JOSEPH L. DORRIS -- AUTHOR AND WRITER
This shares a little about my "writing career."
My spelling and grammar were atrocious throughout grade school and well into high school. (For someone who likes to write, they still are in many ways.) It wasn't until my senior year in high school and later, my Academy years that I felt sufficiently confident to write. But, I always had these wonderful stories floating about in my head, and I wanted to share them. My former Scouts, bless them, they'll recall many a campfire where I cajoled them into listening to a tale or two.
Ironically, much of my professional life, I spent writing; however, the type of writing was aimed mainly at teaching others. It wasn't exactly what one calls creative writing. I can take satisfaction in knowing I wrote much of the leadership teaching and training materials used at the Air Force Academy. Later, as a high school teacher, I also spent a great deal of time writing supplemental material, particularly for earth science and biology.
I have written a few articles on minerals and mining. Some appeared in early issues of Lapidary Journal and others have appeared in Mineral News. I hope one day to take some of my mining adventures and put them into an illustrated story. I also still hope to write up the history and document the pocket locations of significant pockets on the Smoky Hawk Mine.
I also love creating games and contests. In my former days as a Scoutmaster, I maintained a philosophy that learning should be fun, and that teaching any subject could be made into a game. As a result, I invented numerous games and exercises that contained a teachable lesson. Many of these required a scene-setting tale or two, which I also invented and wrote. Some of my Eagle Scouts will also recall the Eagle ceremonies which I designed and wrote for them. (The Lord willing, I plan to capture many of these games and stories in an illustrated book for other coaches, teachers, and Scouters for their use.)
During my professional years, I never lost my love for creating stories, and I always hoped that one day I would sit still long enough to actually write and publish a novel. Since 1974, I have rough-drafted five novels. Now, I am reworking these and hope to bring each into production. Sheepeater: To Cry for a Vision, which I began writing during my lunch breaks in 1986, is the first. By 1990, I had essentially drafted Sheepeater but for reasons of my own, I elected not to start typing it. My daughter, Krystle, liked it best of those I'd worked on and told her about. She encouraged me to finish it, so here it is.