I’ve gotten pretty good at writing over the years. Good in the way that it doesn’t make me anxious to do anymore. I think it’s because I’ve been blogging for about over 10 years and writing almost every day. So I’ve had a lot of practice.
But when Jon suggested I write the introduction for Mary Kellogg’s new poetry book, This Time Of Life, I froze.
I’ve been putting it off for about two weeks now. Every time I thought of writing it, I found something else that really needed to be done, like picking up the dog poop in the back yard, or washing the dishes.
I’m an experienced procrastinator.
Honestly, I usually don’t read introductions to books. And if I do it’s after I’ve read the book or looked at all the pictures (if it’s a picture book). So I’m not really sure what they’re like.
I finally asked Jon for help. He said I should just write the truth about my friendship with Mary and about her books. Just a couple of paragraphs, he said.
He made it sound so easy, but when I sat down to write a million thoughts came into my head and I had no idea where to begin.
When a week went by and I still hadn’t written the introduction, I asked Jon for help again.
This time he sat down and practically dictated an introduction to me.
It sounded great. Just what I would say if I knew how to write an introduction. So I put Jon’s ideas into my words and sent it off to Abrah who is designing the book.
I’m not proud of the fact I had such a hard time writing an introduction to Mary’s book. And I still can’t figure out why I had so much trouble with it.
I’m just relieved it’s done.
Now I can look forward to see the proofs that Abrah will send us. I can’t wait to show them to Mary. She’s very excited about her new book and we’re already talking about her being at the Bedlam Farm Open House, in October, reading some of her poems from her new book.
