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USING A CREATIVE BRAIN

My writing journey first started from youth – my teens – a perfect storm of dyslexia mated to desire, writes subscriber Chris Clarke.

Dyslexia – like others – crippled my learning during my schooling years, or more precisely, my ability to convey the extent of my knowledge.

Then something happened, I met a girl, a girl that I remember was called Helen. She so moved my thirteen year old heart that I felt compelled to write her a poem, which I did, handing it to her during an opportune moment at school. It wasn’t until some time later that I realised that in expressing my emotions I hadn’t encountered the same obstacles I did when attempting to convey basic information. This started a decades long endeavour that led me on a journey through poetry, to short, literary fiction, to longer stories with more of a mainstream edge, to now, where I no longer suffer the effects of my affliction.

I believe – like a stroke sufferer losing the ability to speak, but discovering an ability to swear – that poetry uses a different, creative part of my brain, and I’ve recently read of others with a similar tale to tell.

The sense of achievement I feel each and every time I read a new review of one of my books is palpable, helping to heal deep scars left from my past.

The Puppet Tears and The Art Of Killing hitting the shelves marks the end of a struggle to let who I am out. A second creative outlet to the special effects/animatronic work I do on a daily basis.