Author: rgcommcomcastnet

Hi, I thought it might be helpful to you, the reader, if I’d tell you about myself so you’ll know why I am writing books.  Not my whole life’s story, just some of the highlights that will let you know who I am and why you might like to read my blog and books.

I grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin., the youngest of four children (three boys, one girl).  Being a kid on a dairy farm was hard work, but looking back, it was a good way to grow up.  As a family we relied on each other to work together to make a living.  It gave us kids a sense of responsibility.  We learned about good work ethic, being part of a team, sticking to a job until it was done correctly and taking responsibility for our actions. 

I read quite a bit when I had time.  During the school year, reading was mostly associated with school work, but during summer vacation we could check out books from the local library.  I especially liked science fiction books.  I remember reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.  That book sparked my lifelong interest in science fiction. 

I had always been able to write.  It was just something that came easily to me.  When I was in high school, one of my teachers encouraged me to continue writing.  I recall him pulling me aside after he gave me an “A” on a short story writing assignment.  He told me that the story was excellent, and that I had an ability I should continue to improve. 

After my parents sold the farm in 1971, I helped them move to a nearby town and I started going to college at a local university campus.  However, after two years I was ready for a change, so when my oldest brother asked me to work with him and my next oldest brother in his carpet business in North Carolina, I jumped into my VW Super Beetle and drove on down. 

I spent three years working with my brothers and I enjoyed it, but there was always a deeper need to do something more.  In 1976 I did it.  I joined the U.S. Marine Corps, initially for just three years, but ended up spending 20 years and retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer.  It was in the Corps that I heeded my high school teacher’s advice and found a place to sharpen my writing skills.  As an enlisted Marine, I was a Combat Correspondent, a photojournalist who wrote articles and took photos to tell the world about Marines.  The Marine Corps sent me to several different school courses to learn how to be a journalist, a photographer and an editor.  For nearly ten years I learned the journalism trade from the ground up while at the same time doing the things Marines do in the air, on land and at sea.  I also worked with local, national and international news reporters, helping them do stories about Marines.  I learned a lot from them in the process.

In 1985 the Marines selected me to be a warrant officer.  In that position I was responsible, among other things, to help train young Marines to be effective writers and photographers.    I discovered that teaching can be an effective way to learn, and I enjoyed doing it. So I continued to hone my writing skills as I taught the next generation of Marine photojournalists.

After retiring from the Corps I continued freelancing for magazines, newspapers and other publications. Writing a book was always in the back of my mind, something I always planned to do. I started (and still have) a special file on my laptop that contains book ideas; sometimes just a title, sometimes a title fleshed out with a rough chapter or two. Sometimes it is just an idea, a concept for a book. So I had several floating around, but The Perilous Adventures of Time Travel was the one that continued to grow and grow and take on a life of its own. Before long, there were several chapters and the story just started to tell itself.

I am new to the book publication process, but I managed to find a publisher at Paloma Books who patiently guided me through the details, details, details of getting a book from concept to print.

My first great obstacle: I had written the first draft of the book using the Associated Press (AP) Style Guide, which is what we used in journalism. Wrong! For books, the standard is the Chicago Manual of Style(CMS). Now, the AP guide is formidable in size and detail; however, it looks like a short story compared to the tome that is the CMS. Every little detail of style, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, ad infinitum, is in the CMS. The Amazon delivery guy almost needed a wheel barrow to get it to my house from his truck. It took me two weeks just to figure out where the major items were. It was agonizing: I had to go through the entire first draft of my book, changing it from AP style to CMS. It took me nearly two months. But now that it’s done, I can look back and say, “Well, that wasn’t soooo bad…” and just about convince myself that I mean it.

You, dear reader, may not notice the difference between AP and CMS – and that is the way it should be. The story should be the same. The reader should not need to worry about format, so long as the characters, the action, the dialog, the narration and the flow of the story are all solid.

So, I know this blog has been sort of long. Full disclosure: I am a new blogger, too. Blogging has been another one of those things – like writing a book – that’s been on my bucket list but never seemed to float to the top. So this is me, floating my first blog. I’ve read advice on what a blog should be; there are many ideas but there doesn’t really seem to be a hard and fast rule book. So, this first blog is sort of an introduction. I hope I’ve given you a glimpse of who I am, and most important, why I write.

Let me leave you with a thought and a lesson I’ve learned: that is, it’s never too late to try something new. Never say, “Oh I don’t think I can do that at this point of my life.” You never know until you try. I am a father and a grandfather and I am now writing books for middle grades. Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist and philosopher, wrote,”It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Along the journey, there are waypoints or mileposts that track our progress. The Perilous Adventures of Time Travel is just one of my waypoints.

I am still on the journey. I invite you to join me as we travel through time and space and find out what our destination is in the Essence of Time Trilogy.