Logically, you can find a hundred and one reasons why you can’t do something. By any reasonable conclusion, I shouldn’t be a writer and a poet. I shouldn’t write in English, because I am an immigrant and English is not my native language. Furthermore, my experience with English language is not as vast as I wish it to be, because I didn’t attend college in the United States. What do I have to offer to people that are neither culturally nor historically close to me? On the surface, not much, except that deep down inside of me writing poetry and painting art were the only things my soul was calling for. Somehow, I knew that these are my sacred gifts that I can share with other people, no matter what language they speak, what their belief system is or their country of residency.
I started writing in English about 10 years ago. The ideas for the stories were pouring out of me like a waterfall. I was interested in many subjects: drama, comedy, mystery, thrillers...
At the time, I was already living in the United States and writing in English was the logical thing to do. The first problem appeared when I realized that despite writing in English, I was still formulating the stories with a Russian sentence structure. To correct this, I began reading only English books, starting with classical literature and continuing with some modern romances. My love story with reading didn’t start then, but the romance with English language did. If I didn’t know a word, I used dictionary, and soon my vocabulary expanded, and my speech structure in English perfected. I was inspired, and that was just the beginning of the story.
When my kids started school, I began discovering the need for more poetry in the children’s literature in this country. Poetry, in my opinion, is an essential type of literature for kids. It is not only rhyme and structure. Poetry chimes on a higher octave, developing finer taste in kids. It provides the young souls a more harmonious upbringing. It lets children feel the subject of the written words closer to their heart. I also believe that writing for kids needs a mature writer. It isn’t simple or easy. Echoing your wisdom into the words of the story is essential, as well as, passing your experience to the younger generations. Because when you write, you express yourself in the story through words filled with love, and that love and words come from your heart.
One day, I sat down and started writing poems. Poems about the Nature, in a way that let children experience it on a personal level, i.e. become friends with it. In a way, that they can see the Nature and the creatures of the Nature as extension of themselves. In a way, that they can understand that everything in the Nature has intelligence, and the lives of these creatures that are seemingly different from human lives are also very interesting and have their own life scenarios.
Another issue I faced was with the illustrations. Many writers were cautioning against “do your own” illustrations. Being a classically trained artist, I took upon the challenge of learning a totally new field. It did not look like typical drawing. There was a certain way to portray characters. It took me a year to figure out how to properly illustrate, and I’m still learning and adding new ways to my experience.
Thinking back to when I started, it seems like a long journey. I’m happy that despite seemingly impossible task, I’ve managed to push through my own mental blocks. Now, I do realize that if you want to achieve something, nothing can stop you, but your own self. It’s an incredible journey of self-discovery and self-mastery. At first, blindly stepping forward, then using all the resources that you have available to you and learning something new. Learning doesn’t have to happen at a university. Self-development is more powerful than one might perceive. All you need is an idea, a wish, a desire, and turning those desires, ideas and wishes into actions.
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