How Did I Become a Writer?

I was a reader from a young age, just loved stories. Like lots of other people back in the 60’s and 70’s, the schools I attended used the SRA Reading Laboratory. You read a story, answered questions, then checked your answers. As you improved you moved up in color levels. I think I made it up to Aqua, maybe Blue? I even loved when the teachers would read to the class. I also have memories of listening to stories on albums. As I grew older my interests focused on sports, so lots of what I read were sports related. I read Sports Illustrated religiously. I remember reading books about Jerry Kramer, Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Bear Bryant, and Hank Aaron. I didn’t start reading novels until the late 70’s and early 80’s. Writing fiction never crossed my mind, ever, until I read John Irving’s novel The World According to Garp in the early 80’s. That book changed my life. I found that book so creative, so inventive, so incredibly funny. Suddenly, I realized that you could write with this type of creativity with this type of humor about these types of subjects. To paraphrase Dickinson’s quote about recognizing poetry, that book made me feel as if the top of my head were taken off. The seed had been planted. The problem I faced was that my writing skills were terrible. I had a business degree and was working in the defense contractor industry. I knew even at that stage being able to write fiction others would want to read would involve a very long journey. In 1985 at the age of 26 while living in San Diego and working for General Dynamics, my wife and I made an insane decision: we would move back across the country to attend Auburn University. She would study horticulture and I would study English. I gave myself what I thought was a very reasonable goal of publishing my first book of fiction by the time I was 40. I would learn that idea was delusional and naive. I’ll save my experiences at Auburn for another day, but the long road to becoming a writer began in 1985 at Auburn University.