William Ramsay

I am a seventy-one year old, retired software engineer. I began when I was thirteen by writing my autobiography with a pencil. That masterpiece has unfortunately been lost. When I was fifteen I wrote my first novel about a group of families who go from poverty to riches. The book was actually picked up by a publishing house in Boston. Unfortunately, it was never published or printed. It was amazing for a fifteen year old, but not very good as a printable novel. Since then I've written perhaps eleven novels and innumerable short stories. Not one has ever been published up to now.

Why is that so? Well, I don't think I tried hard enough. One rejection slip was usually enough to make me give up and go on to something else. I never knew other writers. I never took a writing course, even in college. I never joined a writers group to share works in progress for input. All these things are essential for young writers. And, too, I found I also loved writing computer programs. Making a living as a software engineer is far more certain than trying to do so as a writer of fiction.

What I did do, and what all writers should do, is I wrote. And read. And I think I can tell a good work from a bad one. I have always loved the intellectual process of writing a novel. It is not easy. And it is immensely satisfying, even if it only gets put in a draw.

Why try to publish now? My daughter showed me the way. One day she informed me she was writing a children's story and was going to self publish it on Amazon. The work is Turtle Soup and Tirimisu and is geared for fourth graders. The entire process she followed to get her book out there intrigued me and I decided to dust off some of my old novels and do the same.

Good People is the first result. I have another work out for editing and have started a new novel based on a man in his seventies who has had a stroke and must watch his family in silence. I should note that there is no similarity between any of my books. Good people is about a small town policeman and the Mob and is really a crime story. The one in edit is about a family who run a shabby hotel.

I have not been a very successful writer and do not have great hopes of becoming one, but I love the written word, my own and other's. And I will go on writing and reading and writing reviews on the web. And maybe young writers could learn from all the things I didn't do as a writer.