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I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam.....

Why do I write?
Why do I lock myself inside my mind?
Why do I hide from the world around me?
Why do I take myself out of life?

It's no easy thing to ponder, the solitary writer's path that's been chosen. Sometimes, it feels as if we have no control over what decisions we're making-- like the journey has already been laid out for us and there is nothing we do that will alter it....

But, for writers, most writers, some writers--- okay, at least for me as a writer.... I can do nothing other than what I am already doing. Even when I wasn't trying to be a writer, I was writing. Even when I wasn't trying to compose a story, the tale was already writing itself in my sub-conscious. The solitary, writing life might be no easy thing to ponder, but it beats the reality-- that being a writer is a helluva scary thing.... or, it can be, if you really think about it.

Books have the power to change lives. Which means, by extension, writers have the power to change the world.

 I don't intend this to be some grand, self-promoting, horn-blowing, "I'm a writer-worship me" kind of statement. I don't lump myself with the future-changing, earth-shaping masters who've carved a path through the mountains. No, I'm more of the socially-acceptable schizophrenic writer who has a thousand voices all screaming for a chance to take center stage.

But, the idea of the world changing as a result of someone's words, that's magical stuff.... magically, powerful stuff....

One thing I will allow myself to "share" with these wonderful molders of humanity, is the plight/curse of every writer--- one can not simply NOT write!

Even when you've chosen to 'grow up' and pursue other career choices, when you've gone to college and chosen never to 'write' another 'story', somehow, the path that was chosen for you will never allow you to stray too far. Suddenly, you have hundreds of poems, fifty short stories and a dozen novel-length manuscripts and no earthly idea where all the crap came from.

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