The goal was never to be famous, heck who ever heard of a rich poet?
I have always loved writing, just letting the often weird thoughts in my head flow out onto the paper, or now my keyboard. But I did have a goal when I started to build WordsWorth – to finally put down in some sort of organization the poems, essays and prose I have scribbled since Tim and I thought up a space novel in Grade 2!
The book of poetry – An Ocean of Silence – was easy, just keep slapping them into WordsWorth. I ended up with over 200, and probably if I root through the boxes in the basement another hundred or two.
The cookbook – What’s In The Fridge? – was just as easy. I love to cook and for years ran an online newspaper called Teeswater.Ca where I regularly shared my recipes. Badda Boom Badda Bing! A cookbook!
Oh The Humanity and The Bucket List books fairly flew off WordsWorth as collections of old short stories and essays and pages from Deosil!
This book though, was a tuffy!
A few years ago I was stricken with Covid – three months of dragging my butt around and feeling like hell! After I recovered I was left with very lingering low grade depression (a common side effect of Long Covid). And I was feeling quite homesick!
The result of this was a collection of remembrances growing up in Oyster Bay BC, a wee hamlet just south of Campbell River. The collection was really just meant for sharing with my siblings and the occasional friend. Nothing spectacular, just something to let them know how much I missed them and a way for me to feel connected.
When the collection was done I asked Dode (13 months older than me, we are more like twins) what next?
“Publish a book!” she said.
So here it is – K444 – Growing Up In The Shadow of a Rusty Boat.
It feels good to be done actually. Not sure what comes next for it but who knows…
If you love to write, don’t worry about an audience, the best audience will always be yourself!
Cheers,
Mark
(psst… WordsWorth is done as well… a new blog post about it shortly!)