The Articles That Started It All

Writing was an inevitable direction for me. I was never really a book reader growing up, but that didn't mean I didn't read. I was and always will be a huge "pop culture" absorber. I read newspapers and magazines quite often, and I used to read my mother's Reader's Digest as soon as they arrived. She had a subscription for a few years, and I always jumped to the "Quotable Quotes" as soon as I tore the plastic it came in. Ever since I can remember, I was always interested in absorbing something "new". I've always said that "when it comes to trying something new, I hate to hate something, because I always felt that I would be missing out on that thing." Such as food! I can't think of anything that I won't try! Of course, you absorb everything, you also end up needing to extract, or express them, in some processed way or another. 



Writing is a way of expression, but I love its potential of being permanent. The way I see it, one well-written book will outlast your name, your children, your entire legacy. I mean, does anyone think about Mark Twain's family? Yet his books are remembered and revered by millions! The Dalai Lama once said: "If you want to live forever, share your knowledge." Writing books make the "forever" part just a little bit longer, I'd say. 

Between 2001 and 2006, I was a teacher. I taught Confirmation classes to teenagers for my local Catholic church. During that same time I was also teaching free real estate and mortgage classes to prospective agents who would eventually work for my brokerage. For the real estate class, I had written a "manual" that I used to teach the class with. I eventually bound the entire thing and gave them out to the students. Many of whom told me that I should publish it as a "self-help" book for agents. Not only was it instructional, it was very motivational, with "quotable quotes" I called "Real Estatements." 



Those years of teaching sparked my ambition to write and get something published. At the end of 2007, I started writing a series of articles, mostly about my life experiences. I started with this goal of writing about fifty of them. Each having around 1000 words, I figured if I wrote fifty by the time I'm forty five, I could publish my first "memoir". My goal hasn't diminished. I'm up to about twenty five or more and counting. I am posting them here on facebook because I don't trust my computer. I figured they're probably safer in cyberspace than on my hard drive and memory sticks. Sign of the times, sign of the times. 



But between the articles and now, my brain has exploded! I've "started" five or six other book ideas. And they're all great! The Cloud Seekers, which is well on its way to being finished, is one. "The Children of Lucia" is another. I actually went to the Philippines twice to do research on the project, and God willing, this has become more than just a project, but an "obligation" to tell my own grandmother's amazing story. I also wrote an article about how that came to be, which I will post here. Another four or five novels are in the works, all different genres. I've absorbed everything, so why limit genres? It's all work in progress. This is a good way of documenting that body of work. 





Robert Calixto 

October 21, 2009

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