I have been writing most of my life. I majored in creative writing in college long ago, but haven’t been serious about it until December 2019. Then I joined Writers Morning Out and thought about it more seriously.
I wrote military medical history at Walter Reed Medical Center during Vietnam, and have published three magazines. But personal writing — that which comes from deep within some inner space — is new to me except for college.
I finished a chapbook of poetry last year about my 50 years with my wife who passed away in 2016 from Alzheimer’s. I have a screenplay, a nonfiction book in progress, and five autobiographical short stories finished. None are published at this point.
I am one-third of the way through my first novel, set in the mountains of northeast Pennsylvania in the 1950s, and I am thoroughly enjoying the experience. I have attempted to be period authentic and have made a point to include historically accurate characters and events throughout the fabric of the story. As the story progresses the characters develop. They and their interaction write the scenes for me. They provide complexity and tension and often point where the story should go next. I still get surprised when that happens.
One of the main characters has gone from a minor character to a central role. Imperfect, troubled by a major mistake in his past, he is trying to negotiate a potential relationship as an older man with a lady he has met. But thirty years of experience threaten to put an unhappy end to that affair if his past activities are fully disclosed.
I am still not sure how the book will end but I am providing material for future sequels.