As long as anybody breathes, "Then vs. Now" is a part of life. We sometimes find ourselves taking two steps forward and one step back, but change is as inevitable as the Earth rotating around the sun. Can we ever burn all the bridges to the past as long as our memories are able to pull things up from former years? I doubt it. In 2022, I plan on filling up a year worth of monthly blogs with past vs. present. My blog will be about random things that I relate to personally. I hope it will entertain you or maybe even teach you something new. Then: From my writing journey, I can go back as far 5-years-old. At that age, I didn't know how to write most words, so I asked my mom to put a story down on the pages I had already illustrated. I made it from construction paper and crayons. I stapled the pages together and it had to be read backwards--right to left, and then sometimes left to right. Oy vey! I plan on showing my masterpiece in full on an Instagram reel (video) since this photo does not display its true genius (LOL). I don’t know where the idea for the tale came from because my parents weren’t bibliophiles. My grandma was, so she started giving me a book for my birthday every year after I learned how to read. That was after I created this homemade tome. My 5-year-old story also inspired an idea I used in my first published book. Now: I wrote about a lollipop tree in Elle’s Magical Shoes, but it was a gum tree in my original story. I discovered the error in a childhood memory box after EMS was published. I now have eleven books published that are sold at major online retail shops - no more construction paper or crayon copies for me. Now I write daily and it wasn't until almost forty years after the Valentine Story that I attempted to share my imagination with the world. I had written several stories in elementary school for my entertainment. I even got my best friend involved to illustrate some of them since she drew better. I wrote about fairies, mermaids, and I also wrote a story about the Dukes of Hazzard, which came from my crush on the Duke boys in that old 1980s TV show. I still write about mermaids and fairies, but the pop culture references are not used as the whole premise for a plot. I even put my scary nightmares into a Viking mythology book, which is far off the path of anything I ever conjured up in my early days. Do you have any "Then vs. Now" stories like mine? Did you do something as a child that is still part of your life today? Please feel free to share in the comments or find my post on Instagram and comment there. I'd love to hear from you. Pictures:
"Then" bubble gum tree in Valentine Story / "Now" cover of Elle's Magical Shoes
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Ramblings on life, travels, & books
Carla Reighard Archives
December 2023
Categories |