Welcome to the “Words” section of A Branch of the Arts, and member access to my complete body of written works. Each set of archives provides the pieces in chronological order, and I have taken the opportunity to provide some autobiographical information along the way. This gives my members the life-context for each piece, and this is especially so with the poetry. So, the “Words” Archives Menu leads with the poetry archives.

          Any given piece of poetry is an insight into the poet, more so than any other form of writing. It reveals who the poet is, what makes her/him tick, how she/he thinks and feels – hers/his disposition. Whereas essays and editorials can tell us exactly what the writer thinks and feels, poetry tells us how the writer thinks and feels – a much more intimate matter. This is what members get with the poetry archives, all strung together with my life story and varied experiences, as they have given rise to my poetry.

          The essays archives, which are given chronologically in each category, capture my thinking on a spectrum of issues. This is serious non-fiction writing. Some are editorials, some are responses to news stories or contemporary issues, and some are answers to questions that burn inside me from time to time – all manner of social commentary and critical thinking.

          The short fiction archive contains a handful of short stories written over the years, and a one-act play. This is the least voluminous archive, as short fiction writing is something I rarely tried during my early and middle periods, and it is a form of writing I have begun working with more often in recent years. For certain expressive needs, nothing else will do.

          The archive containing speeches, proposals and miscellaneous documents is a catch-all for writing that doesn’t fit into the other categories, and which came about due to special circumstances or motivation, but which I believe to be important for one reason or other.

          Finally, the section on novels is not actually an archive, but a way to give members access to my long fiction writing, starting with my first published novel. This section also provides previews of my coming books, and “the author’s journey” in the process of writing each. Members have access below to the press kit for my coming climate-fiction novel, The Dying Party, even before it is published.

Note: Only members have full access to the archives in all three genres.