On Tea with Writers

Yesterday I spent a fantastic afternoon with my fellow UCLA Extension Novel V classmate, Sharon Steeber de Orozco, who is writing a fantastic novel of love across borders and finding our place (space) in the world. I was surprised to find out that Sharon is !GASP! a published author. Her novel, The Jews, was published in 1982 and was written in five months. The book is currently out of print, but seems to be floating around on the Internet used book circuit and hopefully a copy is headed my way as I type this.

I was way too talkative, but the opportunity to spend a few hours commiserating with another struggling writer is like indulging on dark chocolate. In fact, I was so amped when I came home that I stayed up way way past my bed time working on my novel's synopsis. And in one of those completely serendipitous events, her children went to Bonita Vista High School - the very high school where I took courses such as Rock Music Appreciation and learned to make milk carton bongs. Although rumor has it the smoking area disappeared along with the seventies.

Meeting people online is fun, but the satisfaction of spending face to face time with another human being who shares some of the same hopes and dreams is the difference between watching a snow storm on television and walking through it.