This is my book. Trapped: Autumn, a story that I chose to put inside the Magical Realism genre. Since it's a mix of everything that is deeply grounded in reality, with references to real people, real events, real celebrities and so on and so forth. The tagline of the book, the descriptions used to market this book describe the book perfectly without giving too much away, something that is practiced too often today when it comes to books and movies. What I wanted to do is attract readers with this simple premise and idea, what would your opinion of yourself be from the same perspective you have on other people? That without giving up any of the surprises hidden inside the book.
Now, how does it feel to be published and achieve a dream? Terrifying, it's haunting, all the joy dissipates into nothing, knowing that now you took the first step. From now on you have to do your best to keep at it and to try to live your dream, to perfect your dream. People will judge you for your every word, they will have expectations from you and your works and you have to live up to them.
If you followed the previous posts about this book, this journey of being published, then I don't really have to add a lot. So I want to give you a taste of something you can find inside the books. A short story you can find in the book, a story that I wrote and are part of the plot of this book. This story also showcases why this book is a mixture of genres. So please enjoy:
The boy who cried
We’ve all heard the story of the boy who cried wolf once too many times, we all know the lesson that was brought with it, but not many know the story of the boy who cried. What did the boy cry? The boy cried that he was a man, the boy cried that it was unfair, the boy cried that nothing matters. The boy that cried had a house, knew his parents and had shoes, the boy that cried had his own money he could plow through. Yet he kept complaining, the people told him that that’s how the world works, the people cared when he cried a second time. Like the boy who cried wolf by the time he was a man and cried a third time, no one showed him any concern or gave him any attention. The boy kept weeping and they started mocking him, the boy cried and no one listened. Who would have thought that this could happen? That no one would care about someone that cried, that something won’t happen if he cried the loudest. Yet one night, like in a Christmas Story, there was a ghost that came to see the childish man that couldn’t stop crying. The first ghost took him to show his past, his alternative past that is. He was shown a world where he was motherless, he was penniless, he was powerless and by the age of 18 in prison. He showed him the horrific acts he had done to others, how he made his suffering into hate and his hate into suffering for others. The ghost told him that by the age of 21 he would have been killed in prison because he had killed another inmate for some cigarettes. A second later after that he was transported back to his bed, another second later a second ghost came and took him. He was shaken but in fear of what the ghost had to show him this time, since the ghost that came before showed him enough horror. The ghost took him to a place of dark, with no light and nothing bright. He took this man to a place of fear, a place without him to be near. It showed him that the world was going on when he wasn’t around, it showed him what would happen if he’d be gone. That no one cared and no one cried, nor for him, nor for this world. The man was shocked by the indifference of the world, the boy started crying out of spite and despair. This was the ghost of present and future, as he showed a world with him if he were dead now and how it will be once he’ll be. So the story keeps unfolding, zapped back into his room. The second ghost had disappeared, the three ghost were thinking and talking, if the boy had had enough. If he really understood, what upon him was bestowed. Taking a closer look at him, they saw that it wasn’t clear, they saw him cry some more and more. They thought the even though he had the body of a man, he was still a boy inside, a boy that needed to grow up. So the third ghost had an idea, he went ahead and disappeared. In the boys room he reappeared, took him to a theater to show him a movie. The boy was happy that this time he shouldn’t fear, since he wouldn’t be dead, he wouldn’t be starved, he would still have both his arms. The film started and it showed, a simple comparison between one man and him. They both had similar lives, both had parents, both had a home. But now this is the part where the man that was compared to him was shown beaten, deprived of food, deprived of money and of a job, the man was in despair as no one gave a hoot. That man never cried, no matter what happened he stood proud and tall, compared to him he where cried when he got a splinter. That boy worked, he never complained, by the time he was a man they compared him to a force of nature. He was respected for his dedication, his stature and the fact that his past and hurdles never stopped him. Where the man was showed how pathetic he was, this time it seemed that the boy that cried had learned. But you can never be too sure.