When did you first start writing?
Truthfully, I feel back in grammar school. I think a lot of us go through that phase. You be in school. You see a girl that you like. You write a poem and ask your peers to pass it to her. It just so happens that I came across someone who was not only nice, but also nice looking. She told me she enjoyed my poem. So, I continually wrote. (Laughing a little). Though I never got paid for it, I’ve had seven of my poems published in eight different publications. One that extended to a publishing company in the U.K. who started to work on publications in conjunction with some U.S. publishers.
Are you saying that it was your childhood sweetheart who got you into to writing?
(Smiling) Well——. I’ve got to answer that question on two fronts. 1) I started to write just to keep in the trend of my peers, and 2) To some degree, I would prob—ably— have to say yes. She told me it was something that she liked. I guess that I was kind of alright with writing. Back in the six grade there was this poem that I wrote. I showed it to my grandmother. She told me why don’t you try to get it published? She must have been right on Q about something. I didn’t get paid for it, but it got published. I think about that now. I wish that I had kept it and treasure it. It would be just so that I could now look back on it. You know how it is when you’re young and active. Most of the times, your mind is not objectively sound on focusing on what could be inspiring and futuristic endeavors. You just want to be out there having fun.
Oh—. And yeah——. I probably have to say that me not thinking about treasuring things like that could have in part happened because some of my friends and relatives knowing and unknowingly were jealous and envious of me achieving that height. Sometimes, I get flash backs about things like that. In part, I guess because some of them are older than me.
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