the Byzantine and Benaki, the Museum in Hydra, Nauplion and others displaying the artifacts, clothes, room settings and art. The house I live in was built in 1892, and my landlady has shared some of her family history with me. My journeys to present day Istanbul and Egypt gave me further insight into the Greek-Turkish history, including the exchange of populations in the 1920's and the diabolical WWII. My studies through the years are encapsulated immeasurably in the pages and lives of the heroic (and not so heroic) personalities so beautifully stitched into The Embroiderer. And if that isn’t enough, the author gives the recipe for Sevkiye’s Pilav in the Postscript - fit for a banquet! All the senses are tapped in this novel. I, regrettably, finished it last week. This book is excellent enough to devour again, or see at the cinema! 
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781322961)

I’ve also finished the delightfully enlightening travel memoir trilogy by Marjory McGinn. I didn't want to finish - akin to wanting a gorgeous dinner with loved ones to last much longer! In short, Marjory her partner Jim, who had both been journalists in Australia and the UK, along with their adorable, "crazy" Jack Russell terrier, Wallace, set off for a year's sabbatical from Scotland...which launched into a much longer adventure-filled break and acclimation to the village life in the Mani in the southern Peloponnese – twice.  I’ve only been close to the Mani area with several stays in Monemvassia. I also didn't read the books in sequence as they were written, because I hadn't yet heard about the first when I started with the deliciously entertaining 
Homer's Where the Heart Is (https://amzn.com/1511896833).  
Eager not to miss the author's first course, next came 
Things Can Only Get Feta  (https://amzn.com/1508496064).  My appetite was barely sated enough to wait until the third course arrived - and I was just as thrilled to gobble up each word in 
A Scorpion in the Lemon Tree (https://amzn.com/1534782303). Each course can stand alone as complete and yet all together, they comprise a marvelous feast for the soul. Her meetings with many of the characters living in the area will warm your heart, tickle your funny bone, and give valuable historical, social, and even political accounts of present day Greece too. Be sure to check out Marjory's current blog to find out more. There is never a dull moment with these truly intrepid adventurers! (http://bigfatgreekodyssey.com/blog/)

My reading feast continued in Crete: A Notebook, by Richard Clark, (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1500761648) which whetted my appetite to return to Crete for more explorations- of the culinary type as well as actual gorges! Richard has a personal way of writing which takes his reader along uncharted paths with him, with time to rest and reflect on the past at each stop. I have a feeling that he and Kazantzakis would have had great conversations together, if they had been living in the same epoch – but at least we can be glad that Richard is here with us now. His next book in the Greek travel series will be published soon, so watch for it!

I'm grateful to Kathryn Gauci for this recent interview about Greekscapes, which she was kind  to request from me recently - great questions! (http://www.kathryngauci.com/1568-2/)

Wishing you good appetites (Kali orexi) and Yeia Mas (Cheers!),   Pamela 

Thank you, Kathryn Gauci - Brava!

http://pamelajanerogers.com  

GREEKSCAPES Illustrated Journeys with an Artist: https://amzn.com/1508860564

Link to the Kindle version:  https://amzn.com/B00H14P86O

GREEKSCAPES Illustrated Journeys with an Artist

Happy July 1!

I left lovely North Carolina at 41 years of age after the end of a 19 year marriage, and chose to live on Poros Island to paint to my heart's contentment for the few good years of life I thought I had left. 

Those 'few good years' now add up to 27, and I suppose I have a few more to enjoy living!

The funny thing I've just remembered is that on my first 3-month application to extend my stay in Greece, for my occupation, I wrote 'writer' instead of artist. Yes, I had written some poems and hand-typed them into a little booklet to go with my art exhibit in Raleigh - Cycladic Paintings - in 1989, and I did write a lot in my journals, yet I really didn't think of myself as an actual writer who would publish a real book. I simply thought that, since I was starting out in a new country, writing seemed a more acceptable occupation than painting. Ah, the Fates were sniggering!

 I'm not sure if it's reasonable to call this my second book, because the two I have published over the past two years are similar, yet the first book was a novel about a woman named Rose Reynolds and it was self-published on Amazon's Createspace. My good friends were alerted, and some of them kindly wrote their reviews on Amazon. This was the cover - representing Greece, staying afloat through the Troika years.

This second one is my memoir, edited by Bryony Sutherland, and illustrated with 40-100 paintings - 40 appear in the Special Edition book, and 100 in the kindle version. I was stunned when it was chosen as one of Best of Expat Nonfiction for 2015, and I'm very honored that it has received comments from excellent published writers whose work I admire. 

Just yesterday, flying back to Greece from London after a whirlwind Alumni Holidays International (AHI Travel) tour, I sat next to the artist Carmen Clews, who is writing and sculpting - concentrating on sculptures of Yoga poses now, and her book The Magic Mat, written for children 9-12, and it sounds brilliant! She was going to Skiathos, the first island I visited in 1984. (Link https://amzn.com/B00NLBLMXE) 

No matter what you think is going on, stay open to the new - you just never know what the Fates have in store for you!

Enjoy each bite! Pamela

GREEKSCAPES: Illustrated Journeys with an Artist 
by Pamela Jane Rogers et al. 
Link: https://amzn.com/B00H14P86O