Monday, June 16, 2008

About My Title: At The Starting Gate


The title of my book, At the Starting Gate, - alone - does not literally represent the contents of the book.

At the starting gate is a “place”; the place where I am in life at this moment in time. It is a way of being. It is doing. It is both literally and physically what I do now. I write.

I write instead of wishing and hoping to – one day. I write instead of proclaiming aloud at every get-together, occasion, or one-on-one interaction that, “This would make a good story.”

I write now instead of postponing it for a time somewhere in the distant future. When situations, conversations or images trigger my writing “light bulb” and I think it might make a good piece of poetry, I write it, instantly. Granted, I occasionally record on my hand-held tape recorder but the point is I do it now.

Like a thoroughbred race horse being prepared for its first major race, I spent many days and years asserting, “One day I’m going to write a book.” That day is here. The book is written. No longer does it sit, waiting to be released from my word-soaked brain and from the various boxes bins and containers I had stored it in. Nor is my computer hard drive simply a convenient technical storage box for my work.

With that all done, I am: At The Starting Gate. I am at the starting gate of writing, writing with meaning and purpose; at the starting gate of publishing the work I write; but most importantly, I am at the starting gate of sharing my work with those who share my passion for the written word.

© 2008 by Leona G. Shankle - All Rights Reserved ▪ Dell Girl Publishing

2 comments:

  1. i feel the same, been retired for 7 years now and decided it was time to focus on writing so i blog, write articles for local paper and teach a writing class. it's fun and about time. this weekend i'm teaching a class on doing icelandic family history research and going to attend a reunion where i'll distribute my latest family history on vilborg thordardottir from iceland. i enjoy my retirement.

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  2. I am mostly a reader. I loved Saul Bellow's Augie March. It's so close to what I want to accomplish on my blog. Write about the world and still being realistic and real as a person.

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