❤️🌟🌹🌺🌼 💌💝 💞💓 💖🎉🌹🌺🌼
Dear Friends, I’m surrounding you with a warm hug of love and gratitude for motivating me on my writing journey.
Please read till the end, clap, engage, and help celebrate my bookish birthday!
Your support will allow me — hopefully — to get my desired book, The Red Book by Jung, or at least indulge in some chocolate truffles with a cup of coffee!
In return, I promise to dive into your stories too.
Thank you!
And hey… if you do not agree to be tagged in my articles anymore, please, let me know — I can understand that.
❤️🌟🌹🌺🌼 💌💝 💞💓 💖🎉🌹🌺🌼
So… Who Am I?
💜 As a reader, I am your loyal fan with three reading lists: FOM, Partners of Medium, and Followings.
And I use them to read, clap, and engage with your stories.
💜 As a writer, I scribble short stories, novels, articles, even tutorials, and literary translations.
💜 And… as an editor, along with our wonderful partner Sal Gallaher, I look after your stories in our publication New Literary Society, press the publish button, market them outside the platform, and interview you.
But Who Am I Really, as in What Kind of Person Am I?
Jung knows it all… so, I did take the Jung Personality Test (not for one of my characters, as I typically do, but for myself). You can take the test here as well.
And now, my result… ta-da!
And… if That’s My Personality? How Am I … Now?
I take the Chakra test about twice a year to assess my mental and intuitive states, social life, moods, and other aspects of myself at different moments of my life.
Although I won’t deny that I’m not a regular yogi, answering those questions and seeing the results allowed me to assess my current state of well-being and identify areas for improvement.
You can take the test here.
And… if curious, know that my outcomes were pretty good. Hehe.
Want to Know More?
(For the full interviews written 2017–2024, click on the links below.)
1. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
JK: In childhood, with my child’s mind, I divided people into writers and illiterates. I secretly played with my grandfather’s typewriter and hoped to be like him… one day.
Admittedly, my grandfather mostly wrote literary criticism and history texts, but to me, they were still stories.
2. What was that special moment?
JK: Writing was a dangerous profession in my childhood; there were stories of writers who vanished under suspicious circumstances or fled the nation.
Even in my adolescence, people regarded writing with both terror and admiration.
Consequently, I was asked constantly not to write, and I threw away most of my early writings.
Even in the 1990s.
As for a unique instance of grace and inspiration…
That was throughout adolescence, though.
I was encouraged to write by a lovely blonde teacher, an angel who worked at an orphanage, and I never stopped.
3. What does your work as a writer consist of? What are the biggest challenges of the present?
JK: Well, the status of a writer is very fluid and contradictory.
For instance, if you earn money from your writing, then you are a commercial writer — which is not good.
On the other hand, if you are not selling well, the publishing houses are not interested in you because you are unmarketable.
And hey… if you self-publish and don’t earn money from your writing, it means you are not professional, but an amateur, right?
So… you see… this is very tricky.
In fact, earning money has little to do with your creative skills but with your financial skills.
So, these are the ones to be developed for earning a living from writing.
And these are my biggest challenges right now.
4. What is the best thing that you love about your work?
JK: You know what’s delicious about my work as a writer and literary translator?
Creativity.
It’s like a frosty, white lava cake that just melts and multiplies in front of your eyes.
And it spills over, you know?
Once, it even led me to conceive an XXL Christmas tree stand and another time, a universal phone battery.
Crazy, right?
And sometimes, I go vintage. I grab a pen or brush and let it dance on paper.
There’s a certain scent to it, an old-world charm that’s just… intoxicating.
My novel, Anti-Memoirs of a Muse, was another creative journey.
5. What are your representative projects? What projects are you working on?
JK: Anti-Memoirs of a Muse — traditionally published in 2016, which I have translated and published here, on Medium, slice by slice, subchapter by subchapter.
Now… I am working on a special project — me, myself, and I. (Hehe)
6. What does “Anti-Memoirs of a Muse” represent for you as a writer?
JK: It is a bildungsroman in every sense.
Through it, I have experienced despair, rebellion, and passion.
It wasn’t the act of writing that made me a writer, nor the literary world, but my inner life.
7. Why is your book so special?
JK: The artistic atmosphere.
The book captures the hustle and bustle of creative studios, going beyond appearances, taboos, and prejudices.
Another interesting aspect is the narrative perspective.
8. An introverted character who faces their own illusions and at some point can detach from the environment that inspires them. What happens to your characters when you finish the book? Do you still carry them with you, do they still exist?
JK: The characters of the book reside between its covers; I miss the ones I had to let go of, the delayed childhood during which I wrote the book, the departed, the adventures, and the gatherings — though, don’t imagine any wild orgies.
My favorite was the Feast of the Forty Martyrs, a reunion of former classmates from the Academy of Fine Arts, where I attended to revel more in the joy of reunion than in indulgence.
I wouldn’t say that Regreta has detached herself from the environment that inspires her, nor have I, but I have become more selective and have also directed my attention to other arts.
As for Regreta, she rediscovered in the Old Town the world of her childhood, its passions, customs, cultural models, and references, along with a sense of freedom.
Art and artists spoke to her about herself, reminding her of her true identity, and warning her that straying from the essence and meaning of her life would one day lead to regret.
Hence, her nickname serves as a cautionary tale.
The novel doesn’t have a sequel, but you’re somewhat right; there is a fleeting character that I have continued to carry with me, a character who piqued my interest and about whom I wrote more in another book.
9. Do you think writing has changed you in any way?
JK: Yes.
10. Can you imagine your life without writing?
JK: No.
11. Have you written a book that you haven’t published?
JK: Two.
12. What is your idea of happiness?
JK: Ever worked till midnight and still found joy in a book or a flower?
That’s happiness.
A room filled with flowers and emotions after a successful book launch.
Or felt the sun’s warm kiss and winter’s icy smack all at once?
Happiness… the Zen-like youthfulness amidst sorrow, learning something new like SEO, personal branding, or Dutch; playing with words and ideas; the ecstasy in art, music, literature, dance, theatre, and cinema; living up to your ideals; the joy of seeing the Queen; being near your family, your mentors, your loves, your readers, and fellow writers.
Above all, it is believing in God.
Life’s an art — and happiness is its crown. While being unhappy is a sin.
13. What is your greatest fear?
JK: Experiencing another pandemic.
14. What is your greatest extravagance?
JK: Swimming.
Plunging into the water, delighting in the twinkle of the mosaic tiles, and gliding effortlessly — I’m completely smitten with this feeling.
15. On what occasion would you lie?
JK: Well, today’s truth may be yesterday’s lie; acknowledging this, I would admit to having lied in the past.
To wrap up, let me share a personal motto that serves as my compass: ‘Embrace the innocence within, for it holds the keys to your dreams.’
This way of thinking inspires me to stay curious, remain authentic, and pursue my goals with awe.
You can read the interviews on the following links.
Secrets of World’s Writers — Discovering Julia Kalman, by Sal Gallaher.
The Heroine’s Journey of Julia Kalman, by Peter de Kuster.
Citesc și scriu așa cum respir, by Simona Preda.
Interviu cu Julia Kalman, autoarea cărții “Antimemoriile unei muze”, by Emanuela Istrate.
Julia Kalman 