Nervous?.....

I’ve been writing for a long time, more years than I care to think about in fact. My first ‘novel’ was written manually on two A4 pads of notepaper, it was probably less than 40,000 words and I wore out the nib of a fountain pen writing it. It has long ago been consigned to the great trash bin in the sky and the story has never been re-written.

After that I acquired an old manual typewriter and used it to write my stories. I was never a great typist. I’m still not, although, when the creative juices are flowing, I can manage a fairly respectable speed just using a couple of fingers and I don’t make too many errors. Then along came the computer era, of course, and my output increased ten fold.

That was about the time I started to think about writing seriously. I entered competitions and finally joined a very small writing group at my local library. Up to that time my stories had been just for me and, if I was feeling brave, any competition judges I cared to trust with my work. The writing group changed that and introduced me to reading what I’d written aloud in front of an audience.

As I said, that first group was very small, no more than half a dozen of us and I think that helped me to overcome the nerves of reading to an audience. I’ve been a member of much larger creative writing groups since then and I’ve gotten used to reading my work to fellow writers who would offer helpful hints and constructive criticism. I don’t mind that, they know the torture of trying to produce a polished piece. One thing I have never done though, is read something I’ve written to you, the reading public.

Somehow the opportunity has never arisen but that is going to change next Saturday, June 27^th. On that day I shall be at the Tamarack, here in West Virginia. They are holding an event called the West Virginia Writer’s Weekend. I will have a table and will be selling my books but I am also going to do a reading. At 12:30 I shall be on stage with fifteen minutes to try to enthrall an audience with one of my short stories. At the moment I am not too nervous about it but I have a feeling that will change so, if any of you good people are near the Tamarack on Saturday the 27^th, I could certainly use your support.