In the land of books

I am not only a writer, but I am also a reader. I started reading in first grade with Miss Sargeant. Just like her name she would drill us on sounds, words, and then phrases. I started in the bottom of her class. At the end of the year, I was one of her “first” students. It seems that when I begin to learn something, it takes me awhile to warm up to a subject.

When I was going for my BA in English Literature and had to take science classes, I would spend my break reading beginning biology so that when I took the class I would be ready for the subject matter. This strategy worked so well for me that I did this for my history classes too.

English was always an interesting subject for me. But the way English was taught in college was different than my idea of English literture. They wanted me to critic it, using different theories like Marxism. I don’t know why the English department was so in love with Marxist theory. Who had the power was not interesting for me.

What I loved was the story. I loved the dialog, the descriptions, and the characters. I like how things fit together so seamlessly. When I read Joseph Cambell’s The Power of Myth, I was surprised that it was considered philosophy. I have to admit that I wasn’t interested in philosopy. That was the only class I failed. I am still not enamored of Plato’s cave and his ideas of story writers.

I did do well in English, but my professor after reading my writings explained that I was in the wrong field. I needed to go into creative writing. There were few majors in the college connected to Ramstein AFB. You could go computers, English, or History. I was tired of computers because I had been repairing them for a decade by then.

So I began to present my professor with poetry and micro short stories. I found that story had so many moving parts that it took me a few years to write a decent short story. When I wrote my first book, it was exciting. Even though I published it on Amazon, a few years later I revised it.

One thing I’ve learned about writing is that the more I write, the better the stories.

But my first love is curling into my soft stuffed rocking chair with my dog and reading.