Noticing Newbies

As a writer I have spent most of my time with the nom de plume of Jay O'Toole.

This is for two reasons. My heritage is from the British isles.

Secondly, Jay O'Toole makes my initials JOT, and mine has been a life full of jottings.

Interestingly enough my writing career started as the result of a teenaged broken heart. As a boy of 13 I liked a girl, who did not return my affections. Realizing I needed to somehow get the emotions out of my heart and move on, I asked The LORD for help in writing a poem, which was titled, "My Heart."

The results lifted my spirit, markedly. Then and there I promised God if He would give me the ability to write poetry, then I would use this skill for His Glory.

(I realize I am hyper with the capitals, but I feel it is my responsibility to give honor where honor is due. My poetry will often mention The LORD with the four capital letters as it is written in the King James Version of the Bible, and He is my greatest Mentor and Friend. I will work hard to never be in anyone's face about my faith, but my writing is always with gratitude and respect, since I know if I write anything worthwhile, God has given me the ability to do so.)

Bottom Line: My writing is heavy on the poetry, and it is usually in iambic meter with two couplets of seven feet each. I write prose from a teacher's viewpoint, since I started 30 years ago teaching sixth grade, yet for the past two years I have been an ESL teacher, enlightening some Chinese individuals about the very difficult language of English.

Finally, I wrote for Helium.com from 2008, until the site closed. Ergo, I am very grateful to find Writing.com, since this site has many elements I recall from Helium, such as nearly instant feedback.

Keep up the good work! :D