Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying, “Listen to me.” – Jhumpa Lahiri

It is time for me to make a declaration: I want to be a writer. Or, what I actually mean is, I want to be a good enough writer that someone will deem me publishable and others will pay money to read what I’ve written. I make this statement with a healthy dose of trepidation as it feels a little like stripping naked and standing in front of a dozen large spotlights that starkly illuminates every nook and cranny of my self for the scrutiny of an unseen audience. I have made declarations of intent before in my life; I declared I wanted to be an astronomer (check), I declared I wanted to travel and live around the world (check), I declared I wanted to live in a mud-hut in Africa and build water pumps (still outstanding), I declared I wanted to be a mother (check) but this new declaration seems more daunting than any I’ve made in the past. Why? Is it because writing can be, and is, judged by any and all that read it or is it because it feels like too grandiose a proclamation than I am justified in making? Or is it because writing is the most ‘creative’ endeavor I’ve undertaken so far in my life and it comes hand-in-hand with a feeling of vulnerability that I’m unaccustomed to. Either way, if it is something I want to pursue it is time, with the end of my fourth decade looming, to become accountable to my desire and not just dream it. And so in the spirt of E. L. Konigsburg:

Finish. The difference between being a writer and being a person of talent is the discipline it takes to apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair and finish. Don’t talk abut doing it. Do it. Finish.

This website is my way of exposing myself. I hope it will prove motivating for me and make writing an active presence in my daily life. I will post work that I’m lucky enough to get published in literary magazines and the like and I will sporadically blog about thoughts connected to books & writing.