“Some discussions are absolutely necessary.” ©Natalie

My reply to Loretta with a little music to soften the mood. ©Natalie Keshing 

My reply to Loretta from Linkedin who said, “Sadly, I’m hearing that books in bookstores are not selling…they’re collecting dust! I’d appreciate a discussion on that matter.”

It is very sad that with social media and advanced technology we’ve evolved to a different way of obtaining and reading information, great stories or memoirs. Through our laptops and iPads people are downloading digital copies of most books from Amazon.

A real book could have been placed on a shelf or in a bookcase. Kept for remembrance or to re-read or even saved for a friend or a family member to read. A real tangible book kept in a place of remembrance.

This new genre and era of social media and advanced technology has slowly put bookstores out of business. If books don’t sell, how does a bookstore survive?

I remember where I live, they closed the Borders downtown and I was sad. I loved that bookstore and the place and comfort it offered to go pick out a new book and sit in the nice cafe in the middle of Borders and order a Latte’. To be among the people who enjoyed reading as much as you did. Maybe start up a friendly conversation about the book you were reading or anything in general.

The bookstore was also close to a very unique theater where they showed independent and foreign films and that place eventually closed as well and that really made me sad. Then someone who was wealthy and appreciated authenticity remodeled and reopened the theater and that was a nice surprise.

I was part of a local book club in my neighborhood and I enjoyed that for a while. The discussions and different interpretations were fascinating. Then due to some health challenges, I slowly stop going to the monthly meetings.

I wasn’t involved with social media at all. Facebook was up and coming. Then I heard about Twitter and all the others and I still wasn’t convinced or had any interest in social media.

Then two and half years ago, I created my first account on social media. I wrote something and pressed send. Suddenly I had 18 followers. Suddenly, I thought I was quite popular. My interests were sort of part of the social media population. So from there I started to write small pieces of poetry, those among the poets who referred to as “A Fieryverse”. I immediately liked the label, “A Fieryverse.” Well, you can take that label and describe just about anything that others might find fiery and interesting. So from the poetry I came up with the concept of “The Poem of Verses” and I thought that that was my original concept until I found out a poet in the late 18th century had the same idea I had. I was flattered and disappointed at the same time.

All this writing I was doing was giving me a purpose, a life, a creative outlet you could say. So I wanted to learn to write with flare and remain unique. I started to improve and enhance my vocabulary. I stretched it beyond my naive imagination. But with practice, you can go far beyond naive and even more than interesting. I found out that I could say everything I wanted to write about and still remain a mystery. Huh! I thought this is interesting and remarkable!

Then eventually, I would challenge myself again and I wanted to write a book. Here I was suddenly faced with the subject of my story. Well who’s story couldn’t be more interesting than mine. I was already a rare commodity in my culture with gumption. I never seemed to lack for that. Years ago, someone who had to get to know me a little bit better had labeled me “A bridge person”. It really turned out to be a compliment. I had always had a great fascination with other cultures and lives around the world. So I started a very rough draft manuscript of ME. I wanted to make it inspiring and resilient because that’s exactly who I was and I was resilient and proud of it.

As I was rewriting the manuscript, I could already see the real book in my hands; published. I learned that real writing takes an enormous amount of time all the while practicing and more practicing. I finally managed to publish it through Amazon.

And yes, I did have those same dreams and ambitions that my book was going to be a best seller. I could’t wait. I was sure that this story, my story, was pretty interesting and unique. I made it powerful, challenging, inspiring, resilient and even funny. As I checked daily, I waited for the selling of my book to climb astronomically and then; it didn’t. That’s right you heard me right. It didn’t.

Continuing, I was at the same time immersed in maintaining a story or two delving into a chilling thriller and a love affair. By then I had written 8 Poem of Verses, a book, two screenplays, one almost finished the other desperately needing my sole devotion and attention.

Then another idea popped out of my head why not launch an online magazine site making it artistically and musically inviting while writing about serious global issues, the election 2016, breaking news, and more. So here I am writing and responding to Loretta. I posted some of my memoir under the category “A Past”. It’s all there at  http://www.natswritings.com And once again, I learned how to merge, assimilate two stories of two woman interwoven, those are titled “What Remains To Be Said” Part I through Part VIII.

Oh P.S: I really feel writing saved my life and made it much more worthwhile.

Thank you so much for reading at NatsWritings.com

ICYMI