I thought perhaps by sharing these quotes and photos I might establish some new connections with the fabled writing community on Instagram. Instead I renewed a connection with my younger self, the girl whose loneliness sent her to books in the first place, the young woman whose frustration that her writing dream had to wait was amplified by a dismissive professor who frankly discouraged her from even imagining such a thing.
This is an old nursery rhyme, usually attributed to Mother Goose. Her origins are lost in the mists of time, but it might be that this grandmotherly keeper of old stories, encoded in rhymes and nonsense for children, can be traced all the way back to the great goddess Aphrodite, the deity of love, seduction, desire and beauty.
I am publishing some excerpts from my books, the one I’ve finished and the one in progress. . . this time, I am telling some deeply held secrets. Telling my story. And my grandmother’s story too. Coming out of the shadows. I have uploaded two excerpts from my book, Mother Knot, and one from my work-in-progress, An American Girl in Tehran.
When I was still a youngster in Ohio, I was taken on a school field trip to see the inner workings of The Columbus Dispatch newspaper. I can still see, in my memory’s eye, a big open sunlit room where the editors and writers worked, filled with many people and a bustle of purpose. And my memory’s ear still thrums with the great sound of the presses rolling in an even bigger room.