Confessions of my Past, Present and Future
by
Michael Grumley
The Past
Hi, Nev. Let me start by thanking you for hosting me on your blog. You’re extremely well read and your reviews are top notch, so I’m grateful for the invite.
Writing started for me at a very young age, like it mostly did for many of us with some small, fun but silly story. I’d also written some short stories in my teens that I thought were kind of cool (and probably I alone), but then something interesting happened in my early twenties.
I was reading a series of science fiction books by a writer named Jack L. Chalker. They were really quite good, and at the time the predominant “online” system was a predecessor to AOL, called CompuServe. I wondered if Mr. Chalker might be a member, given his technological slant. As luck would have it, he was. I sent him a quick email asking if he was the famous SF writer and he responded that he was.
Needless to say, I almost fell out of my chair, and over an exchange of several notes with him, I learned some interesting things about the “real” life of a writer. At least back then in the early 90’s. For example, Mr. Chalker informed me that it was a very lonely life, and that surprisingly, it wasn’t uncommon for some writers to file for bankruptcy while waiting for a hundred thousand dollar check from a publisher. He went on to tell me a number of other things that both surprised me and made me rethink my odds as a future writer. Mr. Chalker has since passed on but his somber words left an indelible mark for me.
The Present
Fast forward to the present and a company called Amazon changes everything with a revolution that no one could have predicted. Ereaders were not new, in fact many other devices had been tried, but something about the Kindle caught fire (no pun intended). Not unlike how some books catch fire for no discernible reason. Technology itself works in a very similar way.
It was the explosion of the Kindle and Amazon’s open doors to self-publishing that changed the lives of thousands of hopeful, including myself. Within just a few short years…we were unleashed. Of course, as an “indie” author I still require a full time job to pay the bills, which means I spend far more of my free time writing than reading. My problem is that it takes a looong time to write a book, and I have an awful lot of ideas trying to get out of my head.
The Future
But what’s interesting is what Amazon did for our future. Eleanor Roosevelt once said “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” And never before have we been exposed to such a plethora of ideas. Not just stories, but real ideas. Ideas of what may have been, what is, and what just might lie ahead.
I suppose if people asked me what I expect to be reading or writing about in the future, my answer would be “everything”. Amazing ideas, even interesting ideas, are not bound by genre or topic. They’re bound by imagination. And imagination is literally endless. Imagination that doesn’t care where we’re born, or where we grow up. Imagination that doesn’t care whether we’re black, white, brown, fat, skinny, poor, rich, gay, straight, Muslim, Christian or atheist. All imagination cares about is being released.
And that’s exactly what is happening.
To me, the world already has more than enough darkness in it. What it never gets enough of is more light. And it’s no coincidence that the symbol for ideas…is a light bulb. So, if you read, read about ideas. If you write, write about ideas.
Ideas change the world.
And before I die I want to hear or read as many great ideas as I possibly can.
You can buy any of Michael’s books here.
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Reviewer then please consider using the links below to buy any of the
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Thanks.
For years, Michael Grumley dreamed of writing action
thrillers the way he thought they should be written; stories with unique plots
that 'move'. Enter BREAKTHROUGH, AMID THE SHADOWS, and THROUGH THE FOG: all
original stories with endings you will never see coming.
Michael C. Grumley lives in Northern California with his
wife and two young daughters where he works in the Information Technology
field. He's an avid reader, runner and most of all father. He dotes on his
girls every chance he gets.
He is currently working on the next Breakthrough story.
And for more on Michael, see his site or find him on
social media:
Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page
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