Bruce Moody

I love to write!

I get up every morning, say my prayers, and get to it! Here I am right now, sitting at the mac in my pajamas.

I love to write because I feel good when I do it. Writing enlivens me -- it always has. I've been writing since I was 14 when my father brought home from his office an old Spanish upright Royal. I wrote a story right away from the point of view of a pair of red pumps standing in an elevator and fearful of the man who was standing just behind. What ever became of that story?

I went on writing through high school, on the paper where my first short story was published, and then long letters from Korea when I was in the Army.

When I was at Columbia College I wrote The Bunner Prize-winning essay on The Poetry Of Emily Dickinson. After that I wrote a story that Botteghe Oscure took, and as soon as I got married I wrote a story that The New Yorker published.

I then went on the staff of Look Magazine and write For Women Only and the food stories. When I left there, for some years to support my family, I wrote advertising -- these were my Mad Men years -- Cheerios Kid and Sue and Bullwinkle and package promotions -- and book advertising.

But that sort of writing didn't really agree with me, and I vowed not to continue it -- not that I was great at it, I wasn't -- but rather, only to do jobs to pay the rent that I could do well and honestly, but not writing jobs. I realized that I had a writing instrument, yes, but that it was not suited to certain work. I vowed to do only the sort of writing I was really meant to do.

A novel, The Decline And Fall Of Daphne Finn was published. I started on another one, Golden Comedy. I wrote plays, and various short stories and poems that were published in the literary journals. Some of the poems won prizes.

I joined the staff of The National Lampoon and wrote the column Birdbath, stories, and parodies. I was living in New York at the time, but I left for California where I live now, and found a job, and went on writing.

I kept that job for many years, I thought I would never lose it, but I did.

I could not find work.

Eventually, the rent was due, and I was stuck. I was divorced by this time; my daughter was grown; I was of an age when I should be supporting myself, but I could not do it. So, to keep a roof over my head, I had to go out on the roadside and beg.

It was an excruciating experience, but it was also exalting. I was so grateful that I kept a journal. That journal eventually became Will Work For Food Or Money, which RedWheel/Weiser published and which won several awards.

I write poems in the morning, although not this morning, for this morning I am writing this. And I also write a BLOG about movies I enjoy, called moviemoody.com. It gets about 300 readers a day. I wish I could answer them all.

I love writing these reviews, and I love writing this to you, right now. One of my most recent pieces is a holiday book called Christmas Day In The Morning, on Kindle, $2.99.

I am going to continue to put my work on Kindle: Daphne Finn, books of poems, stories, novels. And I am going to continue to write. For I love making sentences. I love practicing my craft and learning it, a day at a time, a sentence at a time.

I think you might say, writing is my calling, my vocation.

An angel touched me when I was 14, and her hand is still on my shoulder. And I'm so glad it is!