Here Goes Something or Nothing

As most of you know, I go by Danceinsilence but my real name is Bill.

... and I write (and write and write and....) Did I mention, I write?

I grew up in Chester, PA for the most part, reattached to Delaware for a couple years.

Home life was okay, there were some father/son issues that have since taken a backseat on life (both parents long deceased), and my life moved on in other directions. I have (or at least don't think so) any brothers/sisters. Wal-Mart didn't have any of them on sale back then, so it was just me and my imagination.

I really hated school, but I did have a Fifth Grade teacher that not only got me interested in reading, but writing as well. For that, I will always be indebted to her. But that year, she had a contest in class to read the most books, write an essay on each one and the winner would win a prize (one for boys/one for girls). Well, I won and got a Bat Masterson Derby hat, a (plastic) walking cane and vest. At the time it was just too cool for school. But that was my meager beginnings. (Interestingly enough, the following year she quit teaching and became a nun.) I guess I was around nine then, so that would mean I've been writing (ohmuhgawd) 62 years!

I quit school in my senior year (yeah, dumb, I know), entered the Marines, did the Vietnam thing, got out, traveled the country, and the world, picked up a feew languages along the way (still working on my English though). By the time I was thirty, I decided it was time to get re-educated. Ended up getting a GED, then went on to be accepted into college, and eventually a Master's and taught English Lit. and Creative Writing (although initially, I was first thinking about going into journalism), until I retired a few years ago.

During those years, I wrote, submitted, rejected hundreds of times, but kept writing. One day I finally had a poem accepted and after that came several more, followed by a couple short stories, and that's really all that has happened, but it's on my resume when I submit stuff today, tomorrow, whenever. Thing is, I never quit, never gave in, and I'll never give up.

Currently, I do have a collection of work in the final stages of preparation for publication and can't say much more until I get the final information on that.

I have been married twice. Divorced once, widow, second time. No kids (that I've ever been aware of).

When not on Prose, I write. Currently, working on the final stages of a ten-part novel to be broken down into five books, and have also started reworking another novel I first started in 1992 or 1993. Mentally. I stay busy. (I do play some online games as I think it helps me to stay mentally alert. But what the hell is "a lert" anyway?)

Briefly, I love to sing, dance (and at one time taught dance, on the side while in college, and am also an accomplished self-taught Chef which also helped with college expenses. So, during those years, I had no life of my own. Such is the way of things, right?

But ... I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Am I a good writer, you bet'cha. But I'm not the only apple in the barrel here. There are too many for me to even think about naming that are awesome in what they create, and for that alone, is why I'm on Prose. That, and the interactions I have with a few others when it comes to general chats or helping with their writes as well.

One person here (and you know who you are "SB"), has as of late, referred to Prose as "Family". I defer to that and end it here simply saying, "We are who we are because we are, and we can challenge ourselves to be even better, one word at a time."