The video features interviews with 29 leading Hellenes who each share their definition of a concept that only the Greek language has a word to describe: philotimo. Those interviewed defined philotimo as not only the “love of honor” but also as finding pleasure in sacrificing for: the good of others; doing the right thing; improving themselves and their families; and seeking to achieve respect and love from others.

“While it has not been released to the public until now, we gave a small number of Foundation supporters a sneak peek at this video over the weekend. It has already received over 10,000 views. Our prediction that this video can be transformational for our community and may help the Greek brand may be coming true,” said Oxi Day Foundation Founder and President Andrew Manatos.

To read more, please visit greekreporter.com

By Anastasios Papapostolou

Set in Athens, Greece, the Greek Islands and Ithaca, New York, Chasing Athens follows Ava Martin, a heartbroken American expat, whose new husband unexpectedly ditches her after their move abroad. Instead of returning to the States, she makes an abrupt decision to stay. Despite pressure from her mother, uncertainty over her divorce, and issues with her long-estranged father, she’s determined to make it on her own. With her Greek friends, she laughs and learns while facing culture shock, language barriers and the charm of Mediterranean men, until a life-threatening emergency back home in sleepy Ithaca, N.Y., forces her to confront her disappointing past, and forces her to redefine the meaning of home.

“The heroine, Ava, gets thrown into Athenian reality including protests and violent riots. She also gets a taste of the alluring islands and vibrant nightlife.  I want readers to feel what it’s like to live in a tumultuous, culture-rich, ancient yet modern city like Athens,” said Tejada.  “Like many stories about women’s experiences abroad, place takes on a major role. Greece is a strong character in itself. Expat life inspired me and changed my life.”

Chasing Athens sells for $4.99 on the Musa Publishing Web site. It can also be purchased and downloaded from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, all Apple devices and from any vendor that sells e-books. 

About Marissa Tejada

Tejada is also an award-winning journalist who has worked across the United States as a television reporter and anchor in Florida, Washington State and Upstate New York. She has also worked in newsrooms in Los Angeles and London and managed high tech PR in San Francisco. Tejada graduated cum laude from the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College.

Currently, Tejada is a full-time freelance writer specializing in food and wine, technology and travel writing.  She enjoys blogging for her travel photography blog, my Greece, my travels (www.mygreecetravels.wordpress.com).  She currently lives in Athens, Greece.

You can join her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, or visit her website at  www.chasingathens.com.

CHASING ATHENS
Musa Publishing  

Release date: April, 25, 2014
E-book ISBN: 978-1-61937-768-4

Price E-Book: $4.99

It was a project that would take its toll in various ways, emotionally, physically and financially over the years. We’ve watched the exchange rates, carefully noting when they went up or down. And then, when economic uncertainties hit Greece and the worldwide financial crash hit, we wondered how long we could afford to keep flying to Greece and paying for the renovations. There is no doubt that Ogden Nash got it right when he wrote that ‘It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home. It takes a heap o’ payin’ too’.

While the dream of a house on an Aegean island, with sunshine, warm seas and rural peace, is something many busy, driven, city folk long for, it’s not easily achieved. Land in Greece always belongs to someone. Even if you spot a ruined house on an empty block you’ll very soon find it belongs to absent landlords who are planning to return sometime soon.

It was Takis’ perseverance over a very long period that enabled us to buy the house. We spent two years exploring our options and then six more years (while renovating) before we managed to fully own his great-grandfather’s house. And then it took even longer to renovate. However, all this time the house has continued to be a magnet for us and has made the effort worthwhile.

It’s been not only a big adventure, it’s been a love story - one with a house at its centre. On Lemnos we’ve lived and laughed, cried and sweated a most marvellous romantic dream-house adventure. Have we allowed the house to become our master? This wouldn’t be surprising, for as Emerson says, ‘A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life; he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days’. And dealing with the needs of our house we’ve found, with so many others, this kind of old house renovation project is addictive.

However, it’s not a simple thing to uproot oneself each year and take on a project such as this on the other side of the world. Travel does not get easier, mice still find holes to enter an old house, and in addition we’ve found that the house is big enough for many guests, sometimes too many! But, when I grumble about these difficulties, my friends are quick to remind me about the romance, ‘You’re on a Greek island, for God’s sake!’ they’ll say, throwing up their hands in frustration. ‘What have you got to complain about?’

I think what we’ve most enjoyed has been the fact that we have been thrown back onto our own resources. There are only a few shops nearby and it’s hard to get what you want when you want it. This is a challenge Takis enjoys, for not being able to go to a large Australian tradesman’s centre, he has to find ways of fixing things himself. As for me, I like working at a slower, more organic pace. One has time to notice the scent of lemon and nutmeg when baking a homemade cake, and to become more aware of garden scents when making bags of lavender seeds.

Of course, no one can have missed the fact that this decade has been a tumultuous one for Greece, with enormous immigration and fiscal problems. Has the economic drama affected us? Of course it has. We’ve always been aware there were problems with the way the Greek economy was run. But like many Greeks, up until the crisis hit the newsstands in 2008 we’d thought, ‘It’s just the way things are in Greece’. Now we’ve had to face the fact that, as sojourners with a property in Greece, everything we possessed in the country has lost at least half its value.

There’s a saying in Lemnos that one cries twice when coming to the island. This saying may have originated from the time when the island was a designated place of exile, and folk would cry when they landed on the island, going there reluctantly, but often they would cry again when they left, as by then they’d fallen in love with the island and its people. It’s a saying I’ve also adopted, for there have many been times when I’ve come to the island grudgingly, and many times when on leaving I’ve walked around my Greek garden very unwilling to depart.

But, after each questioning period, we’ll always decide that we’ll keep coming - at least for a few more years. For while riots and street marches occur in the capital cities, on the whole these troubles have not greatly affected our island. Here life appears to continue much as it did when we arrived. The town still doesn’t have municipal sewerage, the bells still wake us at seven on Sunday mornings, and while a few shops have closed on the Agora, others have opened.

The time will eventually come when we have to leave permanently and there will be so many things we’ll dearly miss, especially those sounds that are completely lost in a big city: the music of cockerels calling early each morning, the chatter of young children walking home from school, and even those street sellers who blare out descriptions of their wares as they drive past each day in summer.

By Dr Julia Catton

neoskosmos.com

Obsessed for decades by Greece’s unique music, Cade has plunged into Athens like a spring set free. The result, ‘Athens – The Truth’, is a 400-page revelation of aspects of the city unknown not only to tourists but even to many Greeks.

Graham Beattie, publishing guru and widely experienced judge of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, said: ‘I was immediately arrested by the 20-page introduction wherein he explains his fascination with all things Greek.’ Amazon readers have said that the book is ‘absolutely addictive’, ‘charming, critical, and thought-provoking’, and that it ‘makes the reader yearn for Athens’.

‘Athens – The Truth’ is a travel book that often reads more like a novel. As the author unearths the truths of the city, tension develops and the account moves towards a climax. At many points the writer’s love for Greece is obvious, but at other times his criticisms are frank. Whereas other authors appear to have been wary of treading on Greek toes, Cade tells all. 

Here’s part of Cade’s description of a young Greek dancing in an Athens nightclub:

‘No longer dispirited, he rises, lifts a thigh, slaps it too, as if to show determination, and then, gazing upwards, his arms raised, he begins to glide, like an eagle dignified and free upon the winds, maintaining balance while invincibly swooping and swirling above all the challenges of life.’

‘Athens – The Truth’ has been written for anyone who has yet to encounter the true Greece. The author explained: ‘I wrote it not only to help tourists, students, or business people get the most out of Athens, but so that people at home, perhaps with no intention at all of ever actually visiting, can also encounter all those locations, people, and facts which even the most adventurous seem to miss.’

‘Athens - The Truth’ can be ordered online or from bookstores worldwide by requesting ISBN 9780955209031.

An e-book edition is available from Amazon for Kindles, iPads, iPhones, smartphones, and PCs. A second e-book edition has been made available for Nooks, Kobos, Apples, Sonys, and other devices.

Or you can get it from Public here: http://www.public.gr/product/books/english/diafora/athens-the-truth/prod5111007pp/ or from the Book Depository here:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Athens-Truth-David-Cade/9780955209031

Athens - The Truth
Searching for Manos, Just Before the Bubble Burst
by David Cade
406 pages
Paperback Edition: ISBN 9780955209031
Kindle Edition: ISBN 9780955209048
Smashwords Edition: ISBN 9780955209055
Published by Tales of Orpheus

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Cade is a writer and actor based in the Shropshire Hills, England. He has worked in classical record production, schools, universities, and theatre. He studied Drama, Theatre Arts, and Music at the University of Birmingham and has an MA in Linguistics from the University of London. Besides the United Kingdom, he has lived in New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, and the Middle East. The music of Greece is his passion.

RELATED INFORMATION

Author’s website: http://www.davidcade.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AthensTheTruth

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AthensTheTruth

Featuring evocative images of the beautiful island, the home which she and her partner have lovingly restored, and the many friends - and animals - who have welcomed them into their lives, My Greek Island Home is a celebration of a way of life that Claire and Matthew have embraced with open arms. They have now bought and restored a second home, Ken's Spiti, also featured in the book, which they offer for personally-tailored holidays to people wishing to experience and be part of 'the real Greece'.

My Greek Island Home by Claire Lloyd will be published by Clearview Books on 28th April.