I am a story teller

     I am a storyteller. It all began when I was a young boy of twelve. Everyday things caught my attention in ways that made me want to write them down. An October tree whose colors beckoned me to tell a tale, A small child holding his mothers’ hand as they crossed the street, A little red wagon sitting by itself on a street corner, anything and everything was to me a story waiting to be told. At first, I had no knowledge of proper grammar or structuring sentences, I was just a sponge filled with words that had to be put on paper which is exactly what I did for over five decades.

     As I grew up and faced the challenges of life my desire to tell stories grew with me and sometimes in the strangest of places.I would take a bar napkin and write something about a bar maid or server just to see their reactions. I would ask for a small paper bag at the supermarket and jot down a tale of the old lady in the produce department. I even recall picking scraps of paper off the street if the urge to write was so overwhelming. No paper product was safe with me around.

     My grandmother had the foresight to keep all these scribblings tucked away in a box for safe keeping, but I do believe she had the idea the day would come when these collections of my thoughts would rise again in some way. Little did I know how right she was. After I retired, I decided to compile a book from the old scraps of writing in that box, so I  proceeded to go through all of them, which was no small task as I had accumulated hundreds of tales and snippets from my past through my present. Once the task of separating everything into a few topics was completed, I began to re-write everything making some changes here and there but keeping true to each story as I told it all those years ago.

     I titled my book "Raw emotions" as I felt every story demanded the reader feel something whether it be sadness, joy, or maybe even  some pain. I wanted the reader to take that journey with me, feeling the emotions I tried so hard to convey. I am a writer, and if I can find a scrap of paper and feel something stirring inside of me, I will keep writing.

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www.michaeloconnorwriter.com

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