Here I was, 21 years old, on a train ride from Paris to Munich where my father was dying in a huge hospital. I distracted myself by writing – the novel I had started on a dare was almost finished. I didn’t have my clunky travel typewriter with me, so I wrote by hand on the back of the last pages of the manuscript. The pages were crumpled and stained. I took it everywhere as if to prove to myself that I really was a writer.
Then it hit me. Munich was where Klaus G. Renner lived, the publisher of Walter Serner. The german dadaist who had published the irresistible “Handbook for Con-Artists“? I put my almost finished manuscript aside and started a hand-written letter. Since my admiration for Walter Serner had turned me into some sort of con artist myself, I argued, it was his, Walter servers publisher’s responsibility to publish my book too and thus make me respectable again. Otherwise my friends and everybody else I boldly told I was a writer would begin to doubt my word. And he couldn’t let that happen, or could he?
I was a weird, nerdy 21-year-old. My friends were rockers and punks but I dressed like something out of a Raymond Chandler novel – wobbling along in pencil skirts and high heels, reeking of the Sandalwood Essence that always marked the entrance of a femme fatale in those books I loved so much (It’s so cheap that I can use a lot of it, was my thinking then.)
This, of course, was before the internet and before cell phones. As the train stopped in Munich, I wasn’t crying about my father anymore. I was determined, a woman with a plan, right out of a film noir. I stumbled into a phone booth and found the address of the publisher. On the way to the hospital, I dropped my letter into his box. Since he hadn’t answered by the next day – how could he have? – I took a taxi I couldn’t afford (heels oblige) to his office and rang the doorbell.
“It’s me, Milena Moser, I wrote you a letter”, I told the intercom. It took quite a while for the door to open. Poor Man! But he let me in, offered me a cup of coffee. He even made a copy of my manuscript and gave me some useful tips: Never hand in handwritten pages. Don’t stalk potential publishers.
That was enough for me to refer to him as “my publisher” for years. Although I never heard from him again. He must have changed his name and grown a beard – I wouldn’t blame him
I wrote two more novels. I sent all three of them to every publisher listed in the yellow pages. No one thought they were publishable. Finally, my friends took pity on me and published my next three manuscripts. One of them went on to become a best-seller.And the rest, as they say, is history…
And still – today I am doing the same thing. A few months ago, the Swiss Embassy invited me to readings in Washington DC and Atlanta. “It would be much better if your last book was translated into English”, they said. And without thinking I answered, “Oh, don’t worry, it will be!”
I enlisted my friend, fellow writer Magdalena Zschokke to translate it. The English Professional Annette PonTell did a very thorough editing. Lili Tanner provided a cover photo in a matter of minutes, in the middle of an open studio. And now I have it in my hands, my first English translation, just days before the readings. This is how it should be. After all, that is how I got started, all those years ago: With a little help from my friends.
Anke says
Hello, what a surprise… on a rainy holiday still in bed I am reading Milena Moser in English! So wonderful! Milena Moser – Second Life! Schweiz / Santa Fe!
Margaret Saine says
Gratuliere, liebe Milena. As a writer, we do have to live like an impostor most of the time– and if we have the bad luck to remain unpublished, we end up being one. Weiterhin alles Gute, and good writing!
Milena Moser says
Thank you Margaret! In my book, a writer is someone who writes. Someone who’d rather write than do almost anything else. Published or not.
Hans Alfred Löffler says
I guess it was Dorita Welch who wrote under my postings of your book “FOOLS …”
“best book” which is true ! And now I will read an other part of
FOOL’S JOURNEY OR HOW I CHASED AFTER HAPPINESS JUST TO FIND IT WAITING FOR ME ….
you’re so fast by writing your comments making readings in another part of your “homeland” – congratulation + thank you.
Claudia Freund says
Milena, I read your post. You are somehow so fearless, it is really refreshing!
I loved your last book so much and always thought it should be translated into English, and voilà!!! such good news! And be assured: If EVER posible I`ll be there for the first reading in Santa Fe!!!
Milena Moser says
I’ll hold you to it! Thank you for your ongoing support!