the .: fyr :. light

My best friend gifted me a Kindle 1 just before the Kindle 2 was released in early 2009 and I have to say that next to the extended Lord of The Rings DVD set, that just might be the best gift a friend has ever given me. That my Kindle is now the 2nd most important piece of technology I own is a revolution of sorts since I traditionally have been a “real book” reader before now. I have tried reading electronic versions of books on my computer, my cellphone and on both of the PDAs that I once had and not one of those mediums were a satisfactory substitute for my love of the FEEL of books. Enter the Kindle – and it was enough for me to literally get rid of most of my “real books” and get electronic versions of most of them.

I have been a big reader from the age of 6 when one afternoon, after bugging my mother once too often, she pointed towards one of the very laden bookshelves my parents own and told me to find something to read. Being that Shakespeare, Michael Manley and the like were beyond my 6 year old mind, I found and fixed on a book by Carolyn Keene; The Quest of the Missing Map – a Nancy Drew Mystery. My mother likes to finish this story with the sentence “I haven’t heard a peep out of her since” which isn’t far from the truth – after that day, the first place to look for me would be on my bed with my nose buried in some book or other. I still hear echoes of my father’s voice yelling at me to not lie down and read “It’ll spoil your eyes!”

Soon as I could write legibly, I realized that I liked to write also. I had books upon books of my writing. Most were stream of conscious dumps or just plain idle writings with little or no imagination or construct about it … but I dreamed of writing novels like Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew mysteries and later on when I discovered Stephen King, horror stories to curl the toes of the most brave of souls. I will even admit to starting stories that friends have told me have promise, yet never have I managed to complete one. The process usually is: I start writing, hit a block, re-read what I’ve written and find it wanting, finally abandon the whole idea.

Lately, I have been craving the opportunity to use my love of reading and writing and make a career out of them. And when I say career, I don’t mean a media mogul with offices in 10 cities around the world. No, I mean a job I love that I can probably work a schedule of my own around, earn some cash and expand my experience and skills while I am at it. Which in itself is odd, considering that my training and work experience up until now has been in Information Technology. I choose to see that as a plus, however. Knowing as much as I do about computers – what they can do, how they can break – I am sure I will be able to bypass that usual hurdle and hit the ground running writing and reading.

Enter my best friend and her suggestion that I re-read Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”. After only a chapter or 2, I realize that to be successful at writing, I must practice and put myself out there to be seen. Forget how bad I think it is, pat myself on the back when I complete something, put it out there for others to see, allow them to criticize (constructively as well as destructively), take the advice at face value and re-assess my work and get back in the ring and try again.

As with almost everything in life, it is a work in progress.

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