My journey through college turned out to be bad luck when it came to rewriting this book. I was too busy transcribing recorded notes, writing short fiction for Creative Writing classes, motion picture scripts for Screenplay class and comic book scripts (as comic books were the rave at that time), the latter sadly all leading nowhere.
This book did make three what I would call positive emotional appearances: 1) During my first Creative Writing class I was quick to write my first of two required short stories, but was stumped on the second, which led me to ask if I could submit the first and last chapters of this story. Though he clearly stated that Science Fiction and Fantasy was not allowed, the Instructor allowed me to do so…. The reviews were quite positive and interest in the overall story was great. I was overwhelmed; 2) Not long after that I decided to submit the novella to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and received a form letter rejection, but my spirits were lifted by a note the Editor scribbled in the margin: "You have quite a story here;" 3) In one of my last Creative Writing Courses I asked an Instructor to give me his opinion of the two stories. Again, I received positive feedback—with a couple of good points about weaknesses in my storytelling. Good points I fully understood, though it would take a while for them to sink in.
Spring of 1988 saw me graduate from The University of Alabama and my brief search for employment in my field of study. I sent my resume to various Motion Picture Studios with fingers crossed and quickly learned disability need not apply. I was not surprised, but disappointed nonetheless.
Further employment searching left me in the hands of my Vocational Rehabilitation Services Counselor—a blue haired Country Club type who had informed me from day one she felt I should not receive VRS services—which did not give me high hopes. To her, a Communication degree equaled telephone operator at the VA Hospital. Sadly, the level of my disability ruled that job out. So she sent me back to college for a series of computer programming courses, introducing me to the Head of the Computer Department as "stupid in math." Not the best of introductions. Well, I took four computer courses and earned three A’s and a B, the latter due to a brain freeze on a programming line on the final. I really understood computers and this could have been a promising turn in my employment search if I had not slipped into a trap I subconsciously set for myself. The end result was I got booted from the system.
All right.
I was on my own.
What was I going to do to earn a living?
Why, I could write for publication!
And so as the 1980’s faded into the 1990’s I turned my attention to doing what I wanted to do for a living since elementary schooclass="underline" Writing. The pressure was on, which was not good creatively speaking, but I did my best…
I sputtered and spurted in my writing for far too long with little to show for it. Then a bell went off in my head and I returned to this book, realizing that to fill in the missing parts I would have to re-plot the story a bit. Rather than just dumping in the core characters at the beginning and sending them off to suffer their fates, I needed to spread a few of their introductions throughout the story. All was done in the name of better character development, which the Writing Instructor had said the story lacked.
The re-plotting went quickly, worked out superbly. I knew I was on to something good here. I started the rewrite and within a chapter and a half threw up my arms in defeat. While I knew inside what was needed, my writing style had not caught up to my ability to tell a story yet. Unfortunately, that would not happen 'til long after a dilemma placed this story in a box with what stories and story ideas I could save before everything was lost.
My dilemma came in the form of upgrading to a new computer, where I quickly learned my stories could not be transferred. Computer programming had advanced beyond DOS Command…. That left me to start from scratch writing-wise yet again. I did.
Throughout the 1990’s I focused on the short fiction market, mainly writing Horror stories in hopes of appearing in Weird Tales, which had returned to publication in 1988. I was obsessed with getting published in this legendary magazine, but I never made it. Oh, the rejection comment section grew more and more positive with each story, yet I was always close but no cigar.
I also submitted a story to a new magazine, Adventures of Sword and Sorcery. Writing a Sword and Sorcery story was a lifelong dream and the story, Barbarian Dream (later rewritten and retitled In the Shadow of Dreams) burst out of me rather quickly. It earned me a rejection that brought on two years plus of writer’s block. What did it was the Editor’s comment: "I had no sense of place." I had no idea what that meant and it took me a lot of research—reading to figure it out. Works by Robert E. Howard and Lester Dent opened my eyes, and my writing style advanced greatly toward my storytelling ability.
Then came 2001—the 21st Century!—and big changes in my life. My Parents were aging, getting to where caring for me was becoming too hard for them. In the fall of 2003 my Mother passed away, leaving my Father and me to forage on together, and his health was not good. First, he went through open heart surgery, followed by a knee replacement that nearly killed him. But he fought on to regain what health he could, despite the obstacles he faced. And he and I went on with our lives, aided by Providers to care for me.
At this time I decided to venture into self publishing my writing. My Father was my main support and Editor, and I do not think I could have done it without him.
Though my desire was to publish novels, time stress led me to publish a collection of short stories. Hey, I had enough of them lying around! So I put out a collection of Sword and Sorcery stories entitled BARBARIANS, More Than a Bloody Crown. Soon to follow was a collection of Horror stories, A Night’s Horror.
Once those were done I focused on writing a novel, only to flounder with one idea after another…. In 2012, I heard a whisper from my Muse and everything missing in this book fell into place. I pounded out the first chapter in a night. My Father read it and approved. I was thrilled. Yet by the second chapter I grew lost, frustrated and the story went to pieces. No matter how hard I tried it just would not work.
My Father’s health began a rapid decline, family rushed in, and my life became a fiasco.
Long story short: I was shipped to Texas just before Halloween 2012, as my Father faded, with clothes, a couple books and my laptop. And with the latter I had to get myself set up with homecare, etc.
Even with all this going on, and more, I was able to find time to write and, once my desktop got here, publish Web Captive Book 1: Captive. Publishing this, I knew, roped me in to writing book 2 and 3 of the trilogy, but alas, it was not to be…
In the summer of 2014 my Muse was whispering in my ear again, and I returned to this book—and page by page the complete story flowed out of me. I was amazed at how well it was going. My only complaint was how slow I was doing it, most days writing less than a page. Summer turned to fall, fall turned to winter. Then it was 2015, marking the 35th year since I began this book with Chris, and I was obsessively writing it. Winter slipped into spring, spring stormed its way to summer. And I finally pounded out the finale of this book. All that was left to do was write two introductions, then begin the editing for publication. I was thrilled. A book 35 years in the writing was complete!