I remember a time
when writing stirred such an excitement, often keeping me up all through the
night as beautiful words swirled in my imagination and then shot out the tips
of my fingertips onto the page. It’s such
an erotic moment, euphoric even. I’m not
saying I still don’t have those moments, but I can confess I’ve let the business of writing and marketing take
too much dominance in my life that it’s squeezing most of those moments into
the land of the neglected.
Not only has my
own creativity suffered by being too business-minded, but so has my enjoyment
of reading the beautifully written words of others. As someone who devoured a minimum of fifty
novels a year, so far this year I can count five. My focus is so much on business, survival and
meeting basic needs, I just can’t get lost in a good, long novel, not even ones
I’ve waited months and even years to be released.
I can’t express
how much I appreciate my writer friends who dabble in flash fiction and short
stories, because those have sustained me this year, or else I’d have been
lost. I’ve really come to love and
appreciate flash fiction and short story writers like Christian Fennell, Jeff
Suwak, Kelly Shackelford, Sarafina Gravagno, Frank Wall, B.R. Asher, Lucien
Knight and a few others on Scribophile.
Their stories have fed, nurtured, inspired and sustained me as I work
hard to clean up this train wreck of a life. Some of them don’t know how much
their words have helped me. I crave them.
I need them. I look forward to their
next blog posts, short stories, and their next flash of humor, romance, satire
or tragedy.
My writer friends
have also inspired and pushed me. My
best friend, Jenna Sands, has inspired me more than she’ll ever know. Those members of my local writer’s group who
refuse to let me quit or give up (Denise, Maggie, Kathy, Lorien and Dawn) will
always have a place in my heart.
I used to be a
novel snob, only reading full length (often epic–sized) novels and never giving
short stories a furtive glance. I’ve
grown such a fondness for them now and am sure I will always keep them a
beautiful part of my life as I once again focus on my next novel. I’ve also grown an appreciation for the
novella. I really hope it comes back in
fashion and more writers dare to publish them.
What hidden
treasure have you stumbled upon lately?
Till next time,
~T.L. Gray
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