
Photo courtesy of Frank Gacon.
I’ve always been a writer, and I find it difficult to trace my passion for writing to a single source of inspiration in my life. Instead of an “Aha! This is it!” moment I can look back on, my desire to write is the flip side of my life-long print addiction. My parents once teased me by claiming I learned to read before I could tie my own shoelaces. Whether or not that’s true, I did learn to read very early in life, and have as a reader always cast a wide net. My bookshelves are crowded and eclectic, with fiction by C.J. Cherryh, Isaac Asimov, and Tony Hillerman, and nonfiction by Annie Dillard, Stephen Jay Gould, and Ron Chernow, among a great many others. It’s no doubt due to my eclectic reading habits that I have an interest in writing both fiction and nonfiction. The experience of reading, of feeling what writers could do to my mind and my heart with their carefully arranged words, fascinated me and inspired me to try and see if I could do the same thing for – and to – others. I’m still trying to fully answer that question, and to some degree at least, always will be.
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Hi Tom, it’s Shari from TusCon. Just wanted to let you know I enjoyed Chance Encounters and 179 Degrees From Now (though I haven’t quite got to the book excepts yet). I think my favorite was Second Chance. It was a great page turner! I also read A Long Time Passing with interest because of the comments you made about it. I can see how it would invite annoyed reactions from people who have strong feelings for and against war, as it deals directly with the horror without questioning the necessity. Probably unsatisfying for anyone with a black and white view. I admit to being on the anti-war side of things, but as a story about a traumatized soldier, I liked the fact that he realizes he has a duty to remember what happened, regardless of what the future holds. Anyway, it was good to meet you. See you again next year, if not before!
I’m happy to hear those stories worked for you. Jan Costa and his crew (Second Chance) ended up being a significant part of the story told in War of the Second Iteration, starting with the fourth book. The short story was an experiment, and I was so pleased by it in the end, I “recycled” the event depicted in it and made it part of the longer narrative. It was good meeting you. I’m glad Erica brought you to TusCon.
Nice blog tthanks for posting
Thanks for reading!