Good morning America.

Let's start this morning by considering the difficulties involved with writing. In 1962 I was a National Science Fair finalist with a minor research project related to the polarization of light during the cycles of Cepheid variable stars. I had studied stellar atmospheres and a little bit of Chandrasekhar and at the time held high hopes for breaking into the field of astrophysics. Later in college, my professors convinced me that most people educated in that area were flipping burgers. I moved on.


Also, at the early age of about eleven, I developed a love of space travel, or at least the hope for space travel. My early reading of Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men, Asimov, The Foundation Trilogy that grew and grew and Childhood’s End, Clarke, prompted me to attempt and complete my first novel as a project for my high school junior English class. This pitiful attempt ended in a story, maybe 50,000 words written in short sentences, passive voice, excessive pronoun use and all telling with a little dialogue. I compounded the atrocity by adding two additional stories of about the same size, completing a trilogy of how mankind finds the origins of the human species -- on Earth. Novel, right?

For the next forty years I redirected my endeavors toward survival among others, worked my way though college and three marriages, the last and present one of twenty-four years and climbing. During most of that time, I wrote prolifically about rheological science, manufacturing methods and quality standards. After twenty years as a quality manager at a local manufacturing concern in Louisville, I lost my job and while unemployed, began writing.

Now, after several short-lived positions in a volatile economy, I can say I’ve re-learned the English language and re-discovered my love of writing. Probably the most difficult steps were learning to edit my own work, learning to plot a story and the tough-as-nails hard work necessary to write for the reader. I’m certainly no expert, and don’t have tons of publications (other than technical) to my name, but now I can weave a little fictive dream and others tell me they like it.

So, I’m beginning with a series of posts about writing, with the hope of sharing my experiences and possibly helping guide others to where I’ve stumbled. Wish me luck.


Larry