A Message from T.D. Arkenberg
Welcome to the fresh face of TDArkenberg.com. If you’re already a reader of my books, thank you. I treasure your support. If you’re browsing my work for the first time, I hope you find a novel, short story or memoir that tickles your curiosity.
A little more than a decade ago I left the corporate world to write. And what an amazing adventure it’s been letting the right half of my brain take the wheel after decades of being navigated by logic and reason. Admittedly, allowing creativity and imagination to detour off the well-marked highway onto backroads hasn’t always been easy. How many of today’s drivers take to unfamiliar roads without GPS?
The physical act of writing, I discovered, is only one dimension of my journey. Reading, travel, photography, nature, and cooking are a few of the stimuli that inspire and inform my creativity. To delight and captivate with the written word, an author flirts with each of his senses. Therefore, I anticipate using this website to share favorite photos, travelogues, books and maybe from time to time, even a recipe. Good writing is sensory, meaning that it teases all the senses. My literary journey also introduced me to a network of contemporary authors and poets. I may use this space to share with you, the work of fresh and exciting new writers.
What about future writing projects? Next up, a memoir of our two years in Belgium. Tentatively titled, Brussels City of Chocolate, An Expat Memoir, the book details the rollercoaster ride that took my husband and me along with our precious golden retriever from our family home in suburban Chicago to a vintage townhouse in the center of Brussels. Here’s a teaser, an excerpt from my prologue:
“Love stories don’t have to involve people at all, not in a traditional sense. Ours happens to involve a city, Brussels. And despite repatriating to Chicago, my husband Jim and I recall our Belgian adventure with great affection. But Brussels, our home for two years, required a patient lover. It was a place we had to endure before we fell under its spell.”
After that? A fun, fictional memoir authored by our cat, an impish fellow who adopted us in Brussels: My Single and Extraordinary Life. And then? Maybe a stage play, or wherever my imagination takes me.
Happy reading,
T.D.
