This website and blog exists to reflect on writing craft and encourage other writer esp. emerging writers.
A key component of writing is hope. Hope that I write something worth reading. Hope that I can finish what I start. Hope that after collecting rejection letters someone will publish it. I am drawn to stories and poems that have at least a sliver of hope. I find movies from the seventies difficult to watch because they lack hope.
For me, bisons symbolize hope.
My first publication had a photo of bison and two of my publications were with the Glass Buffalo, another name for bison. As a child, I remember going to the National Bison Range and learning about the miraculous rescue of the bison from rapid extinction in the late 1870-1880s. Today, bison run free at Elk Island National Park in Alberta and Yellow Stone National Park in Wyoming as well as the National Bison Range.
In Yellowstone, my family and I witnessed a large herd of bison stampede across the road and swim the river. The juxtaposition of the lumbering parents and the small calves with their noses poking out of the water were a testament to the ability of a few people to make a difference. If the First Nations and other ranchers had not noticed the dwindling numbers of the once thunderous herds and captured and sustained small herds this majestic prairie animal would be extinct.
The same can be said for writing. If there's a story or an idea swimming in your head, write it down. If you have a story in a drawer somewhere, show it to someone.
Ten years ago, if I hadn't told my sister about one of the stories in my head, I would never have started writing. A writer's life is not easy, but there is always hope.
If you need encouragement. Send me a message via the website.