Just finished reading a great book on memoir writing entitled "Old Friend from Far Away". I love the title. The author Natalie Goldberg reignited a flame. It's re-inspired me to write and study writing. The book reminded me of my love of books, writing, language and stories. Years ago I started in that direction during my two years in a MA program on creative writing at City College of New York. I studied writing with many teachers but I remember one teacher Grace Paley who was also an author. I read fiction voraciously and remember my love of a few authors including Raymond Carver, Madison Smart Bell and Andre Dubus. It's been years since I've read fiction or memoirs. Today I still read 1-2 books a week but they are mainly non-fiction. I feel a fiction and autobiographical phase coming on.
Years ago I came at writing from many interesting directions. I read oral histories and conducted oral history interviews, studied journaling and started a writing journal that has now expanded to over fifty life journals, studied writing and performance of one man shows , read books by Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian and other performance artists and wrote and performed in theater performances of my autobiographical material. I used my journal writing to explore stories from my life, keep a dream journal, used it to self analyse myself and kept writing about my life.
During the passing years I have filled fifty journals, filled five journals for and about my life with my daughter, written a one man show, wrote an autobiographical screenplay now entitled "Sugar Cane" and now have turned another corner and started a blog that while focused on motivation has also explored some of my personal life journey. Yet I don't think of myself as a writer or even think that I write that much.
The latest chapter in my life has reconnected me with my roots and taken me back to Ireland and family. The Chinese have a saying we live in interesting times and i have had a very interesting and unique life. A cousin described it as I've turned a lot of corners and I have turned a lot of corners, walked through a lot of doors, reinvented myself many times and lived many different lives all in this one life. Having met my lively ninety four year old aunt I hope I have many more lives left. So I step off the cliff again and hope I can fly. It's time to write to explore my daemon, my unique spirit and share the stories of my life. It's time to write to challenge myself again and to get another completion in my life. it's time to write..... Write on.....
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