I wrote my first poem when I was five. It sounded something like this:

            My mother died,
            My father died,
            Therefore, I am an orphan.

My parents laughed their heads off and reproached me for having killed them. My mother said that my poetry was devoid of artistic value, but my father tried to be nice and remarked that although lacking in sophistication, it did have some logical merit. I was deeply offended. I decided I will never write again, I shall not be ridiculed. This decision, however, was like a pregnant woman's decision to not give birth.

I feel most alive when I am writing. I will never be able to impart the experience of happiness, frustration, elation, despair and joy that are my lot while writing. Whether fiction or non-fiction, from a certain point on in the writing, the book/story/poem takes over, and I am the spectator. Nothing compares to experiencing the rich emotional scale triggered by writing. And now, I would like to share some of my writing with you.