Three-Legged Stool.

Here’s a reminder that I’m teaching an online class this Wednesday, September 14. The topic is “Starting and Finishing Stories.” It’s helpful for story writers of all kinds, including novelists, short story writers, playwrights, screenwriters, and, yes, even poets. Click here for details.

Occasionally, I share in this premium subscriber space writing I produced for other venues. Sometimes, the pieces are oldies from the era in my life before I declared myself a writer (or I had only just declared such). Or writing that is hard to find. Today’s essay is neither. In 2017, I was the co-curator of a literary festival in Amsterdam called Read My World. I was invited back this year to give several readings and presentations.    

One of the requests was for me to produce an essay about my literary influences and present the essay on the last night of the festival. A Q&A followed. I love my writing life. Readers of this newsletter or my social media know that it took me a long time to get here. I practiced law full-time for 16 years. It’s odd to think back on how my elders provided a foundation for my writing that was largely hidden, even to me, throughout my life. Yet, when the time came for me to write and publish my books, it was clear to me that they made all this possible. Today’s post is a short reflection on that truth, written for Read My World. By the way, you may notice that my voice sounds a little different in the piece below. It’s because I knew that a big portion of my audience didn’t speak English as their first language. So I used simpler vocabulary and cadence.

If any of you readers know a budding writer of any age that could use support, be that person for them. You can change our world for the better.

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Without further ado, here is my “Three-Legged Stool”…

“Art is a way of possessing destiny.” – Marvin Gaye