It's Alive!

Or, how it feels to have finished something.

It always surprises me how quickly we get used to things.

For example, a scant few years ago, I was a cat-less bachelor. That state of affairs is so far removed from my current experience that I cannot even begin to picture what it was like.

For another example, just last year, if someone were to ask me what kind of writer I thought I was, I would unabashedly have answered something along the lines of: “An essayist, are you daft?! Have you even read anything I’ve written?!”

Well, ladies, gents and nonbinary friends, today I stand before you as something else. Something new. The kind of writer which, as the years went by, I stopped believing I would ever be, nay, could ever be.

A novelist.

Because today, more precisely fourteen hours ago, I put in place the final edits of my book.

So I can finally say it. Scream it, were I the kind of person that manifests themselves that way.

I. AM. A. NOVELIST!

OK, if you want to be a nerd about it, what I have written is closer to a novella than a novel.

It is a 35k word literary narrative, written in Romanian, about an old widower who has convinced himself that he cannot live without his beloved wife, so he’s decided that, on the first anniversary of her death, he will hang himself.

On the day of, however, through the window he has left open—so the stench of death would not bother the neighbours—enters a cat. A skinny, dirty, wounded runt of a cat. And that cat may just turn out to be his salvation.

You likely see why I say this is closer to a novella than a novel. But you know what? If The Old Man and The Sea is being marketed as a novel, then why not this one, too?

Anyway, I am now entering the third and (hopefully) final phase of the journey that has been this book. I have drafted, edited, and now am pitching my manuscript to local publishers.

I think I do not even need to say this, but I will anyway. The experience of writing this book has changed me profoundly. It has forced me to face every single one of my fears and uncertainties. I have learned to plot, develop characters, write long-form, realistic dialogue, fix pacing and continuity issues, and likely most important of all, have patience.

With patience, I have written a book.

With patience, I may write many more.

With patience, and a little luck, I’ll find my name in bookstores sometime soon.

That’s all for now.

I just wanted to check in, let you know I’m not dead, and that I’ve been keeping at it.

I hope to have something more meaty to share soon, including an English translation of the first chapter.

I also hope I’ll bring myself to cease neglecting y’all and write on here more often.

Until then, peace.

God knows all of us need that right now.

—A.

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