Wow! I'm grateful you'd like to know something about me. So I'll take you down a walk of memory lane for me so that you can understand a little about me and why I work on this blog. To the right there is the picture that started the romance between my wife and I. I was about twenty one years old in the Utah Army National Guard in the picture. I was optimistic about life, but like most 21 year olds I had no clue of what I wanted my life to be.
Five years later I found myself having served as a missionary for my church, served a year deployment for the Army, and gone to school for two years, but I still hadn't really figured out what I wanted my life to be. But I knew who I wanted to spend it with. And she has made all the difference in the laughter, depth, and joy my life has had since.
Now I'm a little over thirty years old and I'm loving life in ways I couldn't have imagined when I was 21. I've discovered I love to teach and tell stories and I hope to do a lot of both here in my blog. I have a sincere belief that people need stories to learn from, to enjoy, and to believe in to become the best people they can become. I know I would not be where I am today without the knowledge of the many stories I've read. And I hope I can look back in the years to come and see that I would not be there without the many stories I have been able to share. Cheers!
Hi Jayrod,
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased that you're aiming to create fiction with diverse ethnicity, gender orientation etc, and that you want to inspire others to do the same.
As an editor, I get lots of fiction submissions, and almost all feature the same protagonist: Caucasian-white, 20/30something, healthy, handsome, able-bodied, heterosexual - This is so boring!
I wish authors would create more diverse characters for their fiction, because this reflects reality and it also makes fiction more interesting.
Reading slush submissions, I always perk up when I see a story about a black wheelchair user, a 50-year-old Hindu or a blind lesbian. I'll give them a closer look than the rest.
Many authors could write with great authenticity about characters with physical disabilities, different ethnicities, varying ages because of their own background, because they themselves have this experience. But strangely, they don't. They deny all that's interesting about them and go out of their way to create the standard white able-bodied handsome hetero who works in an advertising agency in New York.
You're on the right track. Keep going. Make your contribution to ethnic and cultural variety in fiction.
Rayne Hall
ok so i dont really know too much about the whole grammar thing and stuff like that but i do know that you are awesome and i love you :)
ReplyDeletebtw this is your baby bro speaking lol love ya man
sinfloffer