(Painting: Dickens' Dream, by R W Buss.)

This “Storyteller” page is where I’ll publish, now and then, snippets of my original stories. I’d really love to read your thoughts on my writing, so please feel free to comment and critique. I believe that writing is a wondrous, lifelong invitation to learning, and using my admittedly vivid and overactive imagination to paint word-pictures has become one of my greatest joys in life.

I write fiction in various genres: Sci-Fi,  Fantasy, Adventure/Intrigue, Romance. Sometimes these get all mixed up in the same story. Talk about fun!

I’m actually not a huge fan of sci-fi and fantasy. Still, over the years I’ve enjoyed and even loved books by Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. LeGuin, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. As a young adult I devoured espionage novels, mysteries and romantic adventures by such authors as Helen McInnes, Dick Francis and Mary Stewart. (OK, I still do.) Today my reading is all over the place and covers a lot of different genres and styles.  I just finished re-reading “Kidnapped” by Robert Louis Stevenson, a book I first read when I was 10 years old. It’s still an incredible story, beautifully written and far more frightening and realistic than I remembered it. We’re tough little things when we’re kids, aren’t we.

If there’s a common theme to the stories that influence me as a writer, it’s that they’re about every-day people like you and me. These characters are nothing special until the writer unceremoniously drops them into extraordinary and exciting situations. They bloom and grow, and as the story progresses they turn into vital, fascinating, courageous people who come alive in the mind of the reader. I’ve loved reading stories like this so much that, finally,  I just had to try writing them myself.

Like a million other hopeful writers, I dream of being a published author and of making my living writing stories that other people love to read. I don’t think I’m being too unrealistic in hoping for success, but I do understand the odds. Thank goodness I love writing simply for its own sake, for the opportunity to be creative and practice a talent I was born with and a skill that I’ve worked hard at to hone and perfect. Nothing excites or makes me more joyful than that singular, magical moment when my imagination allows me to “fall into the page.”

Note: The first story published under the Storyteller page is “Spirit Walk.” Click on the Storyteller tab, then on “Spirit Walk” to read it.