My Writing Journey

 I have a confession. My story is a bit unusual compared to others who work in this field.

It's not uncommon when visiting author sites to hear their earliest forays into writing. Some were writing poems on their bedroom walls as children. Others scratched sonnets in the sand on family vacations. Then there are those who wrote their first novels as preteens. Yes, there are a lot of gifted writers out there who caught the writing bug early in life, and it's wonderful and inspiring to hear. 

But that is not my story. In fact, it's not even close to my story.

My first foray into creative writing was during my twelfth-grade English class. We had to write an additional scene for 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', which was read as part of the curriculum. My teacher must have thought it was pretty good because she wanted me to do an independent study project that term. But I had a girlfriend, a car, an allowance, and a short attention span, so I passed on that opportunity. TBH, I was afraid I wouldn't complete it in time and fail to graduate. Thankfully, my priorities now are pretty different from what they were when I was seventeen. 

It wasn't until twenty-eight years later that our young daughter, to whom I always read to at bedtime, started to demand stories any chance she got. When driving to the grocery store, to a playdate, to a daddy/daughter activity...it was always, "Daddy, tell me a story." Every story had to be new or the next chapter of an adventure we started; no repeats allowed. Talk about pressure!

I guess it's no surprise that she became a voracious reader and ultimately graduated with an English degree.

She enjoyed the stories so much that I decided to write them down for posterity, thinking she might want to share them with her own children one day. I never would have imagined that recording those stories would get me hooked on writing.

The next thing I knew, I was creating stories for future picture books, which morphed into early chapter books, middle-grade novels, and, most recently, an adult adventure novel. I wrote for my own amusement, and thankfully, with the help of my wife, Carol, resident muse and sounding board, and my daughter, I have amassed quite a few completed projects.

As you can see, I enjoy writing for different age ranges. Actually, I think many writers also enjoy doing that but don't get the opportunity once they've had success writing for a specific audience.  Often, their success in one area will 'pigeonhole' them because their readers expect similar work going forward.

Diversity keeps writing fresh for me. Now, being an aspiring author is not all roses. It's a tough road to hoe to get published.  What do I mean? Visit The Struggle is Real section to learn more.