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The Epic Wasn't in the Journey
I thought I was writing a travel memoir. Somewhere along the way, I realised I was really writing about people and the ordinary conversations that quietly change our lives.
Being Seen Is Not the Same as Being Known
While writing my memoir, I realised I'd been using a word for years that didn't exist. Fakaging describes the subtle ways we package ourselves for acceptance while quietly hiding who we really are.
Latest Articles
Five Seasons in One Life
I thought I had travelled the world collecting stories. It took writing my memoir to realise I had really been moving through four seasons of living, and only by discovering a fifth season could I finally recognise the pattern that had quietly shaped my life.
Don’t Buy My Book Unless…
Six months after publishing my memoir, I stopped marketing and started questioning who it had really been written for. The answer changed the way I think about books, gift giving and the people most likely to help those stories find their readers.
Don't Judge a Cover by Its Packaging
Books once needed only a cover to invite curiosity. Today they're surrounded by reviews, profiles, interviews and endless promotion before we've even reached the cover. People have followed the same path. What happens when we stop discovering the story and start judging the packaging?
You Must Judge a Book by Its Cover
We've all heard the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover." This article explores why we still need to judge the cover to decide whether to begin, and why the real change isn't the cover itself, but the layers of packaging we've placed around it before discovery even starts.
The Other Side of Hello
We spend countless hours learning how to start conversations, yet almost no time learning what our responsibility becomes once somebody has already chosen to say hello. Perhaps authentic connection doesn’t depend on asking better questions. Perhaps it depends on letting the right people discover where our real story begins.
The Skills We Stopped Carrying
Finding knowledge once required curiosity, organisation and persistence. Looking back, I wonder whether those same skills quietly prepared us for almost everything else worth having. As knowledge became easier to access, did we accidentally stop carrying the very skills that helped us explore life itself?
When Did Saying Hello Become One Person’s Job?
A simple conversation during my travels left me with a question that never really went away. Why do we assume one person should always take the first social risk? The answer changed the way I observed people—and eventually became the title of my memoir.
The Unknown Was Always My Favourite Destination
The more comfortable I became in a place, the more I wanted to move on. It wasn’t because I’d stopped enjoying it. I had simply begun to understand it. Looking back, I realised I wasn’t travelling towards places—I was travelling towards discovery.
The Greatest Gift Isn’t the Book. It’s the Time to Read It.
Several readers told me they left my memoir untouched for months, then finished it in a single day. It made me wonder whether the hardest part of reading isn’t the book itself, but giving ourselves permission to begin.
The Epic Wasn't in the Journey
I thought I was writing a travel memoir. Somewhere along the way, I realised I was really writing about people and the ordinary conversations that quietly change our lives.
Being Seen Is Not the Same as Being Known
While writing my memoir, I realised I'd been using a word for years that didn't exist. Fakaging describes the subtle ways we package ourselves for acceptance while quietly hiding who we really are.
The Unknown Is Where I Grow
Building a website, learning the publishing process and writing a memoir all reminded me of something that has quietly shaped my life for decades: the unknown has never been something to fear. It's where I've done most of my growing.
Finding the Right Readers
Publishing my first memoir taught me that success isn't about reaching everyone. It's about finding the readers who connect with the story you genuinely wanted to tell.
Getting Lost Was Part of the Plan
Backpacking through the 1990s meant living with uncertainty every day. Looking back, I sometimes think getting lost wasn't the problem - it was part of the experience.
The Biggest Journeys Are Hidden in the Smallest Moments
When I finally sat down to write my memoir, I realised the moments that stayed with me weren't always the dramatic ones. They were the ordinary conversations and quiet observations that most people would probably forget.
Watching the Story Unfold
Hearing loss never became the main story of my life. Instead, it quietly changed the way I experienced the world, teaching me to notice the people, conversations and moments that many others overlooked.
How the Main Character in My Memoir Got His Name
Long before the memoir existed, Ricardo Bumachunski was an imaginary friend from childhood. Decades later, he became the perfect guide for a story built on curiosity, travel and the people met along the way.
The Bumachunski Challenge
The Bumachunski Challenge isn't about talking to strangers for the sake of it. It's about becoming curious again and discovering the remarkable stories hidden within the people we pass every day.
We Know Everything About Strangers and Nothing About Our Neighbours
We know astonishing amounts about people we've never met, yet often know very little about the neighbours, colleagues and strangers we see every day. Perhaps the problem isn't a lack of stories. Perhaps we've simply stopped asking.
Are Non-Readers Too Busy to Read, or Are We Writing the Wrong Books?
We often hear that people are too busy to read. But after writing my memoir, I began wondering whether many books simply aren't written for the millions of people who don't normally buy them.
The Most Important Subject We Don't Teach
Looking back over years of travel and observation, I realised that the people who coped best with life weren't always the smartest or the wealthiest. More often than not, they were simply organised.
Why I Wrote the Story Before the Lessons
When I finally sat down to write my memoir, I realised something important. Most people don't trust conclusions until they understand how you reached them. That simple realisation shaped the entire structure of the book.
Why I Chose to Write Differently
Why would an author deliberately avoid writing the kind of travel memoir readers expect? Looking back, I realised I wasn't interested in describing the world as much as understanding the people within it.