An Accidental Author by Brock Meier

   

My journey as an author has been anything but conventional. Unlike the vast majority of published authors, the first time I picked up a pencil and paper at age five, I did NOT think “Gee, I’m going to be an author when I grow up!” Having successfully published my first novel at age 73, I now even wonder how it all happened.

Over the last few years, I wound down my half-century career as a research scientist and engineer. And some years before that, I put aside my side-gig as an award-winning fine art photographer. About that time, I began meeting with a local writers’ critique group, presumably for tuning up my creative writing skills in support of the few blogs I wrote at the time. Those in the group either had, or were about to publish books: some were novels, others memoirs. I had no interest in pursuing either. But the group was a knowledgable and generous bunch, so I learned much.

At the conclusion of one of our meetings, I asked a member what his process and journey was like, on the way to producing his novel. His frank (and scary) answer was sufficient to tell myself: “I have absolutely NO interest in ever writing a novel!”

But reading another member’s emotional, dramatic poem grabbed my attention. And upon her live performance of the work, the poem further gripped my heart and would not let go. Every morning at 3am I would awaken to scenes from the poem running through my mind like a movie reel. The only way I could rid myself of the visions was to write them down. While still holding down my 40-hour a week research position, in six months I’d written a 120,000 word novel.

While that initial work remains unpublished, I have since written and published another historical fiction novel, The Stone Cutter. And I am now writing the second book of what promises to be a seven novel series, called Waters In the Desert.

Sometimes we go looking for adventure. At other times, the adventure finds us.

Written by Brock Meier