Through Dust and Dreams
At a crossroads in her life, Roxana decides to take a ten-day safari trip to Africa. In Namibia, she meets a local guide who talks about "the courage to become who you are" and tells her that "the world belongs to those who dream." Her holiday over, Roxana still carries the spell of his words within her soul. Six months later she quits her job and searches for a way to fulfil an old dream: crossing Africa from north to south. Teaming up with Richard and Peter, two total strangers she meets over the Internet, Roxana starts a journey that will take her and her companions from Morocco to Namibia, crossing desserts and war-torn countries and surviving threats from corrupt officials and tensions within their own group. Through Dust and Dreams is the story of their journey: a story of courage and friendship, of daring to ask questions and search for answers, and of self-discovery on a long, dusty road south.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US - https://amzn.to/3cR0nH9
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Author Q&A
1. If you could tell your younger writing self
anything, what would it be?
Keep
writing. Make time for it. Believe in it. Don’t believe when you’re told other
things are more important than writing. We each come in this world with gifts we are meant to use and
writing is one of yours.
2. What book do you feel is under-appreciated?
How about overrated?
I think
Harry Potter series is greatly overrated. There are many other children's fictional stories out there equally good. And under-appreciated? Well, millions
of books out there that do not have the backup of a big publisher and a huge
marketing budget.
3. Favourite childhood memory involving books?
Going to
the local library, borrowing books and coming home feeling the weight of the
books in my bag and anticipating a whole afternoon of reading.
4. If you could dine with any literary
character, who would it be and why?
It will
have to be Old Shatterhand from the ‘Winnetou’ series by Karl May. It’s my
favourite childhood hero, I think I must have read this books hundreds of time,
at least some favourite fragments.
5. What fantastical fictional world would you
want to live in (if any) given the chance?
I’d like to
go tot the fairy tale land, because it’s a mythical reality that lives in all
of us. It’s the land where good fights and wins over evil, the world of heroes,
of courage and becoming who you truly are.
6. Did you want to be an author when you grew
up?
I did not
know what an author was. I knew that I liked to write but I did not imagine it
would be a career. I just knew it would be something that would stay with me
all my life.
7. What is your most unusual writing
quirk?
I meditate
before I write, when I prepare to write and every day I write. I visualise my
finished book and I talk to it in my meditations. I talk to the book as if it
were a person. I asked it where it wants to go, what it wants to say, I ask it
if it’s happy where I’m taking it. And I listen for its feedback.
8. What’s one movie you like recommending to
others?
The English
Patient – it’s an amazing story. And amazing setting. And yes it’s about Africa
and the dessert and I love both Africa and the dessert.
9. If you could own any animal as a pet, what
would it be?
Dog, all
the way. I’d love to own horses too although horses are not really pets. You
never really own a horse I believe because the horses are made to roam free.
10. How long, on
average, does it take you to write a book?I write my first draft in 3 to 4 weeks. After
that I write 5-10 other drafts and this takes anywhere from 1 to 2 years.
11. If you were
the last person on Earth, what would you do?I would pray and make sure I leave the Earth
with good energy behind. I would also write of everything I possibly could
remember. Because when we’re our gone, our writing stays behind.
12. Do you have
any advice for aspiring writers?Yes, write. Answer the call. It does not
matter what will happen to you writing afterwards and if you’ll become an
author or not. But if you have the gift of writing, then use it well.
13. If you could
live in any time period, what would it be and why?I would go back to the 19th century
and I would be an explorer. It was the
time of the great explorers and of the great adventures.
Author Bio
Roxana Valea was born in Romania and lived in Italy, Switzerland, England and Argentina before settling in Spain. She has a BA in journalism and an MBA degree. She spent more than twenty years in the business world as an entrepreneur, manager and management consultant working for top companies like Apple, eBay, and Sony. She is also a Reiki Master and shamanic energy medicine practitioner.
As an author, Roxana writes books inspired by real events. Her memoir Through Dust and Dreams is a faithful account of a trip she took at the age of twenty-eight across Africa by car in the company of two strangers she met over the internet. Her following book, Personal Power: Mindfulness Techniques for the Corporate World is a nonfiction book filled with personal anecdotes from her consulting years.
The Polo Diaries series is inspired by her experiences as a female polo player—traveling to Argentina, falling in love, and surviving the highs and lows of this dangerous sport.
Roxana lives with her husband between England and Spain, and splits her time between writing, coaching and therapy work, but her first passion remains writing.
As an author, Roxana writes books inspired by real events. Her memoir Through Dust and Dreams is a faithful account of a trip she took at the age of twenty-eight across Africa by car in the company of two strangers she met over the internet. Her following book, Personal Power: Mindfulness Techniques for the Corporate World is a nonfiction book filled with personal anecdotes from her consulting years.
The Polo Diaries series is inspired by her experiences as a female polo player—traveling to Argentina, falling in love, and surviving the highs and lows of this dangerous sport.
Roxana lives with her husband between England and Spain, and splits her time between writing, coaching and therapy work, but her first passion remains writing.
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