The Writer
I have been a writer in one fashion or another for as long as I can remember. I would have to say that it began early in my childhood through the world of books.
I was an isolated only child (having only an older half-brother who never lived with us). My parents encouraged my isolation at every opportunity, as was the norm for their rural Appalachian customs. I was, by necessity, forced into the realm of a loner.
My problem came about from the fact that we were living in the largest urban area in the state: with a culture all its own. Imagine my dilemma: I was wrong when I went out amongst the Urbanites with my Hillbilly upbringing and wrong at home for bringing the city to the house. As a course of survival I withdrew as far as I could from both places and lost myself in the world of books. A result of that was that I was learning to write before I ever picked up a pen to pursue it. I still believe that is the most important thing a writer can do to learn the craft of writing well. Read, read and read some more. You will always learn more from listening than talking.
I thank God that I got through the educational process before the 'phonics-thing' happened to the instruction of the English language. I remember standing in Lillian Camfield and Bill Prices' 7/8th grade English classes diagramming sentences on the blackboard. Somehow the complexities of the language just seemed simple to me that way. Almost like math: it now had a formula to follow.
The final touches to my grammatical education came in the form of Miss Pansy Warren in the 11th grade. She was an extremely large redheaded woman from Missouri without an inch of give in her. She demanded excellence and would, by God, have it! But she was a consummate teacher and I owe her a lot.
I guess if I had to thank one individual for the encouragement to write it would be Mrs. Ruby Allen. She taught that creative writing in high school. Although I had already written a few things by then, it was her that fanned the flames of my desire to write. I still have a small chapbook from her creative writing class with some of things I wrote back then.
Always a voracious reader, I challenged myself throughout high school and college to learn more of the literary world. When offered the opportunity to choose free elective classes, I promptly signed up for advanced classes in literature and the humanities. And I didn't stop there.
I took several years of German across the span of my education and read things such as Faustus in the original text. I also read other things such as stories about Baron Von Steuben and not a small amount of poetry.
I took all of the basic writing classes in college as well as a year of technical writing. That one class has served me well for thirty years and still does today.
Most of my writing experience, however, has come as a secondary requirement for positions I have held. I have written countless reports, resumes, personnel evaluations, proposals and several complete business plans. I use this experience as the basis for most of my freelance work.
My creative writing career has pretty much been on hold since high school until the last few years. I now find myself at a point in life where I can take the time to pursue it and not starve to death and so I have.
To date, I am having some success on the freelance side of the street as I pursue my creative work. But, all that being said, there are no immediate plans to 'sell the farm'.
I hope you find the time to look through both my creative writing here on this site and follow the links to my freelance sites as well. As always, thanks for stopping by.