EUDORA WELTY SAID IT BEST

"I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within." --Eudora Welty

I have two lovely friends who grew up with normal loving parents. They suffered no hardships in life, and seem to have had no disfunctionality in their homes. Several times I've heard these friends comment on the sheltered lives they lived and because tof that, they sometimes wondered if their writing was as interesting as work by those who grew up poor, in a broken home, or who lost a parent as a child.
Neither of them had a sister who ran away from home and married at 14, or no one in their past lived in a trailer park with a one-legged man who drank all day, they did not grow up with a father who made moonshine, and no one in the family birthed a child in Wal-Mart. Unique incidents like those above find their way onto to the pages of best selling books these days.
But the writing of both my friends resonates with me, and I admire the humor and pathos in their work.
Like Welty, they use their imaginations, bring the daring from within, to create short stories and authentic poems.
To me, that is the fun of fiction - reaching down inside and bringing up situations that only I can create. I have a book idea that I hope one day to put on paper. The setting is a retirement community. The main characters are three elderly women, feisty and funny. That is all I'll say now, but hopefully one day I'll dig down inside and find my daring. And then I'll tell this tale.

Meanwhile, I ordered Joan Cannon's book, Maiden Run, and I am waiting to receive it. I love the cover and from reading the summary, I am sure it is a book I will enjoy reading.