How it all began?

How it all began and other thoughts....

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

C. S. Lewis

This story started off as nothing more than short little bedtime stories that I would tell our little Zonks before she turned two years old. I've always had a wild imagination, so coming up with the characters and the various aspects of Molly's journey seemed to come naturally. We had so much fun getting lost in it each night before bed. One day I decided I should probably write down some of those details, because I was worried that otherwise our little bedtime story would soon run away on us. And thus, the journey of writing Zonks and The Gate Keepers begun.

I absolutely fell in love with the writing and the creating process. If anyone asked me 20 years ago if I saw myself writing and publishing a novel, I would have said "Are you out of your mind?" I could barely speak English then. Although, my grasp of the language has significantly improved over the years, the the three fears in me were there all along throughout the writing process - is this story good enough, is my writing good enough and is my English good enough. It took me seven years to realize the the first two I had full control and confidence over. It also took me the same amount of time to realize that with the later I can ask someone to help me.

I finished my first draft of Book 1 of the Zonks series in early 2020. I decided that this was the time I'm going to push through and get it done, get the book finally published after all these years. I wanted to come out of this Covid year with achieving something - for my own self-worth, for my sake. Thus, the journey of editing my book with my amazing wife Stephanie begun. She finished her first draft of her own novel, which she let me read, and I was blown away with her natural ability to write. I knew I was in good hands.

I was bracing myself for a year of editing, as she would scrutinize every sentence, every punctuation and every word. (Remember, English is not my first language. But, in all honesty, I should really stop using this as a crutch. I promise I will stop from now on.) I was very much relieved to learn that there really wasn't as much to fix grammatically as I feared. Here I am, writing this post, with another full edit completed on Book 1. It's a great a feeling to know that soon this book and the story of Zonks and Heartland will see the light of day and I'll be able to share it with the rest of the world.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.

~ Love, Martin

P.S. - I wish I had a middle name. I truly do. But I don't and I think I'm too old to pick one or be baptized to obtain one. Over the years people have tried to give me one, but none of them seemed to suit me. I guess, I'll forever be the guy with a first name, a last name and no middle name. And I'm ok with that. So, since I can't have a cool hip Author name consisting of the initials of my first name and the middle name along with my last name, I'll be writing simply under my full name - Martin Galba.