Douglas G Clarke

To date my published writing has been limited to web published short stories (textnovel.com), blog entries (douglasgclarke.com and my blogs linked to it), one article published in a technical journal, and eleven short stories in the three Giant Tales Anthologies available on Amazon.com. I have another 4 short stories in the process of being published and five other longer short stories that are on the way to being published. Besides my published work, I have two novels completed and in the editing phase and have ghost written 17 stories, 12 of which are published in the three Giant Tales books.

If things had been different, I may have chosen writing as my primary career, but things weren't different. I was born with dyslexia and dysgraphia, which in simple terms meant that in seventh grade I was reading at a fourth grade level and writing (penmanship and spelling) at a second. My parents paid to have me tutored outside of school and by the time I was in 9th grade I was an avid reader. The penmanship and spelling, along with what in the 1970′s was high tech - typing - were still far below grade level.

To this day I can't use cursive writing and my penmanship is something only a doctor, or my mother, could love. Check as you type spelling and grammar checkers have helped a lot, but they sill don't help much when I correctly spell the wrong word (on instead of one). Thanks to the computer, I can actually write a short story and even a novel. Thanks of course also has to go to my very understanding editors, who probably roll their eyes at the kinds of mistakes I make.

I've heard it said, and I wish I knew the exact quote and who said it first, that all great artists create from the dark times they've gone through and their disabilities. That somehow if creating is not hard work, that stirs up deep emotions, a masterpiece can not be the result.

It's funny because as I sit to write a chapter of my book, or a short story, I have some idea about what it is I'm going to write. But the effort required to type each word, (both finding the keys to hit and figuring out how to spell the word), and the effort to keep the sentence structures correct, doesn't give me much space left in my mind left to think about what to write. Instead as I finish each word, the next word seems to just be there waiting for me to write.

I've read about how characters in a story start talking and say things that the authors didn't know they were going to say, and lead the story in directions they hadn't planned. I have experience this not only in dialog, but in action and narrative as well.

I guess that my writing is very much right brained, or perhaps the Holy Spirit is whispering in my ear. In either case my writing is very much from the heart and at times thought provoking.

My earnest pray is they my writing will both entertaining and inspiring.

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My Loss

Twelve years ago I lost my father to cancer after years of battling.

In October of 2007 I lost my 15 year old son to a bicycling accident.

Coming through these two experience I have felt a lot, thought a lot, grieved a lot, learned a lot, and I've started writing a lot.

It is through my writing that I have kept my balance through the ups and downs. My blog entries were a dumping ground for my emotions, my beliefs and my thoughts.

In December of 2008 my writing turned towards a novel that I started shortly after my father's death, but didn't know how to write. After my son's death, I had the heart needed to put the words onto paper, and the experience to fill in the holes.

I am sad that my father had to die before his grandkids really had a chance to get to know him, but at the same time I am so thankful that God used my father's death to prepare me for my son's death.

I don't believe that God caused my son to die, or somehow decided that it was just time for him to come home, but I do believe that God uses the tragedies in our lives and somehow brings about good through them.

My dad's death prepared me for my son's death. My son's death prepared me to touch the lives of the dozens of people that I've shared my story with.

I thank God for using my life despite how I mess it up, and at the same time I'm fearful of what I might be prepared to face now. I can't, or perhaps won't, imagine anything worse than loosing my son. But if I do, I know that holding onto my God and my friends would allow me to survive it.

If you would like to experience my walk through the loss of my son, a good place to start is http://douglasgclarke.me/mile_markers/Entries/2007/12/22_A_wreck_along_the_way.html

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The Rest Of My Life

I am an engineer by trade, having started tinkering with electronics in fifth grade. I have been a computer programmer since I bought my first computer, a Commodore PET. I have taught programming and robotics classes to 5th and 6th graders, and computers to Boy Scouts as a merit bandage counselor.

I am a husband of 25 years, father of three children, and former Scout Master of my son's Boy Scout Troop.

I take great joy in cooking, especially on camp outs where I can show the boy how good food can be on $15 a day at a camp ground.

I have been writing short stories and poems since college, and even wrote a newsletter for five months for my Intervarsity Christian Fellowship group at Cal Poly Pomona.

I attend church at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church in California and participate in a small group Bible study and yearly trips to Mexico to build homes for those who need them.

My life is full, and sometimes I wonder why I'm spending so much energy creating Web pages, blog entries, twitters entries, facebook pages and writing a novel. But then I stop and remember that sometimes God calls us to do something, that he places something on our hearts, and we just have to do them.