Sunday, August 16, 2015

It was last Friday. I went to this party with Anthony Stachursky and his wife Asri. Tony did read proofing for "The Dg Called Hitler". He did encourage me to translate from Polish to English. Now for my next book "The Calf" read proofing is doing Elisabeth Khan. Thanks both. I read story "Kiss my ass".

This Sunday I visited churches:
- Slovakia Church on Ryan and 18 Mile
- Chaldean Church on Dequindre
- Korean Church on Dequindre
What a nice buildings! I got idea to translate my book to Korean, Arabic and Slovakian languages. Slovakian language is very similar to Polish.

The Dog Called Hitler – A Kresge Fellowship Winner!

by Weam Namou

Walerian Domanski
Since the spring of this year, when my friend and poetry editor Elisabeth Khan returned from India and we began to meet more frequently, we have been talking about Walerian Domanski, who is a member of our Rochester writers group.
In her beautiful Flemish accent, Elisabeth told me that she’d been editing Walerian’s second short story book collection, called The Calf. His first book, The Dog Called Hitler, was originally published in Poland. The Dog Called Hitler is about life and problems of common people, mostly very poor people in Communism Poland. But the book is universal, showing the heroism and weakness of people.
Elisabeth found his stories delightful, full of good writing, humor and satire. I told her that last year, for the first time I had listened to him read a poem, a poem that was very beautiful and touching.
Our discussions about his work was inspiring, leading me to write a poem based on his short story title: Kiss My Ass. Then one day, Elisabeth said to me, excitedly, “Our friend Walerian has won the Kresge Fellowship!”
“I suddenly became famous,” Walerian said to us as Elisabeth and I took a stroll with him by Lake St. Clair. “Even my wife, who did not used to read my work, suddenly started reading it.”
We asked him what he was going to do with the fellowship money and he said, “Buy good liquor.” We laughed.
Walerian continued to make us laugh with his sense of humor last Friday evening at Dr. John Telford’s home in St. Claire Shores. The beautiful house is on Lake St. Clair, and Dr. John Telford is the author of A Life on the Run, a memoir about his life and times as a Detroit educator and activist. He hosted, as he has done for some years now, the summer potluck writer’s group meeting.
Later on, we gathered in the backyard and various writers read their works. Walerian read one of his short stories, which was short, sweet, and funny. We have so much talent in our community!
Born in Russia, Walerian went to Poland with his parents in 1946. In Poland, he finished elementary school and high school, received a master’s degree in civil engineering and worked for state owned construction companies. Having joined an anti-communist movement, he was jailed by communists in December 1981. In 1987, he came to the United States as a political refugee.
From the beginning he loved the United States. He found a job in a geotechnical company and in 1994 he received a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from Wayne State University. In 2008, he retired from the City of Detroit and started cartooning again, and soon switched to writing. He’s truly a man with many talents. Check out his book by visiting this link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Called Hitler. 

Monday, August 3, 2015

Good news! My book "The Dog Called Hitler" is available on www.kobobooks.com . If somebody does not like Amazon, Kindle and Nook ...can read and buy at Kobo.
I did call friend in Poland, his house is close to apartment building where I was living for 25 years. We played together soccer.
- What new? - I asked
- Nothing special - he answered.
He told me that their pastor is commenting Bible so most people in church ...sleep!
 - He is good man, but he is catholic scientist! He did not fit good in village church.
I have problem with promotion and selling books, he has  problem with pastor. Problems, problems. They are part of our life.


Sunday, August 2, 2015

Hello readers!
I took yesterday 3 hours vacation time from literature and promotion and  swam in Spencer Park aquen! And I enjoy sun, for free. No promotion, no writing. It is very good idea to take 3 hrs vacation! Bu at night 2 PM I can't sleep and I got idea for my story, very tragic story.
I and my wife we killed our-self! What a dramatic story! Maybe is too dramatic?
Another idea I got at night is about the Jews. I read "History of the Jews" and found that in Austria government ordered that the Jews should change their Jewish names to Germans names. And good German names cost he Jews more than bad names. This situation create potential opportunity for good humoristic story. If I will write I will share with you.
I copied and pasted from my Files the story "Therese". I is no typical my story, but I like it. It is "truthful" story from Poland. Enjoy this story for free and tell friends abut my stories from "The Dog called Hitler". They can buy on amazon, kindle and Nook.


Walerian Domanski

Therese

Therese was known in school and in the multi-family house where she lived with her mother as slightly stupid. But she did not consider herself “slightly stupid”; she did not consider herself as stupid at all.
Although the learning at school was not easy for her, she was not the only one who had a problem with learning. After school she stayed at home for two years, and after these happy years, she got a job at a factory. She was a good worker because her job did not require much thinking; strictly speaking it did not require thinking at all.
Therese is 19 years old. She just received two weeks of vacation from the factory, and decided to visit her mother’s family. For the first time in her life, she is planning to travel by train the long distance. From her very small city Boleslawiec she will drive to her family in the village, located close to big city Warsaw.
“Therese, are not you afraid to travel so far alone?” asks the worried mother, who has never traveled alone on such a long journey.
“No, I am not afraid, why should? See mom, here on the piece of paper I wrote everything by myself; from our city Boleslawiec to the city Wroclaw, by the blue bus. It will take two hours. The bus station in Wroclaw is very close to the rail station, and I have only to cross the street, and buy ticket to Warsaw at the railway station.  The travel to Warsaw will take six hours, and in Warsaw I will go to the bus station. There I will take a blue bus to city Wolomin and from Wolomin to the village Lipniki I will travel by red bus. And our family is living in Lipniki in house number 17.”
“Daughter, how nice that you can read; I cannot read because I did not go to school. I would not have been able to make such a complicated journey.”
“Mom, it is no reason to worry. This trip is no big deal for me”
The next day mother escorted Therese to the bus station. Therese boarded the bus, and when the bus started to move she smiled and waved farewell her hand vigorously to concerned mother.
The bus was going according to plan. It stopped at several stops, including such towns as Jordanow and Lagiewniki. Therese looked with curiosity at the passing landscape. She realized that the fields, meadows and forests are the same as around Boleslawiec.
“Nothing to worry about this ride”, she thought.
After two hours, Therese was at the bus station in Wroclaw.
“Where is the train station? “ she asked cashier.
“Very close, on the other side of the street.”
And indeed, the railway station was near the bus station. Therese crossed not very busy street, and got to the railway station. The building was big, but nothing to worry about. The railway station was not busy; there were not many passengers, and it was easy to find the cashier windows.
“A ticket to Warsaw, and please tell me when the train departs and from which platform.”
“Departure is in half an hour, from the third platform. What class ticket do you want to buiy?”
“The cheapest class, but how I can find this platform?”
“Do you see these big signs….1, 2, 3 and so on?”
“Yes, I see”
“Those are the underground entrances to the platforms. Therese went on platform 3. But the platform had two sides; on each side is the railway! On which side of the platform will show up her train? She was afraid to get on the wrong train, for example, to Krakow or Poznan.
“From which side will leave my train to Warsaw?” she asked one of the waiting passengers.
“Miss, you have to read the signs, from this side.”
The train arrived, and Therese, without any problems took a seat on the train.
“So far so good, now go straight to Warsaw! There is nothing difficult about traveling!”  She said excitedly to herself.
Train left after ten minutes. Therese took a seat in compartment like the other passengers. Outside, on the beginning, was the urban landscape, mostly three-story buildings. She even saw streetcars! The urban landscape was very exciting for her, but later, appeared cultivated fields, meadows, forests and small houses which was nothing to enjoy.
“All is the same as in our area” she found out, watching the landscape with attention.
After an hour she felt hungry and pulled from her bag roll with sausage and a bottle of tea. After a while she wanted to take a nap.
“I cannot sleep; I have to watch when it will be Warsaw.”
 “When will we arrive in Warsaw?” she asked her neighbor.
“This will be a six hour ride, and Warsaw will be the last station. There is no way to overlook Warsaw” her neighbor laughed.
“So I can sleep peacefully?”
“Absolutely, Warsaw will be the last station, and everyone will get out.”
Comforted, Therese fell asleep. Soon, however, she woke up. She was too nervous, she was thinking too much about how to get to the bus station in Warsaw and how to get to Wolomin, and to her family in the village. She reached Warsaw tired, sleepy and annoyed.
Therese got out from the train at the Main Station and immediately fell into the crowd, like a small stone rolled into the river.
The crowd pushed her to the hall of the station; here the crowd was even bigger. Some were going out, others were coming in. In addition the loudspeaker announcing arrivals and departures made her half deaf.
“So, now I have to find the bus station, but how? Mother of God, what a crowd! It looks like a hive!”
She stopped terrified at the wall. When leaning against the wall, she felt a little safer. After a while, she plucked up here courage and turned to the railway-man in uniform, which for the moment, thanks to her luck, stopped beside her.
“Sir, where is the bus station?”
“Take a streetcar number 20!” he answered and ran away.
“What is wrong with these people? Why is everybody in such a hurry? And where they are going?”
Once again she joined the crowd which carried her out like a swift river. Finally she was outside. Above, she saw the blue sky with white clouds.
“Sky is same as in Boleslawiec” noticed.
But only the sky was the same. Thousands of passengers from the train station flooded the street. The street was very noisy, full of people and cars, buses and streetcars.
 “Where is stopping streetcar number 20?” she asked one man.
   “Over there!” he pointed his hand and ran away in hurry.
   Therese looked in the direction he had pointed to with his hand, and saw only a large crowd storming into the buses and streetcars. It was a crowd of crazy people;
they pushed each other; it was rush hour, and everyone wanted to get home as soon as possible. The crowd looked like a dangerous, thundering river. When some people successfully climbed to the bus or streetcar, more new people immediately appeared. Therese did not have courage to enter this menacing, trembling crowd. She stood at the station close to the big door and watched the approaching streetcars. So many streetcars came, but she did not saw number 20.
“I think this man has given me the wrong information?”
In addition, she was scared by such great number of a private cars and taxis. They were departing or arriving, stopping with a noisy sound of brakes. And she was terrified by noisy horns too.
The noise was too loud and unacceptable for her ears. She was so terrified that she retreated rapidly to the station hall. She felt lonely, lost, and frightened. Her heart was pounding like a bird in cage. She felt weak and was close to fainting.
“Why am I going to see this family anyway? I never saw them and it was OK. Why I got such a stupid idea to visit them?”
And, as if divining her thoughts, and as if coming to rescue her, the station loudspeaker announced the impending departure of the train to Wroclaw!
Therese quickly decided to return home. She ran, bumping into people, to the cashier windows.
“Ticket to Wroclaw, please, second class. And from what platform is the train leaving?”
   “From a second platform.”
With ticket in her hand, she ran onto the platform. Platform was not crowded, railcars were not crowded too, and she easily found a seat. Now she felt save. Her fear was gone and her heart began to beat normally. She smoothed her hair and squeezed her bag.
“Praise God, I am going home!”
She was hungry and thirsty, but fell asleep immediately and slept like a baby. When she got out to Wroclaw, she felt almost like at home. And when she arrived to Boleslawiec, she was really at home. She ran to her house on the empty and dark street. While running she heard the familiar sound of the river flowimg beside the street, and the sound seemed to her as angelic music. When she reached the door of her apartment her mother was already asleep. Fortunately, she had a spare key, so she did not have to knock on the door. She took off her shoes, entered the bedroom and undressed quietly so as no to wake her mother, and happy as ever, and smiling slipped in the bed under blanket.

Walerian Domanski - all copy rights reserved to Walerian Domanski