It was a warm winter night. Snowflakes dancing side to side, but eventually down, always down. It was quiet. Inner turmoil wanted nothing with silence. Loud and voiceless. The world could not hear me. I could not hear me. Gasping for words – elusive, defiant, and just beyond reach. Choice, there was none. Words, had to become… my lifeline.

How I got here - the short version. Inferences are for the taking.

Historical salvation of pain, suffering, grief, and darkness - had these voices not found expression through music, poetry, art, and literature, their stories would have remained untold. For me, it was a certain forbidden love that imprisoned my sanity. Here is an excerpt:

… Forbidden queen is out of reach

Yet in my arms I hold her near

Perplexed, my mind turns to fear

Open my eyes and reappear

Into the world I’ve always known

Where truth is harsh

And you’re alone

Where life is thorough when it shows

How cruel and beautiful it grown

Into the end that it bestows (2003)

Then came graduate school. Lusting is not lasting. Developing a true love for writing proved both draining and rewarding – disruptive and cohesive, confusing and lucid – inevitably a process of growth. I became an academic writer – countless hours reading, thinking, drafting, and redrafting. Inspired profoundly by "The Elements of Style," originally published in 1918, this authoritative guide has remarkably withstood the test of time. My pursuit of clarity and brevity became relentless. Quoting from “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. (p. 23)

If you’ve gotten this far, perhaps I’ve piqued your curiosity just enough. You know how to get in touch. 😊