Why Write?

Everyone has his or her own reason for writing.  I'm pretty sure making a lot of money or becoming famous are rotten ones.  If that's your motivation, you might want to try the lottery---it's easier and the odds are about the same.

I started writing seriously in 2009 when I stopped working at an Investment Bank.  That train ride slowed down, and I leaped feet first. My oldest daughter was a high school freshman at the time.  She has always loved Harry Potter (we never missed a midnight release whether movie or book), so I thought it would be fun to work on our own story together.  If she would have taken up golf, I probably would never have started writing!  We wrote a terrific coming of age, fantasy manuscript, had lots of fun in the process, and turned out a pretty good story.  I was hooked.

For me, writing is the closest I can get to magic.   I can create characters, places, and events in my mind, transform them into words, and hopefully, if I’ve done a good job, transport them to people I may never meet.  They may not see the book the same way as I envisioned it, but the basics should be the same.  I imagine it is the same feeling a carpenter gets when she transforms a block of wood into something greater.  If I was handy, I think I would make furniture, but I practically failed shop in high school.
 
I like to write thrillers and young adult books with themes that I find interesting or important.  My first novel, Fourteenth Colony, is a fast-paced political thriller set in America thirty years from now that was released on Tuesday.  I volunteer at the Writer’s Center at the Westchester Community College where I enjoy encouraging would be writers.
 
Hopefully, I will sprinkle some useful information in these blog posts for you as we go.  So, tell others and stay tuned.  Send in comments and topics, and I will try to discuss them.  With any luck, I’ll get other writers to post their thoughts and comments on this blog also.

Jeff Altabef, author of the Fourteenth Colony.