I think I will actually make it to the TWO MONTH MARK. That is, the two month mark of milking your questions for material. God Bless You All.

Steph asks:

You have an amazingly eloquent voice. Have you ever wanted to write fiction? If so, what kind? I think you’d be a great storyteller.

First – HOLY SHIT, thanks. From someone who actually has an honest-to-god creative imagination, that’s a real compliment.

Have I wanted to write fiction?  Oh yes. I love telling stories. LOVE IT.

But the biggest stumbling block for me thus far has been insurmountable.

It is a complete and utter lack of imagination.

Don’t get me wrong – I know my strengths. If you are looking for someone to evoke an atmosphere in as few words as possible, I’m your huckleberry. I love to paint with words. I love to use the colors and nuances of everyday language to evoke that sigh of memory from the imagination of every person that reads them. The moods of the written word fascinate and move me. And I like to do it sparingly, in little passages like haiku, where every reader reads the unwritten spaces from their own past.

However, if one expects stories to have little things like, um, A PLOT, with an identifiable beginning, middle and end, then I fall seriously short in the storytelling department.

I am a good storyteller when the story is there to tell. Just like with everything else I do, I need a big picture guy. I need someone who has this vision of broad bold strokes that tells me “Go there!” and hands me the detail brush and lets me work my magic.  Genre doesn’t matter.  The KIND of story is only the vehicle for touching the human mind and heart; they differ only in the strings you pull to get you there.  Give me a story and I will paint you a symphony. But when it comes to crafting it out of whole cloth, the art completely eludes me.

That’s why I stick to non-fiction.  The stories are already there, waiting for, sometimes demanding, the face and the voice my fingers can give them.