WRITING HAS OTHER ADVANTAGES

As a result of my writing, I have had a wonderful opportunity to meet an entirely different and extraordinary group of people that I never would have encountered otherwise. These are the literary people. When you write a lot, you meet literary people. You are drawn to them, naturally, the way any group of people with the same interests is pulled together.

There are three types of literary people. There are writers; readers; and writer/readers. The most interesting of the three are the readers. Writers and writer/readers love to talk about themselves and the trials, tribulations and accolades of their writing. Readers, on the other hand, love to talk books and authors. I’ve learned the most about literature from them. The knowledge that many readers have about books, authors and literature is amazing.

I have found that readers are like eaters. There are some eaters who will eat anything—the more the better. Some readers are the same—they will read anything you throw at them—the more the better. Other eaters are pickier. Readers, too. There are readers who will only read good writing and they understand the difference between good and bad writing immediately. They’ve trained themselves to do so. Because of my writing and because I’ve given many book presentations, I have been blessed with meeting this very interesting group of people. Thank you, readers, for being there.