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How much truth is in my fiction?
Writing what I knew as a teenager I loved reading when I was a kid, and I began writing as a teenager. The results of my early efforts were 7 handwritten “finished” novels, several poems (many of which are terrible), numerous essays, one random index card with a great idea, a notebook of not-so-great ideas, and a handful of false starts for a story that will never work. My finished stories were fabrications with a bit of what I wanted mixed in. For example, I gave all my main female characters a love interest because I wanted a boyfriend so badly as a teen. Along with the fiction was a…
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My So-Called Life: What the show meant to me then and now
Television habits before 1994 I grew up watching TV and movies rented on VHS tapes. As an avid reader, escaping into another world wasn’t uncommon for me, but there was just something about watching it on screen that evoked all my senses. When I was a little kid, I watched mostly cartoons: The Smurfs, Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Brite, The Care Bears, and of course, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. Later, I watched family-friendly shows with my mom, like The Wonder Years, Dr. Quinn, Home Improvement, and the TGIF line-up that included shows like Full House, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, and Step by Step. And I can’t forget the…
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First summer beach vacation
Childhood vacations I remember the first time I went to the beach with my family when I was a teenager. We didn’t stay right on the beach, nor did we swim in the ocean, but it was an experience all the same. I remember getting to go out on the beach at night, and I saw a shooting star. I made a wish on that star to meet the man I was supposed to spend my life with by the time I was 23, and it came true. I met Jonathan right before my 23rd birthday. Road trips were always our thing because the expense of flying was out of…
