Page One

The Nazi U-boat swam in the murky depths, just off the coast of Rhode Island. Equipped with technology that most of Germany didn’t know existed, let alone the Allied forces, it was undetectable, even to other Nazi subs. Its missile systems were not yet engaged, but the officers responsible for those systems seemed to sense that the missiles yearned to be fired, swelled with the desire to destroy. This was certainly anthropomorphism and a projection of their own strong anti-American sentiments, but it felt very real to the officers.

Amon Goezsch , a commander whose title translates roughly to Lieutenant, placed his hand comfortingly and calmingly on the Tyger 459 surface-to-surface missile and spoke gently, a Nazi missile whisperer."We will probably be shooting you at the Americans soon. I'm not sure how I feel about that, little Tyger. My fellow officers here are very excited to destroy our enemies. But lately I'm worried that being a good soldier and being a good person might not be possible at the same time. I don't know what to d-" Amon stopped mid-sentence, staring at the end of the corridor.

Where there stood a young girl, maybe ten years old.

So it begins

so during my time in the Jesuits, i spent many hours in prayer during my silent retreat. during one of those amazing prayer times, i "took a walk with Jesus down the beach" and asked Him many things.

one thing i asked him was what i was going to do in life. my assumption until that point was that i was going to teach. i'd spent alot of time and energy and money trying to finish my various degrees until that point to get to the place where i could start teaching. His answer surprised me.

He said yes, i would teach some, here and there. but that my main raison d'etre (so to speak) was to write. i was shocked and pleased. i knew it was a little cheeky to say you're going to become a writer... it's kind of like saying you're going to be an astronaut or play for the NFL or become a singer or an actor. it sounds great, but not everyone has what it takes to do it professionally. i wasn't sure i had what it took to write professionally. but He seemed to be pretty sure that's what i would do, so i took Him at His word.

now i've done some writing in the past. when i was about 8 years old i sat down in front of a typewriter and banged out a couple paragraphs of a story about a detective who came out of a dry cleaner's. i had no idea who he was or what he was going to do next. but it was a start :)

then in fifth grade, we had an assignment. to write a short story. i wrote it and turned it in. the teacher asked for volunteers to read their short stories in front of the class. ever the ham, i volunteered. the class laughed at all the right places and gasped at all the right places. i was enthralled. the teacher (Ms Shada) told me i should keep going and keep writing. so i took my short story home and stretched it into a 40 page book. it borrowed heavily from tv shows i liked (magnum PI, especially) and movies i'd seen (like Raiders of the Lost Ark). i was a little embarrassed about that because i felt like i was cheating.

at one point, though, i was uncertain how i wanted to write this one sentence. so i picked up the phone and called "0" for information. a lady asked what i needed and i told her i was writing a book and wanted her opinion. she seemed delighted. i read her both versions (it was about blood dripping down the front of the shirt of a bad guy) and she told me which one she liked better. i thanked her and hung up. made my day.

so then on to high school. i got really bored in high school and read alot of star trek books. the only time i ever got in trouble in high school was for reading star trek books in class after finishing my assignment, after the teacher had already told me not to do that. so, being bored and heavily influenced by kirk and spock, i took pen in hand and wrote a 120 page book that was sci-fi in nature. it had some good parts, but no real coherent plot. it meandered. but it was a good step in the right direction.

i worked with a friend in high school to write another sci-fi book about the same characters. it was a little better, but still pretty bad.

in college, i wrote some poetry. some good, some bad. i wrote the beginning of an epic poem (what i finished was about two pages long) about the raven from the tradition that Noah sent a white raven to see if the land was dry, before he sent the dove, and the raven didn't return so it was cursed with being black. i didn't make up this tradition, which seems a little racist when i think about it, but i did write a poem about it, which i liked. i subsequently lost it, along with pretty much all of my writing.

since college, i've started writing several books. i usually get between 20 and 40 pages into them, then lose interest and start thinking about other things. but now i have inspiration. i feel like writing is what i am called to do.

i have an idea for a series of books. i don't want to give anything away. so i'm not going to say what they're about. but i have started writing two of the books in the series. and i thought i'd share the first page of one of them. so here it is. (in the next installment in this blog). hope you enjoy.