During my freshmen year at Davison (Michigan) High School, I had my whole life ahead of me.  I remember sitting in Mr. Shepherd's Geometry class and knew I never wanted to be an insurance agent.  I also knew I didn't want to be a writer.  Twenty years later, I was working as an insurance agent and discovered I liked creative writing.

How did it happen?

After graduation, I was offered a job in insurance by a friend's father.  Having no career aspirations, I accepted the job.  A couple years later, I took a job working for AAA Michigan and have been with them for over twenty years.  That's quite a run for a guy that didn't want to sell insurance.

Back in the year 2000, our office was open until 7:00 P.M. on Thursdays.  It was a drag as most of our customers assumed our office closed at 5:00 P.M.  At the time, I had just read the first four books in the Harry Potter series and having read them back to back, I was in Potter withdrawal.  It was going to be a while before the next Potter Book would get issued and of course, wanted to know what happened next.

My daughter Kyla (a Potter fan) was 5 months from her 11th. birthday.  I wondered what kind of adventures Kyla and her friends could have with Harry and his friends if he came to visit our home in Presque Isle Michigan.  The idea that I could get my Potter fix by creating my own story sounded interesting.  

Since I never wanted to be a writer, I didn't know how to start the story?  What would it be about?  I figured the logical place to start would be to continue J.K. Rowling's series at the end of book four.  I started typing and discovered that I actually liked writing.   It was thrilling because like a reader, I didn't know what was going to happen next.  I just followed Kyla, Harry, and the rest of the kids around and wrote down what happened. 

I ended up with a 25 chapter book that takes place over a one week period of time.  Harry and company come to Michigan to recruit help from the American Ministry Of Magic in the fight against Lord Voldemort.  I enjoyed blending the Harry Potter universe with real Michigan people and places and my own fiction. 

I finished the rough manuscript in time for Kyla's eleventh birthday.  During the time of writing the book however, I enrolled in the Institute Of Children's Literature to learn how to do what I was doing better.  There were several revisions of The Presque Isle Princess before I abandoned the project. I didn't want to spend a lot of time on the book with Harry Potter as a principle character.  The book was written, I just didn't want to spend a lot of time working on something I wasn't going to publish. 

I have since set out on creating the P.I.G. Adventures which is an original story I can call my own.  When people ask what it's like, I tell them I'm writing to the Harry Potter audience which covers young readers as well as their parents and grandparents.  So think Fantasy Fiction. 

Look for future postings on this blog regarding the Pig Adventures.