I Wrote a Novel and I’m Graduating!

Today is actually my graduation day! Because I am not attending my graduation ceremony (in Canada), I thought I would celebrate by sharing this day with you. Getting my MFA in Creative Writing and completing my first adult novel might be the biggest accomplishment of my life. If you have been following me along for a while, you know that at times it has felt like an uphill climb, but just as I promised in my blogpost on procrastination, I made it up my mountain!

That was the furthest I had allowed myself to dream. As burnt out and self-critical as I was, I had been planning on submitting my thesis and taking a nice, long break from writing. But upon reading the first complete draft of my novel, my thesis supervisor took me completely off guard with her confidence that it needs to be published and her offer to recommend me to some literary agents! Even my second thesis committee member agreed that it’s publishable, and I know that neither would say it if they didn’t mean it. So far, the three people that have read my book said that they cried (well, one of them I heard in the other room), and you can’t imagine how much that meant to me (I promise that this is the only case where making people cry makes me happy).

If you’re curious, my novel centers around the friendship of a Swedish guy named Johan and an Armenian guy named Hamo. Johan is building a cabin, carving out his safe, isolated future in the woods, while Hamo is about to get married, faced with the terrifying prospect of his impending fatherhood, unaffordable housing, and a university program he hates. Their paths cross once again–after Hamo’s semester in Sweden–when Johan accepts Hamo’s last-minute wedding invitation and ends up staying in Armenia much longer than he ever intended. Because of their very different cultures and personalities, they are able to help each other like no one else can, to find and claim their place in life. Hamo is able to pull Johan into the community he didn’t know he needed, while Johan is able to pull Hamo out of it long enough to walk his untrodden path. However, when war breaks out in Armenia, it brings their worst nightmares to the forefront, putting their friendship and newfound convictions to the ultimate test.

The current title I’m playing around with is Forget Me, Forget Me Not (I would be very curious what you think, even though it makes more sense once you read the book). My hope is that it will be a story that moves people, that the characters are like friends the reader wants to go on a journey with, but more importantly that it gives people an experience of Armenia, so that it’s no longer just a name you might or might not have heard, but a place you have been to in your mind and heart (and might even consider visiting in real life).

Now, of course, I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. Nothing is guaranteed and it might be a long run before I find an agent and publisher who wants to take me on (it helps to remember that some of my favorite authors were initially rejected dozens of times). But the biggest win for me was that I went from wanting to dump my novel into the trash the minute I graduated (well, that would involve me dumping my computer into the trash, which I wouldn’t do, but you get the idea) to actually believing I could have a career as a writer (and not in the far-off future as I had imagined before)! So I climbed up my mountain, only to find that there was a higher one up ahead, but I’m so ready for it. Now I’m doing another round of edits before starting this next phase of trying to get it published, and I can’t wait to share the rest of this journey with you–and one day maybe even the book! Please keep your fingers crossed for me (or hold your thumbs, if you’re Swedish).