Words in Print

[Drenk]

Hey, Xixax friends and family!

Many words have been written over the years, and I should archive them somewhere safe to keep track of all them in case I want to embarrass myself. Along the way, some words kept coming back, stories insisted to take shape. Words became exhausting drafts, and I'm now glad and relieved to report that my first novel will be published in 2022!

Well. This is French, obviously. Sorry. 

Here is a snippet of what the cover should look like. The summary is an old draft and my biography is still in latin gibberish because I have no idea what to put there. Looks nice, though.

[pynchonikon]

Félicitations!

I wish it becomes such a success that it will be translated in English! (Greek might be a bit more difficult  )

[WorldForgot]

Congrats, Drenk. Likewise if it's ever translated into English (or Duolingo ever wins me over), I'll tune into its frequency.

[Robyn]

Oh, nice!! Congrats.
This is the one you've talked about, right? How did it finally happen?

[Drenk]

Yep, that's the novel I've mentioned.

How it worked:

—Finished the novel
—Took nine months before reading it again/rewriting
—Started sending manuscripts while rewriting
—Big editors were declining
—Despair
—Opened the file again and thought: "well...it's a pretty good novel..."
—Rewriting. Sending manuscripts. Editors were declining.
—Despair, etc...
—Started to understand the small world of the French editing world better and checked independent editors, who work on a more human scale...
— One editor replied! Asked to know more! I wrote an answer! They tanked me, promised to read the full thing as fast as possible!
—Never got a response.  Asked for one, positive or negative, three months later, but nothing. 
—Despair.
— I had sent the manuscript to another editor, one of their novels was listed for a prize and it seemed cool + their covers looked good.
—Forgot about it.
—Received a call at the wedding of my cousin to ask me if I hadn't given the rights to another publisher.
—Received another call two days later, after the editor had finished reading the whole thing; the way he talked about the novel gave me the impression that he understood the material, and his passion was clear.
—Freaked out.
—Freaked out some more.
—Read a lot about contracts and shit.
—Freaked out.
—Signed.

[polkablues]

That is so freaking cool. Proud of you!

[WorldForgot]

Congrats for surviving this round through the machine.
Us happy cogz salute you and cherish the effort as much as the details.

[Axolotl]

Congratulations Drenk! This is amazing

[Drenk]

Thanks to all of you! I finished the first, heavy rounds of corrections with the editor yesterday, which is why I felt comfortable announcing it publicly; there were some exhausting debates but, ultimately, the novel is clearly in a better state.

[Jeremy Blackman]

This is fantastic! You'll have to give us a summary of the book or maybe translate a passage into English for us.

[Drenk]

It could be a fun exercice to translate some pages!

[Jeremy Blackman]

You should be able to attach a PDF under 1200 kb, but PM me if you want to host any files on the site, and that can easily be done.

[Just Withnail]

Congratulations, Drenk, that's fantastic!

You did the right thing plowing through that despair. I can't wait to try to read it with my almost non-existent French!

[Reel]

Congrats! That's so cool, glad you kept at it. I would read the translation too! Maybe we could help brush up the english.

[Drenk]

First official announcement.

EDIT: I realized there's my name on the link, so you need to add it to get access. 

https://actualitte.com/article/103590/avant-parutions/FIRSTNAME-LASTNAME-une-famille-algerienne


Not pleased with some marketing elements there. The way #ARAB is an hashtag, for example. And I've also talked about not using one specific word so I'll complain again.

But hey, this is real!