Feeling like a real author

What makes an author?
What makes someone an author?
Am I an author?
What does that even mean?

When are you an author? A list...

Writing a book? check
Finding a publisher check
Going through trillions of revisions? check
Seeing your book in the book store? check
Getting positive feedback from friends? check
Getting a negative review? check

Talking about your book in front of a audience? as of today... check
Have strangers come up to you and telling them they are really interested in your book? as of today... check
Have the book store tell you to be sure to come back when you publish another book? as of today... check

Nerves and breathing

It's not something I'm used to, but it was a great afternoon. Quite some people came, even though it was the first really nice and sunny day of the year. Lots of interested people, gathering to hear you talk about something you feel passionate about... in my case philosophy and how that is something that you live and breathe, and how that has resulted in the book I presented to the world on this official book presentation...

It was a lovely afternoon at book store Roelants in Nijmegen, with lots of people asking interesting questions, and I was even tricked into talking about my next book which I'm still writing at the moment... It was a great experience, and once I started talking about anorexia nervosa and why I consider philosophers who take their calling for philosophy serious to 'suffer' from that 'illness', all the nerves were definitely gone... I guess that's what happens when you're talking about something you have thought about for such a long time, and which makes so much sense that you cannot but say it.

I guess I can say I really feel like a published author now.
It was lovely.
On to more writing!
And presenting, and lecturing, and having conversations with strangers who share that passion.

And on to signing more books... of course!

For those who read Dutch... here you can read the first few pages.
Translation of 'Diagnosis of the Modern Philosopher: Why Philosophers are Mad' is under way. Publisher welcome!

^{Here an overview of more fiction/short stories and poetry by @nobyeni. Disclaimer.}