Choices

I choose the following:

To learn as much as possible.

To use simple words when I express my thoughts.

To be my mother’s best friend, my father’s companion.

To fall in love with my husband every day.

To remain a mother to my children, not to just settle for someone important in their paths.

To believe the dead are still living, and when they talk to me in my dreams, I choose to listen.

To believe the past for some people is the future for me.

To laugh from the heart, and savor every second.

To cry hard and long when I need to cleanse my soul.

I choose to leave you alone,

Not to force my beliefs and opinions on you.

Not to forget my origins.

Not to change my hair color.

Not to paint my nails.

Not to wear too much makeup.

Not to lie to myself and you.

I choose the time and place to spell the truth. If you force me, you will always get what you didn’t ask for.

I choose to be stubborn.

I choose to refuse my reality sometimes, and dream of a better one.

I choose to believe the dream.

I choose to live free.


Lilas Taha is a novelist, winner of the 2017 International Book Awards  and is the author of Shadows of Damascus and Bitter Almonds.

Translations

When there's a character in your book that is from a different culture, say for example your protagonist travels to Egypt or China or any place that is culturally different, he/she might come across local characters. To make them believable, you'll need to have them think and talk from within their culture, translating their thoughts into English, but still maintaining the originality.

An Egyptian person is usually very polite and extremely docile in his/her speech with strangers or foreigners, for example. Even if the character gets angry, the kind of curses or reactions is different than let's say an American or a European character.

A Chinese person would refer to local sayings and ancient stories a lot in their speech. Many cannot be translated right, losing their essence, so it's best to have your protagonist try to figure out the meaning without providing the literal translation. Let the reader help him/her get to the point of that reference. It gives a sense of accomplishment rather than disappointment by the reader for not understanding the real meaning. 

If you're trying to translate the entire book to another language, then word choice becomes the issue. For example, if the character is poor, hungry and tired, and you want to translate that to one of the Indian languages, say Urdu or Hindi, then the expression you use should indicate extreme hunger or starvation to go along with the cultural setting. If your character is deliriously happy, and you want to translate that into Arabic for example, you would want to use words that indicate intoxication to convey the message. 

It is never literal translation. Learning about a certain culture in terms of history and geography is always a good start. But I would recommend watching movies with subtitles if you can, and notice body language with certain expressions. Those are clear indications on how people convey speech, even if you don't know the words. Reaching out to people in the academic fields of those cultures also helps. You'd be surprised how much people would be happy to talk about their cultures and backgrounds. 

Lilas Taha is a novelist, winner of the 2017 International Book Awards  and is the author of Shadows of Damascus and Bitter Almonds.

Obsessions

Dubai invaded her house. 

Without warning, the seductive smoke of Sandalwood incense permeated her bedroom, seeped between her neatly folded clothes, snuck between the sheets and played with her hair.

Suddenly, deep fabric colors replaced her curtains, expensive designer dresses crowded her closet, and crushed saffron petals colored her rice dishes.

He suggested, provided, and encouraged.

She received, experimented and silenced the warning bells in her head.

Did he think he could fool her? Did he think he could ram each new exotic interest in her face without trepidation? Without resisting?

Eyeing the gold-laced perfume bottle on her dresser, she ran her fingertips on its cap. She would not remove the cap off the spherical container. She would not try the oily perfume on her wrists, or behind her ears. She might love the luring scent. Then what would she do when he moved on to a new obsession? What would she do with her interests, her tastes and her inclinations?

Did she even remember what they were? How she was before she met him? Did it matter?

Lilas Taha is a novelist, winner of the 2017 International Book Awards  and is the author of Shadows of Damascus and Bitter Almonds.

Good News

I just signed a contract with Soul Mate publishing to publish, advertise and distribute my first novel, Shadows of Damascus. Once launched, the book will be available through the publisher's website, Amazon and Barnes & Noble and can be downloaded on Kindle, Nook, iPad, or any electronic reader device. Print paperbacks will follow a few months after that. I'm still in the first stage of designing the book cover with the publisher's artists.
This is a dream come true for me. I hope my book will appeal to a good number of readers. I will announce the launch date as it approaches.

A Parasite?

He appeared to her like a boulder, jetting out of her sea of sorrows. She held on to his strength, hoping he would pull her away from the cruel waves of her difficult life.

And he did. With the steadiness of old mountains, and the will of true love, he let her throw at him every annoyance and heartache. He allowed her to depend on his unwavering attention, calmed the waters under her feet and enabled her to float.

She exaggerated her weaknesses. He indulged them. Lifting her little by little off the surface and let life’s lessons pass her by, barely wetting her toes. And thus, she remained. Living off of him, around him, by him, and for him. The distant solid shore never beckoned her to its sands. In the midst of the turbulent sea, she stayed safe in his arms.

Following consistent nature’s cycles, the sea rose one day and swallowed her steady rock. He was taken, like many others in her world. She fell prey to the unwavering power of life’s waves, one after the other, pulsing over her head, drowning her.

 What did she do? What could she do? What did she know how to do?

Barely keeping her head over the water, she looked around and spotted another boulder in the distance. Elegant sea gulls hovered over it.  She kicked her feet as hard as she could, climbed on and clung to its solidness. Safe again. Safe until the next sweeping angry surge.

A parasite? A weakling? A survivor? A woman?


Lilas Taha is a novelist, winner of the 2017 International Book Awards  and is the author of Shadows of Damascus and Bitter Almonds.

It's Official: I'm out!

It's official. My book didn’t make it through the third round of eliminations in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. Disappointing, but somewhat expected. I’d like to think that making it to the top 500 from 10,000 entries worldwide is an accomplishment by itself.

It’s time to go on and keep searching for that right agent, or that excited publisher. I’m still hopeful, and I will keep writing (I’m halfway through my second book).

Many thanks to everyone who cheered me on. Running in the contest was exciting and nerve-wrecking at the same time. But what challenge isn’t?

 Shadows of Damascus excerpt will be removed sometime today from the Amazon website.