Who I Am

My name is Amira. I’m a writer. I’m actually a lot of different things, and it would take too much time to put them all here, but I’m three things primarily: a writer, a wine marketer, and an explorer. I’m not a blogger by trade, but I write here sometimes about things that I’m interested…

What I Write

I am on a journey to write and share powerful stories that change the way we see the world. My most recent novel, The Paths Between The Stars, is a science-fiction & fantasy crossover about a high school girl named Noomi who is haunted demons from another world but doesn’t believe they’re real – until…

Abstraction: Enlightenment

By: Amira K. May 15, 2015May 15, 2015

Devotionals, Musingsart, D. T. Suzuki, Delphine de Luppe, Eiko Ojala, enlightenment, study, writing, zenLeave a Comment

“‘We hear so much of the splendid stone bridge of Joshu, but I see nothing but a miserable old rustic log bridge.’ Joshu retorted, ‘You just see the rustic log bridge, and fail to see the stone bridge of Joshu.’ ‘What is the stone bridge then?’ ‘Horses go over it, asses go over it.’” –…

Abstraction: Revolution

By: Amira K. May 11, 2015May 10, 2015

MusingsLeave a Comment

“Syria’s war has claimed more than 130,000 lives. At least two million of its citizens have fled into neighbouring states and more than two million others have been displaced within its borders. Industry and economy has long ground to a halt. Hope too has been on a relentless slide. Syria has six Unesco sites, representing at least…

Abstraction: Identity

By: Amira K. May 8, 2015May 8, 2015

Devotionalsart, compositions, Derek Walcott, fiction, Hyuro, love, Love After Love, Poetry, proseLeave a Comment

it does not matter where i go because you are not there Mantra: “The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat.…

Devotional: Multitudes

By: Amira K. May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

Compositions, Devotionals, Musingscompositions, Jeanette Winterson, love, Poetry, reading, romance, Salvador Dali, writing2 Comments

I contain so much of you “Who taught you to write in blood on my back? Who taught you to use your hands as branding irons?” — Jeanette Winterson (Written on the Body) – Image: Salvador Dali, Figure with Drawers for a Four-Part Screen

Devotional: Love Letters

By: Amira K. May 4, 2015May 4, 2015

Devotionalsart, claude cahun, devotionals, diego rivera, frida kahlo, love letters, photography, surrealism1 Comment

We’re no good at sending love into the world, and even worse at receiving it. I want to shout it from the rooftops, but the streets are stony and deaf. How can I crack my heart to let a sliver of this color out? “All of you in a space full of sounds — in the shade…

Devotional: Peasants

By: Amira K. May 1, 2015May 1, 2015

Devotionalsart, coachella, facebook, fashion blogs, instagram, life, living, mantra, memoir, music, Oh Wonder, writingLeave a Comment

Friday. I count the hours in every weekend, wasting them as surely as I waste breath. My generation’s mantra, “live life to the fullest”, a product of the post-WWI attitude of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” and the roaring growth of the Baby Boomers, has left me obsessed with material things, questing…

Devotional: Loneliness

By: Amira K. April 29, 2015April 28, 2015

Devotionals, Musingsart, loneliness, Oveck, photography, practice, self-improvement, writing1 Comment

Wednesday. Loneliness is real, but this is not it. This is the kind of loneliness you have to get used to. This is the kind of loneliness that makes you who you are. How you fill your time now tells the person you are today who to become tomorrow. Will you clutch your loneliness to…

How I Sold My First 10,000 Books

By: Amira K. April 20, 2015April 25, 2015

Publishing, The Seeds Trilogy, Writingfiction, K. Makansi, literature, marketing, publishing, sales, the harvest, The Reaping, The Seeds Trilogy, The Sowing, writing12 Comments

It’s been a crazy year and a half for one Amira K. Makansi. Since I began my journey as an author and a publisher in July of 2013, my co-authors and I have released two books and a novella, all set in the world of Okaria, a futuristic post-apocalyptic civilization. In early April we announced…

In The Language Of Dreams: Why Genre Fiction Deserves To Be Considered Great Literature

By: Amira K. April 13, 2015April 12, 2015

Musings, Writingfantasy, genre fiction, literary fiction, publishing, science fiction, writing8 Comments

Pretension exists everywhere, but sometimes I think nowhere more than in literature. How many of us read The Grapes of Wrath in high school? How about The Great Gatsby? Or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter? But, let’s be real: who ever assigned The Lord Of The Rings to a high school curriculum? Or what about Dune, Frank…

Book Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

By: Amira K. March 30, 2015March 29, 2015

Book ReviewAmerican Gods, book review, faith, fantasy, fiction, Neil Gaiman, paganism, reading, religion, worship, writing6 Comments

I have read four books of Neil Gaiman’s to date: Coraline, Sandman: The Dream Hunters, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, and now, American Gods. It is strange to say that I have read four of his books because I don’t necessarily feel as though I’m the biggest fan of his work, or as though I have even…