From My Balcony to Yours by Nino Gugunishvili (VBT, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

 

It is my pleasure to share a guest post by author, Nino Gugunishvili, who shares the answer to my question...

ELF:  What is your writing process?

 

 

NG:   My writing process is hectic, chaotic, and fun, well, mostly! I would want to say it’s structured and disciplined, but that would be a big, fat lie. The problem is, I’m very easily distracted. If I could turn my phone off and shut the whole world out, I’d probably write more productively, but that, let’s face it, rarely happens. Usually, I start from scratch and just write everything down. That’s one thing I’ve learned along the way. It’s better to write something no matter how bad, rather than procrastinate. Sounds easy? No, not at all, not a tiny bit.

The trick is, writing can be delightful, liberating, therapeutic, but never easy, at least for me. And I wholeheartedly envy the authors who’re absolutely sure how to do it, who have all the details of the story, the plot twists, and characters in their heads before they start to write. My head, it seems, functions in a different way. My mind, it turns out, hates outlines. So, what I do is I sit down, turn my laptop on, and just write down whatever comes first, and if I’m writing fiction, I start with a character. That’s when I’m getting scrupulous. That’s when I’m getting hooked up and absorbed in the story. I need to know everything about these characters, their flaws, habits, manners, hobbies, physical looks, and voice. It’s like watching a movie or playing a TV show in your head and putting its episodes down to paper.

With From My Balcony to Yours, however, it felt different. For me, this book is much more personal than anything I’ve written before. It’s part memoir, part diary, a row account of what was happening around me, near me, or within me. Do we change? How do we cope? What do we feel when we’re unable to control things around us? That’s what I attempted to write about. This time I didn’t have to invent a character, a plot, or a setting; it was happening right in front of me; I was living it, and I just tried to tell, to document the real story.

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From My Balcony to Yours

by 

Nino Gugunishvili

 

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GENRE:   Memoir Short Stories

 

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BLURB:

 

Canceled Plans? –Check!
Panic and Fear? – Check!
Self- Isolation? – Check!
Missing  Friends? – Check!
Gaining Weight? – Check!
Binge-Watching TV? – Check!
Lengthy Self- diggings? – Check!
Hope? – Check, check, check!
Who would have thought that  Global Pandemic, Self-Isolation,  Cluster, and a Lockdown were to become the trendiest words in 2020? Who would have imagined the world would freeze and people would stay home shattered with fear, panic, uncertainty towards their future?
How do we adjust to this changing reality, when none of our questions have answers when plans turn upside down, things get totally out of control?

In her new book:From My Balcony to Yours, author Nino Gugunishvili shares her personal account during the first several months of the COVID -19 global pandemic in the form of short stories and observations.

Nino Gugunishvili’s writing biography includes a collection of short stories You Will Have a Black Labrador and a women’s fiction novel Friday Evening, Eight O’Clock.

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EXCERPT

  

Manicure, Hair and Oh, La, La …

 

I think it was my aunt that gave me an electric manicure kit on my birthday many years ago. So many years ago, in fact, that I had no idea how to use it, stored it into a cupboard, and, after not much of thinking, gifted it away. Oh, what an idiot I was! But how was I supposed to know that in less than twenty-five years from there, we would find ourselves living in reality, where a  simple manicure and pedicure routine would become hard to obtain luxury? That whether to invite or not to invite manicure specialists to our home would almost equal an act of heroism?

 

The same goes for hair. Goodbye highlights, “Chatouche,” asymmetric bobs, and extensions! And have you stocked up your depilatory creams and waxing essentials? Lucky you, if yes, is the answer.

 

My very recent fear is that in two more weeks of self-isolation, I’ll resemble a Lumberjack. My body will be toned due to excessive exercising, the cellulite will be gone, my legs will get muscular and maybe even longer, but! I’ll have a beard! Well, as the saying goes, nobody’s perfect!

 

Clearly, instead of worrying about my lack of cooking skills, I should have watched the youtube brow trimming tutorials more.  Instead of regretting not learning riding a bicycle, I should have honed applying manicure to my right hand with my left hand.

  

Amazon link

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

 

 

Nino Gugunishvili is the author of the two collections of short stories, “From My Balcony to Yours” and “You Will Have a Black Labrador.”  Her women’s fiction novel “ Friday Evening, Eight O’Clock” was published in 2015.  Nino lives in Tbilisi, Georgia. Her educational and professional background includes film, television, and journalism. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Links:

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Goodreadsi

 

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GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

The tour dates can be found here