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The long story of a short novel

Some months ago I was contacted by the publisher office to sign my contract. I have been waiting for two long years until at last I got a confirmation that my first novel (actually, my first novel that is worth reading) was on its way to the bookstore shelves. And some months later, I got a mail from the editor in charge of reviewing the book. Indeed,a  long process for a novel not so long.

My story as writer goes back to 2001, when I got a new job and decided to start writing in my free time. The first novel started as a Sci-Fi story of a boy that must become a bounty hunter, inspired by Boba Fett. Later it changed to a fantasy novel, and the boy became a monster hunter. I released it on Internet a year or two later, but only got a hundredth downloads, maybe. I abandoned the second part, almost finished, and forgot about writing for while.

After such dissapointment, perhaps the wise choice would have been not to write anymore, but I decided to write a short novel as background for an RPG I was programming. After all, I thought, Im not a too terrible writer. It was supposed to be a short story, covering the professions  of the game and providing some lore about the universe where the game events take place. Took it time, because I am quite slow writing, and then temptations started to get in my mind: why not make it a bit larger? why not try to release it on Internet again? or sell it?

The long road of finding people to seriously review the novel started. Got a few opinions, nothing really special. In a few words, it ended on Internet, with the same result. I used UbuntuOne, so I dont know how many downloads I got. But on its way to the world, the novel was read by a friend who recommended my a writer's workshop. The book was read and reviewed, and most important, an actual writer, with international awards and published books, read it and was quite impressed. Seemed, that after all, I had learned a few things in my previous work. He offered me to bring the novel to the publisher, and he did. As I said, the process takes 2-3 years, but now it is getting closer to the end. The payment is symbolic, to say the least, but perhaps this first opens the door for more publications and money.

So, technically, now I can say "I am a writer".


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