How did I get where I'm at?

In short I sucked at math, so any hope of becoming a scientist or doctor was a complete bust. But there was one thing I was good at in high school (minds out of the gutter please). I was introduced to such poets and authors as Emily Dickinson, Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allen Poe and William Shakespeare, just to name a few. The first poem I wrote was a homework assignment in English class. It was to be written about a name brand product and it came in 3rd in the class. It went something like this:

When your family's on the go,
get yourself some Mop-n-Glo,
on the floor it leaves a shine,
never leaves a smudge or line.
I couldn't sleep at all last night,
went to the kitchen and turned on the light,
grabbed my bottle of Mop-n-Glo,
was done so fast, took in a show.
If sand dunes and salty air,
and shiny floors are you flare,
get yourself some Mop-n-Glo,
??????????????????????????

That's right folks, I forget the last line! And do they even make Mop-n-Glo anymore? Ah yeah, good times.

So I took my journey down the road to writing. I've been writing for years but I never did anything with it...I never took it to the next level...I never took the next step. Why?

Writing is something that I love doing. It keeps the mind sharp, the imagination running and the ideas flowing. When I write it takes me into the world that I'm writing about, whether it be a drama, comedy or a children's story. In those few hours, I'm able to go on the journey with the characters...I can interact with them...see, hear, touch and talk to them. I can live in London with an intellegent Englishman (that would be Colin Firth) or I can visit Sunny Hollow and travel through a field of purple flowers with a smart talking bee (that would be Brendan Fraser). I can see the movie play out in my mind...how it would look and sound and it makes it easier to write.

So why did I wait until I was in my 40's to self-publish my first two books and write a children's book, that I hope to have out in 2010? Was it fear? Yeah, maybe. Was it the pressure of success and what it could do? Hmm...possible. I guess it just wasn't meant to happen when I was in my 20's. I'm a firm believer in things happen for a reason. I haven't been shown the reason yet...

but I know I will.