How I became an author Part II
Title: How I became an author
Part II
My mother wasn’t the only one who fostered reading in my
although she built a very solid foundation!
My elementary teachers and my father, John Essigmann, helped this
grow. As I thought back to which
teachers contributed, I realized that in one way or another...they all
did. I’m only going to mention the
things that stick out to me but I owe all those teachers. Maybe you had a bad teacher...I feel sorry
for you if you did. I didn’t. Every teacher I had at BCS, Bethel Christian
School
Miss Mencer (I think
that’s how you spell her name:) was my third grade teacher. I’ll never forget her for introducing me to
long division (which I didn’t like:) and how much I liked her as a
teacher. I owe her for pounding into my
head the phrase, “Diligence is working hard to finish a task.” Most of all I remember her favorite
stories. She read us a story that I
vividly remember the main line because she read it so well. It went, “Dragon, dragon, how do you do? I’ve come from the king to murder you!” Miss Mencer was so full of life, this story
seemed to be the most wonderful story in the world. Her eyes sparkled as she not only read it to
us but explained why she loved it so much.
Miss Mencer also read us advanced books too. She read us a Christian story named, “The
Singer” and told us about the sequels to it, “The Song” and “The Finale”. The book was a little over my head but once
again, she not only read us some of “The Singer” but patiently explained it to
us. Jesus was the Singer...it was my
fourth exposure to an allegory. My
first was “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” which has a picture of
Christ’s death, the second was the illustrated Pilgrim’s Progress book I had
been given for Christmas, and the third was an excellent book called, “The
Shining Sword” (read to me by my mother).
It’s funny that the first book I put into print was an allegory of the
Christian life using military science fiction/fantasy genre. Anyway, this influenced me so much that later
in life I asked for “The Finale” for Christmas.
I liked it, even though it was kind of set up more like poetry than
prose, and kept it on my shelf for years.
I think in some ways it was more than a book or an allegory to me. It was a link to a favorite teacher. Then came my first real foray into
writing. She gave us an assignment to
write a story. The assignment asked us a
simple question, “What if we suddenly became a piece of dust and blew out of
the classroom. What happens next?” I was very excited about this
assignment! Like many aspiring writers I
talked my friends ears off about what I was going to write...instead of
actually writing it:) Oh, the novel I
planned to write about that piece of dust!
Oh, the places it would go and the things it would see! But alas, I was lazy. Instead of a grand novel, I wrote a small
story that I was very disappointed by. I
think that small school assignment was far more important than it
appeared. It taught me a painful lesson
in failing to actually write a story instead of merely thinking about it.
In fourth grade Mrs. Merchant held a reading contest. The prize was going to the wonderful
restaurant, “Raymonds,” with HER! What
kid doesn’t want to go out to eat with their teacher! Everyone in the class was excited about it
and everyone wanted to win. I wasn’t the
most confident kid in the world, especially in sports...which is ironic because
you’d never guess that about me today!
BUT I was a reader! I was confident
I would win because my friends were great people but reading two thousand pages
was a new thing to them. Not to me, because
I devoured books! They made a valiant
effort in the beginning but my mother had trained me too well and I won. I never thought about my teacher being poor
and that taking me to Raymond’s was a big sacrifice on her part! Her sacrifice was appreciated because my mom
was poor so we rarely went out to eat and if we did it was to the cute little
Café La Golden Arches or Bistro Burger King.
Grandma Lane took me to highfalutin places like Wendys! Grandma
K never took me out to eat as a kid (she had nine kids and a myriad of
Grandchildren) but she made killer tuna fish sandwiches!
My mom remarried a man named John Essigmann. Dad had left when I was in first grade...or was
it kindergarten. Whenever it was, I was devastated! My dad got remarried and I got used to life
with mom having to work a lot. When mom
started dating John Essigmann in my late elementary school years, I wasn’t sure
what I thought about that. On one of
their dates they took us (my brother, my step sister Kimmy, and myself) to walk
Wintergreen Gorge. At one point dad (Mr.
Essigmann at that point), asked mom if she could see a hobbit hiding
nearby. I was curious about what they
were talking about and asked. Dad
started reading “The Hobbit” to us. I
was spellbound! He was a good reader and
I remembered so many wonderful things from “The Hobbit” but he wasn’t
done. He read us the complete Lord of
the Rings trilogy! If I thought the
Hobbit was good (and it was!) the Lord of the Rings was AMAZING! I cried when Gandalf died and rejoiced when
he returned in white! What a
series! It took dad into my seventh
grade year to finish that with us but my was it good!
In fifth grade Mrs. Metzsker (not how you spell her name!)
read us “Treasures in the Snow” and in Sixth grade Mrs. Gribbin read us Prince
Caspian. I know I had heard Prince
Caspian before but I really liked the way she read the dialog! All this contributed to my love of reading
and eventually translated into a desire to write the story myself.
My next attempt to write a book came in sixth grade with my
friend Mark Newcomb. We became friends
through acting and we really clicked.
Mark wanted to write a “Choose Your Own Adventure” together and we both
made a valiant effort at it. I don’t
remember what it was about but I think the protagonist was up against Nazis...I
think. We spent classroom free time on
it and once again had big plans but didn’t finish it. It was my first attempt at a collaborative
writing book and I’m amazed we made it as far as we did! Unlike my professional artist friend Jonathan
Myers or Dave Quiggle, who spent hours drawing all through elementary school
(Jonathan would skip recess to stay in and draw) I was not really working at
being an author...or maybe I was. My
mother read me classics such as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, White Fang, Call of
the Wild, Swiss Family Robinson, all of CS Lewis classic series, all of Laura
Ingalls Wilders original series (farmer boy was my favorite), plus all the
reading my teachers did, add to that my father’s reading “The Lord of the
Rings,” and you get an excellent foundation for what was to come.
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