Effrosyni Moschoudi's Blog, page 52

The Lady of the Pier hits the physical shelves. Now in paperback!

The Lady of the Pier is now available at Createspace in paperback format.
You can check it out in the Createspace store, here.
Within a week, it will also appear on Amazon worldwide and soon later, will also be available through expanded distribution channels even in a library near you.
Later in the year, The Necklace of Goddess Athena will follow suit.

 

 

 

Nicholas on Sale: All books now 99c

Effrosyni Moschoudi:

Nicholas Rossis is giving away all his books for next to nothing for a short while! I have read the epic Pearseus series and his fabulous Sci-Fi stories in Power of Six. The writing is amazing so if you’re looking for a riveting fantasy/Sci-Fi read, look no further!

Buy his books on Amazon

 

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:

In case you’ve missed the huge sale banner on my blog (and it’s okay if you have, I, too, filter out banners and such most of the time), here’s the deal:

Between the 20th and 27th, all of my books will be only 99c!

As I’ve kept the book prices on various offers for a while now, this is the last chance (for a few months, anyway) to get the best-selling Pearseus epic fantasy books for less than a cup of coffee.

You can also grab a copy of The Power of Six, which contains seven short sci-fi stories, plus a bonus link to an otherwise unreleased one. Again, eight short stories for less than a cup of joe. So, don’t be shy, give it a try (sorry, I always wanted to say that!).

Any help getting the word out,will be much appreciated! :)

Buy Links:

Buy the Pearseus epic fantasy bundle (3…

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An annual holiday to just be

HECTIC.

If I were to sum up in one word my every day experience for the past ten months, then that’s the word I’d choose.

Of course, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. My life has changed enormously since entering the indie world. I’ve known the pleasure of sharing my books with thousands of readers worldwide, I’ve absorbed a staggering amount of information on marketing methods and the craft of writing and most importantly, I’ve met a large number of lovely fellow indies; some of them I’m privileged and proud to call dear friends today. But this amazing ride, hasn’t been without its drawbacks.

I remember in previous years since becoming unemployed in 2010, the time when I filled my days with doing virtually nothing of importance for hours on end. Especially the summers were real bliss. I’d go down to the beach every day, swim and sunbathe in the serenity alone (yes, my town can get quite deserted sometimes!), or at home I’d spend lazy afternoons reading in the porch. In the years that I still had a dog, I’d take it for walks and enjoy sauntering through fields. Up until a year ago, I also had a busy exercise schedule that I carried out in my living room: yoga, aerobics and weight training. I also practiced meditation 3-4 times a week. You may think that all the above summed up a boring existence but believe me, those years were highly beneficial because the aforementioned pastimes helped me maintain a deep sense of joy and perfect clarity of mind; not to mention a cracking good physical shape.

Sadly, becoming an indie author changed all that. This past winter saw me piling up the stress in the first couple of months. The main negative feeling I recall from those days, was the debilitating feeling of inadequacy that gnawed at my sense of self-assurance. And of course, there was a great amount of apprehension involved, plus a sense of loss of direction. That was when I was alone still. I hadn’t made any friends yet to offer their precious assistance, support and guidance. Basically I had noone who understood the indie world so that I could express my angst and seek advice. Stress took a very strong hold on me and the result was a case of frozen shoulder back in January which although has eased considerably by now, is still a daily issue. I’ve learnt a great deal about this temporary, yet stubborn condition enough to realize the cause was a combination of a lot of stress and the long hours on the computer without any physical exercise. I mean I wasn’t even leaving the house on most days. Sometimes it’d be a week or more before I had a proper walk.

Anyway. To cut a long story short, the past year has been quite different to life as I knew it before, and physically, I feel I’ve paid the price. Months on end of constant pain and nights without much sleep due to my frozen shoulder are the hardest lesson I’ve learnt from all the mistakes I’ve ever made. For this reason, I’m taking a substantial and real break from it all during my annual holiday, to make sure that the next year will be a different story.

In a couple of days, my husband Andy and I are off to Corfu to visit my grandmother for our annual holiday in her house for just over a week. I say holiday, although for me it’s always more than that: it’s a pilgrimage. Every object in her home and every square centimetre of cement on her yard carries a memory from my childhood, my teens and early adult years; from the days when my granddad and lots of other dear relatives were still around.

Even the village beach that you can see in the picture carries a wealth of memories from when I was only little. People who’ve read my book “The Lady of the Pier” might recognize the similarities with the descriptions of Sofia’s beloved villlage in the book. The sports pier you see in the photo is the one that inspired it all and in the distance, you can see the “pyramid-shaped mountain” that my character Sofia loves so. This place has in store for me all the right ingredients that can help me regain my sanity and high spirits after a difficult year where in times I felt completely lost,  fed up, and other times, scared out of my wits.

It won’t be the first time this summer that I will swim in these waters and then sit on the sand to clear my head. But this year, I need it more than ever. I need it as to nurture me back to health and also to recharge my batteries for another year of mentally-exhausting, 10-hour workdays on the computer, even on weekends. To make things easier for myself,  I plan to be offline throughout my holiday break.

At first, the little voice of my ego complained in my head, in that tiny 5-year-old voice, typical of someone so selfish and immature. “How can you be offline for a whole week? People will forget you! Followers on Twitter will unfollow you! Don’t you care for your friends? They might need you for something pressing! And what if this super-duper, mega-important email comes while you’re away, huh?”

But then the down-to-earth voice of reason came from my adult mind to calm down the irrational little child in me. “Come on, let’s have a swim or two in peace and the rest will take care of itself, shall we? I’ll buy ice cream,” I added with a mental wink. That did the trick and the little brat remains quiet still. It’s not that I could have told my blind, misguided ego the truth now. I could hardly have spurted it out that frankly, I am not THAT important after all. The world is not going to end. The earth won’t stop spinning around its axis just because I’ll miss a few tweets and FB posts!

I owe it to myself, to take my eyes away from the blinking screen, if only for 1 week out of 52. I feel I also owe it to Andy, to gaze into his eyes instead for a change. Poor guy – he’s been so understanding! I hardly take my eyes off the screen to look at him most of the time when he talks to me as I’m tweeting or emailing!

Truth is, I yearn to be “Sofia” again – to sit on that beach and gaze at my favorite ‘pyramid-shaped mountain’ for a while. To clear my head, hear the murmur of the sea and just be. God I’ve missed that! I just know that unless I do that, I simply won’t have the stamina or the mental capacity to brave another year in the same kind of rhythm.

So, my good friends, this is to say, I’ll speak to you again soon!

It’s been a tough year; yet it’s yielded a wealth of exciting beginnings and accomplishments for you and me. Here’s hoping that the next year will grant us all even more amazing days.

A great new year begins this September – see you then!

Do you check with Alexa before parting with your money?

The other day, an author friend asked my opinion about a site where she wanted to submit her book for a review. As I’d heard of the site before, I said it would be a good idea. Later on, she contacted me again and said that for submitting her book, they expected her to pay $10 as to display the cover along with the review. That’s when I got warning bells. Why did they tell her the review itself was free, but they needed payment to display the cover that’s bound to go with it? Why not depend on their Amazon affiliate links for revenue if the review itself is free or just ask for a donation? It sounded weird and so the warning bells kept ringing. You see, I don’t abide to many rules in general but there’s one among very few that I find absolutely non-negotiable: “Don’t part with your money unless you’re absolutely sure it’s worth every penny.”

So, what I did, is ask my friend if it had occurred to her to check out the popularity of the site before paying them. Turned out, she didn’t know what I was talking about. And then it hit me. How many indie authors don’t know this incredibly handy tip I had to share?

Believe it or not, there are so many sites out there requesting fees that don’t correspond to their popularity, their skills, knowledge, and certainly not their readership.

Now, I don’t think I’ve met an indie author yet with money to spare. I don’t know if you have, but the above incident gave me an idea for this post anyway. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a tip or two on the subject of savvy promotion? So here’s what I have to say, and hope you’ll find it useful!

The first thing you should always do before paying anything for online advertising (as I advised my friend also in this case!) is to check the site’s popularity on the all-singing, all-dancing site called Alexa.

Alexa is an Amazon company and the big guns to turn to if you want to know how popular a site is. It’s as easy as 1-2-3 to check the rank of any given site and Alexa lets you check as many as you want without charge. Obviously, the more popular sites rank with smaller numbers. For example, Google is #1 these days, Facebook is #2 but the humble blog you’re reading right now is #1,076,202.

To give you an idea of how poor a choice the not-to-be-mentioned site was, I’ll say it ranks on Alexa at #1,136,544. So, my friend was asked to pay $10 to be featured on a site that has an even lower popularity than this very blog that’s run by one person (yours truly!) who’s been blogging for less than a year. Speaks volumes for the other site’s professionalism, right? So there you go; save yourself some dough (if not embarrassment) and count on Alexa. Go on; try it here.

You’ll find it’s a BIG eye-opener!

When I first used Alexa to do my bit of ‘spying’, I had quite a shock. Sites that I thought were quite popular ranked amazingly low, even lower than my blog! There was one site in particular that I’d invested hours in, corresponding back and forth for months and submitting articles for publication. Its Alexa rank is over 15 million! How silly did I feel then? Well, you can imagine I’m sure.

On the flipside, by using Alexa you’ll get a lot of pleasant surprises. I know I did when I found out that Fabulosity Reads ranks at 98,173 globally. Wendy Ewurum doesn’t call herself blogger Ninja for nothing, nor is it a surprise now, even more so, that she’s the best blog tour organizer out there. I’m even prouder now to host her tours on this blog.

David Njoku’s Indie Author Land is also another well-known site that ranks very high globally: 434,116. His US rank is much greater: 139,904. I think this incredible number reflects David’s amazing marketing skills and generous spirit of solidarity.

In case this is of use to you, this site is my #1 favorite site to advertise my free promos on. Also, it’s a great place to get an interview as David is said to give authors a lot of Twitter love if you know what I mean! Get your interview here.

If you’re willing to pay for a subscription, Alexa will become your new best friend. For a monthly fee, you’ll get to find out how many people hit your site, how long they stay there, which pages they browse and lots more, depending on the level of your subscription. The stats are very comprehensive so check the site for all details.

To get an idea of the type of information an Alexa subscriber can get, check out this post by Jackie Weger. Incidentally, you may want to keep an eye on Jackie and eNovel Authors At Work. There’s a lot of information and promotion opportunities there if you join the group. As for Jackie herself, other than being a very experienced author, she’s a remarkable lady who takes no crap and writes about it. Plus, she holds a snake gun and is not afraid to use it. You’ll get a wealth of info and a lot of chuckles if you follow her posts.

Back to those sites that may try to double cross you… now you know to use Alexa as to discover the magnitude of their audacity. But if still in doubt, don’t hesitate to contact the site that interests you. Ask them bluntly any outstanding questions if you’ve read their pricing info but certain points remain conveniently unsaid. For example, prestigious sites like Bookbub (the best site in this galaxy and the next for advertising promos) will list their ad prices but will also tell you what their readership is in thousands for every genre, plus they’ll give you an estimation of how many downloads you’re likely to get for the money you’ll spend. Check out this link to see what I mean.

Bookbub is fully transparent with its pricing information and that’s what you want to look for. Be suspicious; be very suspicious with sites that don’t tell you what their readership is and even more so, with the ones who will hesitate to tell you even when you ask. Oddly, they are the ones who might even charge more money!

Before I go, I will give you another last, great tip. If you’re looking for a good site to promote you, this is it. Well, chances are you already know this one as it’s so widely known but even if there’s one indie author left who isn’t aware, it’s worth repeating: For book promotion, there’s no better value for money than what you’ll get on AskDavid.

AskDavid is well-known for its amazing Alexa rank: 46,554 !

This means high and guaranteed visibility. The other good thing is that it’s highly affordable. A mere $15 will allow you to promote all your books on the site for a year. Check out all the details here.

It goes without saying that this post, just like any other of mine that contains tips, is simply information I’ve gathered and feel that I should share for other people’s benefit. I assure you I’m not on commission with any site, nor do I receive any fees for the advice I give you. I only hope to help fellow authors fare safely on the perilous waters of cyberspace and only knowledge can ascertain that! So, I hope this helps my fellow indies…

If you have any relevant tips, then do post a comment and let us all benefit!

A Conversation Over Milk and Cookies with Kindle Ninja

Recently, I got chatting with a hilarious Ninja character who also happens to be a fervent supporter of indie authors. Before he invited me over to his top secret Ninja-dwelling for a chat over Milk & Cookies, he’d already extended the same invitation to my fellow authors and lovely friends, Danica Cornell and Nicholas Rossis. Still, when my turn came I didn’t know what to expect. When the questions started coming my way, I answered in all honesty of course, but found it pretty hard to keep my hands off the delicious doughnuts. Naughtiness ensued and was inevitable, but Kindle Ninja was the perfect gentleman about it.

What follows is a not-so-typical interview that I hope will add a chuckle or two to your day!

KINDLE NINJA: Welcome to Conversations over Milk and Cookies. How do you like your cookies? Chewy? Crunchy? Crumbly? Something else?

Crunchy of course! Have you ever tried to dunk a crumbly or a chewy cookie in hot tea? Disaster, my friend! I have a favorite cookie too. It’s Miranda by Papadopoulou (a very old Greek brand). In the winter, I often kiss my waistline goodbye by dunking in my tea up to a dozen of those babies before you can even say ‘Gosh, I see you’re going for the beached whale look next summer!’ Even the image on the side of my mug is not without meaning (snorts).

Read the rest of the interview, here.

Amazon now Allows Pre-orders to Authors

Effrosyni Moschoudi:

A great new tool in the hands of Amazon authors!

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:

A month ago, I published Mad Water, the third book in my epic fantasy series Pearseus. I had announced the imminent publication on social media and to my friends. A lot of them asked me if they could pre-order the book.

“I’m afraid Amazon doesn’t support pre-orders,” I had to explain, to my dismay.

Which is why I am so excited to announce that it now does! I came across the good news the other day, and knew I had to share with you.

According to the Amazon website, you can now make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. Setting a pre-order allows customers to order your book as early as 90 days before your book’s release date. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set and it will be delivered to…

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The mind-boggling mystery of a successful free promo

Last week, and for the first time ever, I ran a free promo for both my books at the same time.

For the benefit of first time visitors, I will mention here that The Necklace of Goddess Athena is my debut novel (a fantasy) while my second one, The Lady of the Pier, is a romance. Now, I had heard the warnings that you’re supposed to promote one book at a time, but I’ve never been one to follow rules. As always, I am keen to try new things and explore all possibilities so was rather looking forward to this experiment. Also, another novelty I went for, was to let the free promo run for all five days that KDP Select allows me, all in one go.

As always, I announced the promo everywhere. Both books were to be up for grabs worldwide from August 7-11. I spent the usual 2-3 days before that, submitting them to free sites. I tweeted and FB’d about it adequately in advance too.

When the big day came, surprise number 1 hit me! As I had run two more free promos already for my debut novel since March (a total of 2,059 downloads), I had expected that the flavor of the month would be my romance this time, since this was its very first promo. Besides, it’s an ABNA Q-Finalist so I expected nothing short of a limelight to follow it throughout, starting from day 1. Little did I know!

From the very first few hours, it became clear that The Lady of the Pier seemed to be somewhat ignored compared to my fantasy adventure. I was proven right the next morning, when I got the totals for day 1. The Necklace had had nearly twice as many downloads. Then, the second day, somehow, The Lady took the lead and not just that, but it also performed beyond my wildest expectations.

On that day, both books ranked high on various categories (more on that later!) and they both did amazingly well with downloads. From then on, there was a steady decline for both books from day 3 to 5 but The Lady still did more downloads per day compared to The Necklace.

I’m still wondering about the mystery of that first day. Why did The Lady have such a slow start, or rather, why did The Necklace perform so spectacularly on day 1? Goes to show you can never expect the reaction of the general public! Whatever the reason for that is, it seems The Necklace is still way more popular than I’d thought.

Anyway, the most incredible thing about this promo is that it yielded far better numbers and rankings than I’d ever imagined. In detail:

 

Day-by-day downloads for the Necklace and the total:

1727 + 631 + 261 + 125 + 80 = Total 2824

 

Day-by-day downloads for The Lady of the Pier  and the total:

988 + 2309 + 699 + 384 + 264 = 4644
Grand total between the two books: 7468

As I said, the second day was quite amazing for both books. That day, all I did is check the rankings per hour and I got one surprise after the next. In detail:

The Necklace reached Amazon’s #1 in Mythology again and it stayed there for a couple of days. It also ranked at #2 in Fairy Tales again, but also #4 in Paranormal & Urban as well as #6 in Teens & Young Adult. The reason why it ranked high in more categories this time is because I had made changes to the keywords on KDP recently, since reading a very useful article. In case you don’t know, the keywords you use for your books on KDP determine relevant categories that Amazon will rank your books in during your promotions. Handy, isn’t it? (For example, I am guessing the book ranked in the category “Paranormal & Urban”  this time because in my keywords I had added “Urban Fantasy” and so on…)

During the promo, The Lady of the Pier reached #3 in Paranormal and also #4 in Historical Romance. Plus, it stayed among the top 100 in the Free store for a few hours starting at #67, then #64, and peaking at #59. As for The Necklace, the highest number in the Free store that it managed was #109.

By the fifth day, I was overwhelmed to say the least. But then it got me thinking. What the hell? How did I get these high download numbers? What did I do differently this time round?

As I always do when I run free promos, first of all I make sure to get a blog post or two among my author/blogger friends. This time I got eight friends to help me out, which was very generous and made me feel quite humbled. Still, it wasn’t a first as back in Easter I had done a free book tour with Fabulosity Reads, but if anything, the results on that promo were very poor, even with Wendy Ewurum’s amazing skills at blogging and social networking.

Although I had submitted my books to dozens and dozens of free sites, that wasn’t a first either. On the first (3 day) promo of The Necklace, with the same free sites, I had managed 1,576 downloads and on the not so successful one in Easter (2 days), a measly 483.

So how come did I now get 1,727 just for The Necklace just on the first day?

Now, after considering all possibilities, I’ve come up with three possible explanations:

a) The joint promo of two books could have been a factor here. After all, The Lady is a romance – an extremely popular genre – plus the mention that it’s an ABNA Q-Finalist must have also been an advantage. Perhaps my two books helped each other here, attracting readers who love either fantasy or romance but wound up getting both books just because they were freebies, who knows? The other thing, if I can add it on the same count, is that my number of followers has increased a lot since the last promo. Back in March I had just over 4,000 Twitter followers whereas today I have around 9,200 – more than double. That’s a lot of extra eyeballs.

b) The books have reviews on Amazon (The Necklace had 20 last week, The Lady had 10) and most of them 5-stars. I didn’t have that advantage back in March. Enough said.

c) The last possibility may be related to an amazing opportunity I was given just before the promo started. My author friend Nikki Anne Schmutz from Utah, got the position of  chief editor in the new online magazine Community Orange. Well, when she asked me if I’d like to contribute with travel articles a month or so ago, I jumped at the chance. I submitted a couple and she chose my report on Zagori, Greece for the first issue (read the magazine here).

A couple of days before the promo started, Nikki said they had advert space left and I could put up an ad for free if I wanted to. Thanking my lucky stars, I sent her my banner for the promo and her generous publisher added it at the bottom of my article.

When my Amazon stats started to give me one after another jolt of surprise, the first thing I did is contact Nikki, asking her what she thinks. Did they have a large readership, even though it was a first issue? Could it be it was her readers who had downloaded so many of my books? You can imagine my amazement when she advised that their site had already had about 19,000 hits! Way better readership than I’d expected. I guess I’ll never know for sure, but my instinct says I owe a lot to Nikki, Community Orange magazine and the amazing timing.

Still, even this successful promo didn’t yield more than a measly total of eight actual book sales following the fifth day. I have a good idea about this devastating result and I did foresee it from the third day when the decline began – I let the promo drag too long. Had I pulled the plug on the second day when both my books ranked really high, or even on the third day, I would have had substantial sales for sure. Still, I had pre-announced the dates and I wasn’t going to be one to lie to the world. but I now know for next time! You see, a good strategy is not to pre-announce the duration of the promo, sometimes not even the promo itself as it tends to kill sales.

So next time I think the experiment will involve a totally new strategy; an unannounced free offer that not even I will know when will end. The announcement will hit the social media in a Wham!-bam! sort of action. Then, I’ll monitor the stats and act accordingly. Let’s see what happens next time when I pull the plug at the opportune moment!

Despite all that, and the fact that the amount due in my pocket is even less than 20 bucks, I still see the whole experience as highly beneficial. If anything, I now have a few thousand readers out there reading my books! Hopefully they’ll enjoy them and maybe a few hundred of them will respond to my request at the end of the book to post a review. Reviews equal future sales so in reality, my cashing in on this successful promo is just a matter of time. How’s that for positive thinking? Yep, that’s me. Always having my eyes focused on the silver lining, rather than the dark and gray bits.

Going back to my conclusions…..

The essence of what I’ve recently learnt–especially since reading the remarkable book “Let’s Get Visible” by David Gaughran–is that the business of trying to run a successful promo on KDP Select is partly a game of luck, partly a matter of meticulous planning, but sometimes all it is, is just a sand box of trial and error. And on that score, I’m always game. Maybe it’s the troubleshooter in me after years of computer support that makes puzzles such a fascinating affair for me.

See you next time, and hopefully, by the end of the next promo I’ll have more food for thought for all you fellow indie authors  kind enough to drop by!

By all means, if you have any insights on the mind-boggling subject of what works and what doesn’t during promo, please share it here and let us all benefit! Thank you :)

The yummiest, homemade ice cream ever!

I don’t know about you, but I have a love-hate relationship with bought ice cream. One look at the label (and I ALWAYS scrutinize it!) is enough to send me reeling with repulsion. Ghastly E numbers, maize and soya derivatives that spell GMO every time, and the sign on the freezer blatantly declares that what you’re buying is not real ice cream. I’m sure you’ve noticed they label it ‘dessert’ instead which means it’s anything but wholesome.

Not to worry though! I have the perfect recipe for you today; we no longer need to bother what all that yukky stuff!

Since my sister thoughtfully shared with me this little gem a couple of years ago, I’ve solved the problem of my ice cream cravings on any hot day! You’ll need a styrofoam container or a stainless steel one (both with cover) for better results. In the picture, you can see I use one of each. The recipe makes enough ice cream as to fill the stainless steel container all the way up and the styrofoam one between halfway to 3/4 depending on the cream I buy.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  in Greece, I can get a 500 ml cream called Meggle Patisserie. This one is quite thick and I use all 500ml. It makes infinitely more ice cream than normal. So if in your local store you can find a full fat cream that’s thick in consistency and specialized for sweets,  go for it and use the whole thing. I dare say the result will be the same. Otherwise, just buy your run-of-the-mill non-thick cream and use 400 ml as per the recipe.

Anyhoo! Here are all the details and I really hope you’ll go for this amazing recipe. You’re bound to please and impress your family and friends. Trust me on this: this is the best ice cream you’ll ever taste in this life or the next! And it only takes 10 minutes max to make. You won’t believe it!

Main ingredients

400 ml full fat cream

1 can condensed milk (397gr)

½ cup evaporated milk

Dash of vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

Extra ingredient choices for different flavors

A 154 gr pack of Oreo biscuits (remove the cream filling and use only the biscuits broken into chunks)

or

Grated bitter chocolate

or

2-3 tablespoons of Nutella

or

Strawbberies cut in pieces

or

3-4 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Preparation

Pour the cream in a bowl and use a mixer to thicken. A simple hand mixer suffices.

Pour in the condensed milk, beat some more.

Add the evaporated milk, the vanilla essence and the salt, continue mixing to blend well.

Add the extra ingredient of your choice and mix well with a ladle or spoon.

Pour in a stainless or styrofoam container, cover and place in freezer.

Allow it to freeze for a minimum of 8 hours before serving.

 Note: should you decide to split your ice cream between two bowls as to make two different flavors, it goes without saying you will use half of the amount of the extra ingredient where specified (e.g. half a pack of Oreo, 2 spoonfuls of cocoa etc)

 My favorite flavor is Oreo biscuit (my 11-year-old niece Ioanna’s idea-bless her heart!) but don’t take my word for it; try out a couple of the flavor ideas I’ve mentioned. I’m sure you’ll think up lots more to try too. If you come up with a really yummy flavor, do pop back here to let the rest of us know!

HAVE FUN AND…

 

KALI OREXI!

Lefkas, Greece: Aquamarine Heaven

The island of Lefkas is a highly popular holiday destination among motorists, partly because it offers easy access from mainland Greece. After driving through the picturesque town of Vonitsa, you follow the signs to Lefkas but funnily enough, you never get to a port. Instead of having to board a ferry, you just keep on driving along a causeway, then carry on over a floating bridge and hey presto; the stunning capital of Lefkas begins to unfold before you, a majestic live painting of dazzling azure and cypress green.

The island of Lefkas (or Lefkada) is part of a seven-island complex in the Ionian Sea called ‘Eptanisa’.

The capital was rebuilt from the ground up since the devastating earthquake of 1948. As a result, the original architecture has sadly been lost forever. The case has been the same with the Ionian islands of Kefalonia and Zante whereas Corfu on the contrary has been luckier. The said earthquake had affected this island only slightly and this is why the Corfiot capital is the only one among the Ionian islands where antiquated buildings still stand on a large scale.

Driven by the need to be sheltered promptly again after the aforementioned earthquake, the people of Lefkas rebuilt their capital by introducing tin roofs for the houses in order to save time. As a result, the local architecture was transformed radically, endowing the town with a new, yet quaint character. A main road runs through the town where the main market is situated. The surrounding roads are tiny lanes where visitors tend to saunter around, often happily disoriented, marveling at picturesque houses and lush gardens.

At the town seafront, the geography is one of a kind; at least for Greece. A narrow ring road is found here which is called Gira (The Round). This ring road forms an actual loop that’s part of the seafront but expands forward into the sea. Visitors can drive in a full circle along Gira in less than five minutes and they have more than one reason to!

The first point of interest in Gira is the beach of Agios Ioannis (or “Miloi”, ie Windmills). Kite surfers from all over the world gather there by the weathered windmills to enjoy their beloved sport.

Kitesurfing at Agios Ioannis in Gira

At the furthest point of Gira, just before passing by the floating bridge to the mainland, is the gorgeous Ammoglossa beach. The name means ‘Tongue of Sand’ and it resembles just that; the long protrusion of white sandy mass seemingly lapping the aquamarine water, foaming on the edges; an unforgettable setting for a swim. Still, visitors can sample lovely sandy beaches all around Gira.

The pool of seawater on the inside of this massive loop is an artificial lake called Ivari. It is owned by the council and is a natural breeding area for fish of various kinds, including eels. The council employes fishermen who catch the fish effortlessly at the lake inside rectangular wooden enclosures where the fish tend to gather. Ivari is an important natural habitat of western Greece that is a protected area Natura 2000. You can see pictures of the fishermen and the enclosures here.

In the evening, visitors take leisurely walks around town, along the beachfront or at the picturesque marina. There’s a wide variety of eateries, bars, shops etc to satisfy all tastes and needs.

The island offers quite a few spectacular beaches with Porto Katsiki undisputedly wearing the crown of superiority. You will need to go down a few steps before getting to this amazing beach of unsurpassed beauty but at least there are bars and restaurants for a drink and a bite at the top, to reward you after all the exertion! The drive from the capital is rather long (about 50 kms), but the scenery is fantastic (mainly pine tree forests and incredible sea views). Another alternative is to visit this beach on a daily boat excursion or by water taxi from Nydri or Vassiliki.

Porto Katsiki is not easily accessible by road but when you get to it, you’ll be well-rewarded for your trouble.

Agios Nikitas is such a fabulous beach that I wound up visiting it three times during my stay. Thankfully, it is situated very near the town of Lefkada. The beach has been named after the village that is situated a short drive down the road from the beach. From there, caiques pick up tourists to visit secluded coves for a dive in the most gorgeous, sparkling waters.

The beach of Agios Nikitas. The village of the same name is just visible in the distance (click on image to enlarge).

Egkremnoi is a beach that will please you immensely, but sadly, its beauty comes with a price. In other words, accessing it is not for the faint-hearted. Even the name of this beach (The Precipices) suggests that the landscape is likely to be ragged! Locals had warned me that the dirt road on the way may be too hard on the car and it was true. It needed a good wash afterwards but that’s not all. Once you get to the parking area, you realize you’re not there yet. Instead, you’re on a steep hill with a breathtaking view of the water underneath. To get to the beach, you must brave a descent of 347 steps. Still, once you get down there, you’ll be rewarded to the maximum.

Egkremnoi won’t give up its charms unless you’re willing to work for it!

The beach at Kathisma has easy access – the easiest among all the others mentioned but it can get very crowded.

During my stay in Lefkada, other than sampling some of the best beaches I’ve ever seen, I also made a spontaneous pilgrimage to my family past. One morning, I left the murmuring sea behind and headed for the mountains. At an altitude of just over 500 meters on the mountain Elati, I entered the village of Karya; the place where my maternal great-grandfather was born and raised. Karya is a beautiful village of stone houses and picturesque lanes but that is not all: this village is famous worldwide for its unique hand-weavers. The women here weave on the loom or work by hand to create the most stunning items, using a needlework technique that’s only practiced here. Incredibly enough, it was developed centuries ago in this village by a one-handed woman. And so, her unquenchable thirst to create despite her disability has led to this fine needlework practice that still brings tourists to the village by the droves. It is not a surprise then that the main road is lined with shops that sell a wide variety of exquisite rugs, doilies, jumpers and even decorative little rugs to hang on the walls. If you ever go shopping in this marvelous village for a souvenir, you’ll be spoiled for choice!

A typical shop in Karya

Nydri is a cosmopolitan coastal town with a large marina. From here, I took a one-day cruise to the nearby islands of Kefalonia (visiting Fiscardo) and Ithaca (visiting Vathy). The tour also included a stop for a swim in the most incredibly sparkling green waters just off the shore of Scorpios; the private island that used to be owned by the Onassis family. It has now been handed over to the Russian millionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev.

The fishing village of Fiskardo in Kefalonia is a popular stop among holday makers traveling by yacht. Visiting Hollywood stars often wind up sampling fresh fish here at the restaurant ‘Tassia’.

Ithaca comes into view exactly as what it is said to be: the proverbial, ultimate destination. As you gaze upon this sparkling blue picture of serenity, you can’t help feeling like Odysseas; happy to arrive at last! It is of no surprise that this earthly paradise once seduced popstar Madonna enough as to look into buying a property there.

If you visit Nydri, don’t miss out on the opportunity to quickly visit the gorge of Dimosari as well. It is easily accessible and involves only a short walk to the main attraction: you may not necessarily brave a dip in the chilling waters of the natural pools under the waterfalls there, but the fantastic scenery and serenity of the setting will still be worth a visit! When you get to the site and come across the first waterfall, do not think this is it. There are paths on the side where you can hold on to mounted ropes for safety passage as to go further ahead. It takes to do this two or three times till you get to the big waterfall. It’ll only take a few minutes to get to it and it’s well-worth it. The gorge is situated near Nydri. As you drive from the capital to Nydri, the turn off from the main road is on your right hand. It’s been a few years since I visited and the sign was tiny at the time, so unless a larger sign has been placed in the interim, you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled!

Driving around Lefkas often calls for spontaneous stops to take in breathtaking views such as this one.

I left Lefkada with teary eyes; not only because the beauty of the scenery was hard to part with, but also because my ancestral connections with this island had made me swell with feelings of pride and gratitude. My great-grandfather had owned two inns in the town of Lefkas that had been razed to the ground by another earthquake, back in the 20s. It was because of the total destruction of his property that he had taken his family to Corfu to start a new life from scratch. His little girl – my Corfiot grandmother – was barely three years old at the time. It was hard to say goodbye therefore to this island that had inevitably caused me to root during my visit so far into the past.

Of course, I often dream of visiting Lefkas again. With such easy access, I’m bound to take a wrong turn after Vonitsa during one of my occasional drives to Corfu, just for one more swim in those amazing, aquamarine Lefkas waters…

FURTHER READING AND PHOTOS:

http://www.lefkada-ionio.gr/island.php?info=191&lang=1

http://www.lefkadaslowguide.gr/en/routes.php

http://www.tassia.gr/

Presenting: Cursed (A Yorkshire Ghost Story) by Karen Perkins

Effrosyni Moschoudi:

This looks like a great ghost story!

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:

Today I have something for the horror lovers among you: Cursed, by Karen Perkins. 

She’s back. This time no one is safe.

A skeleton is dug up at the crossing of the ways on Hanging Moor, striking dread into the heart of Old Ma Ramsgill – the elderly matriarch of the village of Thruscross. And with good reason. The eighteenth-century witch, Jennet, has been woken.

A spate of killings by a vicious black dog gives credence to her warnings and the community – in particular her family – realise they are in terrible danger.

Drastic measures are needed to contain her, but with the imminent flooding of the valley to create a new reservoir, do they have the ability to stop her and break her curse?

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/1qUQEpA

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