On Writing

All my life, I have considered myself a writer. I’m not really sure exactly where this thought came from initially, perhaps the love of classic literature instilled in me by early teachers, or maybe it was my family modeling reading for me and me thinking if I was a writer I’d get more of their attention. I went on to get both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English, not really to be a professional author, but more because I loved the writing requirements of those programs.

As an adult, I’ve kept a regular journal most of my life and many years ago started this blog as a way to practice writing that would be published in some small way. I’ve been inconsistent with the blog, kept up pretty good with the journaling, and even got a couple of novels started on the laptop. But until last year, I’d never truly gotten serious about trying to publish something in print that I’d written.

Through a series of interesting events related to an expansion of our Children’s Garden at Daniel Stowe Conservancy, where I am the CEO, a story presented itself that needed to be written. Part of the new garden was a “secret room” where kids could explore and free play outside in our woods. Our designer created a concrete dragon spine emerging from the ground around the edge of the room as a part of the “secret.” But on opening weekend, when a mother visiting with her children asked me what the story was with the dragon, I had no answer. It seemed like a story that needed to be told and I thought I was the best man for the job.

Setting off to write the story of our new dragon seemed easy enough, but over the next few months I struggled to connect the story to our organization and the nature preserve we protect alongside the botanical gardens we feature. The nature of the story felt like a children’s book, so I reached out to an artist I knew who had illustrated children’s books, Brett Blumenthal, to ask if she’d be willing to illustrate it for me. She accepted and also helped me understand the value of an editor, internal feedback, and other readers. What I thought would be a simple project turned into months of working and reworking copy, feedback on illustrations and fonts, and more decisions about paper and materials than I had ever imagined!

The result, The Guardian of Lost Hollow, was published this spring and has been a big hit with our visitors and donors. It chronicles the fictitious origin story of the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens and Willow the Dragon who protects them. The image above is Brett and I at our book signing party, which was great fun to share our book with others for the first time.

I never thought my first published book would be an illustrated children’s book, but I’m glad it was. It felt like the right place to start and it has re-energized me to write again. I’ve been much more committed to my journal this year and I’m finally getting back here to the blog to explore publishing my feelings, thoughts, desires, and hopes for the world. I’m still the morning run guy who started this blog over a decade ago, but life has changed a lot and I’m eager to explore it through writing again. Who knows, maybe it will spurn me to dust off one of those novels sitting on the desktop and see if I can make a long form book work. Regardless of where it leads, I’m excited to again reap the personal and emotional benefits of writing.