I packed my suitcase and left home when I was three because of two words: "Young Yayden." Being reprimanded by my dad with the term "young lady" was an insult to my three-year-old self, one which I apparently couldn't tolerate. Through the years when my mother retold this story, she would add, "…and then Billie marched out, headed for my sister Marion's house saying, "My Aunt Maremin won't stand for this." "Young Yayden," and the tone my father used with it, cut me to the core. Words are important, and I am fascinated by their power. I marvel at how just the right words put in the perfect order can move a nation, change a mind, make someone laugh, or bring a person or a whole country down. In the darkest time of my life, it was the beautiful words that pulled me through: "I'm not afraid of storms for I'm learning to sail my ship," Alcott; "He who has a 'why' to his existence can bear with almost any 'how,' Neitzche; "To strive to seek to find, and not to yield," Tennyson. I think behind everything I write whether a short story, essay, children's book, or novel, is the quest to craft one perfect arrangement of words, one sentence, that lingers. Writing something that mattered would be like receiving an Oscar, Olympic Gold Metal, and a brand new puppy, all rolled into one! I'd love to hear a word or two or a hundred from YOU at billiekelpin.com
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