3 the very next day... "i have a dream"

August 12, 1993

{Trans:

I've decided to write a novel. About the civil war. It will be about a family on the Mississippi farmlands. They will have 5 children (3 sons, 2 girls. 1 son will die. I started a quilt! It's a yo-yo quilt. One more day till I go home. The bookcase Paw-Paw made looks wonderful! Can't wait to get it home! After I finish my civil war novel I hope to [...]

[...] do one on the revolutionary war and another on life after the civil war the[n] possibly a book on life before WW1. I will research these well and hope to learn a lot in the process of the writings. I've never been able to understand why I write. Possibly it is because it is something I can devote myself to wholye. I have always been able to guide myself into the mysterious depths of my stories and can [...]

[...] usually write when handed a pen. Reading also comes in handy. I read day & night. When I think of all the illitarate people in the United States I am swelled up with emotion and gratitude that my parents wanted me to read & write. Writing is the spice of life and reading the sugar. If one does not posess these skilles their life is incomplete. To never experience the joy of creating and [...]

[...] inventing stories and reading them would be horrid & heartbreaking. I hope that in the future more pressure will be put on illitarat people to make them read & write. I have always whished to truley say I wrote a book. I can't imagine the amazing things the experience would provied. To have your name on the cover and your text inside. Ohh it gives me the chilles! I hope someday I will be able to tell my grandchildren I wrote a book.}