Preface

Eight years ago I had the urge to write about my life as a classical guitarist. The concept had been percolating within me for some time, and when I finally put pen to paper I found that I derived pleasure from sculpting into words the feelings, energies, and passions that have shaped my life. Why try to write when music has been my artistic medium? Perhaps creativity manifests itself in different ways, seeking new channels and bursting out in new forms. My attraction to words has always been there since my childhood diaries and poems. Perhaps it has been the desire to invite my audience, you who have given me so much love and support and at times bared your souls to me in letters, to share something more of myself than my guitar. Perhaps some of you may take encouragement and inspiration from my struggles and successes. Perhaps, for me, it has been a salutary process, in the words of Theodor Reik my “compulsion to confess” — a need to replace coy answers and evasive comments with a more straightforward approach reflective of the times in which we live.

Perhaps I simply wanted to write a story.

Liona Boyd

1998