How Reading Damaged my Ignorance

 

A Letter From the Writer Behind Giftkone Publishing

How reading damaged my ignorance.

I do not mean that one book, one library, or one source suddenly gave me all the answers. Reading gave me something more valuable: a way to ask better questions, do my own research, compare different accounts, and hear more than one side of a story.

My writing journey began during a time when research often meant physically going to the public library, looking through shelves, checking indexes, and following one subject into another. Later came computers and the internet, and suddenly there were even more doors to open.

For me, those doors led to a deeper understanding of history.

I began looking into the dark spaces in my own understanding of family history, educational history, spiritual history, social history, and especially Black history. The more I read, the more I discovered how much had never appeared in the textbooks I was educated with.

That realization disturbed me.

I began to understand that inaccurate history does not usually survive because of one person. It can take an entire system to create it, repeat it, protect it, and pass it from one generation to another.

For misleading information to become accepted history, books have to be written, approved, printed, distributed, purchased, taught, and repeated. Educators may inherit material they did not create. Publishers may rely on accepted sources. Political, religious, scientific, and social institutions may reinforce ideas that have gone largely unchallenged.

Sometimes people may simply repeat what they were taught.

Other times, inconvenient facts may be ignored, minimized, distorted, or left out altogether.

That became one of the strongest motivations behind my writing.

I wanted to investigate some of the subjects that had once been missing from my own education and then share what I discovered with others. I wanted to write about people, history, culture, family, faith, health, caregiving, relationships, and ordinary human experiences that deserve another look.

I am still learning.

That may be one of the most important things I can say about myself as a writer.

I do not write because I believe I know everything. I write because there is still so much I want to understand.

Reading taught me that learning does not end when school ends. Sometimes our real education begins when we finally become curious enough to question what we were originally taught.

That curiosity eventually became Giftkone Publishing.

Why I Created This Blog

I want the Giftkone Publishing Blog to become more than a place where I talk about my own books.

I would like it to become a meeting place for writers, readers, and curious people.

Writers are invited to share what encourages them to keep writing, what inspires their stories, where their ideas come from, and what writing prompts help them when the page seems empty.

Readers are invited to talk about the books and stories they enjoy. What makes you keep turning the pages? What kind of characters stay with you? What subjects do you wish more authors would explore? What makes you recommend a book to somebody else?

And you do not have to be a writer or an especially devoted reader to belong here.

You may simply be someone interested in history, family, culture, creativity, publishing, storytelling, or learning something you did not know yesterday.

You are welcome too.

What I Hope My Writing Accomplishes

Some of my books are meant to entertain.

Some are meant to inform.

Some are meant to preserve memories.

Some grew from questions I carried for years.

Others began with nothing more than an idea that refused to leave me alone.

Whether I am writing fiction, memoir, history, wellness, activity books, or stories about ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances, I hope there is something in the work that causes the reader to think, remember, question, smile, learn, or see something from a slightly different direction.

I have learned that a book does not have to change the whole world to matter.

Sometimes changing one person's understanding of one subject is enough.

Sometimes helping somebody remember part of their own history is enough.

Sometimes entertaining someone through a difficult afternoon is enough.

Sometimes a book simply needs to start a conversation.

And That Is Where You Come In

Writing can begin as a solitary activity, but books are not completed by writers alone.

Readers complete them.

Every reader brings personal memories, beliefs, questions, experiences, and imagination to the page. Two people can read exactly the same story and walk away carrying something completely different.

That is one of the things I love most about writing.

So I hope you will participate here.

Tell me what you enjoy reading.

Tell me what you are writing.

Tell me what inspires you.

Tell me about subjects you believe deserve more attention.

Share the writing advice you wish someone had given you earlier.

Share the books that changed your thinking.

And when you read something from Giftkone Publishing, I hope you will tell me what worked for you, and even what did not.

That conversation can help make the next book better.

My ignorance has suffered a great deal of damage since I first discovered the power of reading.

I hope it never recovers.

There are still too many books to read, too many questions to ask, too many stories to hear, and too much history waiting to be rediscovered.

Thank you for visiting Giftkone Publishing.

More importantly, thank you for being part of the conversation.

Giftkone Publishing
Books, stories, ideas, and conversations worth sharing