Synopsis: After her coma, Shinu feels like she’s forgetting something, or that something doesn’t want her to remember. She tries to go back to her normal life, but each moment just shows her doubt of reality. The world felt too vivid, time feels to fast and slow, and every word she hears keeps shifting. Everyone she knows is acting differently, and her head keeps ringing with the same tune she heard somewhere. A seemingly insignificant classroom assignment referencing a historical date trigger buried associations with past tragedies, deepening the sense that her life is intertwined with events she cannot fully recall. Meanwhile, tension at home reveals cracks in her family’s narrative. A heated exchange with her brother hints at a childhood incident involving a house fire something Shinu has no memory of, yet others clearly hasn’t forgotten. Her father’s secretive behavior and hidden photographs. As reality continues to blur and contradictions mount, Shinu is left questioning everything, her memories, her family, and even the nature of her own mind. What truly happened during her coma? And why does it feel like something followed her back?
What is the meaning of the title? In plain terms, it’s a reminder that you must live. When I was writing this, I had a strong fascination with my own mortality, and I feared dying so much that I could rarely sleep at times without weeping. I don’t cringe from those memories as I can understand why I did. I didn’t fear death. I was scared of change. To me, Memento Vivere was not just about remembering to live, but about cherishing what has come, what is happening, and what will come forth. In Chapter 1 of Memento Vivere, she looks at her desk and sees papers of her sketches and writings. She laughs at how horrible they look and how she thought it could compare to the Mona Lisa.” I wanted to humanize the character; I wanted her to be me. Even with things like nostalgia, people remember things in two spectrums: the gray, cruel memories, or the pink lensed happiness that feels too real.
How long are you planning on writing the story? Even as of the year 2026, Memento Vivere is still in the works, and I don’t think I should truly ever finish it; there’s no grand ending, not even some large continuous journey, just something that has one more last sentence. It should make the reader feel like there’s more, it should make them feel empty. Memento Vivere isn’t about the start and end of one’s story but where it can go. The reader themselves should expand it wherever they please.
Why the names? Why strive to make each one mean something? Even though I contradict myself when I write, I want to create details not for the reader, but for the world I’m writing. Things like inside jokes or even events. Like in Memento Vivere, Chapter 2, Shinu says, “Now that was shocking, what is he, Faraday?” The dad chuckled, but Piero did not understand what she meant.” Given the context in the same chapter, “Piero overhears and groans, “but I promised to someone to help them out yesterday”” Now the reason for it coming as a shock to the family is because of who Piero is. The remark about calling him a Faraday shows that his actions are very unlike the character's, giving him a different last name. Piero Mallory Fibbing is meant to be unlucky with each selfish thing he does. He’s meant to be driven by a passion. When creating this character, I wanted to place him down and wonder why? Piero’s identity can be separated into three parts. His first name is Piero. Why is that his name? Pierro means rock or stone in Italian, but it is also Pierrot a clown that represents being a poetic fool who yearns, or in other cases the sad clown “often pining for love of Columbine” by the Clownopedia. Piero is doomed to have his fate set into stone, as a sentimental fool. Mallory, his middle name, a traditional feminine name. His struggle in the later subsections in the story, he struggles with his own identity. He doesn’t know if he’s a she or it’s the idea he likes. His middle name was something they always teased him about, it became a norm. The name Mallory came from old French and was used neutrally, being defined as unlucky. Fibbing’s, a last name that is pretty on the point, to fib, or in more plain meaning a trivial, petty, or a minor lie. The last name holds a bigger meaning in terms of story progression, family history, and why they come to be.
How did you get inspired to create Memento Vivere? I really want to say that I got it in a dream, but I was fully aware that what I wanted to do was just write about something. I was in a little phase where I believed I could be the next big thing, like Quan Millz, only infamous. There were some things that did inspire naming each chapter, and the details of the world I wanted to be seen. Alice in Wonderland was a huge inspiration to me. A story that anyone knows, from the cartoons to the live action, games, and even by word of mouth. I love the idea of it being all in her head, which did create the terminology. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS) is a rare disorder that distorts perception of reality, even though it’s not as fictional as the story. It brought an idea to my brain. How does one know if something is real? I look at my own dogs and I still can’t believe they exist. They move, they breath, they eat, they live. Yet, I don’t trust it. It’s those moments of doubt that I want to see if I can replicate into the story.
Why do you rarely touch the story now? I still do, rarely now, but the problem is, I don’t have someone supporting me. The brain is a fragile thing, if it takes in too many negative thoughts, it tends to linger, and if someone can’t support you through it, you’ll get burnt out. I like to believe my writing is like a baby, the more I write the healthier it gets, but if there’s no love in those words, it’ll be another scum in the vast of words, and nobody wants their child to become a nobody. Burnout happens easily, and what’s the point of losing interest in something you like to do? So, if I take my time, maybe it’ll grow into something I can show to everyone instead of talking about its potential.
Do you think you have the right to write about some of these topics? I don’t believe I do, because it’s not something you must be knighted for, or even slay a dragon to show that you deserve it. I’m writing it not to scare, but to show that it’s there. When I was young, I was ignorant of what was around me, I didn’t care about titles, and I still don’t. But there is an importance to identity. To others, I’m a bi-Hispanic cis-male, with white blotches on my face due to vitiligo. To me, I’m human, still with vitiligo, because that’s still apparent. Even if I contradict myself in every step I take, even if I speak about one thing when I mean the other. I want to write about what I believe is true, everyone is human, even when I don’t want it to be true.
Why are you so adamant about representing yourself in female characters? Call me Piero then. In all honesty, I don’t know. I’ve thought about it, but I never have an answer. Maybe I like the idea of being someone else? What about you, reader? Have you ever wondered, been fascinated, or been allured by that idea? Maybe my memory makes a magnitude of malignant martyrs to make me morally major.
Do you think there will be a happy ending? Ending? No. Happy, maybe. To me, that depends on what they will do. What do I mean by that? I’m not God, what they will react to is how the story will progress, if they get a happy ending, it is up to them. I’ll just have one thing to say about that. “Why did Sanchez do that?”
Patryck Sanchez, is the author of many great hits, like Sammy Sings, The accident in Huckle Farm, and other working progress projects, Solheim and Ballad of Moxi. Sanchez strives to write different genres in order to figure out what suits me best.
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