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GD Deckard

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51 comments on What Are You Besides A Writer?

What Are You Besides A Writer?

Writers are not always more interesting than the stories they write, but real people are. Yesterday, I had a 9:30 am appointment for which I showed at exactly 9:30 am. Surprised, the person I met looked at her wall clock and exclaimed, “It’s exactly 9:30!” That brought back memories of my first big job out of college, as a sales rep for Xerox Corporation in Fairbanks, Alaska. The people in Fairbanks judged you on those individual merits that every person has, not on accomplishments or wealth. The guy in front of me in the line at McDonalds, once, was a multi-millionaire but the people behind the counter were better dressed. I learned that the first thing potential buyers cared to know about me is, was I reliable. My first chance to demonstrate reliability was to show up when I said I would.

That tendency, to judge people on their personal merits, served me well in Fairbanks. It took me from a $3.50/hr job as a parking lot attendant to a non paying job as an assistant to U.S. Senator Mike Gravell, to the $6,000/month job with Xerox. All because people I barely knew recommended me to someone looking for a reliable person.

Meaning, life is more than writing. Or editing or publishing or marketing or whatever you do in the writing life. Life includes you. So, use the comments section to let us know a bit about you when you’re not writing. Me, I enjoy living in south Florida with my lady of 26 years. Beside writing, playing video games, and being president of our condo association, I spend an inordinate amount of time opening & closing the lanai door to let the cat in and out.

You??

Image: Vladimir Nabokov with a butterfly net

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GD Deckard

Severely beaten as a child by a WWII hero and combat-induced-PTSD stepfather, the author, as a teen, faced the old man down with a shotgun and earned his blessing to join the military at the time Americans were learning about a country called Vietnam. The “lazy, no good son-of-a-bitch” opted out of combat and hard labor by becoming an Air Force medic, stamping out suffering and misery on Freedom’s Frontier at Clark Airbase in S.E. Asia and earning some kind of medal pinned on him personally by then Secretary of the Air Force, Harold Brown, for “Saving lives, etc.” There followed a summer in Europe ending in the first of happy marriages. Then graduation with University Honors, kids worth dying for and a career in business. Life is good. Author, The Phoenix Diary, Penguin, 2015. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-phoenix-diary-g-d-deckard/1122175645 Founding Member, Writers Co-op. https://WritersCo-op.com Co-Editor, The Rabbit Hole anthologies. https://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Hole-Weird-Stories/dp/1691225355/ref=sr_1_1 Founder, SciFi Lampoon Magazine. http://scifilampoon.com/ Contributing Editor, A Celebration of Storytelling https://www.amazon.com/Celebration-Storytelling-GD-Deckard/dp/1951716167 Current WIP: Code Blue and Little Deaths, stories from Clark during the Vietnam War. Recipient of the Psi Young award for Creative Biography.

51 responses to “What Are You Besides A Writer?”

  1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
    Mike Van Horn

    I’ve advised owners of small businesses for many years—going back into the 1980s. My slogan is “Grow your business without driving yourself crazy,” and I have a book by that title. Starting 20 years ago, my wife joined my firm, so we became a two consultant family. Her specialty is Human Resources, mine is growth management, so between us, we could tackle most any problem small biz owners had.
    She’s now retired and I’m down to working with a handful of clients.
    I’ve focused on writing science fiction the last few years, and I have a trilogy published. And I just published a book of marketing exercises for small, growing businesses. I have over 30 books published, most of them self-published.
    My wife and I have traveled to every continent but Antarctica. But with aches and pains of growing older, our traveling days are limited.
    We have two cats, and we’ve solved GD’s doorman problem by leaving the sliding door open a crack at night. Only sometimes do raccoons come in to get cat food.
    I’ve only had two “real jobs” in my life—ones with paid vacations. Other than that, I’ve always had my own businesses. Some successful, others less so. I’ve done export management, started a restaurant, put on workshops for government labs, real estate investment (buy high, sell low).
    I have an MBA from UCLA but I never went the corporate route.
    We have two daughters and three grandkids. Our oldest granddaughter just entered a PhD program in marine biology in North Carolina.
    We’ve been in our house north of San Francisco for 40 years now. Surrounded by trees and gardens. We love it here.

    Liked by 7 people

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    1. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      Sounds familiar, Mike. After my experience with Xerox, I swore off large corps and ran my own small businesses. A Global Van Lines agency, a career development firm, and a website development company. Hmm. Looking back at that last sentence, I see that I went from a large corporation that managed my time, to an agency where I managed other people, to a firm where I helped people manage their own careers, to a company where there are few people, just digitals. Not sure what that says but oh well, here I am.

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
        Mike Van Horn

        When I look back on my life, it sure looks like a crooked path. Is there a strand that runs through it? Three things: teaching, advising, organizing. And then writing about it.

        Liked by 3 people

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        1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
          Mike Van Horn

          One other ongoing strand: my wonderful wife. She was a nice, well-behaved Catholic girl; I was a long-haired, argumentative hippie just back from being a potter in the woods. But something clicked. Maybe because she was a tall, blond-haired beauty who drove a red orange Datsun 240Z? Naw, much more than that. We’re in our 51st year together.

          Liked by 5 people

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    2. Sandy Randall Avatar
      Sandy Randall

      I am an unconventional traveler who is also a writer. At age four after seeing Disney’s “Robin Hood”, I went home and wrote what happened next. Followed by several other, now long forgotten, stories. It would be years before I recognized myself as a writer. Until I managed that point in my life, I started out life in Indiana. After my third grade year, my parents sold the house and we moved to Colorado. I found out some years later, my dad closed his eyes and pointed to a spot on the Colorado map and said, “I want to live there.” He was a school teacher. He and my Mom split up a couple years later and she went back to California. I divided my time between their homes, but most of it was in Colorado.
      I bolted as soon as the HS diploma hit my hand.
      Travel was a growing need in me. In the summers my family did the Route 66 trek from Indiana to California and stops at the family homestead in Oklahoma. I loved those trips. After we moved to Colorado, we spent summers hiking and camping and winters skiing. (Reading GD’s book “The Phoenix Diary” was like a trip home.)
      Bolting after high school took me to Kentucky for two years, then I got knocked up, married and moved to the Netherlands (in that order). My son has asked why we came back to the US. Mostly I missed my family, but I also missed speaking American English. I was 21 when we came back.
      That marriage didn’t last … but we’re still friends because of our son.
      We moved to Colorado where most of my family lived.
      Eight years later found me attempting college again at the University of Northern Colorado. I majored in Kinesiology and English. Then I met my second husband. Quit school again and moved to Fairfax, Virginia. He was Air Force and stationed at the Pentagon. There I worked at a health club and on Bolling AFB in the food court.
      As you can see I don’t ever seem to do local moves … I cross country move. After DC we moved to Hickam AFB on Oahu, Hawaii. My second marriage ended there three years later. By that time I also had three more kids.
      I also started my career with United Airlines, thanks to my step dad who tried for several years to get me to work for United. I started at Honolulu Reservations and then transferred to the airport in Kona. At some point my ex left the Air Force and took my three youngest kids to Maryland. After 9/11 I realized just how far away they were when planes weren’t flying. So I put in my transfer request for Baltimore and Chicago … Chicago came through.
      Back across country I go.
      I was in Chicago for five years. I then transferred to Albuquerque. I missed the west. I also went with a man. Fortunately I didn’t marry that one. I did five years in Albuquerque.
      The airline industry is one of the most fluid and ever changing industries. I spent twenty-three years in that chaos. When I started United was in ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership plan), then my job group voted in the union, essentially ending ESOP for our group. Then we went into The Summer of Hell (2000) when the pilots did their work slowdown. They got a 28% raise out of that nonsense and the mechanics got slapped with a restraining order to prevent the same shenanigans. We got a decent raise, then United Declared bankruptcy in 2003, which took away the raise, our pensions and a bunch of other really nice benefits. Our next contract was yet another pay cut which we worked under from 2006 to 2013, thanks to a contentious merger with Continental airlines.
      The pandemic was my final straw. I retired from United in October of 2020. Two and a half years later, I’m now a Barista at Starbucks, with the Caveat … Starbucks does not get to impede my writing or I’m out.
      So far so good.
      I live with my husband of five years. Our three dogs, Carmen, Santiago and Jed. My oldest daughter occupies the upstairs with her two cats and my other three kids are scattered about the globe taking care of themselves (Daughter in the attic takes care of herself too. She’s here at my request lol).
      I spend my free time chasing dogs and writing down the stories in my head.
      I may travel again. There are some places I’d like to see.

      Liked by 5 people

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      1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
        Mike Van Horn

        Wow, and I thought I had a crooked path! Connections: My folks were both born in Indiana, and my wife went to high school in Honolulu. And our fave beer bar is in Kona.

        Liked by 4 people

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        1. Sandy Randall Avatar
          Sandy Randall

          Kona brew pub?
          Huggos?

          Liked by 2 people

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          1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
            Mike Van Horn

            Yep. Kona Brewing Company. We’ve stayed at Uncle Billy’s right near there, back when breakfast was included.

            Liked by 3 people

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            1. Sandy Randall Avatar
              Sandy Randall

              My Dad always liked to stay at Uncle Billy’s when he’d come visit 😂
              He also loved frequenting the market next door.

              Liked by 2 people

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              1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
                Mike Van Horn

                Yes, I recall that market very well.

                Liked by 3 people

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        2. Sandy Randall Avatar
          Sandy Randall

          Got to thinking about your Strand theory ( I call it that because it sounds like string theory lol)
          Looking over my life, the thread for me has been the travel, and language. I love words. I should have been a linguist or philologist… of course I wasn’t aware of those things until much later in life.
          At this stage, I think of all the things I didn’t do and a small part of me laments at the shortness of human life. But the larger part of me looks back and thinks, wow! I’ve seen a thing or two.
          I have no regrets. I don’t have time for them, but I also have faith that every decision I made in life got me to today. I feel like I’ve made the best choices for myself based on what I knew when I made the choice.
          Now I have experience behind me that I can tap while I write.
          Life ain’t always easy, but it’s good. I just hope to have another forty to go and still be upright and marbles intact!

          Liked by 3 people

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    3. Sandy Randall Avatar
      Sandy Randall

      I think I need to buy your books. Especially the business ones.
      Congratulations on 51 years!

      I know what you mean about finding a strand that weaves the whole journey together. I often look for that as well, not only in my journey but when I journal what feels like nonsense.

      Liked by 2 people

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  2. Luddite Avatar
    Luddite

    I’m retired and rapidly approaching 70 years old. I was expected to leave school, get married and raise a brood of children by my parents (and society). I managed to confound them all by being a bit of a rebel. I’ve been a haematologist, a biochemist, a dish washer, a clerk, a computer programmer, a non-fiction author, a singer, a child minder, a web designer, a blogger and probably other jobs/careers I’ve forgotten about. I’ve started three successful businesses.

    I’ve been married three times. Number one was a wife-beater, number two had a sex change and number three was emotionally abusive, but I stuck with him, hoping for change, until his death two years ago.

    I put all these experiences into my fiction writing and I’ve had several stories accepted for publication, including one just this morning. I’ve had a WIP since 1996! As my stock bio says, I now live on a mountain in Wales with an unruly dog.

    Liked by 6 people

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    1. Sandy Randall Avatar
      Sandy Randall

      Which mountain in Wales? I love Cymru… one of my favorite places in the world. 🥰

      Liked by 3 people

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      1. Luddite Avatar
        Luddite

        It’s Milfraen, above a small place called Cwmcelyn (Holly Valley) in Blaenau Gwent, South Wales. It was once an area of almost-unimaginable heavy industry (it was once compared to hell) and now it’s an area with very low pollution and abundant nature and wildlife, including red kites and buzzards. Because of its old reputation, we’re untroubled by tourists and high property prices.

        Liked by 4 people

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        1. Sandy Randall Avatar
          Sandy Randall

          A few years ago, a friend and I flew into Manchester, visited with a friend there, then took the train to Cardiff. After a couple of days in Cardiff we took a very long train ride to Holyhead to catch a ferry to Dublin. I had been to Holyhead a few years before that and fell in love with it. I stayed at a B&B in Conwy, toured the castle (of course lol) and checked out Great Orme. So much more to see in your neck of the woods!

          Liked by 3 people

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    2. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      Luddite,
      For some reason, my lady, a Florida baby, identifies as Welsh. Is that a thing? Have you ever heard of anyone “identifying” as Welsh?

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. Luddite Avatar
        Luddite

        Well, I’m Yorkshire born and bred, but identify as Welsh (I even learnt the basics of the language), so why not?

        Liked by 3 people

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        1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
          Mike Van Horn

          Where did the monicker “Luddite” come from?

          Liked by 3 people

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          1. Luddite Avatar
            Luddite

            It’s a bit of an in-joke. When the internet first became a thing, I had to choose an ID for my first email address. I’d worked in computer programming for many years and often got frustrated at users who wanted additional features on their systems, which were, quite frankly, easier to do manually. I got known as a ‘closet Luddite’. It seemed both natural and perverse to choose ‘Luddite’ as my user name. My real name is Jean.

            Liked by 4 people

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  3. MamaSquid Avatar
    MamaSquid

    I am a… writer. I’m the Grants Manager of a midsized nonprofit serving survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. I’ve written grants for millions of dollars over the course of my career and currently responsible for the maintenance, oversight and administration of about $3.5 million a year. Right now I am writing a grant to add an aftercare clinic to our Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program, so people who have been assaulted can get access to free birth control, immunizations and other necessities after they receive forensic examinations. This is really exciting work for me but also fast-paced and high pressure. I thrive under pressure. I have an MSW in macro social work from the University of Pennsylvania. Getting through school required extraordinary perseverance on my part because I have many “handicaps” making it more challenging, but I have been passionate about it from day one, so I kept going and it really paid off. Not many people have a job they love.

    I’m the wife of a clinical psychologist who treats OCD and anxiety-related tic disorders in children and adolescents. He has a gift with kids, and is preternaturally calm in a crisis. We have been together 21 years and my admiration for him only grows with time. I’m the mother of a wicked smart, affectionate three-year-old who is obsessed with numbers (I. Mean. Obsessed.) I became a mother at age 37 and it’s the best decision I ever made. I am a woman living with ADHD – inattentive type and a slew of other mental health issues. Sometimes I’m amazed at how happy I have managed to be despite all of these challenges. But I was blessed with a lot of luck and some really strong talents and passions, so I have been able to use these to my advantage. Not to mention the love of my life just fell into my lap when I was 19. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

    Liked by 8 people

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    1. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      Yours is a wonder full story, Mama Squid. Very human in that life isn’t perfect but those who overcome the most are close.

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. MamaSquid Avatar
        MamaSquid

        I have a saying, “Nothing worth doing is easy.” I think my life is evidence of that, because I have a lot of things in my life worth doing, and none of it is easy!

        Liked by 5 people

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  4. Perry Palin Avatar
    Perry Palin

    I grew up midwestern rural working poor. My mom died when I was ten. At school I was the awkward kid with the cheap haircut and mismatched ears. I went to the woods and the streams because the animals and birds and fish are candid and honest, more than I could see in the people around me.

    I am a common laborer on a small farm in NW Wisconsin. My highest skill duties are plowing the driveway in the winter and mowing the pastures in the summer with a diesel tractor. I pick blueberries and grow vegetables and fruits. I am a barn cat whisperer and a beekeeper. I trained horses to pull carts and sleighs until I aged out of that. I fish for trout in streams with artificial flies, tying my own flies of course, and carving fly rods out of various woods that are given to me or that I harvest in the forest.

    My wife of 50 years and I have three grown children, two boys and one girl, who are all doing well in their lives and careers. We have four grandchildren, and a fifth is due this spring.

    I went to school and I had to work away from home for about 45 years to pay the bills. I had a string of jobs. In my last job, I negotiated labor contracts for one of the largest cities in the upper Midwest. When I retired from that job many of my professional adversaries, union business agents, attended and spoke at a retirement gathering arranged by my boss.

    Liked by 7 people

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    1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
      Mike Van Horn

      Where in the midwest? I grew up in Kansas City MO. Also lived in Racine WI for a year before skedaddling to Los Angeles, leaving on a sub-zero January morning.

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Perry Palin Avatar
        Perry Palin

        I grew up NE of Duluth, MN, a few miles from the Lake Superior shore. We live now 100 miles south of that in NW Wisconsin. Gotta love those sub-zero mornings. They’re the best for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.

        Liked by 3 people

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        1. Sandy Randall Avatar
          Sandy Randall

          I spent my first eight years near Muncie, Indiana then we moved to western Colorado. Winters were never as brutal as the midwest.
          I returned to the Chicago area in 2002, from Hawaii. I think that made the sub zero temperatures even more unpleasant for me. The last straw was getting off work at 6am, getting the employee bus to the employee lot at O’Hare to find only snow covered lumps where there should have been cars. Another hour or so of digging before I could go home. My poly-wool uniform was not great for snow removal…

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          1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
            Mike Van Horn

            Just before we moved to Kansas City, when I was 4 or 5, we lived in a suburb of Chicago that was subsequently bulldozed to build O’Hare Field. This was in a century far, far away.

            Liked by 1 person

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            1. Sandy Randall Avatar
              Sandy Randall

              Would that have been Orchard Grove?

              Like

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              1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
                Mike Van Horn

                Either Park Ridge or Oak Park, if I remember correctly.

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  5. mimispeike Avatar
    mimispeike

    This is difficult. Which version of me do I give you, the quirky, sort-of fun one, or the disaster, one bad decision after another? And even that will be prettied up a bit.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. mimispeike Avatar
      mimispeike

      I save the real story for when ‘Sly’ catches the eye of the media and I’m written up in People magazine.

      I survived the sixties, seventies, and eighties, and all that that implies. But most of all, I survived me.

      Liked by 5 people

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  6. Michael DiMatteo Avatar
    Michael DiMatteo

    I grew up in Melrose Park, Illinois, just outside Chicago, and a few doors down from the venerable Bill McCormick. My best friend and I (still so after all these years), always thought Bill amusing. My life before my father got custody of me at 8 was something out of a dark fiction novel, one that if read the reader would say when completed, “Wow…lucky that was fiction.” In short, my father saved my life.

    I’ve spent my entire professional life studying history (European and World), as well as teaching it, and the study has not slowed down, which may explain my predilection to writing historical fiction, among other things. I was also a football coach at the high school and collegiate levels, a sport that consumes one’s entire body and spirit when a head coach as I was. My wife of 31 years, also a Chicagoan, has been there every step of the way, through the climbing of the coaching ladder to the eventual end of it all. She’s the rock of the family.

    Writing has always been there for me, but I never fully embraced it, scattering bits and pieces all over my digital and “real paper” footprint. It wasn’t until 8 years ago or so I decided, as my football career was coming to a close, to fully give admittance to that relentless mistress who kept knocking on my door. She is now part of my life as teaching and coaching once was, and I don’t think I could do without her.

    I’ve written three books thus far, one chronicling my entire coaching career, with all the good, bad, warts, and everything else that world offers. It’s sold fairly well. The other two, one a historical fiction novel, and the other, a collection of short stories about life…and endings, not so well, but it matters not to me. I’m working on the sequel to the HF novel as I have to find out how the whole saga ends.

    Anyway, there’s a bit of me…

    Liked by 6 people

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    1. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      Michael,
      Now you have me wondering…
      “I’m working on the sequel to the HF novel as I have to find out how the whole saga ends.”
      As a sci-fi writer, I havta wonder, how does history end? 🤔
      It has to be informative, to know how past civilizations declined.

      Liked by 3 people

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      1. Michael DiMatteo Avatar
        Michael DiMatteo

        Ha…good question. As writers, any way we want, right? With this story…so many working parts that revealed themselves as it moved forward, complicated things for me. But, they have things to do and say so I have to keep going. 🙂

        Liked by 3 people

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        1. Sandy Randall Avatar
          Sandy Randall

          Michael,
          “so many working parts that revealed themselves as it moved forward, complicated things”
          I have a novel in the works called “Legend of the Klaus” The initial question that started this ‘epic’ was “How does a 3rd century monk become a 20th century Jolly fat man in a red suit giving toys to kids one night a year?”
          The things I have learned include the advent of genuflection to geological events in the third century! It’s been eye opening. If only we taught history from questions like this! The things I have learned on my own far outweigh the boring history class I sat through (nearly dozed off through) in high school. It definitely beats rote memorization for me!🤣

          Liked by 1 person

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          1. Michael DiMatteo Avatar
            Michael DiMatteo

            I used to teach “facts without context mean little other than being good at Jeopardy”. “Tell the story.”

            Historical context along with applied history are the way, to my mind, to teach history. I agree on memorization, however, there is a place for that. Learn the terms, the ideas, and then be able to apply them. The sequel I’m working on (with help from Dr. Hanna Barker from University of Arizona, Dr. Luke Yarbrough – UCLA professor of Islamic studies (and a former student of mine), along with Dr. Joshua White from the University of Virginia, is complicated historically, as the region was (Greece, Anatolia, Byzantium at the end of the 14th century), but eye opening as well. Also agree when you’re writing and researching, along with trying to pair it with plausible fiction is daunting, eye opening, and for me, a lot of fun. I like the premise of your work…a lot.

            Liked by 2 people

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            1. Sandy Randall Avatar
              Sandy Randall

              I love that whole region of Greece, Egypt, Byzantium (Istanbul, Constantinople …) The two Popes, the Arabians, Jerusalem … My story has St Nicholas on a pilgrimage, which he does in order to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. The fun part of Nicholas’ story are all the myths and legends around him. My story falls in the category of historical fantasy, which it has to be if the guy is going to hang around longer than methuselah…

              I’m definitely going to have to check out your books … Mimi’s posts on Showcase are also hugely helpful … her Epic Sly story is chock full of historical accuracy. She blends fact and fiction so well, that one day anthropologists may think her tale is historical fact.

              Liked by 1 person

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              1. Michael DiMatteo Avatar
                Michael DiMatteo

                “If the guy is going to hang around longer than Methuselah”. Great line. Ha! It’s a complex and unique area that I started writing about completely on accident. A fortunate accident, it turns out. I like the premise of your story as well. Please, keep me in the loop as you prepare it.

                Liked by 2 people

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                1. Sandy Randall Avatar
                  Sandy Randall

                  Writing accidents are fun … I do art that way lol.
                  Maybe I will feature a bit of Niko’s story in a showcase. I haven’t dusted it off in awhile, I’ve been focusing on other projects … primarily Rabbit Hole 6 …
                  And likewise … keep us posted here on your work as well. I love historical novels. Especially the ones that pay attention to actual history. You feel like you’ve been invited on a ride into the past.

                  Liked by 1 person

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                  1. coraleggcalypso92586 Avatar
                    coraleggcalypso92586

                    Will do! I actually submitted to the first Rabbit Hole. It was a lousy story but my first attempt a long time ago. Embarrassing, actually. Ha.

                    Liked by 2 people

      2. Mike Van Horn Avatar
        Mike Van Horn

        Ha! Remember the book from a generation ago “The End of History?” (Blanking on the author) He said that with the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, it would be smooth sailing.
        Boy did that prediction have a short shelf life!

        Liked by 4 people

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        1. GD Deckard Avatar
          GD Deckard

          Predictions go in the opposite direction of history unless history repeats. Which, it often seems to. Sometimes I think human behavior is a closed loop. However our history ends, future historians may deem it all quite predictable.

          Liked by 1 person

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        2. Mellow Curmudgeon Avatar
          Mellow Curmudgeon

          Francis Fukuyama’s 1989 paper with that title and 1992 book with a longer title were epic misreadings of superficially hopeful signs.  So was the consensus among physicists around 1900 that there was nothing much left to work on, beyond getting more precise measurements of assorted constants.

          Liked by 2 people

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          1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
            Mike Van Horn

            Yes, that’s the one. I remember thinking at the time that with the cessation of Great Power “Cold War,” we’d probably have an upsurge in smaller regional conflicts as countries were no longer under the thumb of the US or USSR.

            Liked by 2 people

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  7. Sandy Randall Avatar
    Sandy Randall

    A good novel with some fun history … “Venus on the Half-Shell” written by Philip José Farmer, with the pseudonym of Kilgore Trout.
    I read this book in my twenties. Only today did I learn of the pseudonym and that he got Vonnegut’s permission to use Trout and an excerpt of Vonnegut’s novel “God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater.”
    My point being, if I remember correctly (My twenties were thirty some years ago) but there was something about cockroaches outliving everyone and everything. Argh … I better just revisit the book at this age! lol
    At any rate the plot of the earth being destroyed by bureaucrats inspired “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” (Douglas Adams).
    I think as writer’s we are intrigued by the potentiality of “What if …” That statement alone energizes the imagination response. Writing historical fiction (ask Mimi) can be a lifetime of “what if”

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      Sandy, your post made my memory stutter.
      Kilgore Trout was occassionally cited by Vonnegut characters as being their favorite science fiction writer.
      Wasn’t there something about cockroaches outliving everyone in Nevil Shute’s “On The Beach?”
      I remembered Douglas Adams’ “God’s last words to mankind.”

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Sandy Randall Avatar
        Sandy Randall

        Better your memory than your heart!
        Honestly I haven’t read much Vonnegut. I probably should. My first husband got me to read “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, “Venus on the Half- Shell” and “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.” He also insisted on having me watch “Easy Rider” and “Fantasia” after smoking marijuana. Plus copious amounts of Bob Dylan playing in the back ground. Does this explain me? lol. I was born in the sixties … My husband insisted I be influenced by the 60’s as well. I think the polyester of the 70’s and the pop culture of the 80’s freaked him out. We lasted three years.
        More to the point, however, I credit him with expanding my knowledge and igniting my curiosity for learning. To this day he is an odd duck, lives a reclusive lifestyle and our son has told me he totally gets our divorce. I needed people in my life, more than my ex did. But I am forever grateful. I likely would not have known to pick up those books. Of course later college classes in literature introduced me to some off the wall things as well (Sartre for instance) and my dad always had Dahl, King and Lovecraft laying around. Still there are points in personal history I can look at and say definitively … “That changed me.”

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        1. GD Deckard Avatar
          GD Deckard

          “Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.”
          – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

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  8. beechannel27 Avatar
    beechannel27

    When I am not writing, I am a caregiver to my father. I also enjoy yoga and reading.

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    1. beechannel27 Avatar
      beechannel27

      PS: Great read by the way!

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