Authors I would like to thank. Marc Levy.
These authors I will be mentioning in the upcoming weeks and months don’t know who I am, and most likely never will. Although life is funny and you should never say never:)
The first author is Marc Levy.
I was in my late teens, visiting France, when I picked up Marc Levy’s debut novel: Et si c’etait vrai. (if Only It Were True). Thanks to my grandmother who had been a French teacher, I learned French since the age of 5. This has helped me immensely throughout the years. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have been able to read the book (and maybe by the time it would eventually be translated in Romanian…things would’ve turned our differently). I wouldn’t have lived in France years later. And maybe I wouldn’t be where I am today. Thank you, grandma! I hope that wherever you are, you are smiling when you’re seeing me now.
And to get back to my point…
I was on a 3-week graduation trip with my high school classmates, visiting France among other European countries. I had a small suitcase with me, so I knew I could only pick up a few books (tormenting!) and Marc Levy’s was one of them. I read the book on the bus between Paris and Marseille and something in my teen mind clicked. At the next stop, I bought a notebook and a box of pencils and started writing down thoughts for a story. Parts of that story are in my debut novel, many years later…
Marc Levy’s writing style, the type of story he told, the magic in it inspired me. It is hard to pinpoint what it was exactly. Perhaps the feeling it gave me. Perhaps seeing his novel on the shelf validated that it was OK to write something different. That my ideas were not so far out there as I thought. That a love story can be more than just a love story. In the end, my story idea had nothing to do with his, but in a way it did. The feeling I had when I wrote it, was the same I had when I read his.
That book marked the beginning of a very successful career for Marc Levy. He went on to write 17 more books (so far) and I have read all of them. He is considered one of the most popular French writers and I couldn’t be happier for him! His wasn’t a straight line to becoming an author, just like mine isn’t either:)
Eh bon, tout cela pour dire…merci monsieur Marc Levy. Grace a vous, j'ai recommence a croire en mon reve. Ou peut-etre, j'ai juste alors commence a vraiment croire! (Oh, well, all this to say: thank you, Mr. Marc Levy. Thanks to you, I began again to believe in my dream. Or maybe, only then, did I start believing altogether!)
Until next time!
Keep Believing in Magic,
Olivia Lara