Q&A With Emil Rem 

Mickey Mikkelson was kind enough to connect me with author Emil Rem. Emil is the author of Heart Of New York, Chasing Aphrodite & his current release Vanished Gardens Of Cordova. 

Q: Emil would you please give a brief description of your new release Vanished Gardens Of Cordova? 

A: At a superficial level Vanished Gardens is about an entertaining tale of travel filled with anecdotes, humorous and reflective. A comparison of eccentrics met, to past characters in my life. 

It is also a bittersweet final summer holiday together as a family. 

Being born a Muslim and fostered by Christians since the age, it is also a personal rediscovery of my roots and heritage. 

Q: Do your ideas for your stories come from the many places you’ve traveled to? 

A: Yes. Our family travels are beautiful vignettes of scenes and characters met. But the stories act as a framework for parables. 

Each story starts from the viewpoint of Western educated Man delving into an alien culture. The stories end in turning that viewpoint to that of the native being observed. 

Q: Out of all the places you’ve seen, where were your favorite places you went and traveled to?

A: Your question should be rephrased. For it’s not the exotic milieu that catches my imagination, but the extraordinary “ordinary” locals met. And it’s not the most glamourous and enjoyable sight that sticks in my mind, but interactions between my family and strangers in alien lands- good or bad. 

In Muscat Oman, we were “hooked” with a surly taxi driver for a whole day’s tour of the city. He was surly and couldn’t speak English- Oman was just opening to the outside world. 

At the end of the day, he refused to accept his agreed fee. I was furious, thinking he wanted more. It was quite the opposite. You will have to read St. George and the Saracen from Chasing Aphrodite to learn why. 

Q: Are you currently writing your next book? If so, can you reveal any details about it? 

A: With no relatives in our hometown, many years ago I chose to take my family to Paradise Island, Bahamas each year for Christmas. 

I never wished to write about those trips as Paradise Island at Christmas was akin to an over-packed Disneyland in high season. 

On our first evening, we would visit Anthony’s, a local restaurant. Where we would be served Johnnie Cake. No one knew the origin of the name. 

Waiting in a dentist office, fiddling with my iPhone, I discovered “Johnnie” came from “Journey Cake”. When travelling from one island to another, not knowing what lay before them, the Bahamians would bring Journey cakes to nourish them for weeks. 

That description inspired the title and story to my latest work-in-progress. 

All my books are about comparisons and contrasts. The title led me to compare our Bahamian holiday to the voyage of writing and publishing my books from scratch.  66 

“Journey Cake” fitted the bill perfectly. 

Q: What lessons do you hope readers learn after reading your novels? 

A: No matter the storms that invade your life, sunshine will always return. It’s your ability to weather that storm and not be crushed is what ultimately matters.