Illumination Editor Introduction: Joe Luca
A short tale about me
My son-in-law told me about Medium a year ago, but it took me a while to find it. I wasn’t looking too hard at the time, was busy with work and writing had taken a backseat for a while, so it just came along for the ride.
I am also an avid reader, always have been, so Medium offered a lot of new voices to listen to. New ideas to become fascinated with. When you live in America and watch American TV, it’s very likely that most everything you get to see will be influenced in some way, by who we are and where we live. Reading the articles on Medium, stretches out that perspective; in a way it forces you to see the world from other points of view. When a good portion of one’s life seems to have been “filmed” inside a Hollywood movie, it’s good to slow things down a bit and get to talk to people who really don’t know what a thick shake is, or whose perception of our country doesn’t follow too closely our afternoon Soap Operas.
PERSONAL
My Name is Joe Luca; I’m a writer and editor for Illumination and I was born in Brooklyn a long, long time ago. Not that long, just making a point. I’ve been around the block, as they say.
I’ve read around 10,000 books in my lifetime, give or take, on every subject ranging from Philosophy and Spiritualism to Medicine, Making Pizzas (my favorite), Eastern Religions, Western Cultures, Westerns (lots) Detective Novels, and, well, you get the idea.
And I write. I’ve done so since my small fingers first wrapped themselves around a crayon. It’s been an interesting journey since then and one that I sincerely hope, never ends.
I’ve written Children’s stories, fiction, screenplays, teleplays, plays, poetry, essays of every area of life and even non-fiction articles on life in the financial sector (nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there). I’ve also written training manuals for various industries with the sole purpose of helping employees get up to speed on their jobs and become efficient and effective in areas that were new to them. This is the main reason I like editing — helping others achieve their goals.
WRITING
Writing is an expression of who we are and what we think. A desire, deep within, to be heard, to be listened to and perhaps most of all to impart something. An idea, a point of view, a new way at looking at an old problem, in the hopes that it will help. Writers are also entertainers. We make people laugh or think or be amazed at the “sleight of hand” we perform on the written page.
We tell long stories in a few words (Poetry) or tell short stories with many words, in an effort to stretch the boundaries of how we think. Not necessarily to change anyone, but to get them to at least try a new perspective on.
EDITING
On Medium and especially in ILLUMINATION, we welcome your efforts to stretch imaginations, entertain people who are in need of it right now and offer up your ideas and perspective on the world, Nature, human interaction, pizza making (please) and an endless variety of other subjects.
As editors we are here primarily to help you get published. There will be guidelines written by editors, to help you, but for the most part these are brief road maps on how not to get lost, where to turn so you wind up on our publication. Otherwise we are not here to mold anyone or ask that you conform. We want to revel in your view, your spin of an old concept, your playful use of verbs and adjectives. We are here to help.
There are a handful of editors on ILLUMINATION literally spread across the globe, making sure that your stories get published at all times of the day, day or night. We get to them as quickly as we can.
As things progress within ILLUMINATION, more challenges and prompts will be issued, more writers will join us and our wide world of views and perspectives will be enriched.
Thank you for reading and spending a little time with me. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Joe Luca is a published author and writer of children’s stories, short fiction, non-fiction articles, screenplays and poetry. Publications include Child’s Life, Children’s Playmate and others. There are some other articles below — have a read. And thank you for stopping by.