There was a time I was doing how-to lectures to schools and scout troops about the music of nature. What you hear, what it means, how to move quietly through the forest so you don’t silence the music-makers. I'm a nature fanatic, and I really enjoyed those talks. 

 

One day someone connected with Backpacker Magazine suggested I put the concepts in writing and submit it as an article. I did, and they published it. What fun - seeing your name in print in a national magazine. Years later, I wrote a longer piece about being stranded in the woods in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the dead of winter, at night, not another soul around, and how I survived it (nonfiction, by the way!). That was published by the regional magazine Michigan Out-Of-Doors. Again, what a thrill!

 

I love writing. I enjoy the use of words and how they can bend and tailor a thought between the writer and the reader. Maybe it’s an extension of the entertainer in me. 

 

I’ve written more since, and the most recent is a children’s book about participation in music regardless of your musical ability (or lack thereof). At that precious, delicate and attitude-forming age, it shouldn’t matter if you can hit a vocal note perfectly or if your tempo is metronomic. What matters is the feeling you get when you make music with others. There’s a sense of camaraderie that’s heart warming and stays with you a very long time, perhaps a lifetime. 

 

I like to live with my writing - rolling it around like wine on my tongue, tasting it in different ways. I’m forever self-editing, rereading and changing a word or two here or there, a self-indulgence in a way, and I love the creative process of it all. 

 

I hope my readers get as much out of my writing as I do in the construction of a piece.