Avenues To Becoming A Writer
by Sharon Allen Gilder
author, “The Rose Beyond”
Recently, I was asked to explore the avenues that led me to becoming a writer. Where did my love for the written word and books originate?
From early childhood, I was always in the company of books, and my parents frequently read stories and poems to me. As a child, I wrote stories and created books with bindings, and read them to family and friends. But I like to think that my ancestors also played a role and infused me with a palpable desire to write.
Writing flourished with my maternal great-grandparents who, the same year they were married, in 1884 at age 22, founded a Florida newspaper, the West Hillsborough Times. As the story goes, my great-grandmother often set the type on their kitchen table and the paper was published from the back of a drug store in Dunedin, Florida. The newspaper later became the St. Petersburg Times.
My paternal grandmother loved to write simple poems and sent my father off to World War II with a thin, pocket-sized book titled, “The Service Man’s Book of Strength,” that included inspirational bible verses. She pasted in a photograph of the two of them captioned with, “Lest you forget, Mother,” written in her own hand, and she typed and pasted in an original poem — a personal message as she sent him off to war, “A word of love, While marching on, From God above, Will make you strong.” I’m sure this gave her comfort as she hoped it would him. Though the book’s cover is tattered from its journey overseas and the effects of age, it remains a treasured keepsake where the power of words and bonds are bound.
Writing is often characterized as a solitary pursuit – I’m not so sure. Although I might be alone in a room with my fingers on the keyboard waiting for the next words to flow upon my computer’s screen, the confluence of people, places and events from my past keep me in wonderful company. Perhaps that’s why I’m drawn to writing historical romance – to keep the words and telling of the past from fading – to make a connection to the past through the characters – to imagine the voices that came before me and let them be heard.
Sharon Allen Gilder is a native Washingtonian and Gaithersburg resident since 1978. Her debut historical romance novel, “The Rose Beyond,” initially began on a sheet of scrap paper that she carried around in her wallet. After “germinating” for 14 years, the story finally reached full bloom. In addition to being an author, Sharon is a freelance writer, is on the staff of The Town Courier newspaper, and has been published in The Washington Post, The Gazette and numerous other newspapers and magazines.