Welcome to
Writers4Higher
This issue, Writers4Higher features
Pat Bertram
Hi, Pat. Welcome to the
Writers4Higher family!
1. Tell me about yourself. Your book(s), your life, your inspiration.
I always thought I’d be a writer, so when I was twenty-five, I quit a job to write a book about a love that transcended time and physical bonds, told with sensitivity and great wisdom. Unfortunately, I discovered I had no talent for writing and no wisdom, so I gave up writing.
After I discovered I didn’t know how to write, I did temporary work for several years to gain experience of life. Or at least life as it pertains to work. I worked at hundreds of different companies doing everything from filing to billing to bookkeeping to operating a switchboard to selling cars to being a legal secretary. When I wasn’t working, which was frequently, I read. All those thousands of books seeped into my subconscious, and gave me a feel for storytelling, and so when I took up writing again, I had more of an idea of how to tell a story. I just had to learn the specifics, such as show don’t tell, which I did.
Three years ago, my life mate/soul mate died, and the only way I could handle my overwhelming grief was to pour it out onto pages of a journal, letters to him, and blog posts. When I discovered how much those blog posts meant to people who had also suffered grievous losses, I compiled my writings into a book about my first year of grief called Grief: The Great Yearning, which has recently been published by Second Wind Publishing. And so, quite by accident, I ended up writing the story of a love that transcended time and physical bonds, told with sensitivity and great wisdom. I just never knew that the story I’d always wanted to write would be mine.
2. Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?
I blog most days, and much of that writing is about my continued journey through grief. Someday, perhaps, I’ll write a sequel to Grief: The Great Yearning, chronicling how I found my way to renewed happiness, assuming, of course, I ever get there.
3. How do you use your talents/time to help others?
I don’t really use my writing talents to help others. I wrote about grief to help myself get through a horrendous time in my life, and my writings in turn helped others realize that they are not alone in their grief, that others have felt as lost and lonely and adrift in a sea of pain as they do.
Would you like to find Pat?
Check out the links to this talented author:
Website - http://patbertram.com
Second Wind Publishing - http://tinyurl.com/patbertram
Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/pat-bertram
Pat Bertram
author of More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, available from Second Wind Publishing, LLC
http://patbertram.com
http://patbertram.com
Rhett
DeVane
Fiction
with a Southern Twist
Pat, I think yoju actually do use your writing and blogging talents to help others through featuring numerous interviews with emergin authors--as well as excerpts--from their work. From reading the comments from your posts on grief, I think they resonated with people who were, or had been, going through similar circumstances themselves.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm
Hi, Malcolm. It's good to see you here, and it's good of you to say that I help people. Now if I can just figure out how to make a living by writing, I'll have it all!
ReplyDelete