(Translated from German)

When I was a teenager my father would often remark that later in life I would work in a bar…

His somewhat disparaging words came from his observation of two of my traits: First, I was extremely nocturnal, and second, to his dismay, I was completely disinterested in any of the math or science subjects in school. There was nothing I loved more than creating and writing stories. As a 15 year old, I walked through Zurich with the manuscript of my first novel “A Kiss at Midnight” (set in a California which at that time I only knew from pictures and movies) and offering it in person to publishers. With a short story I introduced myself at the youth magazine “Pop” and got a mutual acceptance agreement. I was promised that my story would be published as a “Picture Story”. Unfortunately I got rejected later, although the same story, just with slight changes, appeared in the magazine some weeks later, of course without my name being mentioned…. (the editor in chief of the magazine at that time is now a major media czar in Europe!). But this experience belongs to another chapter, perhaps titled “Growing up”.

Some years later I realized that in the “real world” I wasn't able to support myself with writing alone. So, I eventually decided to at least aspire to a profession where books (written by other people) would play a major role. I became a young, enthusiastic librarian who loved to recommend books, and tried to convince people of the greatness of reading, or at least let them feel my own love for it. Serious writing became a big part of my later job at the “Swiss National Television”, but I missed the freedom of expressing my own ideas, the use of my imagination, the limitless creating. Creative writing remained for a long time only a hobby, until many years later I discovered how it really felt when I treated it seriously.

Today, when I look back, I don't think that my father's remark was that erroneous after all. I could have been writing during the day, and at night, while working and earning my money in the bar, I would have gotten a lot of inspiration for my stories...

And until today I still remain a night person…

It is never too late to be what you might have been.” - Georg Eliot