Remember Anna Mary Robertson? She
became Anna Mary Robertson Moses, and eventually, Grandma Moses.
Everyone knows of her and her style of painting; primitive, naïve, art
brut, self-taught and now called “outsider art,” and it has always has
been my most favorite genre.
But what was especially terrific about that great lady
was that after years of hard farm work, raising ten children and
painting for fun, she began to paint scenes from memory seriously at age
78. Seventy-eight! Imagine that. And that’s when she was discovered.
That’s just one year short of when I finally wrote and
got my first really and truly serious book into print, and the whole
thing has me slightly spinny. Well folks, hope springs eternal and
while I doubt the Pulitzers will be calling, or the New York Times or
even Hollywood, I still have a book to hold in my hands, and it has my
name in big letters on the front. “Thrilling” just simply doesn’t cut
it.
I know lots of you out there have written books,
successful books, so you know about the thrill thing. It’s amazing.
Just flat out astonishing, right?
What’s especially meaningful to me, apart from finally
completing this novel, is that I did it on the cusp of my 80th
birthday. Why did I wait? I have no clue. Laziness? Fear? Probably.
But I’m hoping that perhaps there’s some truth to those ancient and
boring axioms such as, “all good things come to those who wait” or “some
wines turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.” Maybe my book
is vinegar, but I waited so long to do it I’d like to think the words
swirling around in my head that I put on paper pages, have improved with
age. And I know that even my hero Grandma Moses had to hear and read
negative things about her paintings, and I’ll have to do ditto about
this book of mine. It is what it is. I get it, and at nearly 80 I’m
allegedly a grown-up, and if this happens, I can take it. Not.
It’s like a birth, this book launch thing. I’ve given
birth to a book baby and I want to hold it out to the world and I want
the world to love it and think it is beautiful and important. Will it?
I’m so often told by my once-were-flower-child pals that if one just
thinks positive thoughts, good things will happen. Seriously? Doesn’t
work so well with a kidney stone attack, but whatever. I’m really
trying.
This book, my book, is called “Queenie” and it’s a
story of a young girl in the 1950s who learns in the very hardest way to
be accepting of all people, even those for whom she’d had nothing but
contempt. Given the name “Queenie” well into the book, she suffers
humiliations, learns to step away from learned hatreds and overcomes a
shattering family scandal. This book was edited cleanly, kindly and
intelligently by none other than one Raye Leonard, who
beautifully edits
The Coastal Journal out of Bath, Maine.
The book will be at all Maine bookstores quite soon,
but as of this minute, it is at the Gulf of Maine, on Maine St., in
beautiful downtown Brunswick. And of course, it’ll soon be on Amazon.
If I am able to gather up whatever shreds of courage I may have within, I
will try for a book signing one day.
I’d like to ask something of you, on behalf of Grandma
Moses and me too ---if you have a book or a painting or an anything
brewing inside of you, do it. Bring it to life. Don’t wait the way
Grannie Moses and I did. She had about 26 years left and everyone knows
how well she did. I am nearly 80 and have no clue how much time I have
left to watch this new book baby grow, or even if it will. I wish I’d
done it sooner but I also know that spending time wallowing in regrets
is stupid and non-productive.
So folks, no matter what your age, go for it!!
Whatever “it” is. It’s wonderful if these creations of ours make tons
of money for us, but honestly, the real high is getting it done and out
into the world. Trust me! Do it!! You will never regret it. I don’t.
Grandma Moses surely didn’t.
Click on author's byline for bio and list of other works published by Pencil Stubs Online.
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