Houston, TX

My friend, Vic, sent out an e-mail today to announce that author, Shauna Seily, has debuted her first novel, When We Get There Seily’s novel chronicles the coming-of-age of her 13 year-old narrator over the course of a brutally cold winter in 1974.

Publisher Weekley notes that, “Suffused with close observations of family legends, superstitions and cultural traditions, Seliy’s accomplished debut bids a bittersweet farewell to one way of life while anticipating promise down the road.”

That sentence reminded me of being lying in bed, reading a novel, anticipating the promise of watching the author unfold each new sentence and nuance of a character.

In The World According to Garp, the narrator ruminates that the main character of the novel, himself a writer, “…was a natural storyteller. He could make things up one after another, and they seemed to fit.” Later in the novel, when Garp starts badgering his wife to start writing, she looks at him and simply says: “There are readers and writers in the world. I am a reader.”

I always identified with that line until I started blogging. Now, much like Lucas Lessar, I wonder if I can push the boundaries between the reality of a situation and the possibilities the future might hold.

In Houston, there is a non-profit called the Authors & Publishers Association (APA), that supports and assists writers, publishers and authors, in order to keep the printed word of literature in front of readers. Although, with the age of technology and the expansion of blogs, live journals, electronic books and books on demand, some might question if hard and softback books will go the way of the 8 track tapes or record players.

All I know is that at the end of a long day, I like to unwind by laying my head down on a pillow and reading a juicy novel that takes me to places outside of my own experience. That would be difficult to do with my laptop sharing the pillow next to me.