My Literary Future
As an adolescent of maybe thirteen or fourteen years old, I had my first traumatic event concerning my literary and intellectual future.
It was an enormous shock, the realisation I would never achieve reading all the books on all genres and subjects written in the entire universe.
From the moment I learned to read, I didn’t stop. I have always been passionate about reading and writing since I first discovered the alphabet.
In grade school, I read anything and everything in all genres. Names of shops, graffiti on the walls while riding the bus to and from school, outdoor ads, loose newspaper pages and magazines, anything printed I could put my eyes or little hands on.
I read non-stop. Right after reading the last page of one book, I open the first page of the next one, as a smoking addict lights a new cigarette from the butt of the previous one.
As an adult, my books kept accumulating at home, and as my heart would not allow me to get rid of them, I kept buying more and more shelves. Even after the e-book era, I still enjoy the smell of a pristine copy of a new acquisition.
Whether a pen, a pencil or the computer keyboard under my fingers, I never stop writing, and my mind never stops creating.
My First Scribblings
In grade school, after finishing my homework, instead of going outside to play with the other kids from the block on the sidewalk or crossing the street and jumping into the waters of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, I would scribble short stories or repeat dialogues I had heard that morning, in class, on the bus, on the streets.
I didn’t own a diary or a special notebook for my scribblings. I used my school notebook’s back cover, the empty blank spaces in the daily newspaper, used gift wrappers or old magazine pages.
Writing is More than Scribbling
Writing is an art that ignites one’s brain, skills, and talents. However, its routes live in the writer’s heart and soul.
Striving to find the exact word or expression imbues me with an exciting sense of peregrination to a sublime goal.
While growing up, I realised writing was an essential part of my whole being. It’s in my DNA, in the ridges of my fingerprints.
Webinar after webinar, workshop after workshop, taught me essential mechanisms and provided me with enough tools to boost my yearning to write professionally.
But in Which Genre?
I started meandering through several and diverse paths of the literary forest, convinced I had to define my genre to find my writing voice.
Hence, I embarked on this quest to find my particular genre, unique to myself.
At first, this journey of self-discovery excited me.
As a romantic person, my first writings were sugary love stories, which I later discarded, along with attempts to write scripts for a play or a movie.
There followed ventures to write factual stories about holocaust survivors, which I never finished as the tales were so cruel I could not dive deep enough into my emotions and turned up too shallow for my thorough and hyper-critical personality.
Then came trials and errors on varied types of fiction: utopian, psycho-social, realistic, contemporary, psychological drama and even a sci-fi romantic comedy.
I wracked my brain over and over, searching for my writing strength.
I read books from diverse genres and styles in all the languages I speak, paying heed to the elements most appealing to me in their text.
My search for inspiration and guidance led me to read books by successful writers, trying to identify what stimulated them.
Time and again, I asked myself, what genre do I excel at?
I convinced myself I needed to find one specific genre aligned with my personal experiences and interests.
Saved by a Proverb
At that point, I thought of an old Jewish proverb, “Don’t be too sweet, or else you will be eaten up; but don’t be too bitter, or else you will be spitted out.”
Thus, I decided I wouldn’t be afraid to experiment with different writing genres and styles. From then on, I would write in any genre I felt like to see where I felt most comfortable and where my creativity would rise naturally.
As I continued to explore the different genres, I noticed my singular, specific voice shone through.
Only then I understood that finding a particular genre does not mean I had to conform to a stereotype. In truth, it’s the other way around. It’s embedding my distinct style to enrich a specific genre. I’ve discovered that genres can be fluid. That my writing can span through multiple genres and even blend elements from different ones into the same text.
Ultimately, I decided to trust my instincts and allow my love of the craft to glide naturally. To follow my passion for writing wherever it took me, including writing short stories about the adventures of a virtual dog—a quadruped sleuth unravelling crimes within its own home.
Ana Paulina Lipster
Author Ana Paulina Lipster was born in Brazil, her mother tongue Portuguese. She fell in love with the English language—love at first word—in junior high in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro state. Ana Paulina attended The British Culture School for seven years, majoring in Extra-Mural studies, from which she received the Certificate of Proficiency from Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
After immigrating to Israel, Ana Paulina continued to improve her studies of the English language and literature, as well as embellishing her vocabulary, enhancing the use of the language, and learning the craft through many and various Creative Writing workshops.
Ana Paulina has written numerous short stories, published in Tolerance, Autumn, Winter—An End and a Promise, Spring—The Unexpected, and Summer—When Doors Open anthologies. Her book, a crime novel entitled BRANDED, will be out soon.
You can follow her:
Website: www.analipster.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ana.lipster and on https://www.facebook.com/Ana-P-Lipster-Author-100994479024945
AN INTERVIEW WITH LAWRENCE URBAN
BY KATHLEEN OSBORNE
Welcome to this section in our newsletter.
We hope you enjoy hearing a more about each of our authors.
Transcendent Authors
Anthologies
SUMMER IS HERE!
Are you ready for this?
Doors open for you to walk through and discover what’s on the other side.
Or maybe you walk out into the garden or yard and sit with a book in hand, an iced tea or lemonade on a little side table next to you. You take a sip now and then to beat back the heat. The umbrella over your head shades you from the scorching sun, and a breeze softly blows across your brow until a golf ball lands with a thump right next to your lounge chair, inches from hitting you!
Standing up, you check yourself to make sure it really missed you, and then you turn your eyes, focusing on the golf cart zipping your way with two laughing men in it. That is until they spot you holding the florescent yellow golf ball in your hand.
By the time they get to your fence, you are throwing up their ball and down one handed, glaring at them.
WHAT’S NEXT?
We have completed the Seasons Series with the release of our last book, Summer—When Doors Open. Our next book release is similar to our very first anthology, Tolerance. The new one will be called Deceit. It will contain ten stories for you to enjoy and will be released in November. We will reveal the new cover in our next Newsletter, so keep your eye on your email for a special announcement. We’re excited to show you the cover, and let you know when you can pre-order.
Until the next time…
Founder