Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am originally from Moldova, but I embarked on an expat journey years ago. After my life in Dubai, I came back to Moldova before the next relocation, then the pandemic happened and my plans were put on hold. I have written one book before “Surviving Covid-19 in a Foreign Land” but it was just trying out how the whole process works. It worked great and prepared me for the book I have written this year with my friend Irina Sirbu.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Surviving Covid-19 in a Foreign Land: Stories of Expats and Migrants Around the World”. I have written it with a co-author, Irina Sirbu. We wanted to capture the impressions of people like us, expats and migrants, at the beginning of the pandemic, when the borders shut and people were cut off from their home countries and, sometimes, families.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Writer’s block is not that unusual, is it? As well as being more inspired and full of ideas late at night when the whole city is asleep. I also used to do those writing exercises that are supposed to help you wake up your inner writer but then I felt it required too much focus which I’d rather be spending on my own work. They just didn’t work for me!
As for the current book, it was a unique experience not only because there were two people involved in writing it, but also because the work was happening 100% online due to the pandemic. Online interviews, online discussions, online editing. It worked really well, in the end, but it is important to have a certain compatibility with each other, which it turns out, we did.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Our book is one of a kind, there are no other books on the topic of expats in the time of coronavirus, so this was completely new territory for both of us. But, in my free time I prefer classic literature, which I can read more than once and it will never exhaust my mind. Jane Austen, Vladimir Nabokov, Mikhail Bulgakov, George Orwell, Jack London, Salman Rushdie will never be out of fashion.
What are you working on now?
I am working on a poetry collection that I started years ago have never had the courage to go through with.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Social networking, book clubs, free promo days, printed copy. It also helps finding your perfect target audience. Expats and migrants, for example, in our case.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do it. Start today. This very moment. Do not let your fears and insecurities stop you from trying. Do not let your perfectionism stop you from finishing what you’ve started. You can’t become a writer if you don’t write. And of course, read. Reading inspires and helps you become a better author with a better feel for the text.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Things happen for a reason.
What are you reading now?
Disgrace by JM Coetzee- a Booker-winning masterpiece.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Getting our book out there, making sure sales are consistent, and brainstorming ideas for the next book, of course. It has been
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas for some adventure spirit, “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy- because I would like to read it again but the size scares me; and “Harry Potter” series- for some fun and magic.