(Reviewed 05/09/09)In ‘Harry Potter and the goblet of fire’, Rowling introduced the character Igor Karkarov. Headmaster of the Durmstrang school of wizardry (Also spelled as Karkaroff). It turned out he had been a follower of Voldermort, a Death Eater. Having betrayed the dark lord, and his fellow Death Eaters, to get himself out of Azkaban, Igor’s only thought is escape the minute Voldemort returns at the end of the book.
All that betrayed Voldemort were hunted by him, and died soon after their act of treason. Karkarov managed to evade the dark lord’s forces for a whole year. What happened during that time? What did he do in order to outrun people that can apparate anywhere in a blink? What was his plan? Where did he go? I hope you like my answer.
To download, for free, the first chapter of this fan fic, just click on the link: Not Yet – An Igor Karkarov adventure.
Now, also available on Fanfiction.net. Search it by its title, or... let me see, yep, did the search for you, you may find it here: Not Yet- On fan fiction dot net.
On writing a fan fic
I can’t help but imagine. I’ve always been that way, and I suppose that I’ll die being that way. Let’s say that I refuse to write any of what comes to my mind, creatively speaking, it wouldn’t make a difference, I would imagine anyway. So, I have to write, I have to tell stories. There’s actually no point in writing, or imagining, if you are not willing to share it. Although writing is done on your own, it’s meant for all that will stumble with your work.
I was born and live in Bolivia (yes, it’s South America’s poorest country, yes, we have TV and Cinema theaters, yes, I eat everyday, No, I’m not starving, and, yes, I actually do own a computer and I’m using the internet). I got my first sci fi novel published in 2001, I wrote it when I was 18, although it was published by the time I turned 24. It was liked by a clear majority of those that read it, although not a bestseller. Reasons: well, hard to market a sci fi book here, hard to market any book here. And, even if that had happened, well, there isn’t that much money into it, anyway. But who cares, I kept writing. This included weekly articles for newspapers, mostly concerning cinema criticism, and pop culture, starting 1997. In 2006, with a friend, we published a compilation of lovecraftian stories set in Bolivia, it had two of my short stories. My tales were liked by most, although many didn’t like the compilation.
Besides working, ‘cause my writing provided little more than
ego satisfaction, I always wrote a little fantasy, here and there. But there was one project, started in 2001 or 2000 (remember that my first novel was already written), that, to a degree, I was set on finishing. It was my magna opus, my cash cow, all I had to do was finish it and, bang, money would flow in. I finished a script with it, novelized the script, finished a first draft by 2006, I think. It was huge, 200 plus pages, 400 in most book formats. But it needed some polishing, and that is a lot of work. And I had to earn some cash, right? I was in my late 20’s, you can’t ask your dear folks for money for the disco when you are already a professional, you have to earn your own. That meant I had less time for rewriting, correcting and enlarging. Some parts needed to be longer, more back story was needed, etc. Finally, this year, after 8 of intermittently devoting myself to this work, the first part, it’s finally, reviewed, corrected and enlarged, the second and third parts will need much less attention, basically, it will all be done by year’s end. It, probably, won’t be published.
Did you know that all major editorials of the U.K. refused to publish ‘Harry Potter’? Even if you’re a mild fan, you probably do. You see, all reasons are valid for refusing a book. And when all answers are valid, it means you’re asking the wrong question. You are not asking is my book any good, you're asking: do you like my book? For someone has to like your book in order to get it published, and he/she may dislike it for any subjective reason. They may complain that my book is too long, valid, if she/he wanted a shorter book (it’s now almost 300, and by the time I finish with it, it will be over 300, that’s 600 pages in book format). And the same goes for everything: too much detail, too little, too many battles, too few. All valid observations. I’ll only ask the question that matters, would you like to publish this book? And hear their answers. I’m not saying I’ve got the next harry potter, I wish I had, you never know, what I sincerely believe I’ve got is a hit in the sci fi genre. That’s all. But, will someone publish a very long book written by a Bolivian that hasn’t had a best seller in his own country? I’ll find out what the answer to that question is (I’m looking for a publisher outside of Bolivia, I have already published books here, and, economically speaking, it leads nowhere).
But, honestly, I’m kinda giving up on my possibilities writing sci fi in Spanish from Bolivia. I think I’ll turn to English.
For starters, the market is nearly infinite, sci fi or any other. Those are reasons enough. The big, big, sad difference is that, no matter how hard I’ll try, unless I move to an English speaking country, my writing in this language won’t be as alive as my Spanish, but, who knows, that could turn out for the best, you know, a future with a grammatically correct English, with absolutely no slang--hum, maybe, we’ll see. That’s one of the problems. The other, well, in Bolivia, I could even get my huge magna opus sci fi novel published, split into three volumes, I could, it will probably come to that, but… anywhere else, no one knows who I am, no one cares, I’m nobody, I’m common people. I’m not even a little itsy bitsy special. I’ll have to start from scratch, climb up from zero to anything, write on the blank whiteboard… It’s OK, I’m up to the challenge, I willing to compete, to knock on doors, to prove myself over and over, again and again, to write, and receive negative answers, one after another, until I touch the right door. It will happen, I’ve seen what you’ve seen, I’ve read what you’ve read, I know what I can offer, and I know what others can offer. It’s a sure thing, my success, and it’s also a sure thing that it will take a lot of work, a lot of work. I’ve written, consistently, in Spanish, since 93, remember my first novel, I haven’t done that in English, even if I learned the language when I was 14 and haven’t stopped reading it, or even writing some small pieces, since then. My third big challenge is that I have to practice writing, not articles, not opinion, but a descriptive narrative in English.
What do those three problems add up to? Could one big problem be the answer? Naaah, it’s just that the answer is one: I’ll have to work a lot. Work, and work, and work, which means: write, and write, and write. Polishing my talent with descriptions, getting those dialogues to work, giving depth to characters, finding the right combination of words, adding the precise remark, obtaining the best result. That’s going to be a lot of work. Jeeez, it’s such a pity that I’ll have to wait so long until I can harvest the fruit. But what the heck, what other choice do I have?
So, that’s why this fan fic is here. It’s step one in practicing my narrative-in-English. It’s also a showcase of what I have to offer as a writer. It will be filled with adventure, new and old characters, lots of wonderful places, and personalities. Although I’ll be borrowing from somebody else’s work, it will be a good sample of what I can do. Some will like it, some won’t, hopefully I’ll get some feedback on what the readers think it’s wrong. Some of that criticism will help me get better, other, I’ll just ignore. I’ll need that, all of it, the support and the attacks, the sympathies, and we’ll see what else.
Absolutely all images belong to their respective owners, used for illustration purposes only, in a non profit blog. The fan fic will be freely distributed in electronic and printed form. I only own the intellectual rights for it.
Bueno, no sé si se necesita aclarar. Estoy escribiendo una fan fic, en inglés, para practicar mi manejo narrativo del idioma y éste es el primer capítulo. Eso es todo. Una vez por mes, espero, poder entregar un capítulo al público.
