The donor
A writer's worst nightmare is a blank page and no inspiration. Peter Wright thought it would be just a temporary period, but it was lasting for almost 7 months. The bills and the phone calls from his editor in the magazine where he published most of his work started to pile up endlessly.
He also owned a blog where he used to publish from time to time his personal stories. But even there, the last entry dated from 4 months ago. He was facing hard times in his private life, and it affected his day-a-day more than he could admit.
If things didn't improve immediately, he would have to take a decision.
One foggy morning sunday, in the last days of november, Peter woke up and checked all his e-mails and notifications, as a daily routine previous to start working. Nothing differentitated a normal week day from a saturday or sunday.
Suddenly, one of the alerts catched his attention. The blog site showed one new brief comment and and intriguing message:
Good job. Keep it up. Here's something to help you out a bit.
That's all. No names, no references, just those few words. And immediately after that, a new notification arrived from his otherwise quiet paypal account. Unbeliavable....a contribution. And a good one: 1.000€. And again not a trace from the donor, just an email address, but certainly a fake one, according to its format. He instantly thought of a family member, or maybe a close friend. But none of his relatives was wealthy enough to spend that sum for nothing, and anyway, they never showed any interest on his work. And aiming to the friends list, the outlook was even worse. They truly liked his short stories, but always took them as just a hobby, nothing supposed to be considered a job for a living.
It could also be a mistake, somebody who accidentally clicked in the wrong page. That sounded more plausible, and if that was the explanation, he needed to act quickly. Peter tranfered the money to his bank account and prayed not to have to pay it back.
The inspiration appeared again as the rays of sun's light started to penetrate the dense fog. A new and fresh story filled his mind and could not stop to type. The feelings recovered and the good vibrations illuminated his face as the morning hours went by. He published the new story and prepared to go out to have a walk.
For the first time in months he felt like he could make the difference. The next 3 weeks he completed two articles for the magazine, which were very appreciated and praised by the readers and one more short story for his own blog.
Soon after the publication, a new comment appeared, just like the previous one.
Good job. Keep it up. Here's something to help you out a bit.
The same text. Peter checked immediately the paypal account and, again, a new donation of 1.000€ appeared. That was more than unexpected, and confirmed that the anonymous donor was not sending the money by mistake.
The writer decided to reply to the mail address, just to thank the donation and ask some information about the misterious person. But as he suspected, the domain name didn't exist. The e-mail address consisted on just 4 letters and a company name: prwt@thedailysun.com
Ten years after this events, Peter became very popular and a renowned writer. He never told anybody about the donations, which stopped exactly one year after they started, and kept the secret for himself. He moved from his previous job position to a new important journal and got married.
One day, a letter arrived to his mail box, proposing him an editor position in a new project. No more info was provided. He decided to take a look and, after an interesting interview in one of the tallest buildings in town, he decided to accept the proposal.
-Ok Peter, you can start tomorrow -said the interviewer. We are proud you accept and be part of our new project. I can reveal you now the name of the newspaper we are launching: The Daily Sun
-Excuse me?? -replied Peter
-Yes, you'll find all the info here attached. The IT department will create you your e-mail address: prwt@thedailysun.com. Don't ask me why but the guys there say it's their policy to build it with the first and last letter of the first and last name. Any problem with that?
-No...I, I guess not
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
He also owned a blog where he used to publish from time to time his personal stories. But even there, the last entry dated from 4 months ago. He was facing hard times in his private life, and it affected his day-a-day more than he could admit.
If things didn't improve immediately, he would have to take a decision.
One foggy morning sunday, in the last days of november, Peter woke up and checked all his e-mails and notifications, as a daily routine previous to start working. Nothing differentitated a normal week day from a saturday or sunday.
Suddenly, one of the alerts catched his attention. The blog site showed one new brief comment and and intriguing message:
Good job. Keep it up. Here's something to help you out a bit.
That's all. No names, no references, just those few words. And immediately after that, a new notification arrived from his otherwise quiet paypal account. Unbeliavable....a contribution. And a good one: 1.000€. And again not a trace from the donor, just an email address, but certainly a fake one, according to its format. He instantly thought of a family member, or maybe a close friend. But none of his relatives was wealthy enough to spend that sum for nothing, and anyway, they never showed any interest on his work. And aiming to the friends list, the outlook was even worse. They truly liked his short stories, but always took them as just a hobby, nothing supposed to be considered a job for a living.
It could also be a mistake, somebody who accidentally clicked in the wrong page. That sounded more plausible, and if that was the explanation, he needed to act quickly. Peter tranfered the money to his bank account and prayed not to have to pay it back.
The inspiration appeared again as the rays of sun's light started to penetrate the dense fog. A new and fresh story filled his mind and could not stop to type. The feelings recovered and the good vibrations illuminated his face as the morning hours went by. He published the new story and prepared to go out to have a walk.
For the first time in months he felt like he could make the difference. The next 3 weeks he completed two articles for the magazine, which were very appreciated and praised by the readers and one more short story for his own blog.
Soon after the publication, a new comment appeared, just like the previous one.
Good job. Keep it up. Here's something to help you out a bit.
The same text. Peter checked immediately the paypal account and, again, a new donation of 1.000€ appeared. That was more than unexpected, and confirmed that the anonymous donor was not sending the money by mistake.
The writer decided to reply to the mail address, just to thank the donation and ask some information about the misterious person. But as he suspected, the domain name didn't exist. The e-mail address consisted on just 4 letters and a company name: prwt@thedailysun.com
Ten years after this events, Peter became very popular and a renowned writer. He never told anybody about the donations, which stopped exactly one year after they started, and kept the secret for himself. He moved from his previous job position to a new important journal and got married.
One day, a letter arrived to his mail box, proposing him an editor position in a new project. No more info was provided. He decided to take a look and, after an interesting interview in one of the tallest buildings in town, he decided to accept the proposal.
-Ok Peter, you can start tomorrow -said the interviewer. We are proud you accept and be part of our new project. I can reveal you now the name of the newspaper we are launching: The Daily Sun
-Excuse me?? -replied Peter
-Yes, you'll find all the info here attached. The IT department will create you your e-mail address: prwt@thedailysun.com. Don't ask me why but the guys there say it's their policy to build it with the first and last letter of the first and last name. Any problem with that?
-No...I, I guess not
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
ResponderEliminarFabulous, what a blog it is! This webpage provides valuable information to us, keep it up. yahoo login mail
Inesperado final. Me gusta. También me gusta ver que he podido llegar al final, a pesar de que está en inglés...
ResponderEliminar...aunque a lo mejor me ha gustado porque no lo he entendido, quién sabe.