I often tell people (when they ask) that I was writing long before I knew I was a “writer”. Writing was what I did when I was lonely, frustrated, excited, or bored. Or I would read. But I was playing with words, and sentence structure, and metaphors and similes the way children swing, and climb jungle gyms; because it’s fun! Not because they’re trying to develop large muscle strength.
But at the end of a playground day, that’s what a child has done. Gotten stronger.
As I’ve gotten older and more focused on writing as a career
choice, I have found myself leaving behind the practice days for more “serious,
real” word counts that add up to a project. I might wistfully regard the
playground as the glory days, but then turn my attention to the proper business
of growing a story.I’m not sure that’s the right approach.
My daughter and I had a discussion recently about professional athletes, and we wondered whether any of them played b-ball, or touch football, or kicked around a neighborhood soccer ball anymore. Like they did when they were a kid, without the pressure of winning—just playing their heart out for the glory of the game. A part of me hopes they still do.
It’s the part of me that writes for the joy of it. For the sheer expression, whether illuminating, or dark, or just plain drivel. For the motion of the pen across paper (I love to hand write, still); for the smell of ink or graphite; for the clack of a keyboard that is a sound as comforting to me as the scent of baking bread.
Few activities elicit the response I get when I tell people
I write (if they ask). During get-to-know-you phases of chit-chat, I might
mention I like to sing. Often people will smile and say, “Me too!” or, “I can’t
carry a tune in a bucket”, or some other conversational connection. Or I can
say I like movies, or dancing, or libraries, or art museums, or that I knit, or
want to learn water colors.But mention writing? Universally, I’m asked, “Oh? Are you published? Anything I’ve heard of?”
Don’t get me wrong. I want to be as successful a published
author as I can be.
There is value in the exercise of expression. It can be found on the playground.
Book Synopsis Reclamation: The exciting conclusion of the Leland Dragon Series!
Leland Province remains in danger. The sinister Fordon Blackclaw has returned from the shadows to strike at the heart of neighboring Esra, killing its Venur and making clear his intentions to retake what was once his: Mount Gore, seat of the Leland Dragon Council.
All around, the land grows weaker and weaker. Leland, once thought saved by Kallon Redheart, is without purpose, and within its borders, Murk Forest, a place of mystery and danger, has driven its inhabitants to seek aid. Esra is in flames, and the Rage Desert grows. Dragon and human alike struggle to find their way, and the wizard Orman can sense that there may be more at stake than the affairs of dragons.
Hope remains, yet it is not without obstacles. In Esra, Sela, the daughter of Kallon and Riza, found the well, a source of life, and made herself whole again. But her homecoming is not what she had imagined.
Old wounds buried deep must reopen if life is to continue. Dragons, humans, wizards, and shape shifters are all at risk as the peace between dragon and human has finally been broken.
War is here.
The stakes?
Perhaps the whole world.
About the Author:
Jackie Gamber is the
award-winning author of many short stories, screenplays, and novels, including
“Redheart”, “Sela”, and “Reclamation”, Books one through three of the Leland
Dragon Series. For more information about Jackie and her mosaic mind, visit http://www.jackiegamber.com
And meet Jackie
elsewhere on the world wide web at:
Twitter: @jackiegamber
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