Journal
I'm writing a book about seven years that took me from 155 kilograms and meth to where I am today. This is where I put down what comes out of that process.
Three kinds of texts.
From the book. Moments I lived through and suppressed for years. Some will make it in whole, others will be cut and stay here only.
On writing. Where I get stuck, and what happens when I have to go back to years I don't want to go back to.
On publishing. What it takes to publish a book on your own. What it costs, what I didn't know about it, and exactly where I am right now.
None of this is a guide. It's just what's happening while the book is being written.
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What the editor found wrong with my first chapter
Having a finished manuscript is one thing. From there it is still a long way to a book.
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Getting through today is enough
Somewhere in the middle of my transformation, Mino said to me one day: "Want to try boxing?"
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A Few Years Later
A few years ago I wanted to sign up for a dating site. I was obese back then and I knew exactly what would happen — nobody would be interested. So I went looking for a photographer. Someone who would shoot me "in a better light". I knew it wouldn't be me. I knew I was making myself into someone else. And I wanted it anyway.
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Same Hills, a Different Man
It was just in passing, during training. Mino said something like: in the evening we're going for a walk up Skalka. As if it were nothing at all.
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How much does printing a book cost? 14 quotes
The book will exist physically, so someone has to print it. And since I'm self-publishing and the campaign needs an exact target amount, I needed exact prices upfront — not estimates.
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The Myth of Silence at the Mountain Hut
On Saturday, August 15th, I walked from Medvedzie up to the Útulňa hut below Magurka. A laptop in my backpack, one goal in my head: to write a piece of the book somewhere other than my own desk.
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The Day I Pretended to Be a Writer
January 6, 2025, Monday, 11:11. That's what it says in the corner of the screen in the photo I took in the cafe that day.
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Bib number 29 — first race
17th September 2017. Beh Zubrohlavským chotárom, second edition. I have bib number 29 and in the finish photo I'm holding a medal in my hand.
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The Third Subchapter
This week I wrote one of the most difficult subchapters in the entire book. In the final chapter I am currently writing, there will be more like it — it is a chapter where everything I have described so far begins to come together.
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Aunt Majka and the Hole in the Ice
In January 2021, I stood waist-deep in the cold water of a frozen lake, holding a piece of ice, surrounded by people I regularly met with that winter for cold-water swimming. In the photo, it looks simple — a guy in the ice, a somewhat amusing shot. But behind it lies a journey worth telling.
