Amanda Matti: Author, Veteran

Well, it's the final countdown. In less than 96 hours the family and I will bid goodbye to our middle-America life here in Ohio and begin our journey to southern California. Like the Joads in "The Grapes of Wrath", we hope to find a brighter future and more opportunity in the golden state - specifically in the San Diego area. We aren't exactly leaving behind the Depression era dust-bowl existence the leading family in Steinbeck's masterpiece escaped from, but the economic atmosphere in southern Ohio isn't exactly conducive to those looking to prosper in these tough times. I also get the notion that Fadi and I are perhaps simply nomadic by nature. Considering I haven't lived in my native Florida since "escaping" at age 17 in 2000, and Fadi has been displaced from his native continent for six years now, moving and starting over in a foreign land is nothing new to either of us. We do feel a little guilty about uprooting our six-year-old daughter -...

The following is an excerpt from the book I am currently working on documenting Fadi's experiences as a local translator working for U.S. forces in Iraq from 2003-2009. “TAKE COVER!!!” The Major screamed as the echoes of AK-47s and small arms fire rung out across the field. The seven Marine’s of Major W’s Civil Affairs team along with me, their translator, all hit the ground. We were in a cattle pasture on the outskirts of Ramadi when, once again, it seemed we were being attacked by ghosts. Bullets rained down on our position from God knows where. We were all flat out on our bellies as rounds pinged off the humvees behind us. As usual, no one could see who was shooting at us, we only had a general idea from which direction the fire was coming. Fadi "Allen" and Major W near Ramadi, Iraq “Allen! Get your ass in one of the humvees!” The Major shouted to me. Allen isn’t my real name, but Americans struggle to pronounce my Iraqi name so they all called me “Allen”...

Well it only took me nearly ten years to get around to it, but I finally read the book recounting the infamous story of 2003 Iraq War P.O.W. Jessica Lynch. I had some free time on my hands last week, thanks to end-of-year state school testing that led to my being pretty much locked in a room with middle schoolers for two days straight while they did their best to prove to the state that they can read, write, and conduct math calculations at a level suitable to warrant extra funding for their school district, err... I mean, advance to the next grade level. Don't get me started. Ok, back to the book. It was easy, fast reading (my favorite kind) and obvioulsy an engaging story as I completed the book in a matter of hours. Like most Americans, I am intimately familir with the Jessica Lynch ordeal, and was one of the millions glued to the t.v. in 2003 when she was taken captive and held for nine days before being snatched from an Iraqi hospital by U.S. Special Forces. It was es...

It has been six months since I completed my debut book A Foreign Affair – my memoir documenting my time serving in Iraq and falling in love with my native Iraqi husband – and I am itching to get back to writing. I probably shouldn’t put the cart before the horse here and jump into writing another book before I even have the first one published, but I try not to let too much grass grow under my feet. (I know – how many idioms can you squeeze into one sentence?) I have decided to focus on my husband for my next project (no that wasn’t a euphemism for something naughty) and will be working on HIS memoir. He has a treasure chest of interesting experiences and stories from the six years he spent working, at first, as a local translator for the "invading" American Army, and later as a U.S. Permanent Resident and D.O.D. contractor deployed alongside American forces in various locations throughout Iraq. It is, again, a unique perspective not heavily documented or presented to t...

After a seven year journey, I've FINALLY completed the manuscript for my Iraq War memoir A Foreign Affair . It's a book I primarily wrote for myself and for my daughter. Something to leave behind and pass down through the generations. My personal story of war, injustice, and an epic romance. Although my story is pretty unique, the question constantly at the back of my mind while writing it was, "Will anyone aside from my family and close friends find it interesting?" I guess this is a lingering question in every author's mind - especially when it comes to their debut work. Another question that swirled around in my mind throughout this seven-year process was, "Do I really want to share the intimate details of this book - basically two years of my diary - with complete strangers?" Living this story was nothing short of an emotional hell on earth - even writing about these events years later was still emotionally tumultuous for me. There were num...

Since the eruption of fierce clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in July of 2006, missiles have rocked more than the concrete superstructures of Beirut and Haifa; thousands of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire have had their lives turned upside down and placed in a precarious holding pattern of uncertainty. In the weeks following the initial bombings by Israeli forces, a multitude of inhabitants were trapped for up to two weeks without food or running water. When the runways of Beirut’s international airport were targeted by Israeli air strikes, thousands of travelers desperate to leave the country as well as gain entrance to reunite with family members inside Lebanon, were stranded for days across the Middle East. Painful memories and recollections of Lebanon’s bloody civil war are resurfacing and once again demoralizing the spirit of the Lebanese people. The violent discord between Israeli troops and the guerilla warriors of Hezbollah (Party of God) is no r...

Following the outbreak of war in Iraq, the Jordanian economy slipped into an alarming yet brief recession as the steady export of goods into Iraq was impeded and the cheap flow of oil from Baghdad was cut off. Jordan managed to successfully maintain its stability with the virtually instant foreign aid it received from the United States as well as its Arab counterparts; but when a sizeable amount of Iraqi immigrants began flowing into Jordan to escape the turmoil of their country, some feared that the surplus of refugees and expatriates would place added stress on Jordan’s already fragile economy and essentially suffocate the country’s infrastructure. Predictions asserted that the excessive amount of Iraqis inundating Jordan’s capital Amman would flood the job market and consume millions of dollars worth of precious resources, specifically electricity and water, resulting in an eventual collapse of the economy. This is still a risk, but in the meantime, studies show that a variety of Jo...