Hello, my name is Muse and I’m a word-aholic. (group murmurs hellos). Um, so yeah… book-aholic. I… um, I… wow, this is really hard (someone shouts, “you can do it, girl!â€? “Yeah,â€? another disembodied voice offers “its all about the steps. One at a time!â€? There is weak applause.) Okay, well then… thanks for the support. I can do this. (clears throat). Okay, first I was attracted to the letters on my building blocks in daycare; they called to me. I knew there was more. I read my first book when I was three (a collective gasp rolls through the room; a random woman shrieks “oh, my gawd!â€?) Yes, three dammit! I didn’t know then what it would lead to; I didn’t understand that words make sentences… that sentences make paragraphs and that… (sniffs loudly) that paragraphs make stories!
I was completely out of control by the time I was eleven… writing plays, submitting articles to the newspaper, editing old copies of JET magazine and reading…. READING anything I could get my greedy hands on: comic books, cereal boxes, slogans on t-shirts!!! I was out of control and I wanted more words! Soon, I was dreaming in words (maniacal laugh) Ha! No more pictures for me. Forget one stinkin’ picture, I wanted it all, I wanted a thousand words! Then I crashed. (hangs head) There was simply no… more… room… in my head. The words lived there and they didn’t play nice. They wouldn’t come out. Then I heard about ficlets… I heard that there was help, a way to get the words out of my head… So (sighs heavily)here I am… amongst friends, people like you. People who understand living a life for the written word… People like you who will help me release the words… get them out of my head, someplace where they can be read. Because if I love them, truly love them – and set them free, they will come back to me…. they will come back! (room erupts into supportive applause).