How Old I Was When I Started Writing

Some people have asked how old I was when I started writing. I was twenty-one. At that time I was an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction novels. (My older brother was an avid SciFi fan too.) I sent out my first manuscript to Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine when I was 21 years old. It was a short piece called The Circle.

The Circle takes place in 1930 and is about a twenty-nine-year-old man named John Roberts who’s on his way to a scientist’s laboratory on a dark and foggy night to try out the scientist’s time machine. Along the way, he encounters an old man who begs him not to go to the lab. “I can still remember when I was twenty-five, sixty-nine years ago—in 1930,” he says. Then he keeps saying, “I’m you and you’re me.” Obviously, the poor guy’s demented. As John passes him, he hears the man holler “Tonight is July 20, the same night that I . . .” And then John’s out of hearing range.

Time Machine

At the scientist’s lab, John gets into the time machine. As the scientist starts the machine, John suddenly wonders if he was the old man. But it’s too late, and the time machine takes John to the Battle of Bull Run. After the fighting, John waits for the scientist to transport him back to the present, but that never happens. John is stuck in the past . . .

The night is dark and foggy when an old man emerged from the fog. “I can still remember when I was twenty-five, sixty-five years ago—in 1930 . . .One short story I wrote was about the crucifixion of Christ on an alien planet. The response I received said, “Good writing, but I can’t buy that much religious coincidence without some justification.”

l also wrote three SciFi novels, which were never published. (They need some work.)

The Vatican

In 2007, I began writing a novel titled The Vatican List. It’s about a Jewish professor at Harvard University who goes to the Secret Vatican Archives to do research. His father is an extremely devout Jew living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The professor, though, discovers that is father is a wanted Nazi war criminal. Recently, I brought the manuscript out again and am going to work on it.

After a while, I stopped writing to pursue other activities, but now I’m writing again and enjoying it.