was released today on November 15th 2018 in Italy !
DESTINAZIONE LIBERTA
Una voce per tutti quelli che non ce l'hanno
Lily, bambina creativa e spensierata, si affaccia alla vita con l'ottimismo e le speranze tipiche di un'infanzia serena.
Studia e colora, sogna e socializza, amata e circondata da un ambiente familiare pieno e significativo. Non sa che grossi
nuvoloni neri si stanno addensando sul suo amato paese. Una guerra assurda, sanguinaria e inumana la strapperà dai suoi affetti
e dalle sue radici. E' l'inizio di un'odissea. Un girovagare alla ricerca esasperata e sconfortante di un angolo di mondo in cui sentirsi,
finalmente, al sicuro. E' l'ancestrale viaggio di ognuno di noi verso un luogo da poter chiamare casa, verso una dimensione di significatività
e realizzazione. E' l'aspettativa, sempre disattesa, di poter esprimere i propri talenti, il proprio essere, di poter srotolare
la vita e le capacità in un contesto sereno. In un racconto diretto, realistico, abitiamo con Lily la dimensione della sopravvivenza,
in una successione surreale di eventi che si materializzano sul suo cammino quasi per un gioco perverso, la protagonista sperimenterà
cinismo, indifferenza, superficialità, non sense burocratici, perdite dolorose, continui ostacoli, scelte sbagliate, sempre sul limite
della disperazione. Ne verrà fuori più matura, ma anche più disillusa e consapevole. La vita non è un film per bambini, da qui l'amara riflessione
che ne scaturisce:"ha tutto questo un senso? La legittima
aspirazione alla libertà può forse portare a sopravvivere piuttosto che a vivere? Cosa resta in mano quando si è perduto tutto,
l'identità, il progetto vitale, la propria cultura, i propri affetti e persino i bei ricordi?". Eppure, Lily, non smette di tenere
gli occhi ben puntati sulla vita... Una storia vera, intensa, appassionante, amara e reale, sulla bellezza del coraggio umano di fronte alla vita...
Our Winter issue 2018 is dedicated to the wonderful country of Austria. Travel
back in time and discover the beauty of this historical country with us. Read
inspirational and educational articles and my movie review in LilyWood about the
Empress of Austria Sissi.
We had the pleasure to interview the talented artist Viktor Angelov from
Macedonia. Also in interview Italian author, teacher and translator
Elisabetta Verdone.
It is also an honor to feature my Italian Publisher Enrico Iacometti in
Read My Mind and feature my guest Blogger Maria Sara Cetraro with her inspirational
article about her meeting with author and founder of the Empathy museum Roman Krznaric.
Another great movie review by Read My Minds film critic Trevor Pacelli about my favourite movie: AMADEUS.
In UK (like in every other country too),
people seeking refugee status are banned from working whilst they wait months,
and often years (and even decades), for a decision on their asylum claim.
Instead, they are left to live on just £5.39 per day, struggling to support
themselves and their families, whilst the Government wastes the talents of
thousands of people.
The @LiftTheBan campaign thinks that this
is wrong and so do I. I too believe that people who have risked everything to
find safety should have the best chance of contributing to society and
integrating into communities. This means giving people seeking asylum the right
to work so that they can use their skills and live in dignity. The Lift the Ban
coalition is working to change this and to ensure that people seeking safety in
the UK have the right to work.
LIFT
THE BAN says exactly what Im saying for over three decades, which is: GIVE
PEOPLE SEEKING ASYLUM THE RIGHT TO WORK!
Months ago I
was asked by an IG-Blogger, if I would answer a few questions about my journey
as a self-published author and my books, which I gladly did. Since my answers haven’t
been published to this date, I have decided to share them here on my own blog.
Not appreciating
the time that I made is really unfortunate and it was definitely a lesson for
me not to make time for other bloggers, unless I’m 100% certain that it will be
appreciated, respected and published.
I also
received messages on IG from so called book reviewers. Let me tell you
this. If you are interested in reading and reviewing my book, please download
the ebook and do not insult me by asking me for free copies, when my stories
are listed for only $99.00 - $3.99! Seriously!!! Thank you for respecting my work
and my time.
So here we
go… These were my answers…
Lily
1. One
fictional character that resembles you the most?
As funny and strange as it may sound, I often see myself
in my favourite children book character Pinocchio. Of course I’m not a boy and I’m
also not a lying wooden puppet, but Pinocchio’s naivety often reminds me of my own
mistakes. Pinocchio believes what he hears and always sees the good in people.
He is giving and forgiving. The problem is many people use his naivety and
kindness. It seems that the more giving, caring and trustworthy one is the more
people take advantage of you and mix up your kindness with stupidity. That’s a
hard and painful lesson that I still need to learn.
2. What is
your writing motivation?
With my memoir my motivation was to write an
eye-opening, honest and touching book about the delicate topic Refugees and try
to make a change in our society about this important issue.
With my children books my writing motivation is to tell
stories that are inspiring, entertaining, but also educating. I think stories
that we read as children are really important life lessons. The sooner we learn
about honesty, integrity, loyalty, kindness and respect towards everyone the
better people we become as adults. Unfortunately it seems to me that many
parents and teachers don’t pay much attention to these values these days. And this
motivates me to write meaningful and educational stories.
3. Who's
your favourite author?
To this date the Italian author Carlo Collodi with its
children book series “The Adventure of Pinocchio”. You probably wonder why a
children book series about a wooden puppet is my favourite story. I tell you
why. In my opinion Pinocchio’s character and his maker old Geppetto are the
most educational story for young and adult readers to this date. Collodi wrote about trust, honesty, kindness, integrity,
discipline, respect, self-respect, loyalty and the importance of education.
After writing my memoir, I had to find a genre that I enjoyed writing and
reading the most and Carlo Collodis stories inspired me to become a children and
YA author.
4. Few
quickies: Money or fame? Money. With money you can buy fame! :-)
Commercial
fiction or literary fiction? Literary Fiction. Blogging or
vlogging? Blogging
Interviews or book reviews?Definitely Interviews! The only reason why I wrote my
memoir Destination Freedom, is to share my story and be the voice for the
voiceless. The refugee topic has become a global disaster. The sooner the world
and our clueless society understand the difficulties and challenges of these
innocent refugees and victims of greed for more power by our global leaders,
the better.
Audiobooks
or ebooks? Audiobooks
5. Why did you chose indie
publishing?
It took me
years to understand that Publishing companies have their own policy and rules.
You don’t get rejected, because you’re not a good writer. You also don’t get
rejected because your story isn’t interesting. You get rejected for several
other reasons.
All my life
I was rejected by society, because of my nationality, because of my religion
etc. So to be honest I was sick and tired of being rejected once again by an
industry that doesn’t care about me, nor my story and my goals in the first
place. After receiving dozens of standard rejection letters from Publishers, in
Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom and America, I’ve self-published my memoir
in 2004 in English and German. And I re-published it in 2014 with a new title
and new cover.
6. How was your experience? Did it differ from your expectations?
The only
difference between self-publishing in 2004 and 2014 was social media. Back then
we didn’t have all these platforms to promote our work.
7. What do you think is the most important advantage of indie publishing?
The most
important advantage is freedom. And Freedom is my favourite word of all. All my
life I was looking for Freedom and with this new journey as a self-published
author, blogger and illustrator, I have found my peace of mind. I have the freedom
to decide what I write and when I publish it. Freedom is the most priceless and
powerful gift we have as Indie authors and as a human being.
8. What do you think is the biggest challenge?
Promoting the
book is the biggest challenge. There are many gifted authors who try to make a
living with writing. Despite having the benefits of social media it really is
hard to stand out and find your readership. Followers are not necessarily your
readers and Likes don’t pay the bills.
9. Who's your favourite indie author so far?
In the last
3, 5 years I have met a few talented and passionate Indie authors from all over
the world. I not only read their books, but also had the chance to interview
and feature their work on my blog or in my blogger magazine Read My Mind. So if
you like to discover new books by great Indie authors, check out my blog: lilyamis.blogspot.com
or read my seasonal blogger magazine Read My Mind, which is available three
times a year (April, July, November) under www.nassima-design.com/RMM/.
10. Could you kindly introduce us to
your book(s) in brief?
I have
written fifteen books to this date and will only introduce five of my babies
here. Please visit my website www.LilyAmis.com to find out more about my other books. My print books
are available on Amazon. My ebooks and audiobooks are available in several
online stores such as Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, Kobo,
Apple, Libro and many more.
