Good morning, precious Poet and Writer! :)
Could I share with you some thoughts about "A glimpse of life..." #1 and #2 ?
Because here, we have all the differences between what I call a "sharer" and an Artist, a real Writer.
A "sharer", like the majority of us, when she-he lives, experiences or witnesses something overwhelming, disturbing, shocking, or simply moving, will be tempted to share her-his more or less immediate reactions, impressions, feelings, wounds and sufferings, without real distance, reflection, analyse, or will to really "speak" to other.
In fact the "sharer" doesn't have any real conscience of the people who will be reading her-his thoughts, she-he in fact doesn't "talk" to and with other people, and if you think about it, it's exactly like if inside the head of the "sharer", readers doesn't really exist at all. There is no audience, because her-his textual (or video) confession / expression is not a real show.
A "sharer" can perfectly write poems, novels or essays, realizing videos, can be the starting point of big "social" debates, battles, can also be harassed, criticized, etc...
...But all of this is not Art!
There is no distance between the writer and her-his subject, no real work (yes, an Artist, by definition... works! Sometimes very hard and during many days, nights, years... exactly the opposite of what too many have a tendency to think...)
I could report to you the difficulties and years of exercising and rehearsal on my instrument, the result is that now I am able to say to you and to the world: "I'm a guitarist". It's not pretentiousness or misplaced pride, you can perfectly hate what I do, think that i'm a very mediocre musician, but you can't contest this simple fact: I'm a guitarist, because I worked very deeply and very long time (I started at 9, and I'm 57!) for that. This is my #1 way of expression, my #1 tool to build sound artefacts called "songs", which can very well be compared to buildings.
Art is exactly what you do: you take time to compose, sculpt beautiful phrases... And I love your phrases! I love the delicacy and nuances of your verbs and propositions, the rightness of your descriptions, and by "rightness" I mean: when I read your phrases, it appears for me perfectly accurate: it's like you'd have an arc, and your arrows, in my humble point of view, always manage to reach their target, at the exact point where one could say: "This is THAT! This is exactly this way that I could paint this situation... If ever I could find words for that."
A real Writer manages to build the tools, the instruments necessary to build a real... "oeuvre" (sorry for the French word, I can't find a real English equivalent, "work" is not enough to express my thoughts and feelings). This is not an internet confession, it's a piece of Art. Anyone can perfectly hate it or half-like it, or feel concerned, moved the way I am, but as said earlier there is one thing where no contestation is possible: it is Art. You're an Artist.
Of course "Artist" is NOT everything you are, simply a part, "Artist" is simply the obviousness anyone can realize reading your works.
I like when you take the time to reason about, to reflect on and contemplate your story, like a Philosopher would do:
« Some truths can only be accepted when the time is right, when there is strength to take them, and for some truths such a time never comes. »
This apparently "simple" phrase means a LOT to me, it makes me think about the Taoist philosophy: resume all the complexity of the World in a simple and pure form, result of a very, very long, hard and complex work on Oneself.
Sometimes Philosophers can be confusing because they take a very long road to express and describe their thinking - and quasi-scientific -process, on the other side a Writer like you can compose an uncluttered and luminous sculpture of only few words that can resume very long, boring and analytic books.
My conclusion (and here again, I'm very very sorry about the length of this message, I don't have your talent to describe complex things in so little number of words, I hope this was not a total waste of time or a very boring moment, sorry again!) is that with this talent for prose that you have in your hands you could perfectly write short or very long novels. Of course it could demands far more work and time, but please don't refuse this simple evidence: you're a Writer, you can write short stories, novels or even essays, in fact I couldn't understand why we should put any limit to what you're capable to do, I hate limits, and I hate to see in the eyes of some people in front of me the reflect of all these limitations (in creativity, imagination) they have and would like to impose to others, especially women.
So I would be delighted if you could accept this simple truth: there's absolutely not a single limit about what you can do as an Artist. No obstacles. Nothing, no one, can retains or hold you back in the road of your Art. Nothing, no one, can stops you from expressing what you are and what you wanna share with the world, exactly in the forms and colors that you choose. No closed doors, no barrier, no frontier, never, ever.
My best wishes and most beautiful thoughts are with you, always.
Your #1 fan, Alain.
(P.S. : if ever you agree, in a (far or near? Exactly as you wish) future message I could talk to you about what I think and had the opportunity to witness about the relationship between an Editor and a Writer, not forgetting a very important (and often invisible, like a terrible Ghost in the Machine...) third actor in the théâtre: the Sales and Marketing manager! ;-) )
