Dreaming of Volunteer Readers

Writing was always easy for me, yet cost me many friends.  When saying goodbye at critical junctures, like graduating from high school or college, girls exchange addresses and promise to write.  I was the one in the group that did actually write.  Not only that, I’d reply to any letter sent to me within a day or two.  I didn’t have enough sense then to know that it would drive people away.  Who knows how many friends I might have kept if I hadn’t drowned them with a torrent of words.

Writing to family members was different.  There was an assumption that they’d be forced to read what I wrote in case they were tested later.  If I shared an agonizing time when our children all had a broken bone at the same time (fiction), family members would be expected to remember that.  If I referred to it later and met a blank stare in return, it would be a dead giveaway they hadn’t read my letters.  The upshot of it is that I drove people away with too many words, and at the same time, held an audience captive with verbosity. 

Many years passed, and now I have a niece and a nephew who are professional writers.
They have accomplished something that eluded me. They enticed people to read their output. I stand in awe of that. Chrissie is a freelance writer who is the Feature Writer for Children's TV at Suite 101 - http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/infomania. She also writes for the Coalition for Quality Children's Media - KIDS FIRST! http://www.kidsfirst.org and BookRags (http://www.bookrags.com). Lars had his first book published last year by Crown Publishing – Lost to the West: The Forgotten “Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization.” The paperback -http://www.amazon.com/Lost-West-Forgotten-Byzantine-Civilization/dp/0307407969/ref=tmm_pap_title_0 came out just a few weeks ago. I am very proud to be related to both of them.

My dream now is to write from home for volunteers – those who are not obligated to read
my words for any reason. I’m free. You’re free. Let’s have fun!