For as long as I can remember, from early childhood, I was chasing the artistic vision that has defined all my work as an adult writing as David S. Annderson.
Chasing this beautiful vision of the reality of the world, of all the wonderful beautiful things out there.
I only realized as an adult that this was an artistic vision and that I was meant to be a writer- when I decided that I wanted other people to know the beautiful things that I know, to see the beautiful things that I have seen out there in the world.
But from early childhood I have been chasing that beautiful vision and being creative. Playing creative play, playing pretend and making up stories. Like the Bronte sisters.
It was such a trip reading about the Bronte sisters doing that, making up stories as children, with their own make-believe kingdom. Like there was someone else that was doing that, just like me and my brother and sister did as kids!
I grew up in the loving environment created by my mom and dad. Surrounded by love from my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Learning about science and math, and how to be a tree-hugger, and all kinds of things, from my Mom, from my Dad the intellectual, from my mom's dad my Grandpa Lundblad the wise sage.
I knew from Jim Henson and Steven Spielberg's E.T. where to start in searching for those beautiful things out there and being creative. Where to start in finding what I would realize years later as an adult was my artistic vision as a writer.
I knew from childhood vacations in the Sierras and their beautiful forests in the summer, and the drives through the beautiful California foothills and their beautiful woodlands to and from those vacations, how much beauty and magic is out there in the world.
And I discovered that artistic vision with my brother and sister.
We were 20 years ahead of the other children. Not just me. My sister. And my brother.
Me and my sister would persue these creative dreams as eternal playmates, experamenting, chasing beautiful vivid dreams and being creative. And alongside us was our brother. He was unable to walk or talk. But boy could he communicate. And he was always right alongside us. And he understood it all. He too was 20 years ahead of the other children. Right alongside us. Cheering us on. Encouraging us. Living it with us in our imaginary world. We had confidence because of him. He believed in it, just like we did, and he believed in us.
We were in the American Golden Age. It was the 80's. Classic Sesame Street. Jim Henson. E.T. and Indiana Jones. Steven Spielberg and Star Wars. Star Trek and Muppet Babies. It was still cool to be nice, it was still cool to be happy. It was not yet cool to be mean.
By the time all that ended, I was ready to carry on on my own. Through the night. Past the end of the American Golden Age in 1992. Through the darkness of Grunge and Gangster Rap. Through the unnecessary despair around me. The vision would sustain me.
And eventually, as an adult, I would realize that by writing I could share all that with the world.
All that beautiful vision.
And that's what I do.
And my sister and brother, my father and mother and grandparents, my Grandma Goff and Grandpa Lundblad, my Aunt Vicky and Uncle Lou and Uncle Eric, their blood flows through everything I write.
So does Steven Spielberg's E.T., Jim Henson's work and Tolkien, for there is where I started out from to find it all.
So does the California woodlands and forests, whose beauty and wonder showed me how much magic is in the world.
And so does Andre Norton's Judgement on Janus and Victory on Janus, for through those stories I as an adult rediscovered the vision anew that I had been holding on to all that time, revived the creative muscles, and soon understood that vision better than I ever had. And set out to bring it to the world as a writer.
I hope I have done a good job!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson