I Am No Hemingway But Hear Me Out

Photo © Saint-Lazare

From an early age, I was aware of a discrepancy between the outside world and my inner thought system. To overcome this, I first used my imagination to build bridges between these two worlds, and then writing became a way to make sense of what I experienced, especially with social relationships. As a result, my fiction aims to capture the astonishing balance between the burlesque and the melancholy aspects of life, and the result is often darkly humorous and always character-driven.

Now, the quality of a writer is a highly subjective point. Ernest Hemingway said

‘we are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master’

and he talked about life. I tend to apply the humility of his quote to any aspect of life, and especially writing. And yet consumer society demands that I prove my worth to you, to justify your helping me make a living from my art. The difference between a successful author and an obscure one is not talent, but the ability to market oneself. Spoiler alert: I am no marketing whizz 😉! I have spent my life listening to, observing, and talking about other people, both as a published writer and during my ten-year career in cultural journalism under other names. I have had a front-row seat to the tricks used by the publishing and press industries to manipulate readers, to create an artificial closeness and the illusion of a personal connection. For someone for whom lying is a problem, this world of deception was a mental ordeal, and I now want to practise my art with complete transparency. So, I will tell you the truth, talking about myself does not come naturally to me, and this is an effort I am making for you, in the hope of creating a new (better) bridge with the outside world.

Unfortunately, I have met far too many people who think writing is easy. It certainly is not, like all the arts, like all professions. It took me months, and sometimes years, to complete my fiction stories, squeezing in a little time between another career that gave me the means to survive and a personal life that was frequently sacrificed on the altar of writing. Conceiving a story, putting it into coherent words, proofreading it, promoting it, and starting again and again, all that takes time, energy, not to mention its toll on mental and physical health. I lost my job during the Covid-19 lockdown, and finding a new, stable position in a recessionary economy has become a full-time job. However, I cannot throw in the towel on my writing; it is my backbone, it is what makes my heart beat and fills me with joy, especially when I can share with others. And by others, I mean you.

So, hello and welcome to my Substack. On this, I intend to share many of my unpublished projects. Firstly, you will discover short stories, born of snippets of humanities that I have collected along the way, and which have captured my imagination. Gossip overheard in a supermarket gave birth to ‘It Runs in the Family’, an intergenerational tragi-comic drama in which a teenager takes revenge on an insensitive millennial mother. An intense exchange of glances between two strangers on a subway train was the basis for ‘Bruise Pristine’, which tells the story of the stormy and dramatic relationship between two young men across the political board. Other stories have drawn on childhood memories, sentimental failures, or even historical documents.

Then, I would like to offer you the exclusive opportunity to read a highly personal project inspired by true stories, my latest novel, which will be serialized chapter by chapter. Named The Tenderness of Wild Beasts, it recounts the reunion of a young woman and her biological father around the disappearance of two children, as well as a series of unsolved murders in California.

If you enjoyed the existential journeys of Zadie Smith's characters, laughed at Jonathan Franzen's heroes' confrontations with the absurdity of modern life, or have been fascinated by Toni Morrison's magical realism (as I was), then, you may find a good read in my writings. I encourage you to send constructive and friendly feedback on these projects that are close to my heart and make me proud.

Finally, if you will allow me, I will tell you more about my writing process, my experience as a writer in the contemporary publishing world, and I will give free rein to my creativity on new fiction and non-fiction texts. I would also like to create audio versions of my texts for people for whom reading is a challenge, as well as those who prefer this format.

I hope you enjoy reading my writings, and hopefully, want to take part in improving my journey. Indeed, what could be more encouraging and humbling than when the people who enjoy your stories make the extra special step to become your patron of the arts, your supporters, and, in a way, the associate architects of your life. I am talking from the heart here, from one human to another: if you subscribe to my Substack, and help me make a living from my writing, it would mean the world to me.

Read the first part of my short story “It Runs In The Family” for free.

Yours truly,

Saint-Lazare

Author warrants that the writing posted on this Substack is entirely of human authorship and does not contain any text generated by artificial intelligence.