A WRITER'S MAGICAL WORDS

Once upon a time...

As a child growing up in the Bronx, my mother would take me to the library at least once a week. In 1960, there were hardly any bookstores, and as far as pulling down reading material from "the cloud", well, the only clouds were the ones just before a storm.

My mother would pick out a book for herself and then take me to the children's section where I would spend a good hour choosing my own books for the next two weeks. Then, we'd traipse back to our apartment on Carpenter Avenue and allow the magic of "once upon a time" to begin.

Now, as a writer, those words mean something quite different, something much bigger. The magic attached to them is still there, of course, only when they course through my brain, I know that I'm about to begin writing a new book.

That phrase from so long ago still takes me on a journey of twists and turns, plot lines and characters, and themes and conflicts. And after all the many years I've been writing, ONCE UPON A TIME still evokes the passion that reminds me to "make magic" with my words.