somewhere way back in the early nineteen sixties I read a little four verse poem about a tree in a third grade spelling book and that sparked my passion for poetry. That was my motivation to learn to read and write. I remember going through every book I could get my
hands on looking for poems; I would make short sentences that rhymed even though the sentences didn’t go together they did rhyme. I was about ten years old when I found an old paperback book of poetry, there was a long poem in it titled ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Coleridge; that was my inspiration to write, to tell stories in rhyme. There are many great poets in the world both past and present, but Samuel Coleridge, Henry Longfellow and Edgar Poe have always been my favorite authors. I can’t say I’ve read everything they’ve ever wrote but I have read everything I could find.
At the age of ten I started writing with the dream of being a writer, a poet, a published author; now forty-five years later by the grace of God I have two books out and a third one with Maple Hill Publishing which will be released soon.
At the age of twelve my father moved the family from a
small town in Kentucky to a big city in Ohio, being a young country boy growing up in the city in the sixties and seventies I had to adapt to a whole new way of life. At age thirteen I started working the train yards at night, as much as they would let me and going to school of the day; I was working in a factory at the age of sixteen and at the age of eighteen I enlisted in the military.
Through the years life has given me my share of ups and downs and my dream of being a writer got pushed to the bottom of the list of priorities, but that dream never died, my passion for poetry never faded and I never stopped writing. My life has not been a bed of roses, but it hasn’t been a bed of thorns either . . . it has been a great teacher and given me much to write about.
My goal is that when people read my stories they will
laugh, cry and wonder and the readers will be drawn into the story and feel the fear and the joy as they step into the shoes of the characters in the story . . .
and hopefully one of my stories can inspire a young boy or girl to write.
‘A Gun and the Cross’ - ‘The Darker Side of Life’ -
‘God, Soldiers and Rednecks’ look for them here on the book store page and at Amazon.com
I hope you enjoy them and God bless everyone