Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in a very smaill town called Perryville, Maryland, and spend most of my weekends helping my father on his grandmothers farm, and of course back then there there was not much to do. When your chores were done and you could watch television you only had two or three stations and most of the time to get a clear station meant dad was on the roof moving the antenna and yelling down "Anything yet?" So you got used to using your imagination and I had a whopper.
When did you first start writing?
After I was released from the army. I had two children and was working two jobs while going to the Prince Georges Community College studing Art and Art History.Then was told I needed and an English class. So I took writing 101, but it turned out it was more or less a Jouralist class because they did not offer creative writing. I was struggling with Alegbra already since I had never taken it in High School and between that, family life and two jobs, I did not have time to go out looking for stories. So I made them up. It worked for a short time until I got caught. So the instructor made me a deal, write two totally different stories and he will let the class grade them, a C or better and I could continue like I was doing. I wrote A Soldiers Thoughts about what went through a soldiers mind in Vietnam, and A Talking Gilliwok about an imaginary creature that helps a small boy adapt in a new town and school. I got and A on both. After that It was Like I could not stop. Then Life hit me like a drunken boxer and when I couldn't get any of my short stories published, ( I always threw them away after one or two rejections) I stopped trying to get published, I would write and toss them away when finished. Then I got remarried and my current wife saw one and encouraged me to write more .
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