Hello API Romance Authors!

This month, we have picked "Enheduanna: The First Author" by Alatary for Book of the Month. If you'd like to read this story, we encourage you to check it out in our Never Forgotten reading list here >>>

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Logline:

4000 years ago, in an empire where women were little more than flowers on the wall, one princess cemented her story in history and changed the art of writing for centuries to come.

Excerpt:

Her hand dropped down to my chest, resting upon my heart. "Lives will be build and broken a million times within the span of one mortal's life. They will build to things you will fail to achieve. Dreaming of that which you do not dare to achieve. Life is spend so much on that which you do not have, that the blessings you do have go forgotten. Or even worse, unused." 

 "I don't understand. You just said that I have used my blessings, that I have written." 

 "You have," Inanna smiled faintly. "To tell that which you saw, that which you heard. And you have heard so much, Enheduanna. You have listened to kings and thieves alike, unearthed their stories with equal respect. But you forget that you have a voice as well. You have a story." 

 I hung my head in shame, drawing my knees up to my chest. "No one would want to hear that."

Inanna cupped my cheek, lifting my head to look into the depth of her eyes and the warmth of her smile. "Not unless you tell it."

About the Author:

Born and raised in Amsterdam, Alatary is a historical and erotic romance author who started writing on Wattpad, where in 2019 and 2021 she won the Watty Awards and is currently a part of the Wattpad Creators. Writing is like breathing to her and history is her passion. But when she is not writing, you can find her with her nose in a book or exploring ancient building, ruins and museums. 

Interview:

1. What influenced your story? What inspired you to write it?

I was inspired to write this story when I learned about the real-life Enheduanna and started reading her hymns. Her work is over 4000 years old and still I related to it. And it is hard for us to believe nowadays but there was a time when signing your work was simply NOT done. That hit me when I read Enheduanna's following words: "the compiler of the tablets was Enheduanna. My king, something has been created that no one has created before."

You can hardly believe it, right? Of course Shakespeare signed his work, of course an author's name is on the cover of their story. It is natural to us. But Enheduanna had to fight for that right. Without her, writing as we know it would have been very different. So, I wanted to tell her story.

2. What were some challenges you faced while writing your story?

Writing a novel always comes with challenges, as any writer knows. But for Enheduanna: The First Author my biggest challenge was finding Enheduanna's voice. There are several interpretations of Enheduanna's writings, and which is the right one, might be a mystery lost to the ages. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to include her actual hymns in this story, but finding consistent translations for a dead language proved very difficult.

So, I used her most famous work 'The Exaltation of Innana' as a basis for her voice and worked from there. This hymn is the most telling of her character, because she actively puts her thoughts and emotions in this text. She even describes spending long hours labouring over her compositions by night, for them then to be performed in the day. A sentiment I think any writer can relate to.

3. What message do you hope to convey with your story?

With Enheduanna's story, I hope to convey hope and inspiration to my readers. A hope that every story deserves to be heard and told. And that Enheduanna might serve as an inspiration for my readers to tell their own stories, build their own legacy. 

Some people say that every story has already been told, but I don't believe that. True, some elements might cross over into other stories, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be told.

When I started writing this story, I was content to find one other person to feel inspired by my words in the same way I felt inspired by Enheduanna's. It's been over four years, and I still get DMs from readers who have written their novellas, novels or poems after learning about Enheduanna's stories. It is more than I could have ever hoped for, and I can't thank you all enough.

4. Do you have any advice for other authors who are interested in writing Asian Fiction?

My advice to any author writing Asian Fiction or any fiction at all would be do your research before writing the story. Research is the hardest part of writing any story, but trust me, once you have done your research about the culture, time and or place in which your story occurs, writing will become a lot easier.

And doing your research beforehand has another benefit; you might uncover a new perspective.

For example, no one ever mentioned why Enheduanna was dedicating so many of her hymns to the Goddess Inanna. But as I was researching the Akkadian culture, I came across the mentions that cross-dressers, gay people and even gender neutral people were blessed by or honoured Inanna. They did not frown upon different sexualities in Akkadian times. Which made me realise maybe Enheduanna dedicated her hymns to Inanna because she was gay. And with that idea in mind, her writing got a new meaning that, to me, made so much more sense.

Writing about a different culture or time-period is also tricky, but not impossible if you keep an open mind. 

5. If you could write another story to be featured on the profile, which of our reading lists would you write it for?

Can I pick all of them? I would love to write more Asian Fiction, and might still have a new historical writer in the first draft who shaped a big part of Korean history. So, I guess I would aim for the Never Forgotten reading list. But that is still a work in progress and I first have to finish my current novel 'Seduction in Ink'.

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Thank you Alatary for giving us the opportunity to interview you and chat more about your book!

We'll see you all in the next Book of the Month.