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I’ve done many things in my time. I’ve been an Olympic athlete and a political refugee. I’ve built a skyscraper in New York, sat on a scorpion in Texas and built a new life in Mexico. Along the way I’ve restored houses and classic cars, made jewelry and learned to play golf.
These days I’m an author. I’ve finished autobiography “Life by Design” and now I’m developing a series of illustrated middle grade books for children.
I’ve just finished my first volume in what will be a series of Young Middle Grade illustrated books. I am waiting to hear from agents and publishers. In the meantime, if you are willing to send me a short review of this book, please contact me and I will send you a copy of the manuscript with images. A brief synopsis follows.
Even with the gift of understanding human speech, a dog is still just a dog. The protagonist, Ingemar von Ulmbach, who likes to be called Ingo by his friends, is the storyteller. The humans in the story don’t know about his gift, but the readers do. The touch of magic-realism involved makes the plot move along and generates funny situations.
The book is funny, has a little over 23,000 words presented in 10 chapters beautiful old school B&W graphite pencil illustrations manipulated digitally. Without being preachy at all, it teaches new words, concepts, the idea of consulting dictionaries, and in general, a solid core of values.
In book #1 of the Ingo series, we get to know the character Ingo, who is the protagonist and mastermind of several adventure books to follow— Lower Middle-Grade fiction (7-10) books.
Ingo, a beautiful golden Cocker Spaniel, was born in Morania, an imaginary Eastern European country. He is blessed and earns at a young age a magic spell— to understand human speech—and grows to experience the effects of the draconian “Eastern Block” regime on his beloved human family. His daily activities, no different than those of a human child, all involving lots of human characters and very few dogs, continuously provide opportunities for him to experience life and emotions from a mixed human/dog POV. Ingo is NOT an anthropomorph. He doesn’t speak to people, but he understands what is happening. He “communicates” a lot with his fellow dogs and “talks”—in the book—with the readers.
With the fine education provided for him and with his magical ability, the character develops into a reliable family member and a life partner for his Master Lani. He takes on, with all the amusing consequences, the care of his human baby cousin DD (Dear Darling) and also has a platonic crush on a spectacularly beautiful female of his species. Together with Lani, they find an elegantly efficient solution for the big survival problem they grapple with. The book has a happy ending—as it should—but also an aperture for future adventure MG chapter books to come.
Life by Design -Tales of a Dracula-Baby Imigrant has a Publisher!
Olympia Publishers is going to release it by Chistmas, 2021.. A brief synopsis follows.
The book shows the contrast between the idyllic world of childhood with its elements of magic realism and the oppression and lack of freedom in the old communist system. Ileana, a privileged child, who comes from a non-communist family. Shielded in childhood from the everyday reality, she develops as an individual during her college years, and especially after getting married very early to escape the glass bowl she was kept under at home. She lives through the earthquake of 1977, discrimination against her in the architectural school, and starts voicing her dangerous political views, leading to enough conflict that she has to leave everything behind and defect to the US.
Denied at first political asylum, she wins the appeal process and becomes a successful architect in NYC, where she ends up building the Time Square tower.
After finding the love of her life at the age of 49 and leaves NYC and with her husband, they move South a few times and she gets to have the joyful life of her dreams. In time, she recognizes the symptoms of social decay and economic-political tensions and moves with her husbands and pets to Mexico. She learns the language, designs, and builds a new house and undertakes with her husband the audacious plan to build the ideal travel vehicle for travel and discovery.
It is a story of raw guts, courage, and survival, but also the love of life, confidence, success, and strength of character. Meant to encourage people to create the life they want, not just dream of it, the book is a testimony that destiny emerges from the choices we make in life. Your Destiny is in your hands!
The first 25 years of my life I was nobody else, but my dad’s daughter. He sure was a tough act to follow. The professional success and the social status he had achieved, against all odds, in Communist Romania—without being a member of their Party, —was so overwhelmingly impressive that unless I shined like an exploding Supernova, the spark of his personality would have overshadowed any accomplishment and rendered my existence as a mediocre one.
Shielded in childhood from everyday reality, my family instilled in me the idea of excellence in both education and sport. Nothing less straight As or winning sports competitions was acceptable. The teen years were hard, I never received an allowance from my parents and was not allowed to go to any parties or kids events. On one single occasion, I received permission to go to a birthday party, but the negotiation with my parents took so long, I made it to the party so late, that I only could have a short and polite chat in the kitchen with the parents, and it was time for me to return home to meet my curfew. I had admired the people’s fish tank in the kitchen, and being my dad’s daughter they were very flattered, and the following week they brought to our house a fish tank for me.
To escape the glass bowl I was kept under at home, I got married very early and left. That is when my individual development started. I lived through the incredible earthquake of 1977, I failed in my marriage, married again, and eventually, after stating working, I understood what was happening in that miserable society, to which it was clear I did not belong. Soon, my conscience forced me to voice my dangerous political views, leading to enough conflict that I had to leave everything behind and defect to the US.
There is an interesting story about that, but you can all find it out in my autobiography that hopefully will be published soon. The book’s name is Life by Design-Tales of a Dracula-Baby Immigrant.
Being an illegal immigrant in New York City for almost three years, I worked off the books as a cleaning lady in a beauty-shop, earning $75/ week and working six days a week, eleven hours a day.
Denied at first asylum in the US, I had received deportation papers and ended up taking the Government of the US to court, through an Appeal.
I won the appeal and started working as an architect in NYC. I started in Interior Design and ended up working on my last job—for five years—with Skidmore Owings and Merrill as a Senior Associate and being the Project Architect for the Time Square tower in Time Square. I almost lost her life on September 11— that is another good read in my book. I found the love of my life at the age of 49, left NY and retired from SOM in 2005, and moved to Washington DC to live together.
Moving South to Virginia —where we got married in 2008— then further South to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and in 2009 to Hill Country in Texas. I started to recognizes the symptoms of social decay and economic-political tensions developing in the country.
I am a very patriotic American. I came to the US during the Regan years. What native Americans take for granted, I earned through enormous sacrifice. I left my husband and my beloved dog Ingo —a golden Cocker Spaniel—, my parents, my sister, my past and history, traditions, friends, and last but not least the wonderful apartment my father had had it built for me.
I came to America without speaking English, having only $50 to my soul, not knowing anybody, and on top of it all as a defector, requesting political asylum. I love this country and I NEVER returned not even for a short visit to Romania. For reasons presented in the autobiography coming out soon, I was not even able to go for the funeral services of my parents and sister.
It broke my heart seeing the downturn of every aspect of our life. The job market, the economy, the real-estate debacle, the poor education, unaffordable healthcare, the political correctness, the growing crime rate, the increasing debt of the United States, etc.
As the Texans say: “ It wasn’t my first Rodeo.” I had seen and lived through that before, thirty-two years before, in Romania…
In 2015, after living my entire adult life in the United States, my husband James, myself, and the two barkers—Lucky and Leni— and two meowers —Gabi and Bobo,— we moved to Mexico and started yet again a new life.
I learned the language, designed and builds a new house, and together with my husband, we took on the audacious plan to build the ideal camper vehicle for travel and discovery.
Without having anticipated it, the match between my values and those of the Mexican culture was remarkable. The same family-oriented approach, working hard but knowing how to live, the warmth of the people, the compassion and humanity, the preservation of traditions… I felt at home immediately.
My latest architectural project was building our new home in Mexico—Casa Mascotas. Take a look and feel free to ask any questions through the Contact form.
Visit the amazing world of my handmade jewelry. This was my creative outlet when I didn’t build or renovate homes.
Cooking is creative work too. Making good food for the loved ones is a joy for me. I will soon be working on a collection of low-carb and traditional Romanian meals.
I would love to hear from you about my site, my writing, architectural questions, cooking, gardening, pets…