Hobby? How about passion? I was already in my sixties, with my existential clock ticking loudly, when I realized my time on earth was short. I had spent most of my life, including my childhood, with the idea that I would one day be a writer. From my early school days I worked at the edges of this aspiration, but had never plunged unreservedly into fulfillment of that goal.
I decided the first step in realizing my ambition was to write a book. Little did I anticipate the avalanche of projects that would follow from this resolution. For eight years I engaged in frenetic activity, driven by the hunger to be a writer. At some point, I did feel sated, and I stopped. It didn't matter if anyone acknowledged what I'd done. I accomplished what I'd set out to do.
So, what was the result of my writing frenzy? Certainly not quality, but absolutely quantity. And a great deal of personal pleasure.
Here is one of my books. This was a later book, written when formatting and cover creation weren't much of a challenge any more.
The book is good. That's an honest assessment. The material is accurate and attractively arranged. I've always been a careful researcher and this inclination was a great help in creating my books. Art Literacy is intended for high school students and/or adults.
It never mattered to me much if anyone read my books. I wrote them and I liked them. That was enough.
The experience of writing was great fun. Not one negative bit to it. As I planned my books, I would jump around subjects. Each time I jumped I learned. Learning...that was part of the fun.
Here's another of my books.
This also is a solid book. I had to do a lot of studying to understand the information, and to present it in a way that was palatable to young readers. Included in the book is a student study guide. I guess it's a kind of madness to write books I never truly expected to sell, and yet to try so hard to make the books worthwhile.
One of the reasons I was interested in radioactivity was because I'd written a book about Marie Curie. She was a fascinating subject.
Again, there is a student study guide included. I had been a teacher for eight years. That experience influenced much of what I wrote.
Applying to publishers? No, not in my plan. I wanted to enjoy myself and getting rejection slips wasn't consistent with that scheme.
I learned how to format the books so they would be appropriate for Amazon paperbacks, Kindle and Smashwords e-books. Smashwords was important because this publisher was a path to a worldwide audience, which included Barnes and Noble.
Many new writers want to write memoirs. I was one of those writers. A memoir was among my earliest books. I wrote this mostly for myself, and also for my siblings. They did enjoy the book and shared it with their children. The book explained what happened in my childhood. The kids, that is, our children--the cousins, tended made fun of my generation's idiosyncrasies. The memoir helped to put things in perspective.
Here is the cover to that book. It's the only cover I hired someone to create. It cost me $50.
When I started my writing binge I was in my mid sixties. That's an age at which many of us are beginning to test our memories because we are afraid we might not be as sharp as we once were. I think the writing tended to slow down my decline.
Of course I didn't first start writing when I was in my sixties. I'd been writing in one form or another all my life. I had been an editor on the high school literary magazine, and co-editor on the senior yearbook. When I took my first full-time job, it was as a second secretary for the Rockefeller Foundation. This job entailed writing letters of declination to grant applicants. My letters explained (with the guidance of my boss) why an applicant would not be getting money from the Foundation.
Later on, when I was in my forties, I worked part-time for a small, local publisher. My job there was to help prepare the annual American Express calendar book. While that wasn't really writing, still, I worked at the periphery of the profession.
None of that scribbling in my early years qualified as 'writing', in my mind. Not until I sat down and finished a whole book did I feel I'd finally realized my desire to be a writer.
Here's a cover from another of my books.
You'll notice the author on that book is Rhythm Prism. For a little while I had the idea of forming a company with my daughter and having her give writing workshops that would feature some of my writing books (yes, there were several books on the craft of writing itself). My daughter was a professional entertainer, proficient at handling people in groups. We thought the idea was viable. However, the business never took off because she didn't have the time and I had no head for business.
My heart was in the writing, not the selling or presentation.
Before I end this blog (there were many more books but I won't tediously list all of them) I'd like to mention a kind of romp I indulged in: a vampire book. This book, Benza, Scourge of the Ages, was 80,0000 words long. Once I started writing I couldn't stop. It poured out of me until my hands cramped and my back gave way. The book was pretty bad. I tossed it fairly soon after completion.
However, there were a few parts I liked. Here's a brief excerpt that did come out pretty well:
The vampire poised upon the sill once more and looked out over the warren of streets which promised so many prospects.
“The wheel turns,” he murmured. “While I spare these two, my hunger remains. Out there, in an alley, or hallway, a urine soaked lobby or fetid apartment, another awaits the fate I have not visited upon this home. One person’s fortune is another’s misfortune. And thus are the vicissitudes of life.”
It was just like me to create a philosophical vampire.
One of my best books (of the many I won't mention) was on Chinese literati art. The subject is obscure to be sure, but I was offered the opportunity by a gentleman in Malaysia to have a book opening there. He had read the book and helped me to get some details right. I was in no position to travel to Malaysia, but the offer was a great boost to my writer's heart. The Chinese art book was my last, published in 2017. It was a good way to put a period on my writing mania.
This post is written in response to Silver Blogger's prompt: "What are your favourite pastimes / passions from childhood". Obviously, I found the prompt irresistible.
Thank you for reading my blog. Peace and health to everyone.
Hive on!