A Second Chat with Rob at Cowboy Wisdom NLP Radio

I am very honored that the host of Cowboy Wisdom NLP Radio, Rob Wilson, invited me for a second interview! Rob is a certified professional coach and motivational speaker, generating, facilitating, and illuminating life's possibilities in all people. He is a regular on the Stu Taylor Radio Show, 'Equity Strategies and Business Talk' and a published author of several books: The Wisdom of a Cowboy: Crossing the River and Climbing the Mountain, Wired for Change by a Journeyman and American Worker: Prison Wagesin the Private Sector. 

We talked about my art, about my novel, Apart From Love, offered free for three days (Aug. 31-Sep. 2, 2012) and about my upcoming poetry book, Home. You can listen to it here.

Let Me Play

Bring me along, when you celebrate Labor Day   

I'm free--Apart From Love... I'm your prize   

It's a chance to imagine, to let me play   

A story of passion before your eyes   

   

Take a deep breath and take me outdoors   

Watch the leaves falling, never mind autumn blues   

If you touch me, I'll be all yours   

My pages will rustle, and awaken your muse.   

Detail from the cover of Apart From Love

T'was a Hot Summer Evening

T'was a hot summer evening, Anita laid eyes on Ben   

But summer's gone now, and so is their kiss   

The only witnesses left are my paper and pen   

Let me tell you what happened, from conflicts to bliss   

   

T'was a hot summer. And now, touch my hand   

Let me give you my book. Here, turn a page   

Being Apart From Love is hard to withstand   

Here are Ben and Anita... Let them take stage   

Detail from the cover of Apart From Love

The Breath of Autumn is Here

Summer's come to a close, the breath of autumn is here   

Time for reflection, time for a break   

The winds start gusting at this time of year   

Listen to my whispers, so you make no mistake--   

As golden leaves drift, rustling in the air   

Come cuddle with me, open my cover   

Apart From Love, there's not a moment to spare   

Leaf through my story, it's for you to discover   

Detail from the cover of Apart From love

Katrina and Isaac

Today, faced with news that Isaac Sparks Hurricane Katrina Memories, I pray for the people of New Orleans. Thinking about the wild, ferocious forces of nature, I am reminded of two small details in two of my canvases: Katrina and Earthquake, both of which took months of work, during which I was in awe learning about the survivors. 

I painted both of them on large canvases (36"x60") which force you to step back to view them, as befits the awe these subjects inspire in me. In both, I composed groupings of figures, captured at the moment of meeting their fate, meeting disaster. Most of them are completely oblivious to you, the observer, as they focus on trying to escape death, and helping others. 

But in each one of these paintings, one figure--a child--turns a penetrating look directly at you, as if to cry out--Help! Can't you do something? Pull me out of here! 

Detail from Katrina

Detail from Earthquake

It gives me pause today, knowing that the boy in second painting is inspired by my thoughts going back to the biblical story of the binding of Isaac. There he is, carrying a bundle of wood, which is meant to build the altar for his own sacrifice.

Let us pray for New Orleans, and for people everywhere, because we are all being tested by fate.

A Beautifully Crafted Triangle of Love

A new ★★★★★ book review has been posted today on Amazon for Apart From Love:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Crafted Triangle of Love, August 26, 2012

By 

A. Rose (Devon & Menorca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apart From Love (Paperback)

The story is told from the viewpoints of Ben and Anita. Ben is the adult son of Lenny who has been estranged from his parents for the past ten years, with Ben blaming his father for the break up of the family when Lenny and Natasha divorced. Anita is Lenny's new wife who is pregnant, the same age as Ben and also has an uncanny resemblance to Natasha, so much so they could have been taken as sisters - but in appearance only. Natasha was a beautiful and talented concert pianist with elegance and grace to match. Whereas Anita is rough, ill educated, dresses brashly and her speech is no better than `street talk'. What Ben didn't know was that even when he was a child at home living with both his parents, his mother was in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease and that this progressed to the stage where Lenny divorced her and had her cared for in a home. The marriage wasn't always happy with Lenny having many affairs and flings but Anita, one of his flings, had been around for ten years or so before he married her following an unplanned pregnancy.

Without giving more of the story away, there are many facets to each persons story and all have their hopes, fears and revelations. The love between Ben and Anita which both of them hide as much from themselves as each other, is a slow burn, almost dangerous dance that is more in their heads than physical. Lenny is a little bit like a spy listening to tape recordings of both Ben and Anita's thoughts, playing and rewinding the tapes over and over, torturing himself in preparing their words for the novel he is writing.

Uvi Poznasky is a very talented lady, not only is she a very accomplished writer, she is a poet, sculptor, artist, teacher and much more. The beautiful cover of the book is of one of her works of art and after visiting her website I see that she is indeed gifted and worth taking a look at uviart.com . This is a beautiful and sophisticated novel of love, loss and torture and well worth reading.

Seriously Sensual

Just listen to me, as I bare my soul      

Talking to Gabrielle and Nicki-Nicole     

No need to put me up on some high pedestal     

'Cause here we are, girls: seriously sensual     

To hear about some of the intimate details hidden in the pages of Apart From Love, Listen to my interview with at Seriously Sensual, here:

Listen to internet radio with Seriously Sensual on Blog Talk Radio

Seeing my Home Through a Fish-Eye

When my father passed away, I went back home for the traditional Shiva-a, the seven days period of mourning. Perhaps the grief did something to change the way I viewed things, or else it was sitting in that space--my childhood home--in a spot I rarely sat before, discovering it from a new angle, observing how light penetrated the far reaches of this place, how the furniture signified relationships in the family. I drew what I saw on a napkin; wiped my tears with it, and later discarded it.

Coming back to the states, I recreated that sketch from memory. In my new drawing I used a fish-eye perspective. What does that mean? Like regular perspective, the horizontal lines converge into a vantage point in the distance. But here is the difference: the vertical lines are not straight, nor are they parallel. As you look up, vertical lines converge to a point up there, beyond the edge of the paper. You can call it Heaven. And as you look down, the vertical lines converge to a point below, call it Hell. Which makes the entire perspective embrace you, as if you are in the middle of a fish bowl, seeing the world curve around you.

And looking though such a perspective, what did I see? An earthquake, really, in the aftermath of my father's death. Books falling off the shelves; the lamp swinging like a pendulum; the little side table (in the front) overturned, so my father will never lay his pen upon it; and instead of the persian rugs that used to adorn this space once upon a time, I floated blank pages on the floor; pages he will never again use for writing.

In my next sketch I let the lamp swing even higher into the air. The place has completely tilted, and my father's armchair is ascending above the rest of the furniture. This is the sketch I used for an oil painting called My Father's Armchair, which later became the cover of my new book, coming out now: Home.

"HOME is an homage... poetry that's never been placed before the public until now"
Inspired by poetry? 

Download this profoundly moving, highly praised book

One-Star Review... What to Do, What to Do?

So what do you do when the moment comes? There you are, all confused, faced with the dubious gift, which has been dropped at your doorstep (or rather, on your book page): a 1-star review. What should you do?

Nothing!

Nothing? But—

No! No buts! The reader is your customer, and the customer is always right! Always. If she didn't understand the plot, or could not connect to your characters, it's not her fault—it's yours. So take your grief to a private place and cry and wail and shout there, until the pain subsides... Never, never, never argue with your reader! She's right, you're wrong.

Never?

Never! Except—

Except what?

Except... Do you have time? This is a long and convoluted story, which happened to me only yesterday—

I'm listening.

Yesterday, a 1-star rating, with no review, appeared on my book page on Goodreads (in case you don't know, this is a social network for readers, exchanging views about book.) As you can see, most of the existing reviews are 5-star rating, with a few 4-star rating. So, casting a 1-star rating is an extreme action, which should never appear without a review. Why? Because when a reader takes the opportunity to throw that fine record into utter imbalance, to degrade it really, why not include a review with some constructive criticism for the author? And why not tell other readers the reasons for your dissatisfaction?

So then, what did you do?

First, I looked at the other ratings this reader gave (nearly all were 5-stars) and at the kind of books she read (most of which were great literature.) Clearly, she was well read. Her name, Melodie, looked familiar, but at first I thought nothing of it. Then my eye caught the other actions she has made (listed in a log on the reader page on Goodreads) around the time she dropped this rating. And what do I see—

Yes, what—

She has voted for several books on a Goodreads list called Indie Book Better than 50 Shades of Gray. My book happened to shoot up to #1 on that list, exactly on the same day. Which immediately made me suspect that the bad rating was a ploy, way to draw my book down, out of some jealousy on behalf of another author. I asked myself if I should contact her—

Really? I thought you said, never—

Well, I reserve the right to break my own rules! And so I sent her a message on Facebook, and as I did so, I noticed that we've had an exchange of messages two months ago.

Was it full of hate, of envy or something?

Not at all! It was a delightful conversation, and now I remembered who she was: a great Amazon reviewer, who gave Apart From Love a glowing 5-star review, written in her articulate style! If you care to go two months back in time, you can read about her and about her review here.

Now, that's strange—

That's where the plot really thickens... Melodie wrote back to me, to say she was confused and concerned, because she doesn't even belong to GoodReads that she knows of. I totally believe this. The only place she has ever written reviews is on Amazon, or occasionally in Facebook comments. After our conversation, she connected to Goodreads via Facebook and was alarmed to see that she, or rather someone using her identity, has rated over 300 books!

That's identity theft, isn't it?

It is, and an extremely clever one at that. There were no reviews on these 300 books, only ratings. I suppose that the criminal entered most of these ratings to reflect Melodie's record on Amazon. But then, every once in a while, the criminal used Melodie's identity as a 'sock puppet' for herself. In such instances, she cast a rating that supported her own literary work, or else, to suppress her competitors—which is what happened here.

Wow! If you stayed silent, if you didn't talk to Melodie, this would not have come out to the light...

That is true. The rule is, walk away, never talk to a reader who gives you a 1-star rating. But the reward I got for breaking this rule is this: the rating has been stricken out from the books. Not only that, but the sock puppet is gone, too! Melodie's fake account on Goodreads has been deleted, along with its fake "history"—and now, let me finish by saying this: I hope that Goodreads identifies the criminal. It is not that hard, simply by analyzing the sock puppet's record! And one clue to the identity of the criminal is this: She must be the author of one of the books on Indie Book Better than 50 Shades of Gray! Otherwise, she would not have used her 'sock puppet' to vote on that list...

Hanging Out with a Teddy Bear, Saving a Tilting Fish

From listening to previous author interviews at the Writers' Lounge, I knew that there was a teddy bear hanging in the studio... So in my mind, I could see it dangling there, listening while I was talking to the host of the show, Tom Riddell, whose review for Apart For Love was posted on his site about a week ago, and his co-host Robin Eduardo.

As the interview opened, Tom asked me to read a short excerpt. So here is a flashback to the time Ben was twelve years old child, facing the fish tilting sideways in his aquarium:

"The fish, it seems to be gulping for air. Maybe it forgot how to breathe. I know I can fix it. First I rub the mouth, delicately, with my finger. Then I try to massage the entire body. I am doing my best, my very best to be gentle—but in the end, some scales tear off the body, and a tiny fin flakes away.
At this point, I must do something, and fast. Just like dad: he did what he could for grandma, and blew his breath into her; and his breath was magical, because it lasted in her, somehow, for the next two weeks. I can do better than that for this little body, even with a few scales or a fin missing. So, I take a deep breath, put my lips to the fish—but then the smell, the touch... It makes me pause for a minute.
Still, I cannot give up: I must be brave, just like dad—or else, the spell may be broken. So again I gasp, and with frantic hope, I give a full-blown puff. The red eyes seem to be looking at me, and the tail is hanging over my finger, and it looks limp, and a bit crumpled.
I cannot allow myself to weep. No, not now. So I wipe the corner of my eye. Now if you watch closely, right here, you can see that the tail is still crinkling. I gasp, and blow again. I blow and blow, and with a last-gasp effort I go on blowing until all is lost, until I don’t care anymore, I mean it, I don’t care but the tears, the tears come, they are starting to flow, and there is nothing, nothing more I can do—
Then I feel mom, the smell of her skin. Here she is, wrapping her arms around mine. Softly, gently, she releases the fish, and takes me to their bed, and dad says nothing but makes room for me, and I curl myself in the dent between them, and it feels so warm here and so sweet that at last, I can lose myself, and I cry myself to sleep."

To listen to the entire interview, come hang out with us at The Writers' Lounge.

'Better that 50 Shades of Gray'

Apart From Love is currently voted #1 in Indie Book Better than 50 Shades of Gray! Are you a Goodreads member? If so, please show support and add your vote. 

Home, from the Back

When I posted the front cover of my upcoming book, Home, a reader wrote to me saying she was so ready to read it! So I worked as hard as I can, designing the back cover. While the image on the front is based on my oil painting, the one on the back is conjured out of thin air... Here three snapshots I took of the design process: 

Using gimp (a program with capabilities similar to Photoshop) I cut and pasted segments from the image for the front cover, creating a 'collage' on screen. 

Using virtual 'brushes' of various sizes and bristle signatures,  I painted the over the collage, so it became as textured and its lines as curvy as the front cover. I softened the sharp lines, so they do not 'steal' your attention away from the text to be displayed on top. Thus, I made it a 'smoky' atmosphere, that complements the home image on the front cover.

Then I took time off to compose the blurb. Once I was happy with it, I created the text shadows, which are not black but rather the darkest purple in the image. I blurred these shadows, to soften their hard edges. Then I created the text that appears over the shadows. (When text appears over an image that is highly textured, it is important to present any text over a layer of shadow, which helps separate the letters from the image.)

Love poetry?
Get the highly acclaimed, profoundly moving book

In the beautiful print edition
Home.

Home

Home is a vessel holding poems and prose in tribute of my father. I spent an entire day working on the design of the front cover:

The image may look familiar to you, I have showcased it in My Father's Armchair, and offered closeup details, in association with my poems Muse and This is the Place. However, I needed a higher resolution image for the front cover, which presented a real challenge. It is extremely difficult to photograph this piece, because the layer of gold, which is exposed in places, reflects light in unpredictable ways. So I snapped the picture in one room, then another, with diffused daylight coming from the side, the front, the top, with and without flash, then took it outside and snapped it in sunlight, in the shadow, here, there and everywhere... You get the picture.

At last I found one version that looked fine to me. First I had to fit the image to a prescribed size (according the book size I have in mind.) Then I created the shadows of the lettering. You may notice that the shadow's color is not black, but rather it is the darkest purple of the painting (which can be seen in the lower left corner.) Also, I blurred these shadows, so they do not have hard edges, but fuzzy ones. Then I selected a soft yellow, with which I typed the title, Home; and a less bright version of this yellow, with which I typed my name and my father's. Being brighter, the title 'comes forward' in relationship to the author names. 

Normally I would make sure that all text fields are of the same width, or that they are arranged in a way that the one on top has the shortest width, and the one at the bottom has the longest width, which creates a sense of stability. Not so here, because I view my childhood home through the shaky lens of memory...

"Not only does the author take the reader into a wonderful world where words are like music,
ebbing and flowing with a rhythm that is captivating and beautiful, 

but she also gives life to her father's writings"

Get the print edition of the highly acclaimed book

Home

Audiobook coming soon!

Wonderful!

This review has just been posted on the book page of Apart From Love on Amazon UK:

A4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! 14 Aug 2012

By ShonUK

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

"`Apart from Love' is quite unlike any story I've ever read, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The writing is full of lyricism and imagery, melancholy and hope, whilst the story seldom wanders very far from one cramped apartment in Santa Monica.
It is not a book that will take you on a journey through a place or an era, but rather through the minds of three people.
Anita, Ben and Lenny are undoubtedly connected through kin and marriage, yet are so sadly disconnected by their individual histories, secrets, guilt and remorse. They find an obscure way with which to communicate and reach out to each other, recording their voices and thoughts on an old tape recorder. The fact that they share this tiny living space, yet are so far from understanding each other is beautifully delivered through Poznansky's prose and style.
Anita is Lenny's second wife, articulate and eloquent with her desires and despairs despite her dreadful English, brash ways and lack of education. Ben, only a year older than Anita, is Lenny's son. He is recently returned after years estranged from his broken family. Natasha, Ben's mother and Lenny's first wife, is the white elephant in the room, her absence enormous and tangible.
`Apart from Love' is a clever, in-depth, unadulterated exploration of the thoughts of these individuals as they flow unheeded through their minds, allowing the reader to float, swim, wade, and splutter along with these oft times drowning characters.
The story wraps up in a wonderful way, pulling the threads together to make sense of the way the book has been structured.

I noticed that Poznansky is also the painter of the stunning cover design, her gift with word images spilling into visual art, proving herself a very talented artist."

Fall in love with Anita, "a diamond in the rough"

Download this highly praised novel here: 

Apart From Love

Muse

The lamp swings like a pendulum, pictures sway on their nails 

Then slip down the walls, leaving scratched trails 

Amidst the quake, the grief, the confusion and scare 

Slowly ascending is my father's armchair 

And beyond all these outlines of what I see there 

Beyond the sofa, the knickknacks, the old furniture 

Light pours in, and it paints something new 

It reveals, it unveils at this moment a clue 

The clue to a presence only he could once see 

A presence he longed for, because only she 

Could call him back home, and envelop him so 

Touching-not-touching, her hands all aglow 

These pages, upon which he'll never scribble a line 

Are floating from the shadows, into the shine 

Only she can now read the blanks, she and no other 

He's ascending into the hands of his muse, his mother.

Here is a detail from the top center of my oil painting, My Father's Armchair, and a detail from its bottom. These details are also visible on the cover of my new book, Home. 

While everyone notices the hands at the bottom, few discover the subtle appearance of the face at the top, because it exists in a different layer than reality, hinting at the presence of a muse... 

This poem is included in my poetry book, Home.

Never Too Old for YA Books?

I am so excited to let you know that my novel, Apart From Love, has been selected on Goodreads for the Book of the Month list, for the group Never too Old for Y.A. Books.

Are you a member of this group? If so, I would be so grateful if you help my book get selected. Please vote for it  here: Book of the Month September Indie Author.

Perhaps At Last He Can Feel Her...

This is the place where he put pen to paper... 

But clung to the wall, the shelves are now bare 

All that remains of his words is but vapor 

All you can spot is but a dent in his chair 

He used to sit here, here he would stare 

Years come, years go, an old clock keeping score, 

He would scribble his notes, crumple them in despair 

Waiting for his savior—but locking that door 

That door sealed him off, away from all danger 

Except from the depth of the danger within 

No one could intrude here, except for the stranger 

Who would carry him off to where his end would begin— 

The poet, who’d mourned the loss of his mother 

Would then, somehow, be reduced to a child 

He would crouch at the threshold, and call, call, call her 

Knock, knock, knock at that door; no more stifled, but wild 

This is the place where he put pen to paper 

Till the door opened, creaking on a hinge... 

Locked in embrace, perhaps at last he can feel her 

No need to cry now, can't feel that twinge

Detail from my oil painting, My Father's Armchair. You can barely see down at the far depth, but hiding in the shadows is the entrance door to this place, where I grew up and where my father spent the last twenty four years of his life, alone.

Moved by poetry?
Treat yourself to a gift. Get my highly acclaimed book
Home

Apart From Love is in Several Cover Contests

Apart From Love, with a cover image based on my painting, is in several cover contests! For example, it is in second position (out of 90 books) on Goodreads' Best Illustrated Book Covers. If you are a Goodreads member and you like the cover, please vote for it.

Beyonce and Marilyn Monroe

For a writer just coming out of obscurity, how do you know you're starting to make a dent in the public mind? When you utter a whisper, how do you even know someone is listening? Well, in my case, the answer is this: you know it when Beyonce and Marilyn Monroe start following you on Twitter! How cool is that! (And don't even bother hinting that Marilyn is no longer among us--she lives on!)

Look, this is what I find when I follow them back: both of these amazing divas have wise and poignant thoughts, which they express with the brevity necessary for Twitter communication.

Beyonce Knowles
@BeyonceKnowIess FOLLOWS YOU
Beyonce is a singer songwriter record producer actress,dancer choreographer model fashion designer vocals one of the biggest Artist of all time!
Los Angeles, CA

"You can close your eyes to the things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your heart to the things you don’t want to feel."

"You say you missed me, well I missed me too, because I was never myself whenever I was with you."

"You’re everything I thought you never were and nothing like I thought you could’ve been."

Marilyn Monroe
@MarilynMonroeDC FOLLOWS YOU
Ego & love cannot exist together. They are like light & darkness: when light comes, darkness disappears. | Created by @jeremiah_alric | Owner by @sofiebilancia
Washington, DC · http://www.facebook.com/MarilynMonroeDC

"In life; Good experiences will produce memorable moments and bad experiences will produce lessons."

"Kindness should never be confused with weakness! What someone doesn't do shouldn't ever be confused with what they are capable of doing."

"God and the Devil both have the power to grant your deepest desires; in the end, it’s the price you pay for them that matters."

Who Says It Belongs on The New York Times Best Sellers List?

Tom Riddell describes himself as a a fairly easy going kind of guy who takes responsibility for his life and is interested in many things- everything from politics to books, to the super natural- paranormal. Who says that being 50+ can't be fun?He is currently working on a novel. He is also a TV Producer at SCCTV (Washington @ Work), a web site administrator, and a host Blog Talk Radio Show: The Writers' Lounge. I am very honored that he posted this ★★★★★ review on his site:

"The author has taken a very complicated premise, involving three complex characters and interlaced them all into a story that will seep into the hearts and souls of many readers. It is surely destined to become a novel that you will well remember for a long time to come.

The richness of this tale becomes beautifully evident in the way the author delves into every intricate detail of the story. Not overly done, the narrative fits perfectly, pulling you along, tantalizing you to want more..."

Tom concludes the review with these words:

"If there are first time novels that truly belong on The New York Times Best Sellers List- this one is it!   This read, from beginning to end, remained solidly at the very top of the star rating scale for me. Excellent work!"

To read the entire review, see BOOK REVIEW: APART FROM LOVE- BY UVI POZNANSKY

"Amazing"

A new ★★★★★ review for Apart From Love, titled "Amazing" was posted today on Amazon. It was written by Christian Ashley, the author of the book In Daddy's Arms. Here is what she wrote:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, August 8, 2012

By 

Christian Ashley (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Apart From Love (Paperback)

"Apart from love" is a truly artistic novel that is difficult to put down. As I had understood it, "Apart From Love" was a collection of journal entries which explained why Anita and Ben were both presented in first person throughout the book. I was raised in West Los Angeles, and recognized well every place discussed in the book as Uvi's descriptions were perfect. The way that the story unfolded and how the ending was presented and explained afterward absolutely amazed me.

~Sherri Christian-Samson

To read this review (among others) click here

I'm blessed for the pleasure, blessed for the agony

by Zeev Kachel

Translated by Uvi Poznansky

 I'm blessed for the pleasure, blessed for the agony

Blessed for the fear, the pain of it all

In which I was steeped, in this reality

And granted the chance to endure or to fall 

I'm blessed for the hardship, and blessed for the hurt

Blessed for the crevices, obstacles and all

In the heart of the storm, my journey I chart

To leap over the inferno, and turn back to recall

I'm blessed to have lived, in honor and courage

Blessed I could take a deep plunge, then soar

Blessed for the vinegar, and blessed for the honey

Blessed to be counted with the few at the fore

That somehow did reach their big destiny.

My father wrote all his life, but at the age of sixty-five, immediately after retirement, he started to paint. Earlier in his life he had made light of abstract painting, but now found his way to it. This oil painting, which he called Creation of the World, is done with strong, thick brushstrokes and luscious touches of paint.

Looking for highly acclaimed, moving poetry

Treat yourself to a gift!
Download my poetry book
Home

What's in a Name?

When writing a story, how do you choose a name for your hero? At times this is an abvious, natural choice; other times you struggle with it, and have doubts about your choice. Recently I came across an article by Thomas A Knight about this subject. He is an author who writes stories set in a fantasy world of his own design. The name of the article is Writer's Den #5 - What's In A Name. This is how it starts:  

"'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' Or so wrote the great William Shakespeare. But would it really? Name's are important in fiction. It's hard to identify with a character that has a long or difficult to pronounce name, and names that are too common or overused can have the same effect. So how do we come up with the winner?"

In the Grip of Jealousy

"I leaned over the railing of the pier, and for a second hoped he would see me. How could he not, with my hair flaming red, and blowing, long and wild, in the winter wind, which swept across the divide?
Now I could see the girl sitting there, opposite him. She raised her glass and clinked it against his, then cuddled up to him, like, to whisper something up close, in his ear.
I don’t hardly know if there was something odd with the air, which stirred past me with cloud after cloud of salty mist; or the sheet of glass over there, which must have had some flaws all over it; or the mirror image of sunset, which buckled out of shape, in and out of the flaws; or else, was it the film of tears, which formed in my eyes; or the sorrow, which came in like a tide, to wash over me—but in a blink, everything blurred.
Everything started swimming in front of me: like, the shadow of her little black dress, the flash of her gold earring, even the blond streaks in her hair. All of them things, which lived on the other side of the layers—the layer of mist, and of glass, and flaws, tears, wash—they all rippled a bit and then, settled into a haze."

Anita, in Apart From Love

Inspired by a sketch of a nude I have drawn earlier,  here is a collage using magazine cutouts glued to transparency paper. Because of the materials I used, it was a bit difficult to photograph this properly; but in real life, the best way to view it is against a window, so the lights seeps through the transparency paper.

Fall in love with Anita

Dubbed "the diamond in the rough"

Download the highly acclaimed ebook

Apart From Love

Audiobook coming soon!