All my life
I’ve wanted to write. Ever since I first
discovered the joy of reading for entertainment as a pre-teen I also developed
a desire to write. But before that I’d
been a bad student in school and didn’t learn English grammar very well. But even back then I wrote poetry which
impressed teachers, and started on a novel I hid from my family for the fear of
shame if they discovered it. It’s lost. But still, the desire remained.
As an adult
I went to work in a printing shop, the closest I was to come to writing for
many years. I dabbled in poetry now and
then, and one of those early efforts would later be taken out and polished up
for submission to a college literary magazine, and published. But college was a turning point for me.
College
students here in Georgia have to pass what is called the Regent’s Test after
they finish English 1102. English 1101
and 1102 concentrate on teaching students how to write college essays and the
college research paper. But the college
essay and the grammar and composition skills necessary are the focal points
because the regent’s test requires one to write a well-written essay of 500
words on an assigned topic in 45 minutes.
Because of my desire to write I paid attention and did my best to do
what I had not done in grade school, understand English grammar and
composition. I was determined to develop
the skill to write, and write well. By
the time I finished those two courses I wrote well enough that I would never
make below a B on any essay or research paper for the rest of my college
career. That’s not bragging, it’s a
statement on my determination to become a polished writer.
Then my
health went south and for awhile I had to put off finishing college and the
dream of writing. I’m now disabled, and
my health issues cut into my writing time.
As of the year of this post I’ve had two surgeries and will have two
more. Since the two surgeries yet to go
this year are to remove two cataracts which are impairing my eyesight, I think
it’s easy to see why I didn’t do much writing this year. I’m told my eyes shouldn’t be an issue except
when I have a scleritis attack from when those cataracts are gone onwards.
I mentioned
in my last post a completed novel, at least in its first draft. Right now I’ve named it Alicia, a devise I use for my rough novels is to name them after
their heroines. It’s convenient and will
do until publication, where a more appropriate title will probably be chosen
unless whatever publisher takes me on likes the idea of using those names as a
unifying devise. Alicia is a young girl
on a planet far away and partially colonized by humans, who find another
intelligent race preceded them, but choose to share the planet with them. Alicia comes from a backward location on the
planet, but finds her circumstances dramatically altered when she is forced to
marry a traveller who has fallen for her.
I’m doing my first rewrite of the novel of about 78,000 words and you’ll
get the chance to find out the rest of the story if the novel ever reaches
publication. Alicia is in the sci/fi realm in the tradition of Marion Zimmer
Bradley and one other major author in the genre.
I have a
short piece I did which can probably never be published for profit because of
how close it is to its inspiration, the werewolf stories by Patricia
Briggs. It is titled Changes Under the Moon and is a rough
piece quickly written to post on Bookrix to give some peers an idea of my
writing. I’ll post it next as I
presented it to them. My peers there had
some good suggestions on how to improve the story I haven’t used yet to polish
it. I hope you enjoy it when I post it
as my next post.
Now I also
blog. I have a blog called The Original Zebra which is about
Cushing’s syndrome, one of the two rare diseases I suffer from. My blog is meant to be a source for
information for those who have the disease and how to cope with it in language
the average person can understand. I
weave the information in with my experiences with the disease where possible to
bring it home that it isn’t just academic, it’s me. I’ll link it at the end. Feel free to look around.
Well, I
think that’s enough for the moment. So I’ll
see you around!
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