by A. G. Billig
I thank also Alexandra my spiritual master, who has supported me and inspired me for the last three years. My heart goes to you!
A big thank you and a big applause go to Isabel, from IB Communications, a wonderful person and a great communicator, who is doing a great job telling the Romanians about A.G. Billig and her twelve stories Also to Adi Ursu, from Brand Fusion, for putting together a great author site. And to Sorina Fredholm – creative director and Corina Olaru – photographer, for a great visual concept and photo session.
This achievement is also due to Lucian who has been by my side for the last two and a half years and who, by making a decision at some point of our history together, set me on the right track. Much love and thank you!
I also thank you, my readers, for being and for being wonderful.
Last but not least, this volume is dedicated to my dearest parents, Petra and Gabriel, who offered a wonderful home to my spirit, cultivating its love for the fine arts and for books and planting the seeds of love into it. I shall always love you!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A.G. Billig’s destiny seems to have been sealed the same day she was baptized. When presented with the objects tray—a habit characteristic for the Christian orthodox baptizing ceremonies in Eastern Europe—the six-month old picked up firstly, and foremost, a pen. Of course, this might have signaled a future great accountant, mathematician, or artist. However, it was none of those.
At the tender age of eight, A. G. took her parents by surprise and started writing short stories. Imagining plots and characters became her favorite pastime, leaving little time for playing with dolls. Soon after, she started taking part in national literary contests and children magazines and they featured her creations. The grown-ups acknowledged her gifts; speaking on radio, TV and in print about the 13-year-old writer. They also awarded her with several first prizes in the most important Romanian national writing contest for young people, ‘Tinere Condeie’, in 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991 in short story, reportage and drama categories.
Aged fifteen, A.G. Billig finished her first novel. The book got good reviews from critics but, because of the troubled social and political climate—it was in the early 90s, after the December Romanian Revolution—it was not published. I don’t know how you would take it if it had happened to you, but for her it was a failure that made her decide to stop writing for a while. She concentrated on her academic studies, finished high school and, knowing that one day she will write fiction for the native English speakers, she was accepted to the prestigious University of Bucharest, The Faculty of Foreign Languages (English-French). As a student, she discovered that she could express her creativity as a journalist.
During the nineties, she wrote articles and interviews for several Romanian newspapers and magazines, she was also a TV and radio presenter; you can still listen to radio 21 on the Internet. She pursued her career in journalism later in the new millennium, as editor-in-chief and contributor to several magazines. In addition, she developed a career in communication, as a PR Consultant.
Although she was born in Bucharest and currently living here, A.G. Billig loves to travel. Her trips took her across Europe, to the Americas. It was during a spiritual journey to Brazil to the magical land of Abadiania, at the end of 2010, that she decided to take up writing again. A year and half later, armed with four of her best short stories and without even knowing about the existence of MP Publishing, A.G. Billig ran into Mark Pearce and Maria Smith at the London Book Fair. The rest is history.
When she is not imagining things, she enjoys dancing (especially salsa), travelling, doing sports (she is a fan of kangoo jumps, skiing, skating and kick box aerobics), taking long walks, reading, listening to the music and being outdoors.
Photo Credit: Corina Olaru