Followers of this blog, and my work, will know about my participation in the web project called SPARK (I’m engaged in another round of SPARK as I write).

This week, one of my prior SPARK collaborators, writer and novelist Mary L. Tabor, noticed my post about the exhibition in Vermont, and suggested I write an essay for her blog.

An essay? Why anyone would even think of suggesting I write is beyond me. I’ve never written anything before (other than here!) but I’ve often toyed with the idea – like many of us I suppose – of writing a book (in my case, young adult fiction — topic for another day.). I figured an essay is short enough, and decided to take a shot. It took me a couple of hours to write (probably helped by the fact that I was at work and had something much more important I should have been doing!), followed by a couple of days of obsessive tinkering with vocabulary and punctuation, which really didn’t change that much.

In fact, the hardest part was that Mary asked for a picture to go with my bio! As you may imagine, these are as rare as hen’s teeth, as I usually manage to be behind the camera and thus avoid the indignity. Thanks to the wonders of digital technology. however, I was able to cut myself out of a group picture from a few years ago and satisfy the request.

Anyway, the result is now available for all to see on Mary’s blog here.

If you haven’t discovered Mary’s work yet, click over to her blog and check out her current work (it’s all available from Amazon – including for your Kindle!). Mary was a senior executive in corporate America before going back to college to study creative writing and publishing her first book at age 60. Mary’s deeply personal writing reveals intimate stories of life, sex and love – including her own very personal story of loss and ultimate self-discovery which started life as a live blog, documenting her experiences and feelings as events unfolded. She has also had many essays and stories published in journals, reviews and anthologies.

Mary’s third book, a novel, will be published soon. I’m excited!