What I appreciate the most in a story are not the characters or the great plot it has, but the feelings the story evokes. Granted, sometimes this is an involuntary thing, something unplanned by the author that hits differently each reader. Sometimes the author carefully plans which feelings their story should evoke. And other times, a story just can't help but feel a certain way.
One of my all-time favorite TV shows is Californication, for its impeccable depiction of a struggling writer's life inevitably clashing with his family life. On the card, it's such a simple concept, but in the end, it leaves you glued to the screen waiting to see just how low a man can get.
A Middle-Aged Writer's Daydream has, at its base, this same exact concept. And the fact that Fabiana didn't draw inspiration from the show (I asked) is a testament to how genuine the story is. It originated exclusively out of the Open Novella Contest's prompt #13.
Hank, a writer in his twilight years struggling with writer's block, wondering if his golden days are forever behind him, gives his best efforts to make his career meaningful again. But Hank has to battle with real life, the life outside of his writing, where eating him alive are deadlines and a broken marriage. You as the reader are left to drown with him, clinging to everything possible that might shine a feeble light in this darkness. And this light comes in the form of a psychologist who claims can cure writer's block, can make Hank great again. But this psychologist is... not ordinary.
Add to this psychological, inevitably existential, story a touch of speculative fiction—or magical realism, if you will—and you've got a unique blend; a winner, in my eyes. I'd say we all have a piece of Hank in ourselves, and this is what makes us feel all the more what he goes through.
A Middle-Aged Writer's Daydream is a heartwarming and heart-wrenching tale best read after dark, on a melancholic night when the clock keeps turning and there's no sight of sleep, to somewhat sadistically fill your heart with a burning nostalgia for more ambitious times. Going through the motions, spiralling down head-first into a man's psyche, you will find a drinking buddy in Hank, and you'll listen to his stories of how his life raced by him faster than he wanted, and you'll be left to hope, uncertain as you are, that you will see the light of day, the next morning.
(You can also find out more about Fabiana and this story by reading my interview with her, in our Interviews book!)
