Carol Fisher-Linn
“How do I begin?” ….. artists and writers worst dilemma
In last week’s Villager, you may have read a well-crafted, and very informative story about the proposed updating of the famed, circa 1881, Athenaeum Hotel at Chautauqua Institution. It was written by a new writer for The Villager, Bill Burk, who presently lives in Bemus Point and is also a published author of the book, RUN! From Civil War to the NFL; The Jehuu Caulcrick Story: The Bullet Doesn’t Pick and Choose, available on Amazon. Spoiler: in 2010 Caulcrick briefly played for the Buffalo Bills.
This writer had an opportunity to trade thoughts with Burk and we both wryly laughed when he said one of the hardest parts of writing is getting inspired … perhaps hoping, somehow, a Muse will inspire us. Historically, a Muse is generally a person who is a source of artistic inspiration. In mythology, The Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized the arts and science. Today, a Muse is something that inspires inspiration for an artist. It could be poetry; it could be nature, or a person, or a pet, or a movie or book. But truly, often one needs inspiration to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Although he was not much of a writer as a kid, Burk was a voracious reader. Later, he became an obsessive essayist. Burk has always been the guy whom friends turn to when needing help with the written word. That’s the easy part. Someone gives you an idea and the words come out. He found an outlet for his essays through a local radio show. He can be heard bi-weekly, Wednesdays, 8:45am, on WJTN at The Dennis Webster Morning show.
Retired from running the JCC Physical Education Complex and working as an assistant coach for baseball and basketball, and head coach for golf at JCC where they won the national golf championship in 2000, Burk had a chance encounter with Jehuu Caulcrick. It turns out Caulcrick is a graduate of Clymer high school where he played football for the smallest school in New York State. Before ending up in Clymer at age 9, when he was 7, living with his grandparents, Caulcrick was caught up in a savage, bloody civil war in his home country of Liberia, trying desperately to get out alive. You’ll have to read Burk’s book to learn about this remarkable young man and his struggles to survive and get to America and Western New York.
Always with three or four projects in the hopper at one time, Burk revealed that it took over four years to get the Run! story on the page and into final editing and production. It took countless phone calls with Caulcrick’s mom who initially moved to Clymer to find a way to get her family to the safety of America. Burk finally finished the book and, after trying every angle to get an agent and someone to represent him to publishers, printers, etc., he bit the bullet himself and self-published the book. And, my friends, that is also not as simple is it sounds. Burk’s words, “self-publishing is painful.” The lesson for readers here is to appreciate the blood, sweat and tears put into developing a story into a book, and the pure belief and determination needed to get it out to the reading public. It is not for the faint of heart. It took over eight months before he finally had a finished copy in his hands. The good thing is that now that he’s gone through the fires and knows the how-to’s, he would be ready to do it again. And, that is a good thing, because Burk informs me that he has another book in the works that will take time developing, but he is optimistic about being able to self-publish it when the time comes.
Meanwhile, pick up RUN! Civil War to the NFL on Amazon and watch for Burk’s weekly contributions to The Villager.