Look and Listen

Biography

I have no history as a writer, other than a slew of unpublished poems from my youth. "Kris Miss: A Christmas Story" is my first attempt at prose. I am sixty-two years of age and a lifelong resident of the Greater Detroit area in Michigan. When I'm not writing, I serve at our international airport as a security officer for HSS. I am the caretaker of two elderly demented relatives (mother and aunt). My love for music and sports has only diminished slightly through the years and I enjoy reading the classics. I like to keep an eye on what the quantum physicists are up to and I admit to a weakness for books involving mysticism, fantasy and mythology.

Inspiration

I follow no one else's blueprint (so to speak) as I write, but Steinbeck, Hesse, Tolkien, Vonnegut, Steinbeck, Carlos Castaneda, and Jane Roberts are 20th century writers I enjoy. Coleridge, Ferlinghetti, Blake, Whitman and Frost rank in no particular order as my favorite poets. Emerson, Bacon, Pascal, and Epictetus are only a few of those I admire from earlier times. As for myself, in this first endeavor, I worked with no outline. Once I pounded out the introductory paragragh, a second one suggested itself, and so it went until the story began to move in a general direction. One scene suggested the next and what originally appeared to be a brief short story blossomed into a short novel. A generally nebulous concept crystallized step by step as I wrote. It was the oddest thing, as if the story were already there and I simply had to tune in to it. I don't expect it to happen again and I in no way endorse such an unconventional approach to any aspiring writer. My current work is progressing well using more traditional methods.