how time flies
Since releasing my first book, Life Has Two Doors back in January 2016, countless meaningful moments have followed.
In late August of the same year I was fortunate to travel to Greece with my husband, our youngest son, Christo and my parent’s. We were based in mum’s village, Neos Panteleimonas and visited many neighbouring villages and cities throughout Central Macedonia and Northern Greece during our six week stay. It was very special returning with my parent’s and sharing precious moments in their birth places.
The absolute highlight of our holiday was the presentation of my new book Life Has Two Doors, held in the platia of the old village. It was Friday 16th September, a balmy autumn evening as family and friends gathered under the platano tree eager to see what the fuss was all about. I think I took them by suprise as I stood by the historic church, Agios Panteleiomonas and recollected some of the stories from the book, transporting them back to a nostalgic era. I was applauded by the audience who were all feeling quite emotional by the end of the evening.
Following our return to Adelaide early October, it wasn’t long before I was packing more books preparing for an author’s event to be held in Sydney. The event was organised by the women of Hellenic Lyceum in Sydney and I was invited to be a guest speaker and present Life Has Two Doors along with other talented Greek author’s.
During this time, I worked alongside the wonderful team at Repeaters Productions who directed a short documentary based on the four women from the book.The short film, with the same name as the book, was presented on a Sunday afternoon in May, 2017. Roughly one hundred guests gathered at the Pan Macedonian Cultural Hall in Torrensville for the showing of the documenatary.
There were many requests especially from the older Greek generation to translate the book into Greek. After the demand continued, I decided to search for a Greek translator and upon meeting the lovely Greek translator, Lena Kakavas we began the journey of bringing Δύο Πόρτες Έχει Η Ζωή to completion. The Greek edition was released in March 2019.
Later that year, in the month of September I was fortunate to travel to Greece once again, this time accompanied by my mum. We spent six wonderful weeks in the village, where we shared cherised moments with her siblings, relatives and friends and even travelled to Crete together. I held a presentation of Δύο Πόρτες Έχει Η Ζωή at my cousin’s cafe bistro, Klepsidra, situated in the heart of the village square.
I was given such a warm welcome by my beautiful relatives and the locals, recognising my efforts in keeping some of the history of their heritage alive. After the formalities and selling out of all books, the evening continued with eating, drinking, live music and dancing.
Until next time …
