November 10, 2016
I guess I was destined to be a lover of Story. I can't remember not being an obsessive "Star Wars" fan and many other genres have always captured my imagination. I had Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series all read by the 3rd grade and was reading C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" almost annually from the 4th grade on.
When I was in the 6th grade my Language Arts teacher, Mr. Newman, had a series in which our class learned to write short stories. This was the origins of "The Gizmo Series", hundreds of short stories about my beloved cat Gizmo and all of our other pets. Combining my own ideas as well as spoofing other famous plots and stories while chronicling the lives of my family's many pets: Gizmo, Pugsey, Tigger, Julius, Henry, Opal, Pearl the cats. Daisy and Tommy the dogs. Barney and George and Dolly the goats. Munchy the guinea pig. Numerous chickens and ducks.
Over the course of my middle school and high school years, many of my friends, teachers, family members were reading weekly "episodes" printed from a dot-matrix printer, updating them on the Gizmo Series as well as numerous other stories that I had created. I can only imagine how many reams worth I actually have written lost in those ancient floppy disks and booklets.
During this same time period, at twelve years old, I became sick with Crohn's Disease. The journey of that illness has very much shaped my life, who I am, the choices I have made. I'm not going to dwell on the details of that journey here, at this time, because this post is meant to be introductory and because that journey will be covered in my book, "Me Singing Praise". ;)
For many years my pastor, spiritual father, and boss, Steve Johnson, encouraged (nagged, in his ever-gentle way) me to continue in my writing and to pursue actually doing something with it. Many other people were instrumental in keeping me writing thru the years, mostly just by reading my stuff and being truly loyal fans. I appreciate them all so very much! Especially now that I am hoping to get back on this track after many years off of it.
And that is why we are here where we are now. The last couple of years have been tough, with new severe health crises and other personal troubles. I've been struck down more than ever before and it has brought me back to some of my roots. I dug out the skeleton of "Me Singing Praise" and have begun revamping and updating it. I find myself sometimes wanting to write and ramble about random topics and particularly so after this year's divisive and drama-filled United States presidential election.
I decided that a good place to share my thoughts while exploring my writing would be starting a blog. And so it is my intention that this would be a place I can share deeper thoughts than I can on social media. A place where I can process my thoughts, particularly the things that don't necessarily fit with the theme of "the book". Hopefully these posts will be insightful, productive and humorous and maybe even helpful, even if just for me and my journey.
And so here we go! Thank you for joining me for the next chapter of this journey.
We are going on an adventure!
When I was in the 6th grade my Language Arts teacher, Mr. Newman, had a series in which our class learned to write short stories. This was the origins of "The Gizmo Series", hundreds of short stories about my beloved cat Gizmo and all of our other pets. Combining my own ideas as well as spoofing other famous plots and stories while chronicling the lives of my family's many pets: Gizmo, Pugsey, Tigger, Julius, Henry, Opal, Pearl the cats. Daisy and Tommy the dogs. Barney and George and Dolly the goats. Munchy the guinea pig. Numerous chickens and ducks.
Over the course of my middle school and high school years, many of my friends, teachers, family members were reading weekly "episodes" printed from a dot-matrix printer, updating them on the Gizmo Series as well as numerous other stories that I had created. I can only imagine how many reams worth I actually have written lost in those ancient floppy disks and booklets.
During this same time period, at twelve years old, I became sick with Crohn's Disease. The journey of that illness has very much shaped my life, who I am, the choices I have made. I'm not going to dwell on the details of that journey here, at this time, because this post is meant to be introductory and because that journey will be covered in my book, "Me Singing Praise". ;)
For many years my pastor, spiritual father, and boss, Steve Johnson, encouraged (nagged, in his ever-gentle way) me to continue in my writing and to pursue actually doing something with it. Many other people were instrumental in keeping me writing thru the years, mostly just by reading my stuff and being truly loyal fans. I appreciate them all so very much! Especially now that I am hoping to get back on this track after many years off of it.
And that is why we are here where we are now. The last couple of years have been tough, with new severe health crises and other personal troubles. I've been struck down more than ever before and it has brought me back to some of my roots. I dug out the skeleton of "Me Singing Praise" and have begun revamping and updating it. I find myself sometimes wanting to write and ramble about random topics and particularly so after this year's divisive and drama-filled United States presidential election.
I decided that a good place to share my thoughts while exploring my writing would be starting a blog. And so it is my intention that this would be a place I can share deeper thoughts than I can on social media. A place where I can process my thoughts, particularly the things that don't necessarily fit with the theme of "the book". Hopefully these posts will be insightful, productive and humorous and maybe even helpful, even if just for me and my journey.
And so here we go! Thank you for joining me for the next chapter of this journey.
We are going on an adventure!
1) You have so many good things to share. I'm glad you've got a place to share those thoughts.
ReplyDelete2) Your stories were fun to read in high school.
3) And... you're awesome.