I published my first book, Shatter Self-Limiting Beliefs, in 2014. It’s difficult for me to believe that a decade has passed since then. I began writing the book on my 29th birthday (15 September), and I published it six months later.
A four-year hiatus followed from writing books because I owned a nightclub and also worked as a freelance writer. I could’ve written books during that period, but I felt that I didn’t have any material. That’s because I focused on non-fiction books.
After publishing Shatter Self-Limiting Beliefs, a memoir/self-help book, I was invited to be a speaker at the South African Book Festival. It was there that I ran into some problems. In fact, I had problems before I even got there.
I managed a cocktail bar at that time and worked until 4 a.m. To catch a flight to Cape Town and be on time for my talk, I had to wake up at 7 a.m. I figured that three hours of sleep would be enough. But I was wrong.
I woke up at around nine-thirty. The flight I had bought tickets for had already departed.
I don’t even remember waking up at 7, and I know I did because my phone was next to my pillow when I woke up, but I had charged it the night before so that I would have to get out of bed when the alarm clock went off.
Okay, so one plane ticket wasted. But I still had to get to Cape Town. The next flight was at 12. I can make it, but it’s almost sold out, so the ticket prices have gone through the roof. Just great.
I arrive at Cape Town International Convention Centre around half past two. The hall where I’m supposed to speak is huge. There are stands everywhere and several secluded platforms for talks. I eventually find the platform where I’m supposed to speak, and I check the agenda poster. Surprise, surprise. I’m not on there.
Another whammy. So now, I’ve rushed to Cape Town after buying two plane tickets on about three hours of sleep, and I’m not even scheduled to speak.
I managed to track down the event organisers in the hall, and I explain to them that I’m supposed to speak at the event. The lady checks her emails and sees the contract I signed. I was right, and they were wrong. But what good is that if I can’t speak?
While she’s apologising, a signal comes through on her walkie-talkie. The lady on the other side tells her that a speaker cancelled and they need a replacement ASAP.
I’m supposed to be happy, right? But I’m nervous because I haven’t prepared a speech. I figure that I’ll wing it and that it will go well, just like most of my speeches at Toastmasters.
I was wrong.
For the first ten minutes, I was doing okay. Then, things went downhill. It was on that stage, of all places, that I discovered I wasn’t a motivational speaker. I love writing books and talking to people but not in a motivational manner. And since the book was self-help, it required a motivational speaker to get the point across.
I eventually said, “What do you guys want me to talk about?” because I had lost interest in the speech. The last place I wanted to be was on that stage.
It was about two minutes later that I ended the talk. Not one person applauded.
I walked off the stage and laughed at myself. That was humiliating, but a part of me felt that there was a lesson to be learnt.
It was evident to me that I wasn’t supposed to be a self-help writer, but I knew that I wanted to write.
Four years passed since my talk at the book festival, and I hadn’t written a single book. At the end of 2017, an idea popped into my mind about a man who loves his wife but finds out that she’s infertile. Then, he meets a stripper, which opens the door to possibilities and trouble.
Just those two sentences circled my mind for the next few months until I decided to write a short story about it. Only knowing those two sentences about the plot, I ended up writing a 2000-word short story. But I saw that I could expand the story further. It was in June 2018 that I began writing my debut novel, My Wife and Girlfriend.
The story follows Warren Clad, a man in love with his wife, Mandeline. But Warren finds out that his wife can’t have children, which is his priority in life. Warren meets Gisele, an extremely attractive redhead stripper, with whom he builds a connection.
I had never written an erotic book before and hadn’t planned for My Wife and Girlfriend to be one. It was supposed to be a romance novel, but I found that I couldn’t express myself intricately during the love scenes. I wanted the raw thought in my head to be transcribed, and I couldn’t do that with a romance novel. The only option that seemed viable to me was to write an erotic suspense novel. And that’s what I did.
After several re-writes, I published My Wife and Girlfriend several days before my birthday in 2021. Since it was my first fictional work, I wanted to give readers a taste of my writing. So I took the 10 best stories from the Erotica Lust blog, and I published 10 Erotic Short Stories Vol. 1 and made it available for free.
I wanted to make all three books available for readers of Erotica Lust for the best possible price, so I offer specials for all three books. At the time of writing, all three books (My Wife and Girlfriend, 10 Erotic Short Stories Vol.1 and Shatter Self-Limiting Beliefs) are available for only $1.99. That’s available for a limited time only. The special applies only on this blog and for 3 ebooks.
If you would like to order paperback copies of my books, you can check out Goran Radanovic on Amazon.
From 2018 to 2021, I wrote about five other novels, which I am yet to publish. But from 2021 to 2023, I hadn’t written a single novel. I published a personal finance book From Homeless to Debtless with Savings in 2023, which documents my journey of losing everything and literally living on the street to paying off $40,000 and eventually saving up $50,000.
Plots of my novels come to me naturally. I don’t force it. I find that the best ideas pop into my head and stick around for some time. They simmer. That’s how I know that I’ll be excited every day to write the book. At the beginning of 2024, I began writing a new novel after the plot had circled my mind for several months. I’m busy writing it and loving every second of it. It could turn out to be my best work. Let’s see.
CHECK OUT MY NOVEL, MY WIFE AND GIRLFRIEND