by Ethan Holmes

Created on: March 05, 2009

Thank You Mrs. Peiri

I remember her as surely as if she were standing over me today, this very moment, wooden ruler in hand while peering over thick wire-rimmed glasses. Good old stone gray-haired Mrs. Peiri, my rather stout, strong-voiced first grade English teacher. Mrs. Peiri could block out the sun shining through the schoolroom window but that woman sure knew her English grammar.

She loved to give tests, or at least it seemed like she loved it. She also seemed to like seeing who would complete the day's quiz the fastest. She had a little gleam in her eye as if to say, "I can hardly wait to see who is first. Whoever is first is sure to have the most mistakes."

One by one we would raise our hands as we completed the quiz and she would give us permission to bring it up to her desk. "Mrs. Peiri," I would eagerly wave my hand, "I'm done!"

"Now see here young man, you are most certainly not done. The cake is done, you are finished!" Mrs. Peiri would reply almost with indignity.

I never forgot Mrs. Peiri or that saying. In fact I think of it every time I sit down to create something on paper, to conjure up things inside of me that are eager to escape, to express things in writing that I might never otherwise speak about to another person.

I really don't recall her having that kind of affect on me when I first started writing things I actually wanted other people to see. I started writing poetry when I was about ten. That graduated into short stories and the occasional newspaper letter to the editor and then songwriting. My creative efforts eventually extended to magazine articles until last year when I completed my first novel. It took me seven years to write it. Mrs. Peiri would not have been pleased. She didn't like slow writers.

Seven years is a long time. In that seven years I hope I became an even better writer than I was when I started it. I think it shows in the later chapters. It took seven years to write it in part because it required a tremendous amount of research. Suffice it to say that when some university out there decides to bestow an honorary degree on me solely because I am a famous best-selling author I'm taking it. I earned it. I had to become at least four different scientists just to write that book. So perhaps Mrs. Peiri wouldn't be so agitated anyway.

I write for the same reasons that I am a nature photographer. For one thing, I am still amazed at the power to freeze time. When I take a shot of a waterfall, lightning, clouds in the sky or the wind

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