Was I seriously going to rewrite the book in a different perspective? Hell no. But I ended up doing it anyways, his arguments were convincing.
So I rewrote the book in its entirety in first person perspective with added plots and several adjustments. My friend read it again. Then he said, and I quote, “it’s a good book that has the potential to be a great book”.
Was I supposed to rewrite this book for the third time now?! Hell no! And yet I did anyways. He and I spent months if not years bouncing back ideas, and discussing the philosophy of what it means to die and the philosophy of escapism from real world troubles. He even wrote thesis-long pages of potential ideas and plot inconsistencies for me. I began feeling bad for the amount of effort he was putting into my story of a man jumping through his TV screen!
My best moments in Moscow were sitting with him in either sun or rain, having coffee or tea and just discussing archetypes and different famous stories and what made them great, and what I could learn from them. Money couldn’t buy the conversations we had.
Thus, for this arduous journey, and definitely my most difficult book to write so far, I extremely, extremely thank him. I repeat this, I extremely, brutally, especially, immensely, supremely, hugely, tremendously thank him.
The next person I had to include in here that helped me in a way that wasn’t so obvious. Boian’s sister, Faith Veneva is a total bookworm. One night when visiting them, she said a single phrase that stuck with me like glue. She said, and I quote, “it needs a stronger story”. The word ‘stronger’ instead of ‘better’ or ‘more interesting’ had a magic ring to it, and instead of trying to be necessarily more creative with my story, I tried to deepen it and delve into the character’s back stories, make them more grounded and ‘real’. That was what the words ‘stronger story’ meant for me.
My own sister, Axzenia Aziz, was one of the two only people to have read this book during its development. The sheer fact that my book was bearable to read gave me motivation! I wasn’t afraid that she would be biased and just call my book good and leave it at that. I discussed and bounced ideas with her as well, she was an incredible listener and her expressions were often enough to tell me that I was getting the reader excited.
I hope I am not terrible at writing acknowledgements, I apologize if I am. Oh, and breaking the fourth wall was often one of my favorite things to do in my writings, so hello to you reader, how are you doing today?
My next thanks goes out to Julia Klyachko, my good friend. When she and I were countries apart, I would read my stories to her through the phone or through recordings, and her enjoying them was definitely a big part of what got me through the first two drafts. Also, Bites the cat was named after her. Bites was in the first and second drafts as the cat who lived with Raymond and Emily. Their relationship to me was already very familiar and so I believe I managed to write their little story in this book in a way that felt like they have already known each other for a while, and lots of advice specifically about Raymond and Emily’s relationship came from Julia.
The last person that had direct involvement in my book was none other than the coolest father in the world, Shahid Aziz. Mind you, he’s an older adult and I am in my mid-twenties. He has watched more Hollywood fantasy movies than I have, and definitely read thousands more books than I have. His advice and opinion on my book I absolutely loved. Unlike the others, his was the kind of advice that sounded like, “your story needs to go BOOM!” and “it’s gotta be like, WOW!” At first it may not sound like much, but believe me, it was much. He was absolutely right, I couldn’t hold back on any ounce of crazy in my story. If rhino bat spider scorpion shark creature didn’t portray a bit of ridiculous craziness then I don’t know what did. So a huge long thanks goes out to him. Heck, I tell this story to everyone I know: when I was fifteen years old I asked him, ‘how hard is it to write a book?’, and he just replied, ‘very easy’. I probably wouldn’t have been writing this right now had he not said that. I finished my first book at sixteen years of age thanks to that. Thank you Pops!
This has been the longest acknowledgements I have ever written so far. I hope there’s no word limit to these. I obviously leave writing this part for last, so writing it feels like I’m finally at the finish line – there is no better feeling.
A very important acknowledgement goes out to my older brother, Sharez Aziz. While he didn’t directly get involved with the story, he definitely directly got involved with me, as a writer and as a dreamer. I would sometimes stress over things like lack of success, or I’d compare myself to my other well established members of the family and feel like I wasn’t doing enough with my life. His words straight up packed a punch. Like, kapow! He had this air of confidence around him that gave so much weight to his words, talking to him was like diving into ice cold water and being woken up and ready to keep trying. Thank you very, very much for that!
Most of my family are writers, political writers, news writers, memoirs, history and more. I am glad to fill the ‘fantasy writer’ spot in my family. I got the writer’s blood in my veins, and so this book goes out to them; to my amazing mother, my legendary grandfather and all my close relatives.
And finally, a word to all my readers! Whoever you are, wherever you are, I humbly thank you. I’ve yet to experience interacting with my readers but I sincerely hope this book will give me a chance to talk to you all in some form or another.
The Portal Page 26
