I probably haven’t posted enough info about myself yet. Be gentle, I’m new to this!
I’m 35, married and I have six kids. Yes, for real. I live in the suburbs of Northern Kentucky and I work at a local community college in the IT department doing programming and systems analysis. I also teach classes from time to time to bring in some extra cash and also to do something a little different.
I’m currently taking classes at night to finish up my BA in English. When I tell people that, they usually look at me like I’m crazy and ask why. If they have to ask, it’s usually not worth the trouble to explain it because they either don’t know enough about me or they just don’t get it. I’ll have to go into more detail on that whole issue in another post. I should be done with my degree this summer anyway.
I’ve always had an interest in stories and writing, but it’s only been in the past couple of years that I’ve gotten (relatively) serious about it. I took a few classes at NKU (that’s Northern Kentucky University) in creative writing and loved them. If you’re interested, one of my instructors was Stephen Leigh, writer of more than 20 science fiction and fantasy books and many short stories. I’ll try to post a link to his site here if I can figure it out.
Since last summer, I’ve tried to get up early (like 5 or 5:30) every week day morning to work out and then spend half an hour to an hour writing. I started off well, but lately I’ve been slacking. I have around 30 some stories in various stages of development. I think 3 or 4 of them are finished and maybe 4 more need to be revised before they can be sent out. I have 2 novels that are started. One of them has about 3 and a half chapters done and the other almost 2.
Last year I made 4 submissions and recieved 4 rejections. I hope to top that this year, but so far I haven’t done a damn thing. I have started in on the revisions and done a little planning on markets to submit to.
I guess I should say what it is that I write, huh?
Most of what I’ve written is main stream stuff. I have a few science fiction stories that I’m working on and maybe one fantasy, but mostly what seems to come out of me is mainstream. This came as a surprise to me when I started writing more. I thought I’d be a science fiction writer since that’s what I grew up reading mostly. When I started writing more, though, a lot of it came from my own life experiences. It seems to be almost a cathartic process of getting things out of my system. I know what readers may be thinking at this point: this guy’s stuff probably sucks! Maybe so, but hopefully some editor out there will give me a shot and people will get a chance to decide for themselves.
I think that’s enough for now.
No related posts.
HI, I read you blog to see if Professor Leigh was offering a good class. Like yourself I write sporadically and am interested in inproving my writing habits. Curious as to what your take on Prof.Leigh is.I live in Union,Ky. and would like to see more Literary clubs and coffee-house types of get togethers in our area.
Thx for any help,
Don
Hi Don. Wow! I’m amazed you found this old post! Can you tell me how you ended up here? As for Professor Leigh: I took three creative writing courses with him as the instructor and I count those three courses as the highlight of my experience at NKU (I graduated about a year ago). He is thoughtful and open-minded and his classes are thoroughly entertaining. I would highly recommend taking them.
I can assure you that you’ll learn a lot about the creative writing process from someone who has been in the business for a very long time. If you go into any major bookstore, you’re sure to find several of his books on the shelf (he writes under a couple of different pseudonyms, though). Not only will you learn a lot, but you’ll have a lot of fun doing it.
The idea of the writing gatherings is good if you want to work on your writing. I’m not currently participating in anything like that due to lack of time and that’s a common problem. I would suggest you try to network with other students. I’m sure you’ll find some in Steve Leigh’s classes who will be very interested. Good luck!