I have always liked to write. And I have been putting my ideas on paper since my early college days when I was only in my teens. But except for a few publications here and there, the big bulk of my relationship with letters was in the form of reading. Writing was only a sporadic event, a minute fraction of my time. Something happened in January of 2011 that, combining the birth of my first son, together with the fact that I was 50 years old, and other comics events that I am still trying to figure out, made me decide to sit down on my desk, start taking notes on a more consistent fashion, and began to hit those keyboard keys until the tips of my fingers started to hurt. Since then I have been writing every single day, and slowly but truly, I have been getting published, timidly at first, but continuously now. Lately I have been completing either and essay, a short story, or a poem every single week, and much to my surprise, these are also getting published on a weekly basis. I knew that this was an enterprise that had to be done with no fiscal remuneration in mind. But as any writer that constantly worries about the quality his work, I always wonder, is it good enough for someone to actually offer me money at some point? Or, is there a cut off line in time when I have to say, well, if nobody buys it, it must be because is not that good, so I need to stop? And then I found this quote by Mark Twain: “Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.” Today, almost two and a half years after the birth of my first son, I got my first check for an article published in an American magazine. Now, Casa De Los Poetas Editores in Puerto Rico is publishing my first book, “Democracia Intelectual”, a collection of some of my essays, short stories, and poems, which should out by on the streets the end of this summer. There is a second publishing house already approaching me, interested in a second book of my work. Life is good! So, for those of you out there that have been bitten by the writing bug, keep at it. Read and write with the desperation of a condemned to death man (which in fact we all are). And, if Twain is right, give it three years. Everyone has something unique to say, and we all want, and deserve, to hear it.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 15:04:48 +0000
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