My First Post

Many moons ago, before a lot of you were born, I was a warrior. Aha you say, images of bravery and stoicism drifting through your thoughts. Well, yes and no. I was brave in that I volunteered for the military service of my country, and then volunteered twice for service in a war zone. But I never once had the opportunity to race from cover in a hail of bullets, sling a buddy over my shoulders in a firemans carry, and tote him back to the safety of a trench. Nor did I ever fall on a live hand grenade, thus saving my fellow soldiers from certain death.

I have been an avid reader my entire life. The first book I remember reading was a fictional account of a high school football player, his life and loves, triumphs and tragedies. Mostly I remember science fiction novels, written by wonderfully imaginative authors like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, William Golding. And western writers like Max Brand, Luke Short, Louis L'aMour. Those were when I was young. I've since gone on to read everything from Agatha Christie to Charles Dickens, and from Stephen King to Jane Austen. And that's just the fiction. I love non-fiction as well.

You're asking what the above two paragraphs have in common. Besides me, that is. Well I'll tell you if you'll just hold your water for a couple more seconds. Since my military days I've had the idea in the back of my brain pan that I had a story to tell, maybe more than one. But it always seemed such a daunting task that I never attempted it. Until now.

Over the last couple of weeks I've managed to write a couple of short stories; fiction of course, but biographical in nature. If you're interested you can find them here. They were hard work, and while I consider them finished, I continue to go back and add, or otherwise make changes, to hopefully improve the stories. I've received excellent feedback from several people including friends, but also from people I hardly know. This feedback is, for the most part, positive and I'm thankful for that, but I think the best I've had were critical. For those I am truly grateful, because they've made me question everything I write, and I think that's a good thing.

I'm working on another story now. It's going slowly, because I'm trying to do justice to the tale, and to my critics. I want it to be easy to read, exciting and and well written. I hope I can do that.

So, that's my first Blog. If it's okay I hope you'll leave a comment below. If it's not okay, bugger off. LOL, just kidding, please leave a comment either way. Thank you for taking the time to read this ramble.

Hap