Writing

The latest book in the Harry Potter series was released for sale this weekend. My wife and I were at the book store at midnight of its release, and did not get home until 2:00 AM. We were in the 400-500 grouping of expectant customers. I was standing there looking at so many people enthusiastically awaiting the release of a book in the same way that die-hard Star Wars fans wait in line for tickets, and I was flooded with emotions.

The former English teacher in me was thrilled to see so many people interested in reading.

The Harry Potter fan in me was excited to be among the first to discover his next insurmountable obstacle in his efforts to thwart the evil plans of Lord Voldermort.

The writer in me (though he has not had much practice lately) was, and still is, out of his mind with jealousy over the money J.K. Rowling has made with this story. Her net worth is now more than the treasury of England.

A writer writes. I have friends who are writers. Some of them are actually published and are making a living at it. I wrote in an earlier post that I need to do something. Well, I have a play that is almost ready to submit to a publisher. I have a few pages of the back story for a novel that I thought about writing some five years ago and put down. I know that it will be slow getting started, but I guess that if I can write a short column, as I have been doing here, I can perhaps devote some of my time to writing the stories that I want to tell. I might even get a couple of my things published.

Well, as you can see, I usually think to write these post in the wee hours of the morning. If you think I am out of my mind, I certainly can't blame you. I'm not looking for the money that Rowling has made (though I wouldn't turn it down), but the idea that my stories may spark the imaginations of others in the same way hers, Eddings', Asimov's, Tolkien's, Bradbury's, and Shakespeare's (to name a very few) have done makes me curious enough to try.

I will most likely toss this around a bit in later posts, so I welcome your comments.

But, it sure beats the idea of selling water filters.