I chose to entitle my first blog "Writing Home" for a couple of reasons.  I am a Newfoundlander living away from home, on the mainland in Hamilton, Ontario.  My writing is a means of accessing home.  Home, in the sense of a tangible place, the cliffs, the salt air, the sounds of the harbour, the familiar  streets. But home also in the sense of the feeling of familiarity.  Writing home for me both refers to that fading practice of putting pen to paper and writing a letter home to loved ones, and refers to the act of trying to create an image in my writing of that beautiful island I call home. It occurs to me as I write this just how selfish the writing process is for me.  Writing is my path to home.

I have chosen to start a blog because I need to keep myself accountable.  I have started and stopped so many writing projects for various, insubtantial reasons.  In some cases life got busy and I stepped away from the world of my stories for so long I forgot how to tell them. The characters became unrecognizable.  In other cases it wasn't the words I gave up on, but my belief that I could conjure them.  The truth is that when the process became difficult, I found something easier and more immediate to turn my attention to. I hope that by blogging my efforts to complete my writing projects I will hold myself accountable to the task.

It is time I write home.