I Am A Published Author Wannabee

I am a published author ….

             I am a published author ….

                         I am a published author …. (mantra)

Well actually, when I stopped to think about it I am a published author. Even though it’s still something I desire to attain, through the years of my life I have had an article (or two) and a poem published in a national publication over which I had no influence. Also, for a number of years I was the writer and publisher of a newsletter for a national organization. There have been a letter or two published in local newspapers. The thing is now, that I am not published yet in a genre that I am currently striving towards.

I realize that in order to achieve my goal I really need to spend more time to be inspired and to keep my deadline each week. I haven’t done so well with that – although I have written more this year than in the past few years. Just two more articles and I will have exceeded the number of blogs (on this blog, I have two) for 2010.

I have been doing a lot of reading in the past three months. Some of my reading is in catching up with the news, some on spiritual matters, some for enjoyment/entertainment, and some for my health issues. And I’ve also been doing some reading about writing. But since I still do accounting and taxes there has been a lot of catch-up reading there with yet more to do since we have major tax changes this year.

I was in Toastmasters International^(TM) for 35 years (till September 2013) and so I wrote original speeches at least once every six weeks, but in the last eight years (at least) of my membership I had a new original speech every four weeks. When I dropped out the next step was to join a storytelling or a comedy class to add more talent to what I have already gained. Unfortunately, five years later I still haven’t done either. I could say I was interrupted by life but that may just be an excuse. As I write this I’m thinking I have to remember to do this as soon as possible. It is possibly more important than some other activities I’ve been thinking about doing.

I’ll close this one now by leaving you with a poem I wrote in the 1990s .

OLD

An old, old woman

Sits in her chair

Staring out the picture window

Looking out on the lake, seeing nothing.

The sun, birds, water

Flying, swimming, enjoying their existence.

But she can't put it together.

It doesn't make any sense.

It doesn't bring back any memories.

Waiting!

Not even aware that time passes.

Waiting for someone to tell her

It's time to eat,

It's time to use the bathroom,

It's time to go to sleep.

An old, old woman

Sits in her chair ... waiting.

Staring out the picture window

Seeing nothing.

by Theodora Hackenberg, May 1998