Riva Zmajoki is an author of QuBoS, Editor of Scrolls by Q, and creator of Q-BookStand.
Born in a picturesque country with a turbulent past she was always drawn to contrasts. Considered a lazy person her whole life because of her easy-going personality that knew no sorrow that can’t be transmuted into a positive lesson Riva Zmajoki secretly crafted her ARHO Surveys word by word.
It couldn’t be hidden that she’s persistently writing and her inclination towards written expression was constantly gossiped about and frowned upon but she could hide the extent of her ambition. To be ambitious is to be silly and waste away your life.
There was a story Riva Zmajoki wanted to write. She thought it was a short story so she pushed on to finish it as soon as possible not caring for finesse, just wanting to get to the next big thing, to the next chapter of her life where she’s finally useful and productive.
The short story turned out to be a gigantic thing that has no end, something it seems like can be written forever. Still, after so much effort, it seemed foolish to stop mid-track, besides Riva was known as a stubborn child. Giving up meant that she loses, that everyone was right and that she was being unreasonable for writing at all when everyone knew that there was no bread in writing.
Getting her bread from her father, then husband, then ex-husband Riva Zmajoki felt like a subjected person, someone less than, someone dependent but she encouraged herself that it was just circumstances and one day she’ll beat them.
Then there was a whole section of her life dealing with children, depression, divorce, unemployment, uncertainty, the global pandemic and the general opinion that she failed in life. Through all that, she quietly wrote getting into a greater gear rather than slowing down even abandoning her name, her language and her heritage in the process. Even her gender came to question but the decision was made not to think about it too much, it was being resolved inside of fiction anyway.
Words formed before her easily. Everything else in life was hard. Friendships failed, the marriage crumbled, parenthood made her feel like an imposter, and poverty was her constant companion.
Still, words flew out of her like a constant stream steady and comfortingly making people love, suffer and then find meaning just before death closes upon them only to start their search for love all over again.
Because that’s what after all tribulations Riva Zmajoki thinks life is. A series of unfortunate events through which we struggle to keep our good faith and optimism trying to find love among strangers who frown upon us and, against all odds, winning just before it’s time to rest in death.