At the beginning of the 80s of the previous century (the 20th) I've written a collection of short stories, which were dedicated to the world of art in my country.
Although these short stories were my very early creation, which could have been defined as imperfect; I aspired to have it published and I roamed between our prominent publishing houses, with the hope to reach my goal and have it published.
In one of the meetings that I had with a publishing, house I sat facing the owner of a Tel Aviv publishing house; and the latter told me that a collection of short stories would not sell at the curren time.
A week later while browsing the literary supplement of a certain newspaper, I read a short item about the publishing of an anthology of short stories by that same publishing house. You can imagine the amount of frustration I was assaulted with, after having read this item.
But as I was rejected in all the other publishing houses that I had visited, I have decided to find another way of promoting my content, and reaching my goal to become a published author.
A year later I have turned to the same publishing house with a request to become one of its freelance translators, and I was accepted by the publishing house owner's wife.
I have written a short story following the murder of a Hebrew University lecturer, which was not solved at that time. The story's background was the events of that period of time of riots in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and with the intention to provide food for thought to those that investigated that murder. I worked as mentioned above as a freelance translator at this publishing house in Tel Aviv, with the intention to get in touch with the influential personalities in our literary world.
Once in a month or six weeks depends on the number of the translated book's pages, I used to visit the publishing house with the translated book and file; to meet the owner's wife that was my direct employer, we used to chat some fifteen minutes she is a very wise woman, and then I would take the next book I was supposed to translate and bade her goodbye.
After I have completed the above mentioned short story about the Hebrew University lecturer's murder I have brought it with me, and showed it to her.
There were some very hard to bear expressions in this short story, and I remember how she stood up and walked from wall to wall reading it. She was very moved and excited, as the short story included expressions such as "the Shabac blood thirsty hounds" and some other disgraceful literary expressions describing us Israelis; as the story related the thoughts of a Palestinian Arab, and was told through his point of view.
My employer finished to read it and advised me to make a book out of it. I left her deeply disappointed, for I hoped that she would include it in one of their anthologies of several authors; and I remember how all along the drive back home I was impressed by her diplomatic way to avoid being involved with a too harsh short story according to her judgment. It took me a day or two to conclude that I had better refer to her advice in a positive way of thinking, and do what she advised me to do.
The problem was how am I going to do it? As the end the short story included in fact the end of the plot.
Thus the first chapter of the book was the short story itself with a few needed changes at its end. The second chapter described the protagonist's hesitation, his inner struggle, which such a mission (murder) could evoke.
Why was he chosen to execute it? Would he succeed at all? How would he cope with his mother, which had such a dominant part in his life? How would he explain to her that she might not see him again if he would succeed, or she would have to visit him in jail if he would fail?
The third chapter was the break-through; I have intertwined in its text flashback paragraphs that described the full briefing that the protagonist received for this mission; while there was no need to describe the briefing in full detail in the short story.
Well that was it, after having overcome that hurdle; I had no trouble at all to complete the entire book.
The book's title is THE DEATH SCIENCES.
© Haim Kadman June 2013 – all rights reserved.
