by kyle | Nov 29, 2016 | Encouragement, Journey
Thanksgiving is barely over. The highway home was crowded with others like me who had visited family for a few days.
Aside from a couple extra pounds, one thing I brought back with me was actually, well, 8 things. My old photo albums from high school, college, and beyond. They’d been in my mom’s shed in a box for about 20 years, when I first left to live overseas. I had not looked at them since.
Flipping through the photo albums that chronicled my adult life was like rediscovering myself, like reassembling scattered, forgotten pieces of my identity. I needed that wash of memories to bring me back to the previous chapter and stitch it together. You see, when I left Europe three years ago to return permanently to the U.S, after nearly a quarter of my life spent there, I closed the door on a life, a career, a culture…and opened another one.
by kyle | Sep 14, 2016 | Fiction, Journey
A new step in my writing journey was to attend the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Conference in Nashville in late August. I’d signed up months before, and when the time came I decided, instead of flying, I’d take a road trip.
The town of Asheville, NC, is about halfway to Nashville, so I made plans to stop there overnight both coming and going. I highly recommend Asheville. Not only is it a charming, fun, artsy town but there is a ton to do. (Apparently it’s a national capital for craft breweries, if you like beer…) Of course there is the Biltmore House, the largest private residence in the U.S., outdoor activities (like hiking, rafting, ballooning), and downtown Asheville (very cute), including the River Arts District. I dedicated a morning to the Arts District to satisfy my pottery cravings.
by kyle | Apr 12, 2016 | Journey
I lived in France for a long time. Paris was my favorite place to live ever, my second backyard, my second home. I moved back to the U.S. 2 ½ years ago and have slowly been settling into a new business teaching French and writing. I haven’t been back to France for a visit, but wanted to go this year. I wanted to see friends, and had some research I wanted to do for books. I started planning many months ago. Okay, I wasn’t financially solid enough, but thought I might be, by the time the trip...
by kyle | Nov 6, 2015 | Encouragement, Journey
At times it’s uncomfortable being a beginner. I look at my Italian book and I don’t know how to say anything useful, other than “the dishes are in the kitchen”. Um…where else would they be?
Same thing happens in the pottery studio. I look at the pieces of art made by professionals who use the same studio, and it makes me feel pretty small. I wonder, just how LONG will it take to make something that doesn’t look like an artifact from Pompeii? (post-volcanic eruption, I mean…)
And I won’t get started about fiction-writing. There, the learning curve is so far out, you can’t see the end.
by kyle | Mar 3, 2015 | Journey
A couple of years ago I created this web site because as an aspiring fiction-writer, I knew I needed this thing everyone is talking about…an online presence. Editors and agents wanted to know that if a book was published, there was already a space on the web to nail it up for people to see, and folks potentially interested. That seemed like a pretty good idea, except for one chronic question, what do I put on a fiction writing web site if I haven’t published anything yet? That question...
by kyle | Feb 3, 2015 | Journey
Fits and Starts (or, My Writing Journey) I’ve wanted to be a writer since the age of ten. That’s about how old I was when I decided to one day adopt the pen name “Kyle Hunter”, which is my first and middle name. It just stuck with me all those years (I won’t tell you how many.) Though the name stayed with me consistently, other aspects of my writing dream did not. I wrote my first book at the age of 11, entitled “The Fabulous Adventures of Freddie and Herbie”. It was the story of a turtle and...
