To Tell A Tale

My earliest memory is of lying in my crib looking up at the butterfly-mobile that my parents had put up. To this day, I can still remember the wondrous, magical feeling I had as I looked at the colors. I had no words, as of yet, but I remember feeling that I just might burst with joy.

I still remember so many scenarios in which I had that feeling: crawling around the floor at my parents' friend's apartment with what I remember as a gigantic poodle, although my dad has since told me that it was a toy poodle. I remember my fascination with cigarette butts in the gutters and dead birds on the sidewalk. I recall with clarity falling down the long, hard stairs and the shock and pain that accompanied this event.

My point is that my ability to remember things from such a young age has led me to realize just how incidents, whether good or bad, influence a child's view of the world and his or her reactions to it. For better or for worse, I am still the small child who loved nothing better than the smell of cigarette smoke and the beautiful sight of it rising up through the sunbeams towards the high ceiling, where it disappeared from view.

When I had children (two boys), I wanted nothing more than to have them experience the fantastic, captivating feelings about the world around them that I had. As they grew, their friends were often dropped off to play, and I developed a love for children in general, and wanted to open them up to all of the wonders in their small worlds.

I have always been a writer; I wrote poetry, songs, stories and later essays and college papers with great enthusiasm. And I have also wanted to earn money for my writing, but I couldn't seem to pin down what style of writing would work best for me while bringing in some needed income. I found some of my favorite forms of writing were children's stories and poetry.

I have spent much time creating works for children. From time to time I used to send them in to children's magazines, but I never had anything accepted. I have a little artistic talent, and tried my hand at illustrating, but was always stymied by the cost of actually publishing an illustrated children's book. I used to search for artists that I felt would illuminate my writings the way I pictured them in my mind. I found many, but it was far too costly to hire them.

I want to bring astonishment and delight to children everywhere. I love the thought of introducing words, colors, rhymes and novel ideas to young people that will widen the sphere of their imaginations and help them to become adults who have learned to realize their full potential. As we are exposed to new strains of thought and beauty, we tend to keep looking further afield to see what else is possible, to find unthought-of by-ways to explore.

I have always wanted to 'change the world'. A grandiose, though common, goal. As I have matured, I would love to have a chance to publish stories for children that will bring them pleasure and maybe change their outlook on life ~ or possibly help them find refuge from what can be an unkind world at times. This aspiration, of course, requires resources which I simply do not have.

I keep writing stories, articles and poetry in hopes that people may find my thoughts worthwhile. I enter challenges with this destination in mind: to someday support myself, at least to some extent, in a fashion that brings brightness to young lives and maybe even provides inspiration.