Who is John?

You have every right to ask about John. Who is he? Why should I invest time reading his words? How did he become a writer?

Students in US schools are expected to crank out a number of essays, and the most common is the useless wart – “How I spent my summer”. Ugh! I hated that exercise. As far as I know none of my childhood essays or poems survived. Red marks on my essays confirmed that my talent in the writing arena was under-developed. I was wordy or vague, sometimes both at once.

The Story Teller

Stories fascinate me. As a child I spent hours around campfires spinning yarns to entertain my friends and family. Many of my impromptu creations were ghost stories, and there is nothing like listening to a spooky ghost story as the woods creak and groan in the background. The skill of the storyteller is directly proportional to the number of 8-year-olds stricken with wide-eyed insomnia. Ah, the power of words!

The Engineer

I studied engineering in college (BSEE from WVIT, 1980), and slaved away for 30+ years at various telecommunications companies. In those positions I composed countless memos, emails, training guides, product descriptions, design documents, and other forgotten epistles. Along the journey I learned that removing obfuscation is the key to communicating, and writing my thoughts down forced me to choose words wisely. The clearer I made the meaning, the better for the reader.

The telecommunications bubble popped in 2001, and the death spiral began for many US companies including my employer at the time, Northern Telecom. Layoffs mounted, projects fizzled, and jobs were outsourced. We were told to ignore concerns about the future,and to grab a copy of Spencer Johnson’s book Who Moved My Cheese? and to read it. We would then understand both the reason behind the downturn and the need to suck it up and get on with life.

John’s First Book

My rebuttal to Johnson’s book began in earnest, and after 2 years, I dropped the manuscript into a drawer. A few close friends read it and suggested it was worth sharing. For my birthday in 2008 my daughter surprised me, took the manuscript and published it through Lulu as Who Ate My Cheese? I shed tears of joy as I held that printed book. Who Ate My Cheese? has sold in markets around the world.

 

The Teacher

I’ve had the privilege of teaching Bible classes to children, teens, and adults in local churches. My students deserve my best. Illustrations, object lessons, even puppet skits were common products of my preparation time. I discovered personal joy in choosing words to communicate thoughts and ideas, and I developed a habit of writing my notes and teaching plan week after week.

The Author

Why write?

Perhaps my message will bring encouragement to one struggling with life. Maybe I can offer a smile to lighten the heaviness of someone’s daily grind. My readers may join me on an adventure, and together we can find hope or joy or a new challenger for self-improvement. Anything’s possible with the written word.

My goal in writing is to share ideas, experiences, and the lessons I’ve learned. I hope to make my readers laugh, cry, consider, evaluate, and think, “I get it.” In that moment we will be joined across time and space, and that is the marvel of written words.

I’m happy to share my writing mission statement, Why Write? at this link:

John’s Writing Mission Statement.

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