Writing about writing is the kind of thing that continues to come back to me. Here I am, basically self-educated, if I can be so arrogant as to claim, and people want me to write about writing. What do I know? What can I share about it that they can't discover on their own? I'm a hick with poor spelling and grammar. What do I know? I was kicked out of school at 16, so I didn't finish my senior year. I've never been to uni, which is college for my US readers. But I have always loved books, reading and words.

To me there's nothing finer than a good play on words, in conversation, in jokes, in entertainment. I read for pleasure, but also read because I am compelled. There's something in me that must read. I read all kinds of things. The back of cereal boxes, the long list of credits at the movies. My family has long since learnt to sit with me while I read the names of all those nobodies we will never know. I read the list because it's there. Someone wrote it, so I read it. I read the Saturday morning paper, but I am selective about what I read. There's the comics and they get a good going over first. I flick through the TV guide, which has a cool column by Danny Katz and some other interesting articles. I'm thinking of asking a local author I know if she'd like me to do her interview for that mag, but I lack the confidence. I read the Weekend Extra, which contains news and articles on arts, literature, social commentary and some politics. There's also an okay travel section, which I generally just look at the pictures, but will read any articles by a friend of mine who writes for them occasionally. Sometimes I'll actually read the paper, but that hasn't happened in a while. Not since I had the baby, I don't think.

Okay, okay, I know I'm avoiding the issue. But it all comes back to the same thing; this continual urge, a push from wherever, to write about writing. I've had articles published on the topic, but that doesn't make me any kind of an expert. I just get this squishy, wriggly feeling when I'm asked to write about writing. The last thing I want to be is some know-it-all, who mouths off all this advice and yet can hardly string together a few sentences and make sense of it.

But I love to help people, genuinely give assistance to those who really want it. I love to lead others into the joys and the simplicity of writing. I love to dispel the myth that it's some kind of difficult task to pen your thoughts, to mine your experiences for stories to share. At the same time I live under this cloud of intimidation. I am not educated by the standards known and accepted by most of the writing world. I face the fact that I am still learning, but am willing to take someone else by the hand and teach them what I know. Should I be paid for that? Should I be paid to share experience that I've won by hard work and long hours? I say yes, but perhaps others would disagree. Anyway, I think my time it up. I've probably raved on long enough.