How it Began

I've always been writing, for as long as I can remember. Unnecessarily long sentences in English class in Junior school; embarrassing compositions in High school; short-stories traded across the seas between friends.

About 15 years ago, in the middle of an intense year in business school, exhausted and sleep-deprived, I stepped out onto the balcony of a barely furnished apartment at 2 in the morning and tried to make sense of it all. 

Poetry seemed a much more expressive way to let off steam and started with that 2am poem in February 2006.
Initially, it was just a way to take stock of a year of business school, but led to poetry for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and summaries of years that passed.

Eventually, when my first child was born, I started writing poetry about being a parent. These were initially just expressing worries and fears, excitement and the thrills of being a first-time parent.

A year in, I felt the need to write a story with my children as heroes; a tale of being empathetic, brave, unafraid and accepting of others different than us.
Staring at my first-born, covered in a faded orange swaddle cloth, small, brown and well-wrapped, the word 'peanut' popped in my head and that was where my first story had its simple roots.
A story with a boy and a peanut, both playing heroic, starring roles and an elephant in distress.

As the kids grew up in an increasingly intolerant world, the story grew as well, with elements of fear, indifference and youthful innocence added to the mix.

I'll keep these posts short and have the next one focus on transforming a simple story written on 'Notepad' and forwarded to family by e-mail into one book-worthy.