I wrote a book

I have been away much longer than I anticipated in my last newsletter. My apologies. As my absence lengthened so did my short story and it became a short novel. Like I mentioned before unpredictability makes wild things grow.

I wrote my first eco-fantasy book.

It will be published in France by la Fourmi Editions next spring. And we are currently in the process of translating the novella from English to French.

Planta Insumisa, 1961, by Remedios Varo

This story comes from a story universe named Single Seed Tale.

And I am so thrilled that I can finally release and share a piece of it after nine years of world-building and story-weaving. I and the story owe a great deal to Nathalie Sejean who has been with us since the inception of SST and beyond, and she hasn’t left our side ever since. Her support, trust, love, belief and care carried me through some of the hardest times and here we are. Sometimes all we need is that one other person.

I haven’t stopped since August. I delivered my first draft at the beginning of September. It was horrendous. I was openly hoping that Nathalie would tell me to stop writing fantasy stories. She did not. Then, I met the power of being read and that changed everything. My second draft was a completely different animal. Nathalie believed in the story more than ever and I too convinced myself that I could write a book. Once we reached the third draft, I shared it with three more people. With their kind eyes, curious imaginations and generous feedback, this book bird was out of its nest and taking flight. Nowadays, I am sharing my book news anywhere I go. I still cannot believe that my imaginary story is in the process of becoming a physical book.

At the beginning of this year, I was about to give up. It felt way too impossible for my foreign ink and non-native tongue to write such a vast story. In the bleeding times of war, genocide, femicide and ecocide; in a rotting nation state and patriarchy, was trying to write fantasy books and keep miscarrying them the best way to spend my human life and energy? Then, around spring I was asked and tasked to write a short story out of Single Seed Tale to be published. An ask and a task that was most welcome and approachable for a first-time author. And a whole other level of challenge. Remedios Varo’s painting above is me in August. I suspect I looked more peculiar and crazier. There was a point I was blaming Sumerians for inventing writing.

The short story became a short novel. It is taking us much longer to complete and it took us some time and convincing to accept and digest this news. Fortunately, my publishers were kind and enthusiastic about the story so here we are. At the end of the year, I feel like a huge responsibility lifted itself off of my shoulders, at least for now. I find the last draft and translation to be such delightful moments for my author self.

It has been one wild journey with my imaginary story companions and writing since 2008¹. There were moments I had felt quite guilty towards Dünia, the Essence, and Single Seed Tale.² Because they were stuck with a storyteller like myself. They have been waiting for my conditions to ease, for my wild story-weaving and story-building tendencies to release, for my English to reach the capacity to write, for my wounded and scared parts to collaborate and be willing to go through the pain of writing. Then, there was me this little human with an impossible task of big complicated stories to untangle and weave. Well, it takes the time it takes. It takes the nurturing it takes. And it is quite a humbling process. For me it has been sixteen odd years and counting. One has to love a story wildly to be able to go through such process. Now, all I can do is to dream and hope that these stories touch imaginations and hearts as much as they touch mine, and be good imaginative food for our planet and universe.

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Dear subscribers, I apologise for my long disappearance. Hopefully, I am reappearing with a beautiful story ready to meet with you in the near future. To my paid subscribers, I am planning to share with you some story bits, pieces, and lore as soon as I get some rest and have the mind space to organise.

To my delight, when I came back here I saw some new people joining Storyteller Stone. Welcome. Bienvenue. Hoş geldiniz. You’ve arrived right on time for this storyteller and her book announcement.

I am over all the moons of our solar system; Ganymede, Io, Callisto, Europa, Enceladus, Umbriel, Triton, Dysnomia, Kerberos, Phobos…³ and also very much on Earth. I feel at last I may have truly earned some needed hibernation time; to be with my planet and dear ones, digest my harvest, dream, story tell, read other books⁴, write short things… and perhaps slowly translate my story into my mother tongue.

There are many more stories to tell from Single Seed Tale; it merely ends here, it is possibly just beginning.

Gizem Gizegen, 2024 Istanbul, ☉ Sagittarius ☽ Virgo Pluto in Aquarius

Painting by Remedios Varo.

1. From Pluto in Capricorn to Pluto in Aquarius..

2. My three big story companions; storytelling universes/galaxies/worlds. Dünia and Essence are with me since 2008, Single Seed Tale since 2015.

3. I may have a thing for Jupiter’s moons. #cosmicwink Ganymede, Io, Callisto, Europa were the first moons discovered by humans, orbiting another planet.

4. Confession: I have hardly read anything this year. As soon as I had completed my third draft, I took the weekend off and I read the Vegetarian by Han Kang. And I really wish to read some more Korean literature. Any recommendations?