Things I Do When I’m Not Writing by Nataly Restokian
Things I Do When I’m Not Writing by Nataly Restokian
Hi All!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Masks and I am here today with a fantastic guest post from the author!
Title: MasksAuthor: Nataly Restokian
Publisher: Tellwent Talents
Published: 8th March 2018
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Source:: N/A
Add It: Amazon UK Goodreads.
Summary: Masks is a dark fictional tale, based on true-life events. It narrates the adventures of a young Armenian girl born in Lebanon in the seventies. She dreams of fame and power in Lebanon and the Arab world and shows resilience and motivation beyond her years. The novel delves into the world of the protagonist, Anna, who is surrounded by social, religious, and sexual taboos. She fiercely breaks the chains to enter the world she has strived to reach, in a seemingly conservative society barely emerging from a civil war. She builds her success on her remaining values, challenging her fate and sparing no way means to attain her goals.
As a disappointment to her parents, she walks the challenging paths alone, making her way toward fame and fortune despite lacking the support system to do so. Doors begin to open for her, and she enters the world of Arab celebrities. She is now a public figure in the Middle East, living an immoral married life in a materialistic world surrounded by influential business people and royal family members. She tries, in vain, to fill the void in her soul with sexual adventures and controversy by taking a wide variety of lovers. Her adventures invariably end in misery, doing nothing to awaken her from her numbness. Still, her vivid, out-of-control personality helps her move forward while simultaneously getting her in trouble. In the early stages of her life, she has suffered the unthinkable, being bullied and raped, with the civil war a constant backdrop throughout most of her childhood. The novel delves deep into Anna’s mind as she has flashbacks of the trauma she has suffered, offering the reader a hint of an explanation for her behavior.
In a society in which men dominate women, she is one of the few who realize that fashion, social status, plastic surgeries, and bright smiles are not the answer to happiness. She lives in a world where a girl is only worth as much as her virginity, where women do not dare to ask for a divorce, where the fear of retribution keeps them locked in a cage that is very rarely gilded.
As fame, money, and power slowly eat at her soul, the arrogant Anna falls in love with a total stranger—a young, single bachelor from Canada—after a night of secret passion. That is where the story begins to unravel as she returns home with a scandal in her back pocket, her eyes and ears and heart tuned to this man instead of her husband. Anna realizes that neither her marriage nor her achievements have ever made her happy, so she decides to throw it all away. The lies and deceit that fill the so-called glamorous life she has been leading are floating up to the surface, including her husband’s infidelity and the critical steps she has taken to reach the top.
Marriage, family, career—all destroyed to be united with the stranger. She starts a new battle, this time struggling to change her destiny for someone she barely knows, who lives oceans apart and offers her nothing except his heart.
She risks everything, turning her whole life upside down. Anna realizes that her happiness, inner peace, and love are found worlds away from her own, with someone she would never have expected to be her soul mate. Still, Anna’s sacrifices are not behind her, and the struggle has not yet ended, although she has found what she has needed all her life: redemption and unconditional love.
The stranger enigmatically hints at emotions in Anna that have been hidden for a long time behind the masks of her dark and shallow lifestyle.
The characters in the story are the voices of so many who do not dare to speak up in a world where social and religious standards openly chastise the very actions that behind closed doors have become the ultimate paradigmatic way of life.
Things I Do When I’m Not Writing
By Nataly Restokian
1) Cooking:
I enjoy cooking and eating, I spend much time in the kitchen, cook for my husband, always browse recipes on YouTube .it takes a lot for my time to cook because my husband and I have different tastes in food; he only loves traditional Lebanese food and Armenian too(that took me four to five years to make him get used to traditional Armenian dishes), I love to eat everything, except sweet. I spoil both of us making more than one dish per day I do not mind cooking over an hour or two to eat and finish it in less than 15 minutes.
Mostly I takes a lot of my time when we have guests on weekends then I should prepare Lebanese appetizers, Kebab the Armenian way, the sweets(that I am terrible at ) moreover, it takes nearly the whole day,)one day before the invitation but it is always fun to have people we love to come over and spent time with us .
2) the Enchantment of the Television;
I adore television series and movies; I had registered to all movie channels. Besides, Amazon, Netflix Crave, I follow all shows; vampire, adventure, fiction, comedy. Romance, historical, action figures, investigation, and stories based on actual life events. Television can do magic to me, though I am a very hyperactive person it can keep me in the same couch for hours bewitched and enjoy watching it.
3) My Eyebrows
The tweezers and the mirror are my best friends, either in summer or winter, I always check if there is any new hair below or over my eyebrows.
4) Karaoke;
Mostly every day I am alone at home till my husband returns, I have no children, no family, only my husband, and friends work during the week. However loneliness never bothers me, the word boredom does not exist in my vocabulary I had learned to make myself happy as one of the most important fun things I do is to put YouTube karaoke the songs of the ’80s and ’90s and sing in front of the tv in the basement ,I do not have a pretty voice at all but I love to sing .
5) Eat in Bed, I feel like a Queen;
In winter, in snow I never drive but once the roads are clear one of my favorite things to do is to drive to the nearest supermarket go to salads and ready to eat food isle and buy ready to go plates I eat them
in bed, though my husband keeps on asking me” how come you are so clean and could eat food in your bed where you sleep ?” However, I eat in bed after midnight while watching television, and I do not mind changing the sheets I feel like a queen.
People who know me say I am a clean freak; I think I have OCD, which uses different colors of toothbrushes from dollar stores to clean the stove better, bathrooms, everywhere. In addition to having a controversial personality cleans and smells the pillows and towels in the house and then eats in bed?
6) “Please honey I have to work,” my husband begs me;
Daily every 30 minutes I call my husband while he is at work ,I miss his voice, so I create excuses to call him, asking him a foolish question that could wait for l till he comes home, or ask him about something such as reminding him of something he should pick up on his way back home or just talk till he starts begging “please honey could it wait till I am back? I am with a client; I am working.
7) My Mornings Visits;
I have my morning coffee in bed on WhatsApp with my childhood friend from Quebec, Canada to Washington USA. Every single day for an hour, we chit chat before we start our day. She has been my best friend nearly my whole life, and I had even written a character in the novel, similar to her named Zoey. Childhood time, distance, and life circumstances were never able t break our strong bond of relationship and keep us apart.
8) Whom I Miss;
I contact my two cousins, one of them lives in Barcelona, Spain, and the other one in, Sydney, Australia, and my long-time friends in Lebanon via phone at least once a week.
9) My obsession, My Shoes:
I am obsessed with shoes, regardless of the comfort or the price, all shoes attract me, I cannot resist buying shoes, so I know that is my weakness, so I hardly go shopping. Even the ones I do not need I buy to have them. I do not go out a lot but, I love buying them, it is hard for me to go to a mall and never try on shoes or buy, especially stilettos, all colors, at home I spend time always arranging them, cleaning them, I even clean the bottom of the shoes with wet napkins, I redo the whole shoe closet once I get a new pair according to color shades and models.
10) Toastmasters; motivational speaker;
As a while ago I became a Toastmaster, I started working with my coach learning more how to give speeches in English on stage and inspire people, I work on the subjects and practice with him and attend our meetings every Tuesday the Laval Achievers Toastmasters’’ club.
As I am also active on my social media, read the latest news on my phone and work with my publicist and prepare interviews and now learning more and writing to my new friends on Blogs who believe in my vocation and support me.
11) Who can enjoy a cup of coffee for an hour alone?
I do. I love coffee, anytime, anywhere, any flavor. I buy coffee with different flavors, and enjoy my time with every sip of my coffee; I sit down, do nothing, drink coffee.
12) when I am sad;
when I am sad and not writing, I stop eating, I stop cleaning I do nothing just cry and spend the whole day taking as many showers as I can, and the whole world would know that I am sad because I am an open book, and I need my husband to tell me “No worries, everything will be okay my love”, that goes for days not hours.
About the Author
I am a grand-daughter of Armenian genocide survivors, born and raised in Lebanon. Eight years ago, I remarried and settled down in Montreal with my loving Canadian husband. I spent the past year gathering data and recollections to undertake the writing of my first novel.
My experience includes nearly two decades of journalism and television as an actress and a live T.V, show host and a radio host in the Lebanese and Arabic society. Eventually, I rose through the ranks, living the unspeakable until I gave it all up for a chance at happiness and true love. Through Anna, the protagonist, I am revealing the taboos and stories that unfold behind closed doors, the hidden traps found within the glamorous circles of fame and fortune.
I experienced the downfalls of the show-business industry, and through Masks, exposing its’ uncensored reality. Today – besides being a housewife, reading and watching movies – I am in the process of writing my second novel.
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