And so, Ardi and I ventured into an unknown territory full of self-confidence and self-assurance.

We were not unlike Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. They often get a bad rep, but I think being quixotic in our day and age is not only a luxury but is also a necessity. To create, especially in a place like Kosovo, you have to be quixotic, and delusional, and dare to dream big (perhaps to the point of craziness). …

Continue readingIn Praise of Quixotic Play

Writing a story in an alternate timeline, where a certain historic event turned out differently is a great way to explore issues present in our own society. …

Continue readingKnowing Ourselves Through an Alternate Reality

People in Prizren, in real life, speak a specific language — either pidgin or creole, we will leave this classification to the linguists — that mixes Turkish, Albanian, Serbian-Bosnian-Croatian, and lately increasingly more English. It is technically an evolved remnant of an old imperial language. This made Prizren perfectly suited as the place where this language would have evolved in this imaginary Arnautistan. And all I had to do was to evolve it a bit further until it properly conveyed the overall art concept I was trying to achieve. …

Continue readingThe Language of Arnautistan