I started thinking about writing when I was in High School. I wrote a short story about a black horse that was trapped in a burning barn that was ignited by a bold of lightening in the middle of the night. There were other horses in the barn as well. The black stallion (naturally for a 17 year old!) kicked himself out of his stall, and kicked the gates of all the other occupied stalls to release the other horses to safety. But when he attempted to leave the barn, a roof timber fell blocking his escape route.
I ended my story there because it was supposed to be a 500 word story. The class, including my teacher, demanded that complete the story. They wanted to know what happened to the black stallion.
Not until the late 80's did I start writing novelettes (7,500 - 24,000 words). But I never really completed these works because publishing novelettes to paper was not an easy task in those days. Too long for magazines; too short for a book.
Now with the advent of eBooks and self-publishing, the market is really heating up for writers like me. Opportunities are now open to me that were closed in the paper publishing days.
I have worked in IT since after my NAVY days. I find that IT people have a very attuned intellect and an IQ that can speak on many different and diverse subjects and mostly on scientific matters. Plus we ITers seem to have that creative spark to write.
I also find it highly unusual that in my IT department there are two other aspiring authors besides myself. One is an accomplished, published writer, Jeff Brackett, who has a novel on a post-apocalyptic event and centers around Houston, TX., which is very good. The other writer is working on a fantasy with dragons, other worlds etc.
The other aspiring authors in my IT group have fired me up to complete the six or so novelettes I have started and to continue to develop the 20 or so other odd novelette stories.
I like writing Twilight Zone type stories and aim for an audience that likes light Sci-Fi reading that has a little humor, does not take itself too seriously and is not the dark “entire-human-race-is-in-peril” type of stories. I like to leave my readers with hope for humanity, a smile on their face and a positive outlook in life.
My beta readers come from all types of demographics from young adults, divorced mothers, and Canadian IT managers.
I like to think of my stories as "Snack Readings" since they are short enough to read in under an hour usually. Good for dentist/doctors waiting rooms; waiting for tires to be put on your car etc. To me, reading a nice, positive, story in the middle of the day is very uplifting. Like a snack, it energizes the rest of the day.
