Sometimes all that separates humanity from mere human existence… is only a thread.
Jade is a prisoner; of far more things than the unconventional cell keeping her incarcerated within the innermost parts of a world that treats empathy as a despicable crime.
When the odds of being set free seem as thin as a thread, one can only hope for a different kind of liberation: that of the mind from the shackles of a hurtful past. The question is, how?
Those of you following my social media accounts are of course already acquainted with the latest short story I have penned.
The perks of being an indie author are that you can freely hop from one literary genre to the other without being held back by opposing do’s or don’t’s. Almost two decades back, my journey as a writer began in the fantasy realm, which of course always remains closest to my heart. However, I have since ventured into contemporary fiction territory as well, as e.g. Ginger Tea or Rite of Passage can testify; and recently, science fiction and its dystopian branch became the next stop.
And the raw materials for this story were indeed raw. YT-79605 with its characters and all is utterly fictional, of course–and let us hope its absurd, huxleyan world shall remain so; but, for the part that it’s the story’s psyche, I have drawn inspiration from my own experiences in life with people who (unbeknownst to them, I’m sure) have narcissistic personality disorder.
However, as any of you who have had the misfortune of crossing paths with this kind of people may know, it’s a rollercoaster of experiences that in the end leave you with nothing but hurt, pain and horrifying feelings of loss. So, it was only after I had felt I was at a place in my life where enough of the necessary healing period was over, and the time was right for me to step into the writer’s perspective, that I decided to imbue my next literary endeavour with my own experiences on the matter.
Thus, a few years back, YT-79605 set out to be my entry for a short story competition. I don’t remember the particulars, but somehow I ended up not taking part in that competition. Submitting the finished story to a literary journal or magazine was to be my next step, but in the end I decided to publish it the Hydranos way–on Amazon.
YT-79605 ranked 29th in the hourly ‘Top 100 Amazon Best Sellers – Literary Short Stories’. Now, you’ve heard me time and time again defend the indie author path, with all its twists and turns but also its empowering moments. There is something empowering, and also oddly (?) fortifying a writer’s empathetic streak, in feeling that she is the sole responsible for bringing her story straight before her reader’s eyes–and, hopefully, right into her/his heart.
I do hope YT-79605 touches heartstrings of yours that were dormant or that you didn’t even know they were there. And I do wish for you to grant this story your valuable feedback, whether it’s on its Goodreads page or in any medium of your choice. Every story a writer pens comes from the nooks of her/his soul. And it always means the world, seeing your soul resonate with another.
Write-fully yours,
CONSTANTINA MAUD 