Category Archives: Memoirs

Nothing Held Back

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2010 HoDW Life

How I loved this job! Coaching performers, keeping them safe during the show, being a stage hand and stage manager underwater in one of the most visionary projects of all time. The best times were when I could prepare performers for their aquatic environment. I loved seeing them work during our training sessions. Their focus, dedication and support for each other were second to none.
My four years of being part of the “The House of Dancing Water” show family in Macau were life lived to the fullest. All in. Nothing held back. Steep learning curves. It was heaven and hell, Jekyll and Hyde, utter happiness and despair. I looked into the abyss and at the same time was mesmerised by the beauty, passion, and creativity all around me. Blood and tears, utter commitment, corporate politics, friendship, integrity, growth, dreams coming true (sometimes shattered), an abundance of hugs and kisses, standing ovations, and the overall emotional intensity of an earthquake magnitude 8 on the Richter Scale.

Paralian: Not Just Transgender Author Heads To UK For Book Launch Press Tour – Interview Dates Available

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Literally PR Helen's avatarThe Literally Public Relations Blog

 

[image]ADVANCE INFORMATION SHEET

Paralian: Notjusttransgender

By Liam Klenk

Author interview opportunities: Liam Klenk will be in the UK as part of his book launch press tour and available for face-to-face, telephone and in-studio interviews on the following days:April 8th-15th (unavailable on 11th April), May 30th-June 3rd, July 13th-15th

Paralian (definition: ancient Greek meaning ‘one who lives by the sea’) is a memoir narrated through the author’s relationship to water. We follow Liam Klenk’s tumultuous journey to find his authentic self and happiness against more than a lifetime’s worth of adversities. At five months old Liam was adopted from an orphanage and ushered into a unique journey, which introduced him to the characters that would become both the currents that moved him and the rocks that supported him.

Liam, who lives in Zurich with his wife, says: “At three years old I began catching odd…

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Independence

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2007 my room in maldives

My dad always highlighted the importance of independence. His version of it was to amass as many savings as possible, thus being financially secure and free to move or buy at a moment’s notice.
Years later, during art school in Zurich, one of my professors pointed out how true independence can only be achieved by owning less instead of more. “Keep your standard of living as low as possible while still enjoying life to the fullest. Keep your possessions few or they will end up owning you. You’ll be tied to one spot.” His sentiment echoes in my heart to this day. It was advice much closer to my own heart.
Over the years, I began living accordingly, only holding on to few memorabilia… favourite books, gifts, small collectors items I picked up around the globe, notes and photographs transporting me back to meaningful moments…. all of these items easily fitting into a couple of boxes.
In 2005, I moved to a Maldivian island where I lived and worked for four years. Assorted wildlife scrambling up and down my bathroom tree. Coconuts falling from up high and slamming into the corrugated iron roof of my humble abode during all hours of the day and night. A comfy mattress, a handful of books, and a few square meters of privacy. I loved the material simplicity of my existence on that tiny pile of sand seemingly floating amidst oceanic hues of turquoise.

The Rainbow Colours of Childhood

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1978 1st grade

Look at this rainbow of first grade kids from 1978. Can you find me? Who was Liam (then still Stefanie) at 7 years old? I’m curious. Give me your best guess!
I’ll wait a little while to see if someone guesses right, and then I’ll reveal in a few days which one of these colour bursts is me.
Back then, I was an intrepid explorer. An Outsider. Old Shatterhand. A captain of the high seas. An Archeologist. A protector of wildlife. An outlaw who survived against all odds.
It seems my young soul back then knew instinctively who I was. But it took all the confusion of growing up and decades of searching, losing, and multiple times of getting back up again for me to rediscover those treasures.
I’m smiling to myself while writing these words for you, thinking “A-ha!” and understanding for maybe the first time that, in a sometimes real, sometimes more metaphorical sense, I became pretty much everything except Old Shatterhand.

Paralian now available for pre-order!

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Yay! Paralian is now available for pre-order on waterstones.com and amazon.co.uk (the other ‘Amazons’ and WHSmith following soon). How amazing is that! Honestly, it feels quite surreal. I hope I’ll stay this excited and enthusiastic every time one of my books comes out (since I am planning to write many many more).

https://www.waterstones.com/book/paralian/liam-klenk/9781785891205

 

Paralian launching May 28th, 2016

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2004 liam on kuredu

Only four more months to go until launch (I’m so excited!!)… and here a little taste of what’s to come:
“Marcello felt a delightful wave of heat and energy rushing through his body just as the fifth car reached its final destination – Sandra’s bedroom wall. It impacted in a cacophony of noise and falling debris. Instead of pulling away from her, he instinctively wrapped his arms around his girlfriend in the hope of shielding her from danger.
So. This was it. This was my moment. Marcello’s sperm cells hurried to my mom’s egg cell… and without even knowing it yet, an innocent teenage couple were on their way to becoming my parents.”

The Moment

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2016 pushka in winterwonderland

Have you ever read “The Hours” or seen the movie? It’s one of my all-time favorites, making me cry — with sadness as much as happiness — every time.
One scene in particular always stays with me:
In a very intimate moment towards the end of the movie, Clarissa says to her daughter, ”I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility. You know, that feeling? And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn’t the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment. Right then.”

As I look out the window of our little eagle’s nest overlooking the beautiful city of Zurich I breathe in deeply. My wife is working today. We had a cozy, slow breakfast together. She just left a few minutes ago and I already miss her with every fiber of my being.
Pushka, our fluffy Persian, is looking out of the open window, her eyes sparkling, seeing snow for the very first time.
Our other cat, Nacho, is sitting on his cat tree, every so often pawing the window pane, trying to catch a stray flake through the glass.
And on the table behind me, the final typeset of my book is waiting for me. The next three days will be busy… reading through 450 pages once more to check if all final corrections I made a few weeks ago have been implemented. I’m looking forward to finding that last hidden typo…

It keeps snowing. I’ll start soon. Just a few more minutes of gazing out the window…
Clarissa was right. It is the moment. Right now.

King for a Day

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2016 liam dreikoenigskuchen

One thing I’ve always loved about living and traveling abroad is that you pick up a lot of quirky little customs from each place you’ve been to. Today is “Holy Three Kings” day here in Zurich. On this day, bakeries make a special “Kings” cake, consisting of usually nine individual little sweet breads, joined together to form a shape that looks like a flower on steroids. Everyone goes and buys one of these ‘cakes’ and then people eat them together. One of the breads has a tiny plastic king hidden inside of it (which is why people gently nibble the little round delicacies so as not to lose any molars). The person whose bread shelters the king becomes royalty of the day and gets to wear the golden paper crown all bakeries deliver with each ‘cake’ as well. So guess who almost lost a tooth today in our little family?

Island Life

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http://www.banffcentre.org/centrepiece/2013/02/living-on-this-island-we-call-banff/

In 2013, I spent a few weeks enjoying a theatre management internship at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. Those were magical weeks in which I learned about team work and creativity on a different kind of island – one surrounded by mountain ranges instead of a deep blue sea. Here is an article about me that has just been re-published by Maximum Banff Daily.

Paralian Teaser

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Many special thanks to my friend Axel for putting together this teaser for ‘Paralian’ as early as spring 2014 (Back then my book still had the working title ‘The Fortunate Nomad’ and we thought it would be published a lot sooner as you can see from the projected launch date at the end of the video.) So now, we are finally approaching the finish line in tiny little steps… only five more months to go to the actual launch!