On Writing MY LOVE NIKOLA TESLA
One of the happy endings of my writing journey is publishing my novel MY LOVE NIKOLA TESLA in America, the country where the story takes place. And it happened in November last year. But I would like to start from the beginning.
As a young girl, I was greatly inspired by my father.
My father was a lover of science (mathematics, physics, astronomy, psychology, philosophy etc.) and its border areas. I talked with him about the Cosmos and asked him the famous question – how is it that the Cosmos is endless, it must have an end? He also directly influenced me to become a writer – he taught me to read and write when I was three and devised creative tasks that encouraged my writing style. Together with him, I watched the TV series about Nikola Tesla in which Rade Serbedzija played the main role. He also regularly bought the scientific magazine Galaxy, in whose special supplement in the mid-eighties I first saw a photo of Katharine McMahon Johnson.
At that time, I was not aware of the impact that beautiful photo would have on me. It lived in my subconscious, being both plaintive and cheerful. In the meantime, after completing my studies in English language and literature, I started writing and publishing books. My main interests were Belgrade and historical figures, whom I wanted to portray through all their emotions and ups and downs. I believe that every life from the past is a circle that has closed and which I can visit in order to, like an actor, present something that has passed and that, in fact, never dies.
The lives that are still going on are interesting but not so inspiring to me because I don’t know the end of them. In the lives of people who are no longer with us, the story is over, but it is just a beginning because the writer discovers the hidden, adds what is imagined and guided by intuition, checks and arranges the data, adds his own emotion, and thus, in historical fiction, a new-old story is created.
And so, one day, having three books already published, I was sitting in front of my computer and a sentence came to my mind. It was mine but was also from some invisible spheres. It read: “Katharine Johnson loved Tesla the most.”
I was not afraid, because a real writer is never afraid of intuition and connection with parallel worlds, but I did have the desire to check that information. A writer can play God and can invent and change everything, including someone’s life, but in this case, I felt a great responsibility towards both characters in the game.
Therefore, I started reading Tesla‘s biographies and all the historical books related to him. An important part of the research was going to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, where I saw her letters. But that didn’t satisfy me.
I had to see the country where she was born and Tesla came with great hopes. At first, it seemed impossible for me to come – I had neither money nor people to guarantee my arrival. But when a person goes with his heart towards a goal, doors open.
A person appeared to offer help and I crossed the ocean. When I arrived at the New York airport, the person was late. It was 2010 and networks and the Internet were not that developed. I stood on the street and thought – what am I going to do now?
The rest is history.
America gave me two months of research pleasure. Everyone was extremely polite and, as I understood, delighted that their history was the subject of research. I will remember the kindness and radiance of the librarians at the University of Delaware, home to the legacy of Robert Underwood Johnson, the cosmopolitan spirit of New York, and the pleasant, sweet, and very strong perfume of a librarian in Philadelphia. I also got a copy of Robert’s book Remembered Yesterdays, which was very important for my research, and bought many books about the history of New York.
America embraced me with the same love I had for her and revealed to me that my intuition was right. Namely, little was known about Katharine Johnson as a person, and before leaving Belgrade, I had imagined some of her main characteristics. She turned out to be exactly what I imagined her to be!
Nikola Tesla was dedicated and a great scientist and Katharine fell in love with him from the first time she saw him. She followed him, was his friend, and got as close to him as a woman could.
I entered into Katherine’s emotions, which ranged from infatuation, love, despair, reproach, and criticism to a deep connection of souls.
People have asked me what I would ask her if I could talk to her. My answer is always the same – I would ask her if I portrayed her sacrifice and inner turmoil in a dignified way. My best hope is that I did, and that’s what readers in Serbia have said as well.
—
MY LOVE NIKOLA TESLA
A new aspect of the greatest scientist of all times is brought forth in Ana Atanasković’s new book. The author dug deep to discover a softer side of Nikola Tesla.
His social gatherings with the most famous individuals of his time, friendships with poets, writers and other visionaries, his impeccable sense of style were all kept on the margins of Tesla’s scientific brilliance. Ana masterfully revisits his ties to a woman whose life was forever changed by the Serbian wizard in a story full of emotions of the noble female heart. The reader is transported to the late 19th century New York with a flick of the page, to the time when magic existed, wizards walked the earth, and the heart of a dutiful wife contained the secrets of the universe.
BUY HERE
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
