The reader is you

Hi, I’m Aleksandr Voinov and I’m the new guy on the team. Great to be here. I was brainstorming about what I want to blog about, and I could have told you about the book I just finished, or the one that I’m now continuing to write (world financial markets and scandals permitting). That one is a WWII romance set in Germany, and it’s pretty interesting – there’s a lot of great stuff in there, Spitfires, evil bankers, and acts of heroism… but as I said, I’m not talking about that today.

Today, I’m talking about you. And me. It’s sometimes strange to think that we’ll never meet – we meet by accident, but unless you email me, I don’t know you exist. Unless you see my book and read it, you don’t know I exist.

But we are having an exchange – we do, you hear my words in your brain, and ideally I’ll put some stories, images and characters in your head that will help you shorten that commute, that doctor’s visit, or take your mind off worries as you read in bed, maybe listening to a thunderstorm. If you respond to that is totally your choice, so you can leave a comment here or at my usual blog or send me an email or talk to me in a forum. Right now, you might curl up on the sofa in the conservatory, or read stuff on the beach. You might be 16, 60, male, female, you might be rich, poor, fortunate, unfortunate, healthy or dying.

Me, when you read this, I might already be dead. I might have given up writing, or maybe my agent has finally convinced me to write something that can make me (and him) good money. I don’t know, and at this point we both can’t know.

The fact that we meet here is nothing short of a miracle. Six-odd billion people on the planet, hundreds of millions of webpages, and we meet here. How was your day? Have you heard of me before? Will you send me an email or comment on this? (You’re welcome to, provided I’m still around…).

I think what I’m saying is that meeting is a miracle. Meeting online, two strangers that both love a good story is nothing short of astonishing. In the vast world of rushing electrons, here we are. Wow.

When I meet people – online or in business – I try to make the most of it, because meeting is so accidental and random. I try and tell a cracking good story to readers, or, in business, really listen to the people I’m interviewing. Taking their position before I go back to “neutral” – as neutral as the press ever gets, anyway.

But it goes both ways – we can’t know where we’ll end up from here. Many people that got in touch over one of my stories are now friends – we hang out on Facebook or Goodreads and joke and play, because ultimately, this writing gig is not about selling you a book or selling myself.

We’re two strangers meeting who both love a good story, and that’s really it. Let’s make the most of it.