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Rebecca Fisseha, Writer.

Pleasuring your mind with (mostly) fiction.

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Beyond Grandma’s Kitchen

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Playing God with people: one of the best things about being a writer! Provided they cooperate, you can have your characters do just about anything. Same goes for real life locations. While writing the pool scenes in #daughtersofsilence, I had fun transporting the pool diving tower from the #addisababa #ghionhotel to the one at the #hiltonaddisababa at zero cost, zero manpower, no permits needed other than the one that a woman with a pen gives herself 😏 But out of compassion for the purists, I depict the #sodereresort pool as is. What was your favourite soaking pond as a kid? . . . Photos via: @ichiro.takahashi (Hilton) @adventuresinaddis (Ghion) @natnaelasmare (Sodere) . . . #storytelling #habesha #ethiopia #immigrantstories #ethiopiandiaspora #diasporaliterature #africandiaspora #africanliterature #bookstagram #canlit #blackcanlit #habeshaculture #diversecanlit #habeshaexperience #goodreads #womensfiction #books #fiction #readthenorth #goodreads #festofauthors40 #torontolitup #torontowots

Countdown is on! One month until Daughters of Silence sashays-chantays into the market! Preorders are on the way! In the meantime, a teaser trailer... . #storytelling #habesha #ethiopia #immigrantstories #ethiopiandiaspora #diasporaliterature #africandiaspora #africanliterature #bookstagram #canlit #blackcanlit #habeshaculture #diversecanlit #habeshaexperience #goodreads #womensfiction #books #fiction #readthenorth #goodreads #festofauthors19 #torontolitup #torontowots #artopiadc

@cbcbooks Our Canadian fiction fall preview list is here! Check out the novels coming out this fall that we can’t wait to read. Posted @withrepost 📚 Albatross by Terry Fallis This Little Light by Lori Lansens Watermark by Christy Ann Conlin Translated from the Gibberish by Anosh Irani Night of Power by Anar Ali A Better Man by Louise Penny Lampedusa by Steven Price The Innocents by Michael Crummey Akin by Emma Donoghue The Difference by Marina Endicott Worry by Jessica Westhead Five Wives by Joan Thomas The Testaments by Margaret Atwood A Delhi Obsession by M.G. Vassanji Daughters of Silence by Rebecca Fisseha The Ticking Heart by Andrew Kaufman Chasing Painted Horses by Drew Hayden Taylor Arctic Smoke by Randy Nikkel Schroeder The Somali Camel Boy by Nur Abdi Even That Wildest Hope by Seyward Goodhand Crow Winter by Karen McBride Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline Different Beasts by J.R. McConvey Island by Johanna Skibsrud Watching You Without Me by Lynn Coady Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock The Wagers by Sean Michaels The Lost Sister by Andrea Gunraj Bone Black by Carol Rose GoldenEagle The Red Chesterfield by Wayne Arthurson Butterflies, Zebras, Moonbeams by Ceilidh Michelle The Shape of Family by Shilpi Somaya Gowda Blue Bear Woman by Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau, translated by Susan Ouriou & Christelle Morelli There Has to Be a Knife by Adnan Khan 📚 Check the link in our story for release dates, and for more information on these books and their authors head to cbcbooks.ca!

Pick a spot, any spot...to be laid to rest in. Pretend that money isn’t an issue, and neither is logistics. Or perhaps you couldn’t care less where you are buried, unlike a certain generation of #immigrants, who care a ton! . “Take me home when I die” is a hard-to-misinterpret instruction given to many a #firstgeneration #thirdculturekid by their immigrant parents. Never mind that mom and/or dad haven’t been “back home” in decades and/or have complained bitterly about everything when they did visit! . A transatlantic battle of wills over the appropriate burial ground, vaguely inspired by personal experience, was the genesis of #daughtersofsilence. So, naturally, I wrote key scenes in the #novel (see last pic for excerpts) in cemeteries real and made-up. Real: Kidus Yosef Cemetery, and Selassie Cathedral Cemetery both in #AddisAbaba. Top row of pix. Made up/bottom pic: at one of the most striking locations in Toronto, the Scarborough Bluffs. . Top: detail of tombstone at Kidus Yosef from @michaeltsegaye’s haunting ‘Chasms of the Soul’ series (also via @african_art_stories); the Patriots section of Trinity Cathedral’s cemetery. Bottom: Toronto’s Scarborough Bluffs, the setting for the fictional cemetery in #daughtersofsilence. . I’ll muse more about this and other diaspora death drama in an upcoming blog post. (Repatriations, anyone?! 😳) In the meantime, for real life stories, browse through the ‘Funeral cost’ highlights on @shadesofinjera Maybe you’ll add your story? . . . #storytelling #habesha #ethiopian #immigrantstories #ethiopiandiaspora #diasporaliterature #africandiaspora #africanliterature #bookstagram #canlit #blackcanlit #habeshaculture #habeshaexperience #habeshaparents #goodreads #womensfiction #books #fiction #repatriations #scarboroughbluffs #torontolitup #festofauthors19 #festat40 #torontowots

One of the trickier #ethiopian folk sayings to translate, so I took huge liberties! Literally it should be, “he who stabbed may forget, but he who was stabbed will not forget”. But within the context of Dessie and her military grandfather the Shaleqa in #daughtersofsilence, I wanted to give the translation even more of a militaristic flavour, especially since she is the one who says it in reference to his mindset. How would you translate it? Know of similar sayings? . . . Ethio emojis courtesy of the fabulous @desetadesign Next time you want a coffee #buna , run don’t walk to the App Store & drop your $2.49 (Or whatever it is in US dollars 🤷🏾‍♀️) on them instead! . . . #readthenorth #storytelling #habesha #ethiopian #ethiopianculture #immigrantstories #ethiopiandiaspora #amharicproverbs #africanproverbs #diasporaliterature #africandiaspora #africanliterature #bookstagram #bookstagramafrica #canlit #habeshaculture #habeshaproblems #modernhabesha #habeshaexperience #goodreads #womensfiction #books #fiction #ifoa #torontowots #torontolitup

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RT @miramichireader: "There's the business of living, and then there's this, coming face-to-face with your origin, which makes everything g… 3 hours ago
RT @metooethiopia: Check out @rebeccafisseha ’s new book coming out September 10th. #metooethiopia https://t.co/yJEXjiYOok 3 days ago
@NABookPodcast @BooksAndRhymes @bookshybooks @postcolonialchi 😢 will miss y’all! thank you for the thoughts & the l… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 days ago
@PaulineHoldstoc 🙇🏾‍♀️ 5 days ago
Countdown is on! 1 month until Daughters of Silence hits the market! Preorders already on the way! Here’s a teaser… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 6 days ago