Hello world!

Hello, everyone! My name is Taylor Johnson and I am a junior from Baltimore, Maryland. This is only my second semester at Temple being that I have transferred from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, NC. This Creative Writing course is the first I’ve ever taken in my academic career. I always thought I was terrible at writing, especially fiction writing so I never wanted to explore it any further. I really enjoy reading fiction writing but never thought that I had the ability to write a cohesive story. When telling stories by mouth, I always skip around and can never follow an order so I thought it would be the same when writing. However, I’m looking forward to writing fiction this semester. I believe that the reason I’m so hesitant to write fiction is because I rarely try it. I look forward to getting out of my comfort zone so that in future I won’t be as hesitant to write fiction. I am also hoping that this class will push me to start reading more. As a child, reading used to be one of my favorite hobbies but this changed as I got older. The last time I read a novel in its entirety was my senior year of high school and I haven’t since. The name of the book that I last read is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and is still one of my favorite books to this day. One of my New Years’ resolutions is to read at least five books this year and I am hoping that I complete this goal.
Another book I read my senior year that I love is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I probably loved this book so much because my English teacher really loved it and I loved his class. He made reading enjoyable for me because of the way he taught the class and the books he picked for us to read. They were always interesting and I could relate to almost every book we read. Books about teenagers and young adults resonate with me the most and are what I enjoy, which is probably I haven’t read much since then. My professors in college have rarely chosen writing that involves young adults, or fiction on for that matter.
A new fiction television show that I really enjoy is called Lovecraft Country on HBO. It’s the story of a man named Tic, short for Atticus, who goes on a search for his missing father in the 1950’s and discovers that his bloodline is riddled keepers of black magic. The show was adapted from multiple stories by an author named H.P. Lovecraft, who is known for his horror and science fiction. I usually don’t like science fiction shows or movies but this show really caught my attention. When I think of science fiction, my minds darts to Star Wars or Star Trek. Lovecraft Country is a one-of-a-kind television show that I never could have anticipated. It took me completely by surprise but I’m glad that I didn’t let the unfamiliarity of the genre to stop me from watching. It takes place in 1950’s Chicago during the Jim Crow era and includes realistic stories of how Tic and his family had to endure racism and the secrets of his ancestry. I’ve never seen a show dealing with all of these elements at the same time and that is what really made me enjoy it. Seeing a story like this with black people was so new for me but also very refreshing. It reminded me that any story can be a black story and while it was historical it was also fictional.
Two works of fiction that I really want to begin reading is The Coldest Winter Ever and Life After Death by Sister Souljah. Life After Death is the sequel to The Coldest Winter Ever and it is being released in 2021. The first book was released in 1999 and its sequel is very anticipated. The novel tells the story of a teenage girl named Winter who is the daughter of a notorious drug dealer and after he is arrested, she must learn to survive on her own. This book is one of my mother’s favorites and because I wasn’t too fond of reading in high school, I never read it. However, I’ve been hearing great reviews of the book and think that I should give it a try, especially since the sequel is coming out soon. I really think I’ll enjoy this book because I can relate to it and that’s what I like to read about the most. Coming-of-age tales about young women are the easiest for me to relate to.