the yarn spinnner

Not wanting to cause nightmares, I posted a picture of Marge, who is much prettier than me.

So, here’s my personal story.

In 2016, I was already a 66-year-old geezer when I sat in front of my computer just before Christmas and started writing Rock Creek. I had no intention of letting anyone read it. The reason for even starting the book was just to keep my brain from turning into mush.

I found that I enjoyed creating the characters, and then letting them follow the plot. So, when I finished Rock Creek a few days later, I started a new book. I’d written three or four before my daughter ‘suggested’ that I publish them on Amazon. I knew better than to disregard her not-so-gentle persuasion, so I uploaded them onto Amazon’s servers. But because I didn’t expect anyone to read them, I didn’t edit them very well.

There were many reasons why I didn’t believe anyone would spend 99 cents for one of my books. I knew that there were hundreds of thousands of independent authors on Amazon, and I’d chosen to write Westerns, which is a dying genre. As I only wrote because I found it enjoyable and satisfying, I didn’t advertise or promote my books, either. I just kept writing. And by the end of 2017, I had 33 titles on Amazon.

Since then, the stories have continued to pop into my head. In a few weeks, I'll publish #94. That’s a lot of words, folks. But I am slowing down, so I don’t think I’ll reach an even hundred.

Anyway, that’s my life since I started writing. But I suppose I should fill in some of the first 66 years. I promise to keep it short.

I was born in Providence, Rhode Island in February of 1950 and grew up a few miles south of Providence in the city of Warwick. I had one older brother, two younger brothers, and my sister was the youngest of my siblings. I attended Catholic schools and even went to the seminary to start my high school education, but that didn’t last long.

There was nothing unusual about my childhood. I was just another kid who flowed along with the rest of the crowd as we passed from class to class until we were spewed into the real world.

I enlisted the Air Force in October of ’68, and against my wishes, they made me a medic. I was an x-ray technician for twelve years before I was commissioned an officer in December of ’80 and entered the missile operations career field. I was stationed at Offutt AFB south of Omaha when I retired as a major in December of ’93. We bought a house, and I worked for the City of Bellevue as a computer geek for 17 years.

I was divorced from my first wife after eleven years of marriage and two children. I married my Elf in August of ’83 and we have two children.

In September of 1995, just 22 months after retiring from the Air Force, I was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in my throat and lymph glands. A course of intense radiation therapy eliminated the tumors but also caused a significant amount of damage to the nearby healthy tissue. The side effects continue to impact my health, and I was placed on disability in 2011. My long downslide is ongoing. My mobility is limited, and I can no longer eat, drink, or talk. I was surprised that I didn’t miss eating, but not being able to talk is really annoying. I use a dry erase board to communicate with family in-house, email those who are at a distance, and on a regular basis will violently gesture to the television when I’m watching the news.

Despite those limitations and a long list of others, I still consider myself a very lucky person. It’s not because of the number of books I’ve written or sold. It’s for the same reason that all of my main characters fall in love, and then share their love the rest of their lives. It’s because of my Elf.