FROM DREAM to REALITY

Today, the article by Heather Ah San ran in the Fairfield Daily Republic. She and I had a great conversation last week about my books and writing, in general. She seemed genuinely interested

People probably think of me as a terribly opinionated guy since I write an opinion column. But I didn't start off wanting to be an opinion columnist. I've always loved telling stories. To my thinking, it's the opinion writing that is the anomaly, not the fiction.

Hopefully, this article will introduce me to readers who don't regular read my column. Maybe it'll encourage folks to give my books a look even if they disagree with me 90% of the time in my opinion columns. Everyone loves a good story.

I've generally leaned towards horror growing up but the stories in these two books aren't really horror. A couple of them are. Certainly, some stories are dark. But my two favorite stories are just literary tales. My favorite story in volume one is "Godshot." In volume two, my favorite tale is "Dignity Tickets." I think these stories would appeal to anyone. Of course, I'm biased.

Back to the article...Daily Republic photographer Brad Zweerink took photos for the story. It was his idea to have me gazing off into the distance. While it may seem like I'm contemplating something deep I'm really thinking, "How many more of these shots do we need to take? My knee's killing me."

Brad was great. Although right before I left I asked him if they had Photoshop and could make me look like Denzel. He assured me they did and they would. Man, I look like I ate Denzel. Oh well...

I did do a lot of writing during Mrs. Goodsell's and Ms. Gambrill's class at Grange. At Armijo I graduated to using composition notebooks to write my stories. I used to write during Mr. Scherr's english class, Mr. Kenny's short story class and Ms. Keys' Creative Writing class. The stories I wrote in Creative Writing were so scary and disturbing that Ms. Keys said they gave her nightmares! I considered that a compliment. I learned how to type in Ms. Klinghoffer's typing class solely so I could use her class to type stories.

Some of the stories in the two books stem from a couple old mid-nineties thing I created called "Iniquity." I've since updated the stories for Morsels. Some of them were written in the mid 2000's. And others were new, written after my hospital stay. Lying in a dimly lit room in ICU your life really comes into sharp focus. It was the worst hospital stay I'd ever had and it was the first time that I thought I might not walk out of there. An incompetent doctor had me on medications that interacted and shut down my kidneys. I had an infection at the same time and the whole thing temporarily elevated my blood sugar, so I had to be treated with insulin (even though I'm not diabetic.). There were a myriad of things going on and the doctor was concerned I would develop sepsis. I remember looking out the window at a big old tree, wondering how long it had been there. Wondering if it would outlive me. Thinking about the things I'd done in my life and the things I wanted to do. And I knew I needed my stories to be out there. It's like a legacy. It was that important to me. The stories are like my kids. They would carry on long after my days were done.

But at the same time, I'm not pretentious about it. I just want people to read them and enjoy them. It's escape. This isn't stone tablets with instructions from the Almighty I'm bringing down from a mountain. They're stories to help you enjoy your time while in the doctor's waiting room or you're on the train or plane or whatever. And maybe they'll make you think.

Big thanks to Glen Faison, Brad Stanhope, Heather Ah San and Brad Zweerink for putting this together and giving me the opportunity to reach people with my writing.

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