I came to writing from several distinct directions. I am a classically trained musician (a cellist) which has given me my own perspective on form. I sometimes find myself drawn to writing in sonata form, fugue, minuet with trio, variations on a theme. Around the same time I took up the cello, I read the diary of Anne Frank which profoundly affected me. Inspired by her I have kept a journal my entire life. It’s all written down in journals: thoughts, observations, the usual trials and thumping defeats. My journals have gone with me wherever I go. I even saved them when our house burned down in the 1991 East Bay Hills Urban Wildfire. To write about something you have to know it, and as they say, “Write what you know.”
My callings however are numerous. I’ve worked as an artist, a cartoonist, a graphologist and a professional chef as well as a writer and musician. Everything seems to get thrown into the mix. The poem gets set to music. The short story gets excerpted and appears on the canvas. The strange dialogue turns into a ½ act opera with my artwork as sets. Hard to throw cheffing in there, but life has surprises⸺could happen.
I came to reading later in my life because I was spooked by my big sister who could go through two Oz books at a sitting while at the other end of the couch I contemplated every, “THE,” for the sound, the feel on the tongue, its connective tissue in language. That method slowed me down.
I write fiction and creative nonfiction, memoir, and truly ex genera material that doesn’t quite fit anywhere. My life has been perhaps too interesting, stumbling from one crisis to another. But it’s all rich with material. That’s a plus, right?
I believe deeply in paying attention, in trying to be truly aware of the small and large things that happen to us and around us. This has fueled and directed my creative energies. I suppose what’s most important is that I am repurposing my dysfunctional childhood and putting it all to productive use. Had they known they were being so generous they certainly would have ceased, leaving me to be the CEO of a small, but growing feline translation service. I’m glad it turned out the way it did.
