Yo!

Sterling Here!

I’m so happy to meet you all!

I’m a little late with my introduction, but I hope I’m still in fashion and you’ll have me!

I’m not particularly graceful with self-introductions, so here goes nothing.

I’ve been married to my life mate for 35 years.

How is that even possible? We’re still kids. Really, we are!

Wasn’t it was just yesterday when he walked up to me with his ball cap turned around backward and smiled that smile that made those silly butterflies in my tummy flip and flutter?

I still mostly love him and I think he mostly still loves me, too, although some days we drive each other to drink. Good thing the bar’s close.

But, all told, there’s no one else I want to annoy for the rest of their life as much as him.

Life has been so good so far. Not always easy, by any stretch, but we made it.

We make it every single day.

I’ve been writing my entire life. I started with journals when I was a kid and I even tried my hand at a few short stories, but I set those aside as I grew up.

I write at my day job at a doctor’s office. That’s not my job-job, but my job requires me to correspond with patients, other offices, insurance companies, physicians, and administrators, so I write.

It did not occur to me until just a few years ago that I could try on the hat of a professional writer, outside of the day job. I don’t know why I thought I should, but I did.

I jumped in with both feet.

And promptly got kicked in the teeth.

My first writing job paid me point-zero-zero-four cents a word. (I wrote that out long-hand because it looks like a lot more money than the $4.00 I got for 1000 words.)

It took me half a day to write the stupid article because I didn’t know how to use the required minimum 1000 word count to make 10” hex drive steel hex head wood screws look so sexy that consumers couldn’t resist them.

At point-zero-zero-four cents a word, it didn’t take long to decide writing wasn’t for me.

My muse agreed. She’s a tiny Tinkerbell-type with a busted wing, no shoes, and a surly Max Cade attitude.

I have no idea where she lives and I don’t care. She scares the snot out of me every time she shows up.

Then one day out of the clear blue sky, Chuck (yes her name is Chuck, don’t ask me why) threw a mug of cold water at me and said, “Get off your ass and write the stuff.”

So I did. (I told you she was scary, right?)

I realized I could write without having to sell it. More importantly, I realized I needed to write.

So I started writing the stuff again and now I can’t not write the stuff every day. Some days it’s good, some days it’s slow, sometimes there are too many words, and sometimes there’s not nearly enough, but it always fills a little hole down somewhere deep in whatever it is that makes me, me.

I have also discovered that what makes me, me is something different every day.

I’m mostly a good and kind person, but that’s not always a given. Sometimes I’m quite a different person every day.

Some days, there’s a person who wants to be kind to everyone, good or bad. I want to acknowledge their humanity and to seek understanding about what brings them to our point of intersection.

Other days, I’m someone who wants to punch that humanity in their dumb head.

(Chuck says that’s okay, I can roll with it)

But it’s all good. Writing lets me be the person I need to be every day.

Besides, I have lots of stories in me and if they don’t get out, I’ll simply explode!

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to write here at Illumination and I look forward to getting to know all the writers here.

I love this platform. The breadth of knowledge here is outstanding. I am amazed that so many authors so freely share their experiences.

We must learn new things every day and more importantly, we must be willing to teach those around us.

I’m so down with that.

I look forward to learning and sharing with you all!