There has been a lot of talk about writing recently. Violetta is prolific {Mendon, if you get bored, just visit her blog!}. Not only is she prolific, but very, very soon she should put pen to paper and start shipping those ideas off to publishers. Anyone who can't tell she's an amazing writer is illiterate - that's their only excuse.
She is currently in the Congo Republic. I don't know about you, but I didn't spend my childhood pining over a trip to the Congo. Violetta is currently residing in Paris, but visiting her parents in the Congo. I've lived in Paris. I love Paris - especially when I have friends there to share it with. I have some amazing memories from my time in France, and when Violetta writes about Paris it brings it all alive to me, all the stuff I enjoyed, and I yearn to go to Paris and share her experiences with her.
That said, when she writes about the Congo - well! - what can I say? I feel like I'm reading a good fantasy novel. I'm swept away into an alternate universe, where everything is beautiful, lush, purposeful and appreciated - especially by V. I feel an overwhelming urge to buy the next available ticket to the Congo and be apart of these experiences she's describing. She's suddenly made the Congo a high priority - smashing my top five [places to visit] to smithereens. I know it'll pass - when she leaves the Congo, probably. I doubt I could appreciate the Congo as much without her loving and appreciating eye to guide me. But that's okay. She's not going to evaporate - she'll be writing about somewhere else, and I'll fall in love with that place all over again. What's great about her writing (for me) is that I can keep this stuff - and hopefully her published stuff as well - and even if she's not near me when I have children, I can share her writing with my children and maybe help instill in them a similar sense of wonder and appreciation in them. I'd like that. A lot.
p.s. note: I know I made her writing sound sweet and appreciative, but she's also very real. Take her most recent entry, about some of the darker sides of Africa. She chooses to make her writing appreciative, she's not blind to the bogey men. We need more people who can dwell on the positive. I'd certainly rather have children, grounded in reality of course, who dwell on the positive rather than the negative!
