Hello Pen, Meet Paper

Words, words, words.

…"watching the fog skim the roofs of houses across the street, as if the clouds had grown tired of treading air and had let themselves sink…”

-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

The above quote comes from Maggie Smith’s incredible memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful. Check out her Substack here!

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Almost a year ago, I decided to leave my job as a high school teacher and pursue writing as a full-time career. Since then, I have been working on my first, grand, opus - a fantasy novel that I hope will be a series.

The transition has been tough, and the life of a tortured artist is exactly that - tortured. Each day feels like a battle with a dragon and sometimes, the dragon wins. Okay, most times.

Within that darkness, within all of that doubt and uncertainty, light still shines. All it took was for me to read the above line from Maggie Smith to rekindle my fire. Look at how she takes words that, alone and apart from each other, are just ordinary words and makes them into something lyrical and evocative!

Words, words, words - this is why I do it. I love words and what they can do. They can move and inspire and transport us in ways that we would never see coming. This is what I want to do with my life.

Dreams don’t come true in a blog, especially one with a subscription model. I know this. And yet, here I am. For years, I have tried to reconcile my various identities - son, friend, husband, teacher, writer, dog-dad, etc. In this space though, I am just a writer.

My plan

A few short stories or poems or philosophical musings or clever quips per week. I want to keep the content rolling, so I will try to put out as much as I can. Maybe I’ll start a weekly series of some sort, who knows?

Dear lovers of words, Literature, poetry, creativity, imagination, and chaos - this is for you. Welcome!

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