The world is full of secrets. After the rain, a rainbow shines in the sky. It fascinates and beckons over the horizon. How many colors are in a rainbow? Some see three, others five, and some can count up to seven. But some can see the shades between the colors, and these are special people. The rainbow takes them to the unknown vastness of the blue ocean, and when they return, the light of the mystery they have seen sparkles in their eyes. They do not stay on the shore for long, and they go back over the horizon. Some of them never return…
People have legends about the sea. One of them says that the souls of sailors who do not return are transformed into sea birds. Soaring high in the sky, such a soul sees beyond the horizon what is inaccessible to those who live on land.
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I have been a seaman for decades and have circumnavigated the globe on various types of ships, from the sparkling waters of the tropics to the icy waters of Antarctica. I have had many adventures in my life and they continue.
And like many of you, I have hobbies, one of which is writing. In my youth I wrote poetry, but now that I have become a man with experience of the world and knowledge of the people who live in it, I prefer to write in prose. I write in all categories of this genre: love stories and novels, adventures and essays, history and politics, journalism, and more. I don’t write fiction, leaving that category to those who know life from their parents or television. I write real life stories that happened to me and my friends. And I know that real life has many more colors than any Hollywood movie.
Books have been written about adventurers. I knew one such desperate daredevil, about his wanderings across seas and lands. It was as if he was playing a game with fate, and the more dangerous was the game, the more exciting it became for him. By the time I decided to write a story about his adventures, I had collected enough stories to fill a book. So I thought about what genre to choose. I don’t write long stories because they require many characters and events. Nowadays, young people don’t read long stories; they disparagingly refer to such literature as ‘long reads’. Well, you have to take into account the trends of our times.
I like a short novel! An adventure in which the characters of a few heroes meet, each with his intrigues, and life throws them all into a round dance, tearing off their masks and pulling up their skirts.
And then I thought I could write a collection of such short novels, with the main character appearing in each one. Even if he appeared under a different name, he would be recognizable by his passions and habits. I learned this from one of my favorite writers, O. Henry, in his collection of short stories, “The Kings and the Cabbage,” which he called a long novel. Such a hero is also to be found in Remarque’s long novels. All his stories have their plots, but the main character is the same: he reveals himself by drinking calvados!
And I thought that in such a cocktail of life stories it would be possible to hide behind the main character’s back and even slip him adventures from my own life. Such a collection of short novellas is much more interesting than a long story, where the ending is almost always predictable, or an impatient reader can find it out by reading the last few pages. In a short story collection, each one has its own plot and denouement, and the author may even invite a fictional character called an ‘alter ego’ to help write the tale. This helper is especially useful when the author is trying to find a way out of a particular situation in the story. He can then turn his problem over to the mysterious ‘alter ego’ for a solution. This technique was perfectly mastered by everyone’s favorite writer Ernest Hemingway.
I jokingly call my alter ego as ‘Walter Ego.’
After thinking about it, I realized with satisfaction that I had reached a compromise with myself. And now I know exactly what my work should be. In one of my books, almost all the stories that happen to my characters take place on the other side of the Bosphorus, and they are all more or less related to the ocean, taking place on the islands and continents of the New World. That’s why I called one of my books ‘Beyond the Bosphorus’, where each short novel or adventure story has its plot so that the book can be read by opening it on any page. There are stories about seafarers and pirates, hunters of sunken treasure, about love and betrayal. And many of them I offer to you here on my website.
I have written seven books, and my most important book is “History for Dummies”, which took me over 20 years to complete. It is about the wars and revolutions of the 20th century. And the architects of those wars. The second book in the same category, ‘Hidden Traces of the Grey Wolf’, will reveal to many of you the truth about many distorted facts and events of World War II. This war is still called “The Unknown War” thanks to the fabricators.
Why the website? I realized one day that I could present all my books on it! By offering my works in all categories of the “prose” genre, I will be able to satisfy even the most demanding and curious reader. I am bilingual in several languages and have lived in several countries and political systems for decades of my life, so I can compare and describe the mentality and culture of people in my stories. I try to write more in English, but the political situation in the world suggests to me for example, that Russian-speaking readers would benefit from discovering a source of information that no one else can offer them on their language. Maybe with my work they will understand better the world they live in.
Happy reading, friends! I look forward to your comments and remarks, they are very helpful to the author in his work.
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Excellent write-up