Patricia Furstenberg

I grew up in a different world as we know it today.
In grew up in Romania, during the communist regime, but that didn't impediment my upbringing. I had a wonderful childhood and I felt safe and loved.
We had to read a lot during school time AND during holidays back then. I remember what looked like never-ending lists of Romanian authors and works. But you know what, I am happy I read them and I think that now, looking back, I value those "to read" assignments. There were great books I'm glad I read, great authors with a flare for narrative and building dialogue, humorous stories, but there was drama and mostly an all-round Romanian taste to it.
I get the same "home" feeling now, whenever I read in my native tongue, Ionel Teodoreanu, Mihai Eminescu, Eugene Ionesco and Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade or Mircea Cartarescu.
When I grew up there was severe censorship on the written word. I grew-up considering writers to be really heroic people. Back then writers could easily place themselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time with their work. *smile*

I used to write a lot during college. I remember once entering a playwriting competition.
And I never stopped writing.
But when I grew up writing would have hardly put food on the table. That’s why I studied Medicine; I have a degree in Dentistry.