Now that I’ve started writing, what runs through my veins is the excitement of yet another opportunity to tell a story!

Learning to read

Personally, I don’t exactly remember learning to read, but I clearly remember how I learned to read, and along the way, discovered what made me a reader. I most vividly remember words, their order, the punctuation, and the message…often a story.

I remember that books made me happy! Sometimes I had to read for knowledge but also had the freedom to read for pleasure. What about you? Are you a reader who reads multiple books simultaneously; perhaps you’re someone who is happy as long as they have “a” book close at hand? You may have reading material tucked away in every nook and cranny of your world; you may buy only a few a year.

Would you consider the world coming to an end were you to read that girls, the stalwarts of the reading world were reading less? Would you be frightened if that were the case, our civilization would certainly come to an end? Consider perhaps the reading is just being done differently! It may not be “proper” reading and writing, but if you look at audiobooks, digital readers, email, social media, texts, is it not possible today’s kids are reading and writing more than any previous generation?

Expanding my career

As I expand my writing career, I will probably continue to lean to the novel that allows me to explore writing more deeply, and inspire readers more broadly, but I will certainly take advantage of texts and social media standards in my marketing…conveying to readers in 140 characters what they might not read in 500! I will always love the feel of paper and the smell of ink, but I will not define reading by my standards and expect avid readers will continue to create their own definition of reading.

I recognize that all readers are not the same; however, they are all important to me. We are taught, from a marketing perspective, to craft our vision of an ideal reader…I would, however, stand firm in my belief that we can never judge what one person, or another, would read. The importance of a reader to me is that they love a good story, whether they are a mother with a full-time job that requires hours of travel each day and have conditioned themselves to audiobooks in crowded freeway traffic, locked lovingly away in their car—or a vacation reader who patiently awaits the perfect time to read a current bestseller. And, although I do not currently write children’s fiction, I am hopeful many creative children’s lit authors will continue inspiring young readers who devour books, learn to love reading, and who will one day become one of my biggest fans!

Amazing Technology

I stop and think of my children’s generation…growing up with the most amazing technology and somehow, the innate ability to use it. What I’ve found groundbreaking and oft-times challenging, they find normal. They most likely will not see books in the same manner I have, but they will always enjoy great stories, with great zeal. As I write a certain genre and come to identify more closely with my reading audience, I am sensitive to how reading and accessibility will impact the blind or vision-impaired, or someone physically unable to turn pages. I remember the controversy over Amazon Kindle’s Text-to-speech options, and how there was a bluster about audiobooks and rights, but at the end of the day, accessibility to readers was really the issue, and embracing multi-media as yet another opportunity to tell a story!