Fitton's Chronicle

Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.

Tom Clancy

You've come to the wrong place if you're looking for the story of the gifted child, inspired to compose imaginative, literary prose. But, the telltale signs of a writing addiction loomed all around me ...
Like any kid in the 1950's I cast myself as a soldier in countless World War II battles. I specifically explained to my mother that I was constructing a resolution of tension, spiced with appropriate melodrama, and powered by powerful verbiage.
(He's lying)
Most importantly, my mother read stories aloud and primed my imagination. I especially liked the Thornton Burgess books. She added her own stories with vivid characters.
At the Parkview School in North Easton, Massachusetts when we were handed our spelling words I would connect each word into a story line and yawn when it came time to actually spell the word correctly. Hmmmm...

My eighth grade English teacher at the Easton Junior High School,
Mr. Geary, endured off the cuff remarks, imitations, and pranks, and finally tagged my performance not as humor but as wit ... I had to think about that one.
Please don't ask my family about how I recorded every late night Star Trek episode on audio tape and maintained memory banks of useless Trekkie trivia.

Perhaps the audio tapes I produced with one of my high school buddies, poking fun at our friends, ( friends until the tape was played ) should have clued me into a unrestrained craziness that needed to be channeled. Now, I make MP3 and WAV files!

		The late Willis K. Smith Senior English Class

My high school English teacher overlooked my teenage trials and tribulations and inspired me to write page after page of self-indulgent mush ... Now it's middle aged, self-indulgent mush.

Amidst it all was my cousin, Gary, who shared a great sense of humor and transferred an intellectual curiosity irreplaceable in my life.
And when my dad was dying before his time I tempered my grief by writing. The endeavor became a Star Trek novel. In that time right after college a close friend read that work and I started another book. The Star Trek manuscript sits on the shelf today, but the effort tapped a reservoir of creativity that continues unabated.
Sure, I read a plethora of "how to" writing books and took the courses in college, but I was extremely fortunate to be in close proximity of an annual writing conference, where I absorbed every syllable from instructors such as mystery writer, Sally Gunning and science fiction legend, Orson Scott Card.

And of that close friend from my college days ... why years later he sent my an IBM XT computer and prompted me to put my work on disk. Disks led to other computers and the Internet. I edited my books again and created a web site to sell Adventures in Cyber Literature.
So, now I'm an author ... Whoopee!!!

Slice and Dice

Fitzgerald doesn't like it.

I have read The Great Gatsby more times than any other book. When I first studied Gatsby I was taken by the flavor of the 1920's and characters that made sense.

The last time I perused Fitzgerald's pages I was floored by the gracefully flowing words.

Fitzgerald edited what was already excellent prose.

Hemingway's brutally realistic style trimmed the wordy nineteenth century works. For me, the pace (and his own life) was power packed and the images alive.

Imagination

Full of the Dickens

Despite all this 20th century fury let me welcome in the 19th century. For me, taking in Charles Dickens' characters is Panavision in the front row.

Charles Dickens

Pip's destiny in Great Expectations is neatly woven within the tug of failed love and luck. Social commentary in Dickens's work starkly rises from the flamboyant names and characterizations of David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. The setting in A Tale Of Two Cities was more vivid than any book I read growing up. And how can fantasy be ignored in A Christmas Carol?

Let's Stay in Great Britain

Lennon doesn't like it either

Ever listen to a new song going up the charts and dissect its growth from the first hum to the last stanza? No way. I just enjoy it. John Lennon once responded to a questioner. The guy in the audience said something like: " Hey, man, how about makin' a song for us right here." Lennon, as usual, was quick, his face tightened and he throttled out the reply:
"Do you know what it takes to compose a song?"
The Beatles Anthology graphically demonstrates the grinding rework of material into its final form and generated into music on the airwaves.

Back to America

So I wanted to be a writer? I languished in front of Ernest Hemingway's Key West home during a spring break and as a parade of cats brushed my legs. I pondered what it would be like to be a writer. I wished. But wishing didn't cut it.

They said it couldn't be done

Ask Edison if all his inventions went from stray thoughts to instant materialization. You know the quote about 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. He also said if he couldn't sell it he didn't want to invent it. Hmmm...

Buster Keaton was a genius and his silent stunts evolved into an unparalleled comedic craft. Keaton was asked about how they created films such as The General. In his creaky voice he quickly explained how he and his production company thoroughly and unequivocally immersed themselves in their craft. They did whatever it took to get to reach the higher level

They still said it couldn't be done

I'm selling my novels on the web. Most people tilted their heads like my dog when she doesn't understand what I have just said. Rush Limbaugh, like him or hate him, was told the idea of one man broadcasting a radio show without daily guests would not work. Limbaugh started his show anyway because knew he was right. And he was. Rush Limbaugh executes his show flawlessly and is an inspiration to all.

Welcome to The Fitton Chronicles