I have always wanted to be a writer, or I have for at least as long as I can remember. I turned 50 this year (2021) so I would expect my memory to start getting shorter and shorter as I plod toward retirement. That said, I can still remember writing short stories and humorous anecdotes at a very early age.
My grandmother, a published author herself, spent countless hours with me as a child. She came from Great Britain and spoke with an elegant accent. She gave importance to words and how they are spoken. She gave due respect to language. She also encouraged me to use my imagination. Throughout my youth, I watched her work on her craft in the moments that fell between the moments that occur every day in our lives. In those spare moments, she taught me about dedication, tenacity, and effort.
Those 3 things: Language, Imagination, and Effort are essentially the rudimentary components of a "Junior Writers Tool Kit."
Later, in my late twenties, I distinctly remember informing her I was going to start writing a novel. She just smiled at me, and then definitively told me, in very good English - I hadn't lived enough yet.
"Wait a few more years until you have something to say." She said.
Of course, I did as she suggested. I think today that lesson could have been called "Experience." The fourth component to that all-important "Tool Kit."
While I picked and pecked my way through my thirties and into my mid-forties, it was not until the Spring of my 47th year I learned what she meant about "Having something to say."
My Voice.
Words, specifically their motion, or the inertia they exhume when read or spoken. They resonate. Throughout a room, and even throughout time. "Park the Car" sounds different in Boston than it does in Phoenix.
The action and reaction of words put together into sentences and paragraphs. Their rhythm. Syncopation. The way words that rhyme play off of each other, their layers. It is the sweet, sweet science of it all I cannot get enough of.
I write how I speak, and I speak how I write. Life speaks words and words illustrate life. When creating quality original Poetry, pronunciation, inflection, alliteration, and accent all can spark a flame that can burgeon into a creation. Especially if you add a touch of experience and have something to say.
"American Junkie - Life, Love, and Loss" is the first of what I hope to be many published works in both Poetry and Crime Fiction Genres. I will be tenaciously working toward my goals, every day, in the moments that fall between the moments that occur every day in our lives.
