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Between my sophomore and junior years in high school, my parents gave me an electric typewriter for my birthday. Since I wanted to learn how to type I decided to start writing as a way of doing it.
I was sixteen and I have been writing ever since. If you Google me, you will see the extent of my writing; in fact, I may hold some kind of record for the number of letters to the editor that I have had published.
The New York Times alone published three of my letters, each in a different section of the paper. When Fortune Magazine published my letter about General Motors, it said that of all the letters it received, mine was the most "poetic".
The interesting thing about my letters is the wide range of topics I cover. In one brief period alone, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Contra Costa Times all published letters of mine on different subjects.
Over the years people have been amazed at how much I know and have commented on it. It’s not that I really know a lot, it’s just that I stay abreast of things by simply paying attention to what is going on. I have always hated being in the dark about anything.
My greatest fear was being with a group of people and a subject came up that I didn’t know anything about. So I have made it a habit to at least grasp the essentials of a particular topic even though I really did not know it in depth, the general idea being that I may not be an authority but at least I wasn’t a complete idiot.
Anyway, I discovered in life that people would rather talk than listen and so I developed a habit of listening instead of talking and this was one way that I gathered a great deal of information with little effort on my part. This practice also convinced people that I was a very wise man because I had the good sense to listen to every word they said.
I have done a lot of writing, so much writing that it is impossible to account for all of it since I rarely kept anything I wrote. But I estimate that over the years I have written a dozen novels, a half dozen non-fiction books and about two dozen scripts.
I could paper a room in the rejection letters I have received, in fact, it was those letters that convinced me I was not a serious writer and I turned to letter writing instead.
But two New York editors said I had potential; one, in fact, said I was "a talented writer, but ...". The "but" led to his view of my stories which he felt were not up to par with my ability as a writer, a left-handed compliment if there ever were one.
But now that I am quickly approaching seventy, my view of writing has completely changed. First of all, I no longer have to prove I can write: I know I can.
Secondly, getting published or acknowledged in any way for my writing is utterly inconsequential to me. Living life is much more important than being recognized as a successful writer. Indeed, the best success in life is measured by how happy you are and I am very happy to say that I am a happy man.
Indeed, nothing is more important than loving and being loved, that’s really what life is about, and people who realize that are truly happy and I can include myself among them.
I’m still writing. Lately, I have been writing for this site which has been a great deal of fun. I have met some wonderful people here, talented, bright people who know who they are and where they are going, two important things to know.
I have an agent in Hollywood. In fact I read scripts for him. He sends them to me and I send them back - if they’re good - if not they end up in File Thirteen.
He has a couple of my latest scripts, both of which I am proud of because I think they represent the best writing I have done. I hope my agent thinks so too.
Now I’m writing another book - in the long, long line of books that I have written. It started here but I stopped posting it here because I realized I was doing something serious.
But, believe me, if it’s published, you will hear about it.
