|
About the Poet |
|
Writing at Age Four — Published by Age Six
I started writing in 1990 when I was four years old. My first book, The Cat won rave reviews in my family with its full-color illustrations and funny storyline.
In 1992, at the age of six, my second grade teacher asked me to do something quietly while the class wrote letters to Santa. I took out a piece of penmanship paper and wrote my very first poem, "Spring". The teacher liked it so much that she sent it to the local newspaper where it was published a few months later. Not long after that, I wrote a second poem, "Stars" that was also published in the same newspaper.
I enjoyed writing assignments that included stories and poetry. My favorite time was called "Creative Writing", which my second grade teacher instituted. We had three minutes to write anything that came into our heads, even if it was only the alphabet. After the three minutes were up, we had to make something of what we'd scribbled onto our papers.
Throughout grade school and middle school, my friend Nicole and I continued to be literary partners in crime, making excuses to get out of English class to hide out in the library and write together.
Even after leaving public school to home school in 1998, I continued to share my love of writing with my dearest friend, Anna Marie Fritz, who I had been introduced to by a mutual friend back in 1995. We started out writing letters snail mail. When we got the Internet, we sent up to three messages per day, sharing our poetry and daily tales. Anna's books were published and I enthusiastically shared them with my friends and family. I knew a PUBLISHED AUTHOR!!! As time went on, she told me how much she wanted to publish MY poetry. I thought it was a nice idea, but it was too crazy...my "stuff" wasn't that good... However, she was convinced that someday, it would happen.
And Then Came a Book…
In 2006, my Mom and I planned a trip to England and Germany. Since I didn’t have much money, I thought I might put together a book of my poetry to sell. In an e-mail to my friend, Anna, in December of 2005, I asked, “Do you have time to collaborate on a book?” She had been publishing books through her company Star Image Publishing and I thought I might be ready.
Not only was she ready, she already had a title and a cover plan! She told me to get a list of poems together from my collection and send it to her as soon as I could. A few weeks later, I received the manuscript and sat down to a long eight-hour stretch of editing.
Saturday, March 18th, the call came that my book had arrived. The next day, my parents, my best friend and I went to pick get it. When my publisher arrived holding that package - what a moment! It was a genuinely lovely book.
Ironically, my Mom and I never took that trip to England and Germany. We had to cancel because of some unexpected health problems. So there I was...a published author...who missed a trip to Europe…but had a book to show for it.
A Second Book
While I was compiling, editing and promoting ORCHID, I was also in the process of preparing my second book. Gladly, some of the poems that couldn't fit in ORCHID are now included in Deep Within Creative Minds. A few of them are from the early 2000's, but most were written in 2006.
Deep Within Creative Minds is dedicated to passionate artists of all kinds. But it's also dedicated to those who are passionate about life and their surroundings.
My publisher and friend, Anna Marie Fritz, put in hundreds of hours of hard work on the cover and interior of this book and has been most loving about, and flexible to, my wishes. It's a special book that we are both extremely proud of.
The Time to Write
So many people ask me when I found the time to write these books. The truth is that I have been writing for 16 years. When I need to write, I stop what I'm doing and I write. Sometimes that means I have to get up in the middle of the night because the thoughts won't let me sleep. Or it may mean, digging around for paper and a pen in someone's car so I can jot down a phrase that I'll need later. There have been the inconvenient creative moments when I've been in a class and I thought of a chain of words and I had to write it on SOMETHING. Often, it just means sitting down to my computer with certain music, sometimes a very particular song flowing into my ears and just letting the thoughts collide on the screen. I'm easily inspired, especially when I drive - passing trucks may witness me driving with one hand, writing with the other hand, while watching the road at the same time.
I hope that you will take an opportunity to read Love Is An Orchid and Deep Within Creative Minds. I’ve worked hard to write in a style that’s easy to understand and relate to. So if you’re afraid of Shakespeare or Milton, I’m sure you’ll enjoy my poetry. |
|
Abigail Kloss-Aycardi P.O. Box 342752 Milwaukee, WI 53234 |
|
Contact Information: |
