Early in 1968, a four-year old John Beach “discovered” stacks of Marvel and DC comic books in the cellar entryway of his family’s home in Minnesota. Paging through them, he was immediately drawn to the flamboyant, action-filled drawings, how the sequential panels of four-color artwork on each page were revealing a story. And, longing to know more specific details about the actual tales, he wondered at the words found within balloons and caption boxes. John then pestered his older siblings to help teach him their meanings and definitions. Even with their help, he struggled to recognize, hear, and pronounce syllables and complete words. He had been born partially deaf so words arrived haggardly. Slowly, he learned to read. And he kept reading and tried writing. His elementary school teachers shared his stories to the class. His high school English teachers awarded him praise and good grades. He did okay in college writing classes. But writing for John was always a brief distraction; he never intended to make a career out of it and he never did.
John describes himself now as “the evolutionary result of Paperboy to Grocery Store worker to Professional College Student to Magazine Editor to Computer Night Operator to Jr. Database Programmer to System Administrator to Computer Consultant to College Professor to Dean of Information Technology.” He’s always been around writing and used it daily in his professional life. He used it in his leisure time, too, often playing fantasy role playing games where he plotted out the adventures that he and his players would communally craft together around the table and in living rooms. John’s always loved stories, always had them churning and reforming in his brain. It wasn’t until he began closing in on an early retirement (for health reasons) that he started to get them out of his head and onto paper and then released into the world through ePublishing.
You can visit with John on Facebook. He’d love to hear from you regarding his work (and your hobbies), and he would greatly appreciate it if you could write reviews for his books. Ask him for free coupons if you need them. He only puts prices on his books so that people take them more seriously. The money’s not important: his stories and poems just want to be read.
