An Author's dive into writing and publishing.

I originally began writing in earnest the month I retired from a 30+ year job as an engineer. Finally, the luxury of time to devote to crafting stories and actually writing them down. It was meant to be a way to keep my mind occupied and to help structure my days to stave off boredom and lethargy. It became so much more as I searched for my inner voice for the types of writing, (stories, poems, and prose,) I wanted to share. Sharing was difficult at first. bearing my innermost thoughts in poetry and prose were the hardest as I thought very few would be interested enough to read my words. Slowly I have gathered a steady uptick of followers who have encouraged me to continue my writing journey. So far I have 10 books under my belt. Some are children's stories, while others are poems and short stories for a more adult audience. I plan each year out with the hopes of getting two to three books written and published, at least that's how 2019, 2020, and 2021 went. 2022 started off with a fizzle and roadblock as Covid had me fighting for my life at the beginning of the year. I am making steady progress back to good health but the journey is long and fraught with Long-Covid symptoms. I plan to keep working through it however, the pace has slowed down and I probably will only get one book finished and published this year. My list keeps growing with story development ideas and, for that I am thankful. Right now I switch back and forth between a few children's picture book stories and two poetry books. I find that manuscript writing is far easier than drawing and painting. I wish I could just bang something out quickly and get it to market, but I want to meet a certain quality standard inside my head that draws out the process to about a year and a half to two years for each children's book. The poems... well they write themselves in the wee hours of the night when my phone is pulled out and the ideas are jotted down in my notepad to be transferred later into a collection. Believe me, some are rough and need massaging, while others need to sit and stew a while before I can go back and edit - that is how it goes. I enjoy the way my writing and art intertwine to present the whole story. I don't think I could separate one from the other - they give each other depth. They are organized into collections based on memories of certain places or times.

As I have said before, sometimes the stories are more real than you can imagine.