The Almighty Author
Who else but the author can be one and many simultaneously?
Who else but the author can give or take life without guilt, remorse, or punishment?
However, the author is alive. It's real.
And think of it. Think about the awful loneliness, the exhaustion, the rare instances of being in high spirits after the culmination of a manuscript.
The writer's word is the writer's world.
The author has plans; yes, they have plans. The only difference is that, unlike other people, the author has plans for the past, present, and future.
There are no death authors. Indeed, an author is immortal. They live through their characters. Authors have second and even third lives.
And, as it happens in scientific and artistic realms, it's sad but true that the author's opportunity they longed for throughout their lives may come when they are no longer in this world.
So, the author must be allowed everything. If this does not happen, then we have a problem.
From Hemingway to Cormac McCarthy to Dickens to Nabokov, you can see that the author has no rules other than what dictates their imagination.
An author can go to bed with the most passionate sinners and wake up as a saint the following day.
It's the pause, the systole, and the word the diastole, the author's heart.
A book can make an author eternal. Yet, the book must come alive in the reader's eyes for this to happen. Magical pages that make the reader grow and expand and fly to the never-ending corners of life and death. If this doesn't happen, the author's voice will be like the song of the brook muted beneath dry leaves.
If you're an author, the words must be yours, so they must pain your skin. You must talk to your sentences face to face. You must be fearless. One of the best qualities of an author is to show courage in front of a blank page. The author is a conqueror of blank pages. The blank page is the unrequited love the author must court until it surrenders.
A fulfiller of dreams, if not their dreams, the author has the power to fulfill the dreams of others.
You, the author, must love your writing.
Your words must become your best friends.
You must feel the exhilaration of your story in your heart.
You must get drunk with your words like the best wine ever to touch your lips. I had this feeling while writing my book "Capricious River," which is a thrilling adventure in the Amazon rainforest and a cry to save the life of this natural beauty. I was drunk with words and emotions when I wrote it. So, if you read this book, please read it responsibly, as if you were drinking the best wine.
