Starting a Bookish Revolution: HELP

After having mentioned several times here and there that my country isn’t the most literary one, it must be no surprise to you that I’m extremely so not okay with that.

And while in another post, I make reference to authors not coming to Ecuador, I have to admit that why would they? Of course it’d be the MOST AMAZING THING EVA if they could come, but we also have to do our part.

I have a lot of friends who like to read. Some like Pablo Neruda (I talk to you Kerly), some like mysteries a la The Blackout, and others like Osho. And I remember once, when I was the only one with pages and ink in my mind, and no matter how small the part I played in some of them taking the chance to read more regularly, I’ll take it and say I love them for it.

Unfortunately, not everyone I can convince. And not just about reading.

Opportunities, opportunities, opportunities

I see myself in an old friend, who posts his poetry in Facebook, and I fear that that’s all the attention it will ever receive. I fear it won’t get out there. I fear he won’t try. I see myself in the faceless kids I don’t know from my old school. I imagine there being at least one guy or girl who dreams of writing something, or just being heard, but not knowing how quite yet.

And then I realize that the only reason I discovered this community, this entire world, was by pure chance. A series of events that luckily ended up with me having a blog and writing this now.

I want more people to have those opportunities.

Take a Book

So one day I talked to my bestie and he got quite excited about the idea. We went to talk to the Literature coordinator at our old high school, and she liked it too. Soon, I had this project on my hands that I don’t know what to do with. I’ve never been one to start things up like this. I mean, sure, I started a blog, and believe me, that’s a huge leap. But, this, something at such a large scale?

Baby steps, Pamela. Baby steps.

We’re talking about little by little, make relentless campaign to bring back the reading habit to my country. I’m starting with my old highschool. With my friend, and some others that are signing up, we’re going to do a conference there to talk to the guys about reading, our favorite books and a little about writing too. We’ll start there. But I have big hopes, you know. We could then move to other schools. Motivate them to read and write. Initiate a small publisher for young writers to get their words out there.

Baby steps.

 

Yeah, I did have to go ahead and make a logo.

I needed to get this all out, because I’m also worried. What if this all blows up in my face and dies? What if I chicken out? I’m really afraid of chickening out, because this is too important.

And here’s where I want to be brutally honest. I’m not just worried. This thing scares the crap out of me. But I know I have to do this. It’s like my dream to get my book published. I know that even when (YES I SAID WHEN. I actually typed ‘if’ and then deleted. I’m trying to be positive here,) it does get published, it’ll be judged, and some people will love it, some will say ‘meh’, and others will probably hate it. It’s scary to put something out there that involves other people because I don’t know what’s gonna happen.

I even started a book club in GR, and I’d like it to be a place of integration. Right now, I’m not sure how to handle the language issue, because I’m planning on recruiting a lot of people for the book club when the conference takes place, but I’ll figure something out.

Meanwhile, I’d love it if you’d support this initiative from your home, or your office, or wherever you are right now. You maybe from another country, but your support would mean THE WORLD to me.

You can do so by either joining the book club here, or following the account on Twitter, here.

Warning: It might seem a little empty, sorry about that! But I’m hoping that will change soon!

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