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Thanksgiving & Literacy from One Writers Point of View May your Thanksgiving tomorrow be happy, stress-free and full of wonderful moments shared with loved ones!
This year I’m thankful for my family, my friends and my readers. Writing is a bit like farming, in that you do your part without any guarantees. Just as a farmer ploughs, plants and weeds his fields but depends on the weather to reward him with a crop, a writer pours out her soul onto paper in the hopes her words will be read and enjoyed by other people. Sometimes it feels like I’m sending my words out into a vacuum.
When my debut novella, The Djinn's Dilemma, came out earlier this month I was decidedly nervous. Would anyone read my story? Did anyone even know I exist? The best part of being a published author has been receiving notes from my readers. Readers who not only took the time to read my story, but also to let me know what they thought. Thank you for letting me know my words are finding homes.
I'm also thankful for all the writers who wrote stories that comforted me when the chips were down or just helped me escape the daily grind. I remember laughing out loud as I read Three Singles to Adventure by Gerald Durell and how it helped me get over a highschool-heartbreak. And when my baby son --born 7 weeks early--spent 62 days in the hospital, I coped by reading The Time It Never Rained out loud to him. I didn't know if he'd make it or not, and I wanted to make sure I shared a damn good story with him.
So it saddens me to know there are many people in our world who will never know the comfort of a good book.
According to UNICEF, "Nearly a billion people will enter the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names and two thirds of them are women."
I'm thankful for my ability to read and my ability to do something about illiteracy. What are you thankful for? For each comment left between today and Nov. 27, 2011 I will donate $1 to UNICEF. All I ask in return is help spread the word. Thanks! Posted by Rashda Khan at 11:04 AM Labels: Elmer Kelton, farming, Gerald Durell, illiteracy, literacy, Mina Khan, Thanksgiving, UNICEF, writing
