It is my pleasure to introduce Anna Othitis

Living most of my life in Zimbabwe, now settled in Wanaque New Jersey, we immigrated to the U.S. from Zimbabwe about 12 years ago. Born in Greece, we moved to Zimbabwe with my family as an infant,  where a few years ago left for the U.S.A. due to political turmoil, and fortunate to give out three sons more educational opportunities in lands of opportunities. I was inspired by my vast experiences in Africa and by the many beautiful places that I and my family have visited over our life time in Zimbabwe.

I have authored our new children’s book recently launched, that "flies" children around the world and at the same time teaching them about some of its most famous destinations in the world.  My recent visit to Niagara Falls State Park in New York over the summer which is one of the  famous destinations featured in my educational, fun and inspiring book “My First Travel Book” for children between the ages of 3 and 10 also featuring my home country and land with Victoria Falls of my native Rhodesian/Zimbabwean heritage. Our book is written in a  fun rhyming format featuring beautiful and very real  illustrations of our destinations with educational experience for the young readers, with lessons in history and geography on these famous destinations.

Authored together with our son Frankie we wrote and edited the book released through Tate Publishing. The amazing creation, which stands in the Military Museum in Gweru, Zimbabwe, was one of my inspirations to write my cute children’s book this sculptured by a fellow rural man from sticks and small tree trunks, an image of a aero plane which he saw flying in the skies, not often seen in Zimbabwe’s remote areas, like a huge bird in the skies. I and my family have in the past great opportunities in visiting many destinations around our beautiful earth and world of such natural nature which we and our children have to preserve and appreciate, taking care of our environment is of the outmost importance. My book features “Captain Frankie”  himself, training to become a commercial pilot and flying his Angelic Airlines flying angel to such majestic destinations, all of these hold special significant memories to our family and with my book to pass on these experiences to our Our wonderful, lovely children of our beautiful world who can now travel and experience them through our beautiful well illustrated and informative book “My First ravel Book” with our friendly “Captain Frankie” to enjoy, reading and learning on their parents/grandparents laps.

Follow up with our series is ready to be published soon on so many more beautiful land marks that we travel to.

Let us all take care of our amazing environment so that we do not spoil our beautiful miraculous earth and wonderful world with its beautiful living beings and animals that surround us every day.

“My First Travel Book” on Angelic Flights with your friendly “Captain Frankie” authored by Anna Othitis, co-authored by Frankie, is a worthwhile fun, educational, inspiring children’s book recommended to  all adults where they can learn along and enjoy flying the world with their young readers, be it from their classrooms, homes and more .

Our children have such amazing curious little observant little minds, always wanting to learn and question so much in their growing lives.

Our cute little trailer can be seen on you tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k3OkPeKm8A&feature=share

My Poem below on why at that particular time I subconsciously chose these destinations:-

This very bright, crispy, morning while sitting on our back yard balcony in the warm lovely sun shining day drinking my Greek coffee, with the birds happily singing and chirping in the back round, my thoughts took me back to the time that I started writing our children's book " My First Travel Book " what was it in my heart at that particular moment to choose these lovely destinations that Captain Frankie flies to.
Our beautiful loved home we lived and grew up in, Zimbabwe with her mighty, thunderous water of wonder ' Victoria Falls '
Our land Africa where we grew up in with its wonderful wild animals and life, its stillness of natural beauty, its primitive people.
My country of birth and culture Greece with its ancient land mark of the ' Acropolis '
Our now country of residence USA, the country of freedom, where the opportunity for Captain Frankie was given to take up the love of his life and career, aeronautics/pilot with her amazingly huge land mark ' The Statue of Liberty '
The land of Canada where our two sons were given their opportunities to reside in with the mighty curtain of water so very powerful ' The Niagara Falls '.
The ' Eiffel Tower ' where the beginning of our two sons Canadian future paths began.
This is the "beautiful bright sun shining light" that suddenly shone in my heart on this wonderful morning that took me back to think of that particular moment of our angelic flights and choices of destinations in our children's book with Captain Frankie.
THERE IS ALWAYS A STORY TO BE TOLD BEHIND EVERY CREATION IN LIFE.
Let us take a deep look into the bottom of our happy hearts our inner selves and know that we all have HAPPY, wonderful, thankful, mysterious, worthwhile stories to tell our family, friends, the world , to all of our children in our world, always with such happy endings, always seeking more and more happy, fun adventures to travel to in our beautiful world.

Now available to purchase on web sites listed below:

http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-62510-945-3

https://www.facebook.com/AnnaFrankieOthitis?ref=hl

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17991046-my-first-travel-book

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-first-travel-book-anna-othitis/1115454747?ean=9781625109453

http://www.amazon.com/First-Travel-Book-Anna-Othitis/dp/1625109458

Musings

I was laying in my daughter's bed tonight at her request, just chatting about the day, about life, and about music of all things.  She likes to listen to the music on my old iPod while she falls asleep.  One of my very favorite songs of all time came on and she asked me to sing it to her.  I think it was a test to see if I actually knew the lyrics, but either way, I sang.  Now, I am not a singer, I leave that to my extended family members who have lovely voices, but for my kiddo, especially when she's sad, I could not say no.  It was wonderful to watch her eyes flare, to watch the comprehension on her face as she realized that I really did know the song.  What song?  Why a little number by Pink Floyd called "Wish You Were Here," of course!  So many thanks to Pink Floyd for giving me that moment with my daughter.... 

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

No, this doesn't really have anything to do with Creating Estelan but it does have to do with me and the little girl I started this series for.  She's a very special little girl and I cannot wait to watch her leave broad, bright paint strokes across this world.

ESTELAN and ECHO RISING

I've been on hiatus for a bit due to an exhausting move, but I am back at work on the re-issue of ESTELAN and the first draft of ECHO RISING.  Every time I lay out plans for myself they get derailed so I think it is better not to plan and just wing it.  I am working on a book signing for ESTELAN with the new cover and updated interior and it will be held at a Grove City, Ohio used bookstore - more details coming.  

Cover Reveal - YA Epic Fantasy ESTELAN

Sometimes a book needs a face lift.  After some discussion with my incredibly talented cover artist we decided ESTELAN was in need of a little nip/tuck.  However, I had no idea that this procedure would result in something so magical.  There are not words to thank my dear friend, Barbara Ivie Green, for her amazing work on my new cover.  Her depiction of female warrior Kitin is better than anything I could have imagined and I cannot wait to see her larger than life on my banner at Fandom Fest at the end of the month.  For now, I am VERY pleased to present the new cover for ESTELAN featuring Kitin.

ESTELAN is available in ebook format where ebooks (Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords, Sony) are sold and in paperback via Createspace Store and Amazon. 

NEW COVER TO BE REVEALED SOON!

Estelan has a brand new cover and it is AMAZING!!  I cannot wait to see this one in paperback because the AMAZING Barbara Ivie Green did such a beautiful job!  Come back on Monday 7/15/13 for the big reveal!!

Sample Saturday!

ESTELAN is getting a facelift but the story will remain essentially the same and naturally the character of Shai, depicted here, is one of my favorite parts!

Shai awoke in a cold sweat, fear caught in her throat like the silent scream she could not sound.  Standing on shaky legs she wobbled over to the small porcelain wash basin in the corner of her tiny room.  The cool water still smelled fresh enough to use. Shai’s sleeves fell into the bowl as she splashed her face.  Sighing, she methodically re-rolled them and wiped the water from her face with a worn, fraying towel.  Shai shivered, goosepimples spread across her skin.  The thin, woven rug beneath her bare feet did little to block the chill of the stone floor beneath.  She leapt onto the thick bearskin beside her bed, catapulted into the pile of heavy quilts and burrowed into their warmth, careful to hold her damp sleeves away from her body.

 Small, even among the priestesses, Shai’s robes had to be shortened, bound, or rolled in every capacity.  Utility pins dug into her shoulders but did their part to compensate the wide neckline. A seamstress in town donated the white cotton A-line shifts in lieu of her yearly tithe and she only made one size for them.  In truth, the garments were only ill-fitted for Shai who aspired to be waifish in build who could easily pass for a young child. No matter how heartily she ate and in spite of the extra vitamins after prayer, Shai could not make gains in height or breadth, just one of many oddities setting her apart from the others. Blowing a tuft of unruly silver hair from her face, Shai hugged her knees in tight.  She would give almost anything to be just a little less skeletal and a few inches taller.  Asa and Kriya constantly reprimanded her vanity but that was not quite right, she simply wanted to be an equal instead of an oddity.  Too small to draw water from the well or work the laundry press, Shai even struggled to clear dishes at meal time.

Pulling the blankets even tighter the tiny priestess wondered how much time had passed.  Reflection time in Moon Temple tended to drive Shai to the brink of madness so she often napped to pass the two hour block of solitude. Without a timepiece in her room, Shai relied on the other priestesses or the great timepiece to notify her of the end of Reflection.  Unfortunately, the great timepiece only chimed on the hour and she did not hear the soft tinkling radiating through the winding corridors from the Temple’s center.  Shai frowned and stretched her mind to the Priestesses rooming around her but found them happily occupied, their minds locked in meditation. 

Shai looked around her room, bare even by the Moon Temple’s standards.  Her three-shelved, borrowed bookcase stood nearly empty.  She knew most priestesses had pictures of their families, reminders of who they were before they entered the Temple in service of Moon Mother.  Not Shai, her semi-warped and faded shelves held a few shabby prayer books and a small etched map of Isthile, all gifts from her surrogate sisters.  Shai had no family, no past, no memories of a time before.  Nobody could tell how old she was, how many annuals had passed since her transition, or if she had transitioned at all.  Even Elder Priestess Kriya with her exceptional gift of Sight remained flummoxed. 

Shaking her head clear, Shai began wording her prayers for the evening session, hopeful as ever that the right phrasing would catch Moon Mother’s ear.  Shai always prayed for the same two things, her transition and her past, though the words did not come as readily when requesting the return of her memories.    This often struck her as odd but a small voice in the back of her mind suggested there could be a reason she forgot in the first place. To not know where one comes from is a greater burden than to be uneasy in one’s own skin.  Shai found herself afflicted in both matters.  Still, she counted herself lucky because of Kriya’s kindness. The Elder Priestess saved her from being shunned and cast into the Fog.  A shiver ran down Shai’s spine.  The Fog.  Everything about it screamed danger, or so the other priestesses told her.  They explained it as a vast mystical entity encircling all of Isthile.  The memories they flashed in Shai’s mind were frightening and captivating.  The Fog appeared to be a dense mist as high as the eye could see and filled with crackling blue lights. Some of the priestesses swore they could hear voices of the lost if you wandered too close.  Only Shai wondered what lay beyond the Fog and the thought nagged at her often. 

Shai’s mind wandered back to the dream, grasping at the threads she could recall, pushing the edges of her mind, trying to see something new in it. She stared at the tile work around her altar, purples of every shade, some bearing the mark of Moon Mother, and surrounding the small statuette she offered thrice daily prayers to.   Shai marveled at the beauty of the Moon Mother’s visage in the flickering firelight from her jasmine candles.  The small idol’s porcelain eyes frozen in an upward fashion, her delicate lips curved in a knowing smile, warm and soft as a mother’s should be.  And then it came, hard and fast, Shai tried to react to the aura, to control the vision, but then she was falling – again.  

Happy Mother's Day!!

Picture courtesy of http://wallpaperhdfree.com/

Happy Mother's Day to those women doing the toughest, most rewarding job in the world!