BeforeItsNews only exists through ads. We ask all patriots who appreciate the evil we expose and want to
help us savage the NWO with more Truth to disable your ad-blocker on our site only so we can grow and expose more evil! Funding
gives us more weapons! Thank you patriots! Oh and If you disable the Ad-blocker - on your deathbed you will receive total
consciousness. So you got that going for you...which is nice!
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.
Tell us about your most recent release.
My recent novel Lost and Found in Russia is a contemporary women’s fiction, encompassing the exploration of mother-daughter relationship and a self-discovery tale. It was published in February 2013 by Eternal Press.
After the shocking revelation that her daughter was switched at birth 34 years ago, Canadian scholar Amanda embarks on a trip to Russia and Israel to find her biological daughter. Intertwined with the account of Amanda’s journey is the story of Sonya, a 34-year-old Russian immigrant and a former dancer, currently living in Canada. While Amanda wades through the mires of foreign bureaucracy, Sonya struggles with her daughter’s teenage rebellion. While Amanda rediscovers her femininity, Sonya dreams of dancing. Both mothers are searching: for their daughters and for themselves.
Short excerpt:
“I’ve discovered that you’re not really my daughter. I have another daughter somewhere in Russia.” Amanda held her breath. What would Gloria’s response be to this revelation? Every night, Amanda thought about ways to put it into words, to explain it to her daughter, but she couldn’t find any better approach than the blunt truth.
“What is it?” A mischievous dimple appeared in Gloria’s right cheek, untouched by the bruises. “A twist from a new book by some obscure Russian writer?”
“No,” Amanda whispered. Of all the possible scenarios she had envisioned during her nightly speculations, she hadn’t thought Gloria would simply discard the news. “Your blood type is ‘O’ negative. The doctor said. Both Donald and I had ‘O’ positive blood. They probably switched you at birth in that Russian hospital.”
Slowly, Gloria’s hands stilled, and she lifted her eyes to look at Amanda. She opened her mouth, attempted a smile, closed it, opened it again, and then blinked.
“This is a joke?”
Amanda shook her head.
“This is the truth?”
Amanda nodded. Unable to watch emotions flickering across Gloria’s face, she surged up and kneeled in front of her daughter’s chair. “I love you Gloria,” she said hoarsely, caressing her daughter’s leg under the worn denim. “You’ll always be my daughter. But there is another one somewhere in Russia. She might be starving, unemployed.” Amanda’s throat closed. No matter how often such thoughts visited her lately, she had had to fight for air every time.
“She might need my help. Our help. I have to go there and find her. I have to bring your sister home.” She smiled weakly. “Maybe she can be your new designer. Maybe she has inherited Donald’s creativity. Say something, please.” Amanda’s gray eyes bored into her daughter’s green ones. Would she understand? Forgive?
“So I have another mother somewhere in Russia?” Gloria said, her lips stretching in a mirthless grin.
“Another mother?” Appalled, Amanda pulled away.
What else do you have coming out?
I have a collection of short stories, modern fantasy, united by the same protagonist, coming out from Gypsy Shadow later this year. I also have a fantasy novel on submission at a nice Canadian publishing house and I hope they will accept it. Although I’m Canadian, none of my previous fiction publications (about a dozen short stories) have been in Canada. All have been published by American magazines. The publisher of my novel is also based in the US. I make it my next ultimate project to be finally published in Canada. I’ll do all I can to achieve my goal or die trying.
I also want to point out that I consider myself primarily a fantasy writer. The fact that my single non-fantasy novel Lost and Found in Russia was published first is a bit disconcerting for me.
Is there anything you want to make sure potential readers know?
A few words about the protagonists of Lost and Found in Russia. Amanda is a scholar, a professor of Slavic languages and literature. It doesn’t require explanations. Sonya, on the other hand, is a former character dancer. Not many know what character dance is.
Character dance is a variation of folk dance, but there is a huge difference. Folk dance is usually simple. In the past, people danced it in villages during celebrations. It was more about participation than skills.
Character dance is a stage dance, a show, like ballet – think Riverdance but better. It uses folk tunes and some steps of the genuine folk dances, but it also uses the entire range of ballet movements. Character dance is always choreographed and it’s performed by dancers trained in classical ballet.
Sonya trained at the Moscow Ballet Academy before she joined her character dance ensemble.
Here is an example of a character dance, performed by the world-famous Russian character dance troupe – Moiseyev Ballet. It’s a Spanish dance called Aragonese Jota:
What’s the most blatant lie you’ve ever told?
I keep telling it. I keep telling everyone that I’m a writer, although more often than not I feel like a pretender. You see, my education was in computers. I’ve never formally studied writing. I just wanted to tell my stories, so I decided to write them down, and the process absorbed me.
What is the most demeaning thing said about you as a writer?
When someone dislikes my characters. About a year ago, I had an unfortunate experience: I had a contract with a publisher for my fantasy novel, and the editor hated my heroine. Her comments were derogatory. She wanted me to change the girl’s nature and the entire concept of the story. I refused, and the publisher cancelled the contract. I think it was the right decision both for them and for me. If my editor didn’t see my characters the same way I did, there was no future in such collaboration. I’m not sorry of what happened, although the entire episode was a frustrating one. It was also a lesson.
How do you react to a bad review of one of your books?
I try not to. I’m telling myself it’s normal. People are different, so they’re bound to have different opinions. It doesn’t help much though. I still want to erase that review or kick the reviewer but I prudently refrain from violence, except for some mild obscenities, muttered under my nose, of course.
When are you going to write your autobiography?
Never. I don’t like talking about myself, unless it’s an interview like this one, where I can lie without retribution and feel smug about it. But you can’t lie in an autobiography, can you? What, you can? Then, I might write it after all: an untrue, authorized autobiography. It has a nice ring to it, almost an alliteration.
Are the names of the characters in your novels important?
Yes. Sometimes, it takes me a while to choose the right names for my characters. In one short story, I went through 3 or 4 names before I zeroed in on the right one. I can’t explain the process. It’s intuitive. The name should resonate with the character’s personality and appearance. Or, sometimes, counterbalance them.
What about the titles of your novels?
The titles are hard. They should be alluring for the readers, warrant a second glance, and at the same time, they should have the ring of truth for me. The title of my novel Lost and Found in Russia can be considered as an extremely short answer to the question: what is your novel about? I went through at least ten different variations before I settled on this one.
Are there any occupational hazards to being a novelist?
Oh, yeah, butt blisters. No really, back problems and eye problems from sitting all day at the computer.
What’s your favorite fruit?
Grapefruit. And before you ask, my favorite color is green, and my sweet tooth is a mile long.
How many people have you done away with over the course of your career?
I dislike dead people, real or imaginary. In the course of my recent novel, only one person dies, and he never actually appears in the plot, only as a reference: the others talk about him.
In my real life, so far only one person close to me has passed away – my father. It happened about a dozen years ago, before I even started thinking about writing, much less publishing, but I managed to keep him alive all these years, at least to a degree. My pen name is Olga Godim, and I choose it because Godim was my father’s first name. This way he can witness my writing journey, be a part of it in some esoteric fashion.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
To tell the truth, I never wanted to be a writer, never even considered it a possibility when I was young. I’ve always been a daydreamer, always made up stories, but it was a guilty pleasure, a secret of mine. My parents were both engineers, and it was kind of assumed that I would continue in the same techno tradition. And I did. The computer job even made me happy for a while. Of course I didn’t tell anyone that while developing accounting software I secretly dreamed of magicians, sword-wielding heroes, and talking rats. My colleagues would’ve laughed. It took some extraordinary circumstances, a serious illness, and a divorce, to turn me away from that safe and dull life, towards the adventure of writing.
What is your favorite bedtime drink?
Brandy, a small shot.
Do you ever wish that you had an entirely uncreative job, like data entry or working in a factory?
No. I did, for many years. I don’t want to do it ever again. Besides, creativity is inside, not in the job description. Even when I programmed payroll, I dreamed of princesses and flying elves. My daydreams never abandoned me. I might not write my stories down, but they would always live inside me.
Who would play you in a film of your life?
The young me – Ellen Page. The me now – Judi Dench.
What are the most important attributes to remaining sane as a writer?
Thick skin and a firm belief in your own talent, whatever anyone else says. The ability to laugh at yourself also helps.
Have you ever read or seen yourself as a character in a book or a movie?
I always imagine myself as a character in a book, especially the books I enjoy. That’s how some of my stories start: I read, play the character I select, usually not the protagonist, in my head, like a theater for one. I make up her or his adventures independent of the writer’s path for that character, sometimes even relocating him or her into a different world, changing the name.
What is the single most powerful challenge when it comes to writing a novel?
For me, it is writing a villain. Fantasy plots usually require a villain of some sort, or at least a strong antagonist; and I always have trouble with this sort of people. I don’t understand how they think. Why would anyone want to rule the world, or even a village? It’s so much hassle.
What do you consider your biggest failure?
Well, I always wanted my fantasy novels to be published by Daw Books. I guess, it’ll never happen now.
Do you research your novels?
I did some research, internet and personal, for my novel Lost and Found in Russia, but mostly the book came from my daydreams, my personal experience, and the people I’d met. When I was young and poor, I often thought: what if someone showed up at my door and said that I had been switched at birth, and my birth family is rich. And they’re looking for me. What would I do? What would my mother do? And – here was the real question – what would my other mother do? Would she want and love me just as much as the mother I knew and loved?
From that daydream sprouted the idea for one half of the book – the story of Amanda, a mother who discovers after 34 years that her daughter was switched at birth, by mistake. Amanda loves the daughter she’s raised but she wants to find her biological daughter too. Her search takes her around the globe, first to Russia, then to Israel.
The second part of this novel is about Amanda’s birth daughter Sonya. Sonya’s story unfolded in my mind after I met Irina in Montreal. An immigrant from Russia, like Sonya, Irina is a fascinating woman. She came to Canada with nothing and accomplished so much. I was inspired by her optimism and determination. She told me about her life and her struggles to find her own place in a new country. Awed by her courage, her indomitable spirit, and her lovely soul, I adopted her as a model for Sonya. After my meeting with Irina, the novel practically wrote itself.
I’d also like to mention that the relationship between Sonya and her teenage daughter Ksenya originated in my own experience with my daughter. At the time I wrote the novel, my daughter was a teenager, prickly and rebellious. Now she is a young woman, bright and loving. I’m grateful to her for the inspiration, but I could’ve forgone the rebellion. I would’ve had fewer gray hairs then.
As for my fantasy novels – I rarely research. That’s why I write fantasy, I guess. I can make up everything in my imaginary worlds, and no one can say I made a mistake. After all, it’s my world, so I make the rules. As long as I’m consistent, and the rules don’t change from chapter to chapter, no research is required.
Occasionally, I research some specifics. For example, when I wrote about a swordsman, I got books on fencing from the library, checked Wikipedia, learned terminology. I found that for most stories, the research necessary to seem knowledgeable is on the level of middle school books or even elementary school books. I once wrote a story about a Native American girl and her time travels. It was one of my earlier epistolary efforts, not a good story at all, and it has never been published, but I showed it to my writing group. The other members complemented me on my research, but I only got picture books for grade one and two from our local library and used a couple special terms from those book. I fudged it, but it worked.
Do you laugh at your own jokes?
Someone has to.
Do you admire your own work?
No. I always doubt myself.
What are books for?
For me, books usually serve as an escape: from here and now, from my problems and my failures. Books are my friends, especially books written by my favorite writers: Sharon Shinn, Jennifer Crusie, Georgette Heyer, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jayne Ann Krentz and a few others. The list is pretty short, sadly.
Are you fun to go on vacation with?
No. I’m a dull, quiet person in any company. Anything interesting usually happens in my head, unbeknownst to others. Outwardly, I’m shy and tongue-tied. I write MUCH better than I speak. And I’m too embarrassed to bother others with my stories. Perhaps that’s why I write. This way, all the communication is done by my heroes. They are usually much more social than I am.
How do you feel about being interviewed?
An online interview is fine, but in person, I’d probably refuse.
Why do you think what you do matters?
I hope to give my readers a few hours of pleasure, a few hours of escape from reality. That’s what I seek in literature and that’s what I want to offer with my writing. If someone can immerse herself in my novel and forget for one quiet evening that her husband cheats or her mother is dying of cancer, or her boss is an ass, then I’ve accomplished my goal.
Have you ever found true love?
Definitely: books. They never betray and never abandon you.
Are you jealous of other writers?
Not now, but when I started writing – yes. I wanted to get published very badly and I wanted it fast. I wasn’t ready though. I can’t recall without a shameful shudder the state of my first novel, the one I submitted to several publishers in the first few years. It got rejected everywhere, of course. The novel was amateurish, raw, but I couldn’t see it then. At that time, any trip to a bookstore was a torture. I would look at the shelves of published books, and my guts would twist with bitter envy: why were they all published, and I was not?
I don’t think that way anymore. My envy and jealousy dissipated, as my writing improved, and publications started piling up, first – short stories, now – a novel. The publishing industry has changed since then too. But to be honest, some of the published books are still bad, not much better than my first dismal attempts at publication. I’m not talking about self-publishing or small publishing houses either but about the Big Six. Too often, they produce some rather inferior books. I still don’t understand how some of those ‘novels’ got published, but I know now that it had nothing to do with the writers’ talents or lack thereof and everything with the marketability of the plots or in some cases the writers’ names. Or sheer luck.
I’m not jealous of other writers. Most of us are in the same boat. I cheer for talented writers and pity those less talented. Published or not, deep inside everyone knows the levels of their own abilities, and the sales are eloquent too. Where am I on the scale of talent? I hope somewhere in the middle, so nothing to be jealous about.
What are you ashamed of?
I don’t really know. I was racking my brain to answer this question but I couldn’t find even a single misdemeanor I would be ashamed of. Everything I did in my life had a reason. I might have regrets (see the next question) but I’m not ashamed of any of my actions or decisions. Does it make me deficient in the conscience and morality department, I wonder?
Wait, I know! I’m ashamed of that jealousy and spiteful thoughts towards published writers I felt in the beginning of my writing career. There was no reason for that.
Yahoo! I have a conscience after all.
What are your regrets?
I wasn’t as good a mother to my children as I could’ve been, when they were young.
I’m not as good a daughter to my mother as I can be, although I’m trying.
I regret that I never had long legs and straight blond hair. (I’m rather short with curly auburn hair.)
I regret that I’ve never been to Paris. I’m going to remedy this fact as soon as I can.
Once I saw an ensemble of porcelain monkey musicians, dressed in 17th century costumes, in a New York antiquarian shop. I collect toy monkeys and I wanted to buy them for my collection, but they seemed too expensive at the time. I still regret not buying them. My collection is now over 300 monkeys, but I still regret not having those musicians.
One of the shelves with my monkeys
What makes you cry?
Loneliness – occasionally. When I have a bout of weepiness, chocolate helps, as does writing.
What makes you laugh?
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart often makes me laugh. Most of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels make me laugh, at least the earliest ones. Many of Georgette Heyer’s romances are hilarious too or inspire multiple chuckles. Carola Dunn’s cozy mysteries, especially her Daisy Dalrymple stories, make the list, as does practically everything written by Jennifer Crusie, even her blog http://www.arghink.com/.
What’s the loveliest thing you have ever seen?
My children, when they were 2 and 3 years old. Nothing lovelier before or since.
Olga Godim is a writer and journalist from Vancouver, Canada. Her articles appear regularly in a local newspaper, but her passion is fiction. Her short stories have been published in several internet magazines, including Lorelei Signal, Sorcerous Signals, Aoife’s Kiss, Silver Blade, Gypsy Shadow, and other publications. In her free time, she writes novels, collects toy monkeys, and posts book reviews on GoodReads. You can find her there: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6471587.Olga_Godim
Author: of The End of the World Playlist, Bitten, Cerulean Dreams, and The Journey
Follow me on: Twitter
Follow me on my blog: Thoughts from the Dan O’Brien Project
“Be the change you want to see in this world.” -Mahatma Ghandi
Want more information about Empirical? Check out our website: http://www.empiricalmagazine.com .
Do you have work that you’d like to submit to Empirical? First, go to our website, and then click on the submissions tab at the top of the page. Our requirements and directions are there. If you have further questions, please feel free to ask.
Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world.
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist
Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world.
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Mushrooms are having a moment. One fabulous fungus in particular, lion’s mane, may help improve memory, depression and anxiety symptoms. They are also an excellent source of nutrients that show promise as a therapy for dementia, and other neurodegenerative diseases. If you’re living with anxiety or depression, you may be curious about all the therapy options out there — including the natural ones.Our Lion’s Mane WHOLE MIND Nootropic Blend has been formulated to utilize the potency of Lion’s mane but also include the benefits of four other Highly Beneficial Mushrooms. Synergistically, they work together to Build your health through improving cognitive function and immunity regardless of your age. Our Nootropic not only improves your Cognitive Function and Activates your Immune System, but it benefits growth of Essential Gut Flora, further enhancing your Vitality.
Our Formula includes:
Lion’s Mane Mushrooms which Increase Brain Power through nerve growth, lessen anxiety, reduce depression, and improve concentration. Its an excellent adaptogen, promotes sleep and improves immunity.
Shiitake Mushrooms which Fight cancer cells and infectious disease, boost the immune system, promotes brain function, and serves as a source of B vitamins.
Maitake Mushrooms which regulate blood sugar levels of diabetics, reduce hypertension and boosts the immune system.
Reishi Mushrooms which Fight inflammation, liver disease, fatigue, tumor growth and cancer. They Improve skin disorders and soothes digestive problems, stomach ulcers and leaky gut syndrome.
Chaga Mushrooms which have anti-aging effects, boost immune function, improve stamina and athletic performance, even act as a natural aphrodisiac, fighting diabetes and improving liver function.
Try Our Lion’s Mane WHOLE MIND Nootropic Blend 60 Capsules Today. Be 100% Satisfied or Receive a Full Money Back Guarantee. Order Yours Today by Following This Link.
