by mjhardenITOO | Nov 25, 2016 | How ITOO unfolded, Nature as muse
I have not written in this blog for nearly a year. On purpose. I am trying to learn to market the ebook way (insanely complicated), and I run into so many blogs that i wonder why write yet another. Still . . . . . I have decided to reprint my book’s introduction in order to explain what is truly a very different book. INTRODUCTION I have always been a writer in a rather “straight” journalistic mode (books, magazines, brochures, manuals, articles, reporting, editing). I have a couple of journalism degrees, and for me, writing is craft plus talent. And it’s a job. How then did a “normal” writer come up with this bizarrely different book? Definitely not a job. More like a mission. How did this happen? Magic. I would have to say magic. We’ve been told for centuries “to ask and you shall receive,” and so I followed that advice. I’ve written everything from a documentary to a birthday card, but, I wondered, is there a reason I have this propensity to write? And so I asked. Out loud, twice a day, morning and evening, for three days. It wasn’t a prayer, it wasn’t a demand, it was a simple request: “Tell me what you want and I will do it.” On the third day the process of knowing began. Or rather, the process of surprising myself. I walked into Maui’s Haleakalā Volcano to clear my mind and let the message come through. Haleakalā is quiet and expansive, a massive place for inspiration. By the time I hiked to the crater floor, a 3,000-foot descent, I had it....
