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Why I wrote a book about luck

clover

I remember having a dream once. In it, I was trying to figure out why I never give enough thinking to the problrem of luck. I was talking to a woman from work, who I hardly knew then, so even in the dream I asked myself in surprise: “Why am I seeing her in the dream? I never even think about her in real life.”

The woman was staring at me in the dream, and when I looked up, she said: “Luck is a spirit that lives in you until you fail to please it one day.”

“Really? What happens then?” I asked.

“It leaves you, so you lose your luck,” she said. And then, seeing that I was not paying attention, she added: “You don’t believe me. Too bad. It means that you lost yours ages ago.”

I woke up with a nasty feeling of having lost something, and that feeling kept coming back to me again and again during that day. Since then, I started thinking about luck. Later, I made Luck the narrator of my first novel.

I never happened to speak to that woman in real life after the dream. She left our team soon after that, and I did not hear about her for years. Just a few days ago, I ran across an old colleague in the street and we stopped for a few minutes to exchange some news and gossips – you know, the usual stuff. The first thing I heard from my colleague was the news that our former co-worker – the one from my dream – has been ill lately, and that she nearly lost her mind after a nasty divorce, resulting from an even nastier affair with another man, which also ended in nothing, but trouble.

I have been wondering: did she fail to please her luck at some point?

Finally… about my book

inga-4 She is a dancer, and a model, and an incurable romantic, who wants to have a big and beautiful life. She gets everything she can from living in a small provincial seaside place in Crimea, but she wants more, a lot more, and finally it happens… a guy from New York, allegedly the luckiest guy on Earth, comes to the town…

Here is a dialog from the book:

Beep–beep, beep–beep–

“Boris? Hi.”

“Inga?! It’s two o’clock in the morning!”

“I know. Listen, I need to talk to you, it’s urgent.”

“Is there a fire or someone got killed?”

“No, but it’s something really big.”

“An elephant got stuck in your bedroom door–”

“Boris, stop it! I am serious. Please, listen to me.”

“Argh. All right, what is it?”

“I don’t know yet, but something big is going to happen in the city.”

“W–what? Is this your big news? Inga, I’ll kill you if you get on my way tomorrow.”

“No. Boris, listen. Mucker just had a long talk with me.”

“Again? What did you do? Crashed his car? Burned his uniform? Sold his badge? Eh?”

“Ah, damn you, stop it! I am being serious and … oh, never mind. I won’t tell you anything at all!”

“All right, Dolly, I’m sorry. Come on, tell me. What is it?”

“Don’t call me Dolly. And don’t interrupt me, okay? So. There’s a treasure. A pile of Tershian gold. It was hidden somewhere in the city decades ago by Professor Markov, a former Museum Director. Also, there’s a guy – Alec Markov – his descendant, who lives in America and is about to visit us next week; he seems to know where the treasures are hidden. Mucker wants to spy on the guy, let him dig up the treasures, and then – well, I don’t know what’s then. Mucker just asked me to support that guy everywhere during his visit, up to the moment when he leads us to the treasure.”

“It was a mistake.”

“What was a mistake?”

“To let you support the guy. You’ll screw it up.”

“Bor’ka! Durak! Shut up, you fool! I hate you when you joke like that!”

“OK, Sweetie, what do you want from me?”

“First, I need your professional help, as I really don’t want to screw it up. Second, I also love treasures, so I thought, why don’t we help the guy find it, but do this secretly from my boyfriend and his dad? We might get our share then.”

“Inga, you must be tired of living. This is suicide!”

“Come on. It’s just a–”

“Inga, do you realize the degree of risk you’ll be facing?”

“Come on, the risk is minimal!”

“You – argh. Listen, go to bed, sleep well, and forget what you just said – forever.”

“Boris, but this is a unique chance! We can’t miss it!”

“You must have eaten something bad for dinner. I say, go to bed now and – ”

“Boris! It’s a win–win situation. This lucky guy will do everything by himself. We’ll only turn up in the right place on the right moment. No one will ever suspect us. They’ll make the American guy responsible.”

“Inga, this is crazy. Your idea is insane.”

“But why? Boris, we want to be rich, don’t we?”

“Yes, we do, but not posthumously. Listen, can you do me a favor? Forget about it and let me have some sleep, I only have two hours left before I have to get up. Bye for now.”

“Boris, wait. Damn! Boris!”

Click. Beep – beep – beep –

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by Iryna Tymchenko on November 1, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in Blog

Tagged #ReadingForPleasure, #Rina Tim, #Rina Tim's blog, #Rina's blog, #Rina's fiction, #RinaTim

Posted by Iryna Tymchenko on November 1, 2016

https://rinatim.com/2016/11/01/finally-about-my-book/

Tug of a new novel

Does it only happen to me or is it a common thing? I have not finished polishing my previous novel yet, but that hum of a new plot is already sitting deep in my head and disturbing me like hell! If I don’t start writing in the nearest time, I am going to blow up. On such days, my mind is a moving kaleidoscope, and I am inside it, small and vulnerable, crawling between my own ideas, risking to be smashed, but unable to run away. Scary? Yeah, a bit. The only way out of that kaleidoscope leads me to my table- sugesting to sit down and trust it all to paper.

At this “kaleidoscope” stage I may write numerous sketches: unconnected brain droppings, images, short scenes, fantasies- with all the disturbance it gains me, I love this stage, because it is very similar to dreaming. At times, it captures me so much that I cannot differentiate between dreaming and reality without making a special effort. Human mind is a mysterious thing, indeed.

A new novel is testing my patience these days. I don’t know how much I can hold it before I run to my table and start writing. Maybe till tonight-

Hello world!

Hello, I am happy to start writing this blog, which is going to open a new page in my life: a journey of fiction writing. After spending decades writing research articles and coursebooks for students, believe me, this is a big change. I feel like a bird which finally found its way out of the cage.

I did love what I did before: teaching and research have always been a wonderful world, where I feel at home. But all that work took too much of my time, so I could not focus on writing – the thing which I’d always wanted to do. The time has come now. So, I am out of the cage and can fly! Hello, World of Writing! I am on my way!