Archive for the ‘building my website’ Category

Another of my mother’s photographs for her photography class. We’ve called it American Gothic in the family for years. You get to guess which one is me. It was taken around the time I wrote “The Eight Balls.” Rules have been a theme in my writing for a long time. One of the first stories I wrote for the children’s market was titled “David Learns the Rules.” It followed a kindergartener through his first week as he learned to keep his car on the green road. I wrote it after I saw how much the behavior modification plan of my son’s kindergarten teacher had captured not only his imagination, but also those of his two younger brothers. Their artwork was green, yellow, and red for weeks.

I am putting together the story of my (writing) life for the biographical section of my website. I am lucky to have a mother who kept many of my early creations. I am doubly lucky because she is also a photographer. When I wrote my first story (or at least the one that has become the stuff of family legend), my mother was enrolled in a photography class at a local college. She took a black and white shot of the story, titled The Eight Balls, and printed it in a borrowed darkroom.