My advice on creative writing is on hold.

My mother — a stroke victim with Alzheimer’s dementia — is in the hospital and will be returning to her nursing home under Hospice care. This is an agonizing period of time for me, but more importantly, it is agonizing for her as this horrible disease takes its toll, locking her inside a body that gives her no relief from pain.

There are times that it seems like we’re living in a science fiction novel, with a worldwide array of interconnected computers, a database of the human genome, and the potential for earth-like planets around nearby stars. And yet for all our technology, we are still human.  In the end, we still long for peace.

As writers, even the most depressing situations offer us a chance to experience this life. And it is our duty — as writers — to convey our emotional responses to situations like this.

Our readers need that human connection, especially with respect to the darker sides of life that are poor form to discuss in public. Our readers need to know that we — who’ve been given a gift to express ourselves — can relate to all the various aspects of life, the joys and the sorrows, the contentments and the anxieties, that our audience is experiencing.

Remember, we love being writers. What we can’t stand is the paperwork.

Peace be with you,
Keith