In my first YouTube video, I talk about why reading diverse stories is important to me.
December 5, 2018
I believe many of us read fiction to gain experiences from which we can learn. They may be vicarious, but good fiction makes us feel as though we've been someone else for a while, we've walked in their shoes.
In this way, #fiction expands our horizons - we see parts of the world we could never visit in real life, we feel emotions we haven't directly held in our hearts, we have new thoughts presented that would not arise from our own limited experience.
Fiction changes us. Once we accept these new visions, feelings, thoughts, we cannot give them back. They become a part of us.
This is why I believe #weneeddiversebooks. Every story adds to the collective consciousness of humanity. Everyone has a valuable story to tell.
Andy,
Thank you so much for those kind words. I hope we get a chance to talk in person at the conference!
I am planning on attending the Penn Writers Conference in Pittsburgh and saw your "presenter description" as well as the link to your website. After going to your website and watching your You Tube video, I was struck by your statement, "Every story adds to the collective consciousness of humanity." As a counselor and recently retired college professor of counseling from Shippensburg University, I was struck by your emphasis on people being meant to expand personally as loving beings. My novel (I'm currently looking for publishers) centers on much of what you expressed about the importance of diversity and learning from "true self" in one another. I love your focus and wish more people stretched to grow personally like you…