I’ve spent the vast majority of my life as an entertainer; even during my four years in the US Air Force, I did a short tour of European air bases as part of a “Tops in Blue” show featuring talent chosen from competitions at air bases throughout Europe. It lasted just a few weeks, but I was also active in the base theater group and acted in several of their productions in between deployments to wherever the brass decided we needed to be. For 3 1/2 years, I was a Ground Radio Operator in the 2nd Mobile Communications Group (2nd MOB) based in Germany, so most of my work was done in the dirt somewhere I didn’t much like. Left as a Sergeant with an Honorable Discharge in June, 1970.

I also spent 4 1/2 years as front man and lead singer with a touring band playing nightclubs, casinos and bars across our fine land. We were also our own self-contained USO Show touring air bases throughout Greenland, Nova scotia, and Labrador. Iceland got cancelled due to bad weather, which really pissed me off. But it was a great ride anyway.

I acted in stage productions (plays) and a couple of movies and cable shows from LA to Dallas and Austin, my home now for about 35 years. I had my own show here in the 6th Street entertainment district for another 4 1/2 years during which I wrote and performed strictly my own material. That’s when I started writing seriously.

You might think, if you read all of the above, that my writing has been geared toward entertainment; and that is correct. I have written what is known as “Slam Poetry” now, but at the time I was just writing stuff I thought a live audience would like, not for books or magazines. The stage has been a big part of me since I was in 6th grade, so I’ve written monologues, plays, scripts, poetry, short stories and one novella. There were also two pretty bad novels I never tried to get published because they stank, but I may try to rewrite them one day. Another novel is asking to be written, and I’m tempted to get started on that.

One thing I would like to accomplish here at StarsRite, is to develop a “Spoken Word” group; this style of writing is my bread and butter, and “Slam Poetry” has proliferated across our country at astounding speed. If I were younger, I would be out on tour again, but at 78 I must leave that to the youngsters now. However, there is no reason why we cannot do that HERE! So I cry out to all of you, “we need a new classification called, “Spoken Word” for those of us who wish to write and explore this type of writing! We have a place for audio files now; isn’t that for Spoken Word? Or are we starting bands now? Please, JOIN ME, friends, and rise up for your FREEDOM! …for our “WRITE TO BE HEARD!”