Saving Jahan by Hans Joseph Fellmann | Book Promo | Author Profile – Saving Jahan is an autobiographical novel based on my Peace Corps service in the Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan. The novel starts at the end of 2006, which was a time of great importance, as the country’s totalitarian dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov, passed away due to mysterious circumstances, leaving a power vacuum. It is in this environment that my character, Johann Felmanstien, is sent to teach English for two years in a dusty town in the middle of the Turkmen desert.
Saving Jahan: A Peace Corp Adventure Based on True Events by Hans Joseph Fellmann Published by Russian Hill Press on 05/15/2020
Genres: Autobiographical Fiction, Fiction, Memoir, Social Services & Welfare
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 466
Buy on AmazonA PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER in Central Asia finds purpose in helping a friend escape a life of servitude.
Johann Felmanstien is going nowhere in life. He has no money, no job, no girl, and a degree that would look better as a doormat than on his CV. He applies for the Peace Corps and is accepted. His country of service is the Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan, which is seventy percent desert and run by a totalitarian dictator with a cult of personality.
Johann is sent to teach English in a town to hell and gone. He contemplates leaving until he meets a local teacher with a strangely similar name called Jahan. Over time, she opens up about her dreams to live abroad and the struggle she faces in a country that sees women as little more than servants. Johann takes a passive stance at first. But as his work suffers because of his shenanigans and alcohol abuse, he realizes that helping Jahan escape Turkmenistan might be the only way to save himself.
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Saving Jahan by Hans Joseph Fellmann | Book Promo | Author Profile
About Hans Joseph Fellmann
Hans Joseph Fellmann is a writer and English teacher from Livermore, California. He has visited over eighty countries and lived in Spain, Turkmenistan, and the Czech Republic. A graduate of the University of California at San Diego, his articles and short stories have appeared in the
UCSD Guardian, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and The Prague Revue. He recently published his first novel, Chuck Life’s a Trip, which is based on a life-changing journey he took around the world with his childhood buddies in 2006.
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Author Interview:
What inspired you to write in this genre?
When I was a child, a voice in my head told me to write. I don’t know where it came from, but sure as a nose rests on my face, it was there. I ignored it at first. Once I started listening, another voice entered the equation. It told me I had to do things worth writing about. This was a pivotal moment, as it opened the stage to everything that could have merit in word form. My mind became an audience hall of competing voices. Those who screamed the loudest and offered the most were “Action” and “Adventure.”
Do you have a set writing schedule?
I not only have a set writing schedule. I have organized my life around that schedule to ensure its continued existence. Let me explain …
As a teenager, I wrote in spurts; I went on a summer trip and kept a journal, or I went on a walk, and the mood struck, and I scribbled a poem or short story. At twenty-four, I got serious; it became apparent that waiting for the skies to align so the words could sluice through and smack me in the forehead was a waste of time. I found that I needed three hours a day, five days a week, to improve my craft. I also found that to maximize improvement, I needed a clear mind and interesting material. To those ends, I sought a moderately demanding day job with diverse environments. Teaching English abroad was the best fit. Thus far, I’ve taught (and written) in Turkmenistan, the Czech Republic, and Guinea Bissau. I have plans to do the same in Oman this fall.
Do you need silence to write, or can you work in any environment?
I need absolute silence to write. To achieve this, I turn my phone off, close my door and all my windows, jam earplugs in my ears, put on noise-canceling earphones, and write only at night.
Saving Jahan by Hans Joseph Fellmann | Book Promo | Author Profile
What is your most unusual writing quirk?
Contrary to the image of the alcoholic novelist typing out his masterpiece between slugs of whiskey, I must be one-hundred percent sober to write. Granted, some of my best ideas and experiences have come from altered states. But for me to click them into words, there can’t be a trace of anything funny in my system.
How do you choose the names of your characters?
I have no set method for selecting the names of my characters. Sometimes I’ll take the name of the person a character is based on and fashion it into a humorous and bizarre variant. Other times, a name will fall out of the sky and flop across my keyboard like a dead fish.
Who has influenced your writing the most?
In July of 2011, I was on a plane from Prague to San Francisco. I got smashed off rum and valium, then stood to take a piss. As I was swaying in line, I struck up a chat with the dude next to me. He was chubby, wore glasses, and had a face full of zits. I told him I was a writer and named some of my favorites. He smiled and said, “Ever read Charles Bukowski?” I told him I hadn’t. He recommended the book “Ham on Rye.” I bought it a week later and read it. The humor and sadness of Bukowski’s prose entered my heart like a drug needle, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Is there anything you would like my readers to know about your book?
“Saving Jahan is an autobiographical novel based on my Peace Corps service in the Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan. The novel starts at the end of 2006, which was a time of great importance, as the country’s totalitarian dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov, passed away due to mysterious circumstances, leaving a power vacuum. It is in this environment that my character, Johann Felmanstien, is sent to teach English for two years in a dusty town in the middle of the Turkmen desert. At the school he is assigned to, Johann meets a female teacher called Jahan, who, despite having an oddly similar name, could not be more different. Unlike Johann, who is a loud, hard-drinking partier, Jahan is a quiet, unassuming homebody, who has dedicated her life to providing for her three siblings and sick mother. Over time, she opens up about her dreams to live abroad and the struggle she faces in a country that sees women as little more than servants. Johann takes a passive stance at first. But as his work suffers because of his shenanigans and alcohol abuse, he realizes that helping Jahan escape Turkmenistan might be the only way to save himself.”
This is the blurb I sent to dozens of agents, editors, publishers, and reviewers. While it is accurate, there is much more to my book.
Saving Jahan is a story of loss, of things going wrong in a dangerous place; a story of love and desperation and drunkenness, of kids being faced with adult problems and losing their fucking minds. It is a story of too little too late, of what happens when a bunch of volunteers are filled with hope and sent to do good in a country that doesn’t want them. It is a sad story, yes. But for those of us who made it through, it became the story that defined our young lives.
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Saving Jahan by Hans Joseph Fellmann | Book Promo | Author Profile
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