Monday 31 December 2012

Intro: Writers Write

A few years ago, during one of my periodic career semi-crises, a friend asked me what i really liked to do.  I said:  "write.  i like to write."

He looked at me pointedly (or, at least as pointedly as someone who'd enjoyed the grape as much as we all had that evening) and said: "Writers Write."

That is all i recall of the conversation.  But, it has stuck with me.  I like to write.  And, a writer should write.  So.  Here i am.  Finally. Writing.

Those who know me will know the following truth:  I am a mermaid, sans tail, ni scales: I like shiny things.  I am easily distracted... ("ooh! shiny!").  Pretty much everything is interesting to me, to some degree or another. 

I also...have the attention span of a gnat... except when i get REALLY interested in something, i need to know EVERYTHING about it.  NOW.  Happily, there is only so much room in my brain, so something always gets pushed out by my interest in something new.  Plus, there's the aforementioned brevity of attention span.

So, really, I am always learning.  Sometimes about the same things, over and over again.  Just like they're new!  

This blog is a gift to my FB friends who occasionally comment (neutrally, natch!) on the length of my (apparently) novella-esque "status updates".  I have no intended theme:  random observations, thoughts and rants... broad comedic commentary... snide asides... eyerolls and deep sighs... giggles.... and joyful announcements on the coolness or lack thereof of things... the occasional heartfelt loveletter to pets, nature, friends, and family...notes of appreciation...figurative shakes of the head.... rages and raves.

When I was a little girl, I was a capital "B" Bookworm.  Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy was the best story and the one I kept returning to, over and over.  At 41, a woman who is not particularly sentimental nor prone to hoarding stuff... my dog-eared, split in half, missing the cover and the first few pages, copy of Harriet the Spy remains a treasured possession.  (Desperately trying to find it in French... for reasons i will explain in a later post... anyone?)  Harriet's nanny, Ole Golly, liked to quote Kipling's If... "If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs...." It rings in my ears.  Always has; probably always will.  So, in homage to Kipling... on this New Years' Eve, I resolve to  try to fill the Unforgiving Minute, with 60 Seconds' worth of long-distance run.