{"id":4910,"date":"2019-04-01T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T09:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/?p=4910"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:13:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T12:13:54","slug":"mirna-el-helbawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/?p=4910","title":{"rendered":"Mirna El Helbawi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through reading, we discover places we will never see and meet people we will never know. But behind the words is a writer with a life beyond these pages. Meet the extremely prolific writer Mirna El Helbawi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is Mirna El Helbawi?<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a girl who loves exploring. I\u2019m everything you can imagine; wise and foolish, organized and clumsy, realistic and very dreamy. But the most important thing, I guess, is that I\u2019m being myself in every single aspect of my life. I graduated from Faculty of Tourism and Hotels at Alexandria University. I worked as a junior journalist since I was 19 years old, I was in my third year of uni when I moved to Cairo all alone for a new job. I worked in journalism for six years. By the sixth year, I was the managing editor of a big journalistic website platform. I\u2019m always eager to achieve more and more. I\u2019m a writer, I\u2019m a business woman, I\u2019m so many things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where did your love for books\/ storytelling\/ reading\/ writing etc… come from?<\/b><\/p>\n

My love for reading started very early. I started reading since I was seven years old. I was very weak at reading Arabic and my mother didn\u2019t like that, so she started bringing me cool books until I have officially become a bookworm. I did not recognize my love for writing until I was 18 years old. But I was always a shy kid who expressed her emotions through sending letters to family and friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

How long have you been writing?<\/b><\/p>\n

I started writing as a blogger since I was 18 which means eight years ago. But I started the professional writing at the age of 19.<\/span><\/p>\n

What were your goals and intentions regarding your book \u201cMor Methl Elqahwa, Helw Methl Elchocola\u201d? And do you feel you achieved them?<\/b><\/p>\n

I just wanted to write the book I wanted to find in bookstores. I wrote what I wanted to read. I wrote it because deep in my heart I feel I was born to write. My only intention was to make people feel good, to enjoy the few hours they spend reading my words.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was the hardest part of writing this book? And what did you enjoy the most while writing it?<\/b><\/p>\n

The hardest part was writer\u2019s block and self-doubt. But I enjoyed the fact that I had so many untold stories. It gave me a feeling of satisfaction that I kind of succeeded in the game of life by exploring and going here and there.<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes your book stand out from the crowd?<\/b><\/p>\n

Being real and being written from the heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you think characterises your writing?<\/b><\/p>\n

I got so many comments that I\u2019m good at translating the feelings which many people cannot express into words.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the something people don\u2019t know about you?<\/b><\/p>\n

I suffer from anxiety. I\u2019m also very sensitive.<\/span><\/p>\n

What inspires you?<\/b><\/p>\n

Travelling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who are some of your favourite authors that were influential to your work? What impact have they had on your writing?<\/b><\/p>\n

So many! Starting from Khaled Al Safty to Nabil Farouk, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, Anis Mansour, Yusuf Al-Sibai, Naguib Mahfouz, Nermin<\/span><\/p>\n

Nermin Nizar, Paulo Coelho, Leo Tolstoy. Each one has left his mark in my soul. I\u2019m grateful for each and everyone of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you write more by logic or by your experiences?<\/b><\/p>\n

Both. A good combination in between.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you like to read in your free time?<\/b><\/p>\n

Everything. I love reading very much! Recently, I read mainly novels.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are your plans for future projects?<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m working on my second book. I\u2019m hoping it gets released in the summer. Also, there are two or three business projects that I will reveal soon.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through reading, we discover places we will never see and meet people we will never know. But behind the words<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":0,"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4913,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910\/revisions\/4913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}