KISSING ASPHALT
Delicia Niami
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GENRE: Memoir
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BLURB:
Resilience isn’t inherited. It’s a hard-fought skill forged by our ability to pick up the broken pieces of our past and remake them into something new.
Meet four-year-old Delicia, a poor but carefree child who is about to have her world shattered. Along with her seven-year-old brother Nile, she is kidnapped from her Los Angeles home by her estranged father and taken to Iraq, a foreign world she has never known. This is just the beginning of a string of traumas, hardships, and assaults Delicia will endure throughout her tumultuous childhood.
Now an adult living back in California, Delicia Niami bravely recounts how she survived the unimaginable in her debut memoir. Kissing Asphalt, the first in her memoir trilogy, ResilientAF, grapples with the power of resilience, acceptance, and self-love. She revisits her terrifying past with vulnerability, compassion, and the honesty of a true survivor. Hold hands with Delicia as she faces her childhood scars and learns how to confront her fears, accept her true value and identity, and embrace her unique gifts. It’s a multi-decade roller coaster ride that is the beginning of her liberation, propelling her to live an inspired life and embrace her full human potential—a human potential she knows lives inside everyone, no matter what life has thrown at us.
For anyone who has struggled with childhood trauma, Delicia’s unflinching journey through darkness and back to light will resonate. She has decided to share her story publicly in hopes that it will serve as a guide to the many who have suffered in silence and continue to struggle against the daunting weight imposed by childhood trauma.
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Excerpt Three:
The family was celebrating in traditional style; food lavished the tables, and the youngsters were playing around the giant firepit in the backyard. As the night was coming to an end, the celebration began to wind down. Grandmother was telling the kids to “make it happen” in Arabic before going to bed. Encircling the large firepit, the children started blowing. At first, I was perplexed, but everyone looked like they were having so much fun, I wanted to join in.
Very eagerly pushing my way in between my cousin and my brother, I began to blow and laugh, having a good time for once. Suddenly, I felt heat on the right side of my face. I watched as my grandmother bolted up from her chair, screaming in Arabic and running straight for me. By this time, my brother and cousin had backed away. Feeling heat on my head, I hit my hair with my hand, which became hot. I cried as the high-pitched screeches got louder and louder until, after what felt like an eternity, my grandmother finally reached me.
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What was the hardest thing about writing this book?
The entire process was quite hard actually. I began my writing journey in 2019, just after a workshop with Bessel Van der kolk, author of The Body Keeps The Score. Shortly thereafter, as we all know, COVID hit. Between dredging up daunting memories of my past, combing through old photos and the binder that I acquired from my mother after she was killed; showing every piece of paper, document, receipt phone call, message that was exchanged between my mother and father in my mother's attempt to get us back from baghdad.
All of this culminated as I wrote during COVID, sitting alone, quarantining while severely sick with Crohn's Disease. My colon ruptured on August 5, 2020 and I was rushed to the ER. They had me on the operating table within 3 minutes, that is how emergent it was.
Amidst all that, I realized while I was writing that my life wasn't as great as I'd made it out to be in my mind. I have a knack for finding joy, even in the most dismal of things...that is why I say resilience is my superpower because I actually didn't see that I was being abused. Because you don't know what you don't know and it was my distributor that pointed out that I needed the word "abuse" in my subtitle and that had me perplexed for quite some time. That is until I read and re-read my book over and over again.
At one point while I sat on my couch and wrote in solitude, I broke down and cried out to the sky HOW?! HOW?! How did I survive my childhood? This hit me like nothing ever had before. After writing and re-writing and editing and re-editing things become clearer.
The absolute hardest thing during the writing process was realizing that the man I looked up to as a father figure, who I idolized, and whom also was my molestor didn’t view me the same. I realized after almost fourty years that this man that I put on a pedestal, and protected from harms way by not telling a soul what he was doing to me, was merely grooming me. I was just a toy to him. This was a crushing blow to my spirt and my psyche on so many levels. That was absolutely the most difficult thing of my entire writing process.
I had several aha moments while I wrote this book, most were not easy. I knew I had to work through them to come out the other side, which is exactly what my books are about. That we are all ResilientAF and that we can all make it through anything if we do the work, there is always light and joy to be found.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Delicia Niami is an acclaimed memoirist and LGBTQ+ advocate, whose raw and edgy storytelling has touched the hearts of readers worldwide. Residing in Santa Cruz and an alumna of UCSC, Delicia draws inspiration from her own journey of resilience and empowerment. Through her memoirs, she fearlessly addresses topics such as sexual abuse, trauma recovery, and the importance of self-compassion. Delicia's work not only sheds light on difficult experiences but also empowers others to find their voices and embrace their own resilience. Her passion for advocacy shines through in her writing, making her a powerful voice for change and healing in today's world.
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/delicianiami_author/
https://www.facebook.com/ResilientAFMemoir
https://www.facebook.com/kissingasphalt
https://www.instagram.com/resilientaf_memoir/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4CuQnSSu4FD0nXrbsZgcG8
Audible: https://a.co/d/ayPVeKl
Libro: https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781647047788-kissing-asphalt
Audiobooks Now: https://www.audiobooksnow.com/audiobook/kissing-asphalt/9622777/
Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kissing-asphalt-delicia-niami/1144013799
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/kissing-asphalt-the-courageous-true-story-of-one/id1737042425
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GIVEAWAY
The author will award a randomly drawn winner a signed special edition copy of the book.
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Thank you so much for hosting today.
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