Tony B. Richard

I never thought I would have a writing career, but when I look back, I have been writing most of my life. In high school, I learned to write code… as in computer code, not encrypted messages, which might have been cooler. After post-secondary, I taught programming computers and wrote my own lessons, lots of course notes, and several classes. I got good at it. Then I wrote a lot of emails, typically trying to change things without ruffling too many feathers. Yes, I was a rebel of sorts. I certainly never thought I would write stories, maybe how-to guides, non-fiction, but never fiction. This is so far out of my comfort zone, but it somehow feels natural. Does that make any sense? This story has been haunting me for about 10 years. I tried to write it before but with little success. In 2021, the words just flowed. I wrote my first novella in two weeks, published it, and thought I was done. But fate kicked in, and an editor helped me make the story’s first chapter more engaging, but it wasn’t her genre, and that’s as far as she went. I read books on how-to-write, and then the real re-writing began. Other authors and editors were lecturing me on “write what you know,” and that’s not what I am writing. I don’t live in or near Roswell, I am not black, I am not in the army, and I have never met any aliens (that I am aware of). I tried to quit, but the stories haunted me more, so I had to continue. The irony is that it sometimes takes me longer to read my stories than to write them. That’s when I considered the possibility that I might be dyslexic. I started listening to audiobooks, and that’s great. I created my audiobooks. I found the Open Dyslexic font and found it helped. But I wasn’t sure whether the font itself was helping or just the extra space. I am still testing to find the best to read. If you have any ideas, please let me know.