A Foreword From The Storyteller...

I am a 20-something female and I have never taken a college course in writing. But, I do not believe that writing really requires that. For those who wish to write functionally or learn a specific element of writing, high-level schooling is fine ... but it is not a substitute for aptitude, application ... and passion.

For me ... writing is my passion, my love, and sometimes my obsession. It is part of my purpose (See: "The Individual Purpose of Life"  [E]) and "what I was put on earth to do with passion and intensity." (Van Gogh)

I have been writing since ... well, before I could technically write. When I was five or six years old, I often entertained myself by speaking my stories into a tape recorder (I was an only child, you understand.) But they were grand stories, filled with emotion and, of course, true love. And, of course, I did all the voices!

So...what DO I write nowadays? Well, right now, I have my first novels. Yes, THREE of them actually. (I am a *very* busy gal!) But really, I am focusing on one of them right now.

I also write essays, adages, and poetry.

Yes, I write about love in some of my works. There is a very emotional side to me and I do not apologize for it. But, I also write about the human condition, the strength of principles, and the importance of values. I like to think there is a very intellectual side to me too. In reference to this rather polarized duality of what is my character, I offer this quote by Arnold Bennett:

"There can be no knowledge without emotion. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul."

Most of my essays are my own personal pep talks. If you are curious about what I aspire to and try to value, then my essays and adages will provide some insight. But, in reality, I am a largely ineffectual person, and, at times, I am just as lost as everyone else.

One of my great loves, outside of writing, is reading. I am a lover of the classics. I read both "Crime and Punishment" and "War and Peace" before my 20th birthday. I read "Crime and Punishment" in the 10th grade. Talk to me about those books, or about Shakespeare, Christie, Kafka, and especially the Bronte sisters ... and I won't shut up.

So, dear reader, ... welcome to me. This is who I am. I shall not hide from you. I shall not shirk. I shall not further explain or excuse myself.

Whatever you ultimately decide to think of me, or of this; one of my basic tenets is that I will strive never to lie to you ... emotionally. I will always be emotionally honest with you, and with my craft, in that I will strive to consider as many sides of an emotion as are relevant, and will not reject an emotional side because it is "too emotional" or too riveting. So, in here, I shall also touch and press on nerves and angles of feeling that disquiet my pen even as I hold and move it.

If I should die tomorrow, I should like for at least one person in this world to know, not only that I breathed the air of this planet ... but WHY ... why I was personally and individually relevant ... in all aspects and manners of answering that question.

In any case, this is who I am. Whatever happens now ... you have had the pleasure of knowing me.