I have a recurring nightmare. In this dream I am all dressed up in my Sunday best and am in the barnyard. There are no people around, only farm animals and me. I am slopping the hogs and scattering grain to the chickens while spouting my beautiful words. I am ridiculous in the dream and always wake feeling useless, unappreciated and depressed. It is a horrible feeling.
I don’t know what the dream means. Maybe I am afraid that I am out of touch with or a misfit in my surroundings. Maybe I feel out of touch with my readers. Maybe I am afraid that if I do not get my words into the hands of a reading public that I will never have an audience. I do not know but I do not want the dream to come true.
So I have vowed to do something every day related to writing or marketing my words. Some days I might only mail a letter or post card, other days I sit at the computer and pound the keys all day long. Or I might pick through words and delete or replace more than I started with. But I do try to do something everyday related to writing or marketing my stories. And I am determined to get my words to a reading human audience.
We, The Other Bunch, are in the middle of preparing a collection of stories, poems and essays for publication. The collection is called Voices From The Snake River Plain. Watch for it this fall, it is almost ready to go to the printer.
Dixie Thomas Reale
