Our winner publishes her own book
The winner and her book
Her colleagues were amazed when graduate psychologist Despina Muth-Seidel jumped in the office and clapped loudly. She had received a mail with special content: "Congratulations, you won the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de-Schreibwettbewerb!"
Despina Muth-Seidel was able to publish her own book with our cooperation partner BoD. "Nine minutes" has now been published and consists of many short stories about very different people and their supposedly normal everyday life. The book title is part of the program: The author accompanies her protagonists for nine minutes each, highlighting her life and her entanglements.
The second part of the book contains excerpts from the varied literary output of 47-year-old Despina Muth-Seidel and convinces with fantasy and fairytale components.
© from privateDespina Muth-Seidel has already published some psychological non-fiction books, but she has only been writing short stories for five years. Her story "In Focus", which won our writing competition last year, was the first she had ever submitted to a competition. As a psychologist, she knows her way around power in her job. The story is based on experience, even if the content is purely fictional. The minor role of the main character is symbolic of the attempt of many women to unite their strong and weak sides in the profession.
Despina Muth-Seidel Nine minutes Hardback edition Pages: 176 price: 22 euros ISBN: 978-3-8448-3206-8
To order via Amazon.
The winning story "In Focus"
There, facing her, two yards away, at the conference table next to some of his colleagues, Jannis released the tight feeling in his throat with a quick jerk at his tie knot. Then he opened the two upper shirt buttons. Anne's eyes narrowed as he followed his thumb and forefinger in slow motion. He noticed her eyes and smiled apologetically. Anne did not respond.
Again and again she saw this movement in front of her, a loop, a sequence of movements, a sequence of movements, even as everyone had long been staring at the presentation on the wall. In focus: The numbers of the last week.
A very ordinary movement. He was sweating in this room, which was pleasantly air-conditioned. He was nervous. Anne and he were in the same team this morning. She did not care, she had thought at least yesterday.
This tie. Blue, tiny white dots. Silk. It was a special blue: bright ultramarine with a slight tendency to turquoise. She had had a long time yesterday to look at this cloth while it was still wrapped around her wrists, with a tight knot, too tight. She had tried to relax him. She had not made it. He had laughed as he pulled her and dragged her behind, his fist around that knot of blue silk on her hands.
Anne was still staring at the elongated piece of cloth, which now hung crookedly and loosely around his shirt. It was something that connected the two of them. Your hands and his. Not just his shirt and neck. It had a meaning to them, and for him it was a means to an end.
Jannis ran his hand over his head as he asked the speaker a question. A superfluous question, Jannis did not seem to have read the script. His department head diagonally behind him twitched slightly at the corner of his mouth. Others briefly looked at Jannis, who took that as approval and smiled smugly and smugly. Embarrassing.
Anne knew his smile well, believed to know it so far? she had always considered it omniscient and superior to her if he did not hear her begging for mercy, just as long as she could stand it. Anne twirled at a bleached strand of her hair, blond, at his will. She stroked her skirt? black leather, also in the office, because he loved the material. Her high boots pinched the tight zipper. So a doll had to feel when she could feel.
Anne looked at Jannis smiling. He ignored her. She looked at his hands again, impatiently tapping the pen on the table. He was behaving impossibly. The greasy representative in person. Now she had understood why he was nervous.
Jannis was here who he really was.
And his tie turned into a piece of cloth, without any meaning.
Anne got up with a jerk. She waited. Some colleagues turned to her slightly surprised, because the presentation was not over yet. She waited. At last Jannis turned in her direction. She was still smiling, a smile with a raised eyebrow. When he looked directly at her, she slowly raised her right hand as if she were pulling a piece of cloth. With her left hand she made a movement like with an imaginary pair of scissors. Schnipp snap.Jannis stared at her. Now he looked like a shocked frog. His obesity had not noticed her yet.
The speaker was silent. Anne sat down again and with a short nod nodded the speaker immediately to continue with the presentation. After all, she was the boss.
