WHY I WRITE

WHY I WRITE Mary Nida Smith      Why do I write? I write because this is who I am. Words on paper are food that provides strength for me to continue my journey of creative writing. I believe I was born to write, for God knew I needed to fill a void through painful and lonely times.       I didn’t write thinking I would be rejected from so many places and advised to give it up, for I wrote because this is who I am. Rejections would slow me down or question why I write, but the words that formed stories kept trying to open the door to my mind. Many stories formed a mind of their own. I couldn’t deny them their time to walk across the pages and make someone smile or allow a tear to flow.     When I spied a call for submissions from a newspaper, magazine or other areas, if I thought I could, like the little red engine, I submitted.  It was always a wonderful surprise when I was accepted – paid or not, I was getting my name out there. It was cheap advertisement, a chance to learn from an editor, and to spread my wings in many different fields of creative writing.      Today I am an author of two books: Heroes Beneath the Waves: Submarine Stories of the Twentieth Century and Submarine Stories of World War II. I have written for newspapers and magazines. I have been published as a poet and as a writer for the children’s market.