One of my favorite authors is Edgar Rice Burroughs. Like many teenage boys his martian series totally captivated me. Who would not want to be like John Carter and win the heart of the most beautiful woman of all of Mars? Okay, so I was a little geeky at the time.
Sometime in college I thought between school, part time jobs, National Guard training and my future wife I would be able to write a book. To write five pages a day is good for me. To find time to write five pages is another story. But I tried. And I failed.
For my college years attempt I hearkened back to Burroughs. I wanted to write about a hero who is transported to another world. My story started with a bunch of teenagers going to camp on a bus. During a very bad storm the bus looses control and crashes. Some die in the crash... but then what happen? I don't know because of all my commitments I never got past the first chapter and lost interest.
A few years later I was able to finally finish a very sloppy manuscript of an interstellar war. It also sits in my writing box looking for the light of day. Then I finished a novella about a guy condemn to Hell. Its done but I'm holding onto it for now. I want to add to it and haven't gotten around to it.
One day I was wallowing in self pity when Mrs. Stidmon started scolding me. I believe the actual words were, "Your book wont write its self, make it happen." After sulking for some time because she was right. I went back to all my serious attempts at writing.
About this time I literally had a dream. In the dream there was a bunch of people and a disembodied voice from a bright shiny light said, "Find me and you win." Unlike most dreams that quickly fade away. The images to this day are still very vivid.
Between the bus story line and this one dream, I had my beginning. I had from a couple of decades of writing and playing Dungeons and Dragons tons of stuff about Kesselt. And so I started writing The Greggs of Kesselt to put it all together and make it happen. I not only introduce Kesselt but I have my hero story similar to Edgar Rice Burroughs.
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