I will be performing at a new Barnes and Noble location in Overland Park, KS at Quivira and 95th on Tuesday, March 31st at 7pm and again at 8pm.
This is a free event! Please come in and listen to a tale or two!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Dream
When I was a child, about 12, my family took a small vacation to a lake cabin not too far from where I grew up. I loved the outdoors and was excited to spend some time in the woods or catching frogs near the lake. But, being a child of the video game generation, technology began sinking its bait into me already.
My dad had planned on completing a few work assignments while on our vacation. To do so, he brought his company laptop. This wasn't anything like the laptops we have today. It might have weighed closer to 100 lbs. than I did at that age. It had a built-in 5 in. floppy drive. The screen was monochrome. The sound was 8-bit but when it chimed I think it was resonating my name across the Alps.
This was too much of a lure. While my dad and brothers escaped to go fishing, I stayed in the cabin staring at the screen, trying to find where in America's past Carmen Sandiego had fled. I turned on the computer expecting to play the game, but a sudden curiosity overcame me. "Word Processor" read the lettering beneath the black-and-white icon. I clicked on it.
A blank page opened. I began to type. Words filled the screen. "Oooooooo, shiny!" my heart must have cooed. I found the backspace key and quickly erased all I had typed. Then I thought up a story and began the creation process. I was falling in love with writing.
As I grew, I would occasionally attempt to develop my skill as a writer, but it seemed I had a more natural gifting as an orator. Writing never grew into my main focus, but I often dreamed about being published and speculated what kind of book I would someday write.
That's still a dream, the dream to be published, and it's one that I am currently working towards achieving. But in recent years I've found a wonderful combination of my two loves: public speaking and story. As a storyteller I can enjoy both worlds. The planets align and my spirit sighs, "Ahhh, this is... perfect."
Because, in the end and through it all, I hope to follow my dream.
My dad had planned on completing a few work assignments while on our vacation. To do so, he brought his company laptop. This wasn't anything like the laptops we have today. It might have weighed closer to 100 lbs. than I did at that age. It had a built-in 5 in. floppy drive. The screen was monochrome. The sound was 8-bit but when it chimed I think it was resonating my name across the Alps.
This was too much of a lure. While my dad and brothers escaped to go fishing, I stayed in the cabin staring at the screen, trying to find where in America's past Carmen Sandiego had fled. I turned on the computer expecting to play the game, but a sudden curiosity overcame me. "Word Processor" read the lettering beneath the black-and-white icon. I clicked on it.
A blank page opened. I began to type. Words filled the screen. "Oooooooo, shiny!" my heart must have cooed. I found the backspace key and quickly erased all I had typed. Then I thought up a story and began the creation process. I was falling in love with writing.
As I grew, I would occasionally attempt to develop my skill as a writer, but it seemed I had a more natural gifting as an orator. Writing never grew into my main focus, but I often dreamed about being published and speculated what kind of book I would someday write.
That's still a dream, the dream to be published, and it's one that I am currently working towards achieving. But in recent years I've found a wonderful combination of my two loves: public speaking and story. As a storyteller I can enjoy both worlds. The planets align and my spirit sighs, "Ahhh, this is... perfect."
Because, in the end and through it all, I hope to follow my dream.
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