My guest blogger today as part of our Tasha Turner Coaching - virtual blog tour, is Canadian author Bruce Blake who writes about something dear to the heart of all authors - our passion for writing. Welcome Bruce!
On Writing and Passion
by Bruce Blake
What makes a writer want to write? Why do
we sit down at our blank screens to stare at a blinking cursor and torture
ourselves into conjuring up words when we don't want to? I've asked myself these and similar questions
many times, often at 5am as I drag my sorry ass out of bed to get some writing
time in before I head to work for the day. What makes a reasonably sane man get
up at such an insane hour of the day? At one point in my life, I would have
told you there was only one 5 o'clock in a day. Sometimes, I still wish that
was the case. But something drives me to set that alarm for an hour before the
worms who are trying to avoid the early bird get up.
Is it money? A quest for fame and
recognition? A desire to see my name on a poster at the front of my local
bookstore and a pile of my books on a table inside? Do I want to hit the road
for a book signing tour and have to fend off hordes of rabid book groupies? Is
there such a thing as book groupies?
Truth be told, the answer to all of the
above is yes. I would happily accept money, fame, recognition, a rock star
style tour, and women throwing themselves at me. Who wouldn't? But none of them
are actually what get me out of bed. If there was no chance of earning a dime,
or being famous, or having to run from a mob of crazed babes like I was
starring in a Beatles movie, I'd still write.
Why? In one word: passion. It's not a great
explanation but, plain and simple, I don't write because I want to, I write
because I have to. If more than a couple of days goes by without some writing
happening, I begin to get antsy in the way my lungs feel distress if I stop
breathing for more than a short while. I may not die without writing, but I'm
sure not pleasant to be around. So passion is both a blessing and a curse. It
drags me out of bed when I don't want to get up, but it lights up my day even
when it is still dark.
There are billions of people in the world,
many of whom never find their passion, so I consider myself fortunate. My wish
is that everyone find theirs and live a more fulfilled life. And maybe then I'd
have someone to talk to at 5am.
What is your passion? What do you do or
sacrifice to feed it? How do you feel when you're living your passion? How do
you feel when you're not?
Biography
Bruce Blake lives
on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. When pressing issues like
shovelling snow and building igloos don't take up his spare time, Bruce can be
found taking the dog sled to the nearest coffee shop to work on his short
stories and novels.
Actually,
Victoria, B.C. is only a couple hours north of Seattle, Wash., where more rain
is seen than snow. Since snow isn't really a pressing issue, Bruce spends more
time trying to remember to leave the "u" out of words like "colour"
and "neighbour" then he does shovelling (and darn that extra L). The
father of two, Bruce is also the trophy husband of burlesque diva Miss Rosie
Bitts.
Bruce has been
writing since grade school, but it wasn't until five years ago he set his sights
on becoming a full-time writer. Since then, his first short story,
"Another Man's Shoes" was published in the Winter 2008 edition of
Cemetery Moon, another short, "Yardwork", was made into a podcast in
Oct., 2011 by Pseudopod, and his first Icarus Fell novel, "On Unfaithful
Wings", was published to Kindle in Dec., 2011. The second Icarus Fell
novel, “All Who Wander Are Lost”, was released on July 17, 2012, and the first
book in the four-part “Khirro's Journey” epic fantasy is due soon. He has plans
for at least three more Icarus novels, several stand-alones, and a possible YA
fantasy co-written with his eleven-year-old daughter.
On Unfaithful Wings
I was alive, then
I was dead, now I’m stuck somewhere in between.
My name is Icarus
Fell. I am a harvester.
The archangel
Michael brought me back to collect souls and help them on their way to
Heaven--that’s what a harvester does. If I get enough of them before the bad
guys do--if I do a good job--I can have my life back. Now people I knew in life
are dying, killed by a murderer’s knife, their bodies defiled, and the cops
think I’m the killer.
I’m not, but I
think I know who is.
But how does a
dead man, a man who no longer exists, stop a psycho? I’m not sure, but I’m
going to stop him before everyone I know is dead.
I have to stop
him before he gets to my son.
Thank you, Bruce, for being my guest today, and sharing your passions with us. Bruce can be reached at the following links.
Twitter: @bruceablake
Kindle: http://amzn.to/GKi7mq
Great blog!! I'm sure we'd all take the fame, glory and money! :-P
ReplyDelete