Tiredness destroys happy face.
What you see before you is someone I can only presume to be myself, holding the first edition copy of “Spectacular, Spectacular!” in which resides my first ever mainstream publication =) A collective anthology centered around the ideas and themes of the circus, the text incorporates short stories, poems and pieces from a select few writers of the University of Heidelberg into a big blobby mess of words and concepts and stuff that is all rather lovely. Worked on individually but then edited together at group sessions, the final pieces were then edited by the higher ups and sent off to the publishers. And now it exists in book form and soon to be available on amazon.com and other book retailers near you, possibly.
It should come as no surprise to you that I absolutely despise the piece I wrote for this anthology. Coming to the project late, as I was not only new but also, y’know, just an Erasmus student, I only found out about it one week before the final deadline. Sitting on the idea as I tend to do, writing makes a very good butt-cushion, I did not actually start writing until 3am on the Thursday night before going to Amsterdam. I had to catch the 5am train. So as it happens, my first published piece was a 45minute rush job first draft of delirious sexual frustration and anticipatory excitement. Written to be deliberately self-aware of its melodrama, my hurried language ended up conveying just general hammyness. But we all love a bit of pork now and then. I would’ve loved to gone back and edited it somewhat, even fix the language a tad, but that opportunity was missed as on the day any last minute changes could’ve been made I was doing the unnatural act of flying, and heading into London, something even more against nature.
But there we are, the book is fantastic, my text is number 13 in the list which is possibly the most fitting given the content of my story. The cover’s great and seeing my name in print gives me a happy tingle that I thought only 5 mojitos and a lusty bouncer knows how to achieve. A very special thanks to Tina, Marina, Jonas and Peter for all their work and help organising and ’twas a great privilege. Writing is a story of missed opportunities and slipped chances, so I’m glad to be riding this one. Yeehaw.
writtenwhirred 