prolog

Ⅰ.
There are no mosquitoes in Madrid

1. One stroke of luck
2 Don Quixote met on the plane
3 Find the workshop in Madukri
4 Square, square, and square
5 Writing: Being Alone

Ⅱ.
Transparent solitude

6 Creating a Routine in an Unfamiliar City
7 March to the Bookstore
8 The Street I Loved
9 Giants of the Prado
10 Lungs of Madrid

Ⅲ.
Seville novelist

11 Quixotic, so Quixotic
12 Two Hopes I Had While Writing the Novel
13 Expiration date of the story

Ⅳ.
Cinemas, art galleries, and universities

14 Why We Need a Plan B
15 The Three Musketeers Met at the Art Museum
16 A Life and Work as a Storyteller
17 Madre! Don Quixote

V.
Ecstatic Wanderings

18 The novelist's hometown
19 Finally met Don Quixote
20 Writing Mechanisms
21 After passing through the old maze
22 Asta Luego

Ⅵ.
Fall 2023.
Spain.
lucidity.

23 from Milan to Madrid
24 Again, in search of Don Quixote
25 My Mad Madrid
26 Now Barcelona

Epilogue
Acknowledgements

A bestseller that captivated the world,
How did "The Inconvenient Convenience Store" and "My Don Quixote" come to be?

A writer with 20 years of experience, author of four full-length novels.
And an unknown writer who decided not to write novels for a living anymore.
A novelist who was about to give up on becoming a novelist, novelist Kim Ho-yeon, gets a stroke of luck at that very moment.
An invitation to the Spanish Literature Museum for three months.
And from Madrid, where he ran away, he returns with a souvenir.
It was the courage to try again.
Like Don Quixote, who runs towards his dream without compromising on anything.

In Spain, where he left, author Kim Ho-yeon does not go on the beautiful and romantic journey we expect.
He had to write three pages a day of manuscripts that didn't even have a publishing contract, he had to save every penny, and he was completely alone.
But the Spain he encountered was beautiful.
The Spanish sunshine, the Spanish cultural heritage, the Spanish food, and the Spanish people.
Author Kim Ho-yeon created a regular cafe there that gives a free drink if you collect 10 stamps on a coupon, and he is used to riding the number 147 bus.
I also wandered around bookstores looking for the original version of Don Quixote.
I even take a train and go on a trip to get inspired.
There, author Kim Ho-yeon was not just any Asian traveler, but a writer who stubbornly wrote what he had to write, even if no one knew about it.


Spain, the land of the sun, gave it to the weary,
Warm courage

So what made the writer, who had been on the verge of giving up, decide to write again? What did Kim Ho-yeon experience between giving up and achieving success? In Spain, where he fled, Kim Ho-yeon didn't do anything spectacular.
I just walk, read, see, and talk, following the traces and inspiration of Don Quixote.
The reason I had to write a novel again came naturally to me in the midst of my ordinary daily life in an unfamiliar city.
When we pursue our dreams, we become the dreams themselves.
Author Kim Ho-yeon realizes one thing.
“I still, still want to write.” The journey of following in the footsteps of Don Quixote has made him into ‘Don Quixote.’


After returning to Korea, author Kim Ho-yeon began writing again.
During the lonely and difficult times when people were distancing themselves from each other due to COVID-19, we started talking again.
In this way, the manuscript eventually became the novel “Inconvenient Convenience Store,” which brought comfort to everyone.
Author Kim Ho-yeon says, “As long as I continue my adventures, I will always be Don Quixote, and as long as I continue writing, I will always be a novelist.”
This book clearly shows that he did not succeed simply through reckless courage.
The courage to challenge yourself again towards your dreams, the attitude of never giving up and always thinking of solutions.
This aspect of the author comes from his purity and sincerity more than anything else.
The simple and petty bourgeois image of writer Kim Ho-yeon that we encounter in this essay is a 'realistic' version of the characters in the warm stories he has drawn so far.
If you were moved by author Kim Ho-yeon's signature warm comfort, you will also be moved by the author's journey in pursuit of his precious dream in this essay.

It is only granted to those who move forward without giving up.
The joy we will meet at the end of this road

This book is both the birth story and the story of the research for the novel “My Don Quixote.”
So, although it is an essay, there are interesting devices throughout the book that only readers who enjoyed the novel can find.
As everyone already knows, the ending of "In Search of My Don Quixote" is a 'tightly closed happy ending'.
The poor unknown writer appeared before us as a star writer.
His story offers comfort and courage, as if to say that we too can achieve a happy ending if we don't give up on our dreams.
In particular, the unique wit and humor of writer Kim Ho-yeon, who also showed off his unique charm in his previous work, make this story, which could easily be perceived as a 'story of hardship', warm.
There is a certain cheerful and warm courage felt in people who live with something.
No matter how difficult the situation, Kim Ho-yeon's attitude of moving forward without losing his smile, like his novels, gives those weary of the harsh reality the strength to challenge themselves again.

After his success, rather than savoring the fruits of his labor, author Kim Ho-yeon takes a moment to meet his past self.
And there, I dream a new dream again.
My dream is to continue writing without stopping here.
He says that a lot has changed since his success, but at the same time, a lot hasn't changed.
People now ask him every time how he managed to make his novels successful, but Kim Ho-yeon's answer is always the same.
“Even though nothing was guaranteed, I just wrote it anyway.”