A local author’s dream has come true by self-publishing two books with a collection of poems, short stories, and screenplays.
Marius Pintea began writing when he was 13 years old and found writing as a way to pass the time after undergoing surgery.
“At 13, you can watch movies and play video games, but it gets boring after a while. Due to my surgery, I was in a wheelchair and then casts, so to pass the time a little more I would write in my spare time, and I started to develop a passion for writing,” Pintea said.
Pintea now has two books, the first, Passion, is a collection of short stories, and poems. While the second, Sunset, is a collection of short stories, poems, and screenplays.
“When I read books from other authors, I like when I can buy a collection of their writing, and I wanted to pick a theme and have each story relate to that theme,” Pintea said.
Each story in Passion is related to the idea of passion, and every story takes place at night in Sunset.
Passion took about a month to write, while Sunset took between three and four years to finish the screenplays.
“The poems and short stories I knew for sure were going to go into a book, the screenplays I added on because I wanted to give them more attention,” Pintea said.
In one of the stories featured in Sunset, Pintea wanted to write a story about a man who was a vampire, and what it’s like to be a vampire.
“It’s the idea of what is it like to have a sudden lifestyle change, when you have to adapt your life to something different,” Pintea said.
The hard copies of Passion and Sunset have both books in one, which is something Pintea wants to continue in the future.
The process to self-publish a book has felt surreal to Pintea.
“I thought publishing books was that you find a publisher and go that way, this is something you can do on your own,” Pintea said.
Although publishing a book was a dream come true for Pintea, he has run into many challenges getting to this point.
“It’s a lot more challenging than I thought, to edit everything, and to make sure the grammar is correct. Marketing is challenging, I’m doing it completely on my own,” Pintea said.
Although Pintea has run into challenges self-publishing his books, he has always wanted to have a career in the arts.
“The biggest highlight was having the ability to publish a book, it’s always been a dream of mine, having the ability to do that made me very happy and feeling like I can turn it into a career,” Pintea said.
“Being in the arts has always been a dream of mine, and I feel like I’m taking more steps to that goal,” he said.
Going forward, Pintea is working on a third collection of stories, specifically connected to concepts of science fiction and fantasy.
“I’ve always enjoyed writing, I’ve found it a very fun pastime and a nice escape, and I like entertaining people,” Pintea said.
To purchase Pintea’s books, on Amazon.ca
