To Write, Perchance To Publish

Getting a late start at writing is...well...difficult. My brother joined the Army at 39. I guess it runs in the family.

The writing I do in my head, and have done all my life has been influenced by one author and one author alone.

Charlotte Bronte.

Her book, (or rather a filmmaker's newest conception of it)  Jane Eyre will be once again thrust onscreen on March 11, and I have a ticket waiting in my purse to go see it.


I have now reached an age which Miss Bronte was not fortunate to have achieved, and I have not published a substantial work yet, much less a work of the import and influence of a writer who, by her own admission considered the public 'indulgent' for inclining it's ear to a 'plain tale with few pretensions'. The modesty and understatement of her assertion could not have been more off the mark. Her writing hits the mark unerringly.

In rereading this gothic favorite, I have seen the self Miss Bronte carved into my being when at age twelve I read it with a mixture of great horror and delight for the first time. Identifying with the principle-guided suffering servant, I have tended not to asserted my voice, but rather have waited to be called upon. During the course of the narrative, numerous answers to pleas for help, however, are sent as Jane calls out to a higher power, which for her is the Christian God of the Bible. In this, I continue to copy Jane daily.

As Miss Bronte sent her work out for publication, one must assume her proactive energies were beyond the somewhat passive character of Jane. I am still learning from her.

One theme infused in the character of Jane I retain as my life goal: striving to follow God's law even to my own great personal distress, and an absolute reliance on God to provide the life He planned for me.

This is the treasure of Jane Eyre.