Who Am I?

Introduction: Holly Jahangiri

Because being enigmatic really isn’t my style.

Holly Jahangiri is the author of three children’s books: Trockle; A Puppy, Not a Guppy; and A New Leaf for Lyle. She also writes short fiction and poetry. Holly draws inspiration from her family, from her own childhood adventures (some of which only happened in her overactive imagination), and from readers both young and young at heart. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, J.J., whose love and encouragement make writing books twice the fun.

That’s the copy/paste-able, dust-jacket blurb. But who am I, really? This is the tl;dr version:

And Dr Mehmet Yildiz interviewed me this morning — I think his use of “conversationalist” is kind, as I might have talked his ear off:

I’m not sure why he chose the Golden Gate Bridge, rather than the Daytona International Speedway, the Houston, Texas skyline, or a rocket at the Johnson Space Center, or some deadly-dull PC manual… I hope it’s because he sees me as a bridge between writers and readers.

This was me, during the early days of my pandemic slump (we’ve all had one of those, I think — it comes right after the “I’ve been living for this moment all my life!” high we introverts felt at the end of March, and before the reality of the long slog sets in, and we find ways to be creative in the midst of disappointment and anxiety. This is no longer “me, today”:

This is me, most days…

I’ve never used a pseudonym, but perhaps a glance around my personal site will answer the question of why a writer might want to — I write children’s stories and horror and grown-up poetry and how-to articles for the semi-tech-savvy, and sometimes those starkly different works and audiences ought never to cross the streams, as they say in Ghostbusters.

The Stories I’ve written here, on Medium, are organized haphazardly by the platform, so I’ve created my own “publication” just to organize them by subject matter, so you can more quickly and easily find things that might interest you:

Plot Bunny will show you around, over there. Just don’t let his coffee cup get empty. If you’re a Monty Python fan, I leave it to your imagination…

I chose a hell of a time to retire. April 1st — yes, April Fool’s Day! — marked my first official day of early retirement. I had plans. Plans to play tourist in my home town; plans to travel more; plans to finally fulfill my starry-eyed undergraduate ambition of writing novels. Not enduring works of great lit-rah-chure, mind you — graduate school Lit classes cured me of that, what with playing “Let’s all psychoanalyze the dead author!” with callow enthusiasm. My goal was to write entertaining paperbacks that might be left, dog-eared, on a commuter train to alleviate the boredom of the next traveler, or lift a housewife out of the doldrums for an hour or two.

The universe laughed. “Sit your butt down, you procrastinator, you.” A pandemic swept the globe. As planes and trains were taken out of commission, and “stay-at-home” orders were issued, and the introvert’s dream of being forced to work from home, in near solitude, was finally realized, the universe said, “I’ll give you something historic and momentous to write about. You won’t even have to think up a plot. Just apply butt to chair, and write.” The universe is a hard taskmaster, and I am stubborn.

The dream, robbed of choice, threatens to become a nightmare.

I wrote this a month ago — just a little flash fiction piece, and I hope to God it wasn’t prescient:

This was my attempt at atonement — a hopeful homage to Greek mythology and the story of Pandora’s Box:

Who am I?

Ask me again, tomorrow. Watch this space.

Holly Jahangiri is the author of Trockle; A Puppy, Not a Guppy; and A New Leaf for Lyle. She draws inspiration from her family, from her own childhood adventures (some of which only happened in her overactive imagination), and from readers both young and young at heart. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, J.J., whose love and encouragement make writing books twice the fun.